This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find…
I already posted about how we tracked down the original will on FamilySearch. With quite a bit of effort, we eventually found the census records for 1850 (Baldwin Twp – surname transcribed as “Brandy” on Ancestry), 1860 (Pittsburgh, Ward 5 – father transcribed as “W Brandy” on Ancestry – all family members listed by first initial ) & 1870 (Borough of East Birmingham – mother transcribed as “Barbara Brady” on Ancestry) where Martha was living with her parents, Martin & Barbara, & her siblings. She also has her 8-year-old daughter, Jenny Cornita living with her. Remember, her name was listed as Jennie C Brawdy in the will, but here it is Jenny Cornita.
We never found any other information about Martha’s daughter, Jenny. But, we were able to find quite a bit more about the rest of the Brawdy family including:
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- more census records for various family members
- a will for her brother, Martin
- two city directory listing for her mother, Barbara, listing her