Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Wednesday's Child - Edward and Alice Quirk's Second Daughter

I swear that I posted this before, but I couldn't find it. Senility at 43? Either way it's important enough to share. Alice and Edward were my great grandparents. They were only married for three years when Alice died after the birth of their second daughter. The little girl apparently also died, but so far I can't find her in the Pennsylvania Death Certificates. As far as we can tell she wasn't stillborn:

News clipping from a family scrapbook

"A Baby Girl.

A baby girl has arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Quirk, of Park View. Mrs. Quirk is reported to be in a serious condition."

I tried various searches in the Pennsylvania Death Certificates and still could not find anything. I removed bits of information, used wildcards, and even misspelled Quirk as Zuirk because sometimes people that transcribe seem to forget what an old-cursive "Q" looks like. Nothing worked, but I was able to submit a transcription correction for someone that spelled another Quirk with a "Z". I also noticed that there were death certificates for stillborns so there should be one for this little girl.

I can't look in the local Hazleton newspapers either. 1915 falls into the abyss of missing microfilmed newspapers. Luckily I have some newspaper clippings that I scanned from a family photo album. No dates on them, but that's OK. I know they're local Hazleton papers and this was obviously from September 1915. If they can find missing Doctor Who episodes behind filing cabinets throughout the world I can hold hope for Hazleton newspapers.

I will have to contact Annunciation Parish/St. Gabriel's Church and see if they know anything. The little one deserves to be remembered which is why this post is so important. All the better to remember her with a name as well.