William Harrison Burd

William Harrison Burd died on this date, February 18th, in 1942 in Monessen, PA and he was my 1st cousin 3 times removed. So why is he here on my blog? William Burd was the key that helped me find some big leads in my Burd family tree!

William Burd, or "Bill Burd" as my grandfather referred to him, lived with my great-grandparents (Maine Swank and Charles Cubbage). Bill was born on January 29, 1894 in Natrona, PA. In the 1900 census he is living with his Aunt Marian "Mary" Burd Swank, who is widowed, along with his cousins Maine and Charles Swank, and is listed as "adopted son". By 1910, Bill is living with Maine Swank, who is now married to Charles Cubbage, and their children. Bill lived with Charles and Maine Cubbage until they died in 1938 and 1939, and continued living in their home with their children afterwards. Charles and Maine had 8 children, and Bill was about 10 years older than their oldest son, Lester. Over the years, he was listed on various censuses as cousin, roomer and boarder.


This photocopy of Bill's school record, along with the photo above, was found with Cubbage memorabilia (I don't know who had the original). Bill never married and spent most of his life with the Cubbage family in Swissvale and then Monessen. He lived with them when they lost two children (Leah in 1920 and George in 1921). In Maine's letter to her sister, she mentions how upset Bill was about George's death ... he was a part of the Cubbage family. Bill was living in the Cubbage home on Reed Avenue with Marian & Marge Cubbage and Margaret Swank Speedy (Maine sister) when he died.


Bill's obituary lists the Cubbage family as his own, with no mention of his birth parents or other Burds. Bill worked for many years as a foreman at the Blast Furnace at Pittsburgh Steel.


Bill Burd is buried at Braddock (Russell) Cemetery, in the same plot as Charles & Maine Cubbage, as well as George and Leah ... his adopted family. Right next to their plots is the headstone of William Arthur Speedy, the husband of Margaret Swank Speedy (Bill's cousin).

So how did he help me find the Burds? For starters, "Burd" is often listed as "Bird" or "Byrd" and I was having problems determining which was from our family line. At first, I only knew that Bill lived with the Cubbages and that he shared a room with my grandfather, but didn't know the exact relation t the family. I sent away for his death record, and found the names of his parents, Alexander Burd and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ryan. I was then able to tie Alexander's parents to his sister Marian "Mary" Burd (my great-great grandmother).

Alexander Burd died in 1925 in Natrona and "Lizzie" died before 1900 (Alexander is listed as a widow in that census). I do not know yet what happened to "Lizzie"or why Bill did not live with them. I wonder if Alexander wasn't able to take care of Bill when his wife died? I will be sure to share that when I figure it out, along with more about the Burd family line.

Thriller Thursday - Boys Rescue Pup

This article was published in a New Providence, NJ newspaper around 1954 or 1955. My father is one of the Cubbage boys who rescued the pup! He was about 13 or 14 years old and his brother was 10 or 11. I found this article in a box of family memorabilia - my father had never told us about the big rescue! When I asked him how old he was when this happened, he corrected the story (which reports that the boys jumped into the river). My father told me that they had walked out onto the ice to reach the dog and fell in! The water was about waist deep, so they grabbed the dog and all climbed out. My father then said, "See, you couldn't believe everything you read, even back then". What a great story!

Travel Tuesday - Pittsburgh

I mentioned in a recent post that I traveled to Pittsburgh in the fall with my father and my twelve year old son for a genealogy research and family history trip. It was my son's first visit to Pittsburgh and first research trip. He was bitten by the genealogy bug a year or so ago and had mostly been searching through my husband's tree. Before we left, he did a lot of searching for my great-great grandfather to pull together some possible leads (more on him in another post).

My son enjoyed our time at the Pennsylvania Department of the Carnegie Library, the Allegheny County Courthouse, and especially our quick visit with three sisters that lived on the same street as my father when he was a child. Listening to the stories that they shared was priceless!


Here are my father and son at the gravesite of my great-grandfather Frank Speck in Monessen, PA. Grandview Cemetery is on the side of a hill overlooking the Monongahela River, which you can see in the background. It was a beautiful fall day during a wonderful weekend where my son heard lots of stories from my father about his family and growing up in the Pittsburgh area.


Here is a picture that was found with the family photos of Franks tombstone. He died in 1940, so this was probably taken in the early 1940's. More posts to come about our finds!

Sentimental Sunday - Orphan Photos

As I have sorted through all of the photos and memorabilia from my father's side of the family, I have come across many photos that are unmarked and unknown. I won't get rid of them and secretly hope that one day I can figure out who they are as I continue to climb the Cubbage family tree. The idea to post these orphan photos on Sentimental Sunday comes from Cindi Beane Henry at Mountain Genealogists. This photo has no marking or writing on the front or back. I wonder if we are related??

Wordless Wednesday - Mem, Pap & Corky

I love this picture! My father, Corky is about 2 years old. His grandmother Mem (Elizabeth Linneman Speck) and her second husband Pap (Charles Merz) are standing behind him. They are in the backyard of Mem & Pap's house on Thelma Street in Pittsburgh.

Madness Monday - Gerhard Linnemann

Last week I posted a photo of Gerhard's tombstone. Gerhard Linnemann was my great-great grandfather and for a long time we didn't know a lot about him (we still don't know too much). His daughter, Elizabeth, was the only grandparent that my father knew as a child. He knew that she was born in Germany and had two brothers that lived in or near Monessen, but that was it. He never knew that her parents had lived in Monessen too.

A couple of years ago, I was digging deeply into the Linnemann family and others in Monessen. I was searching The Daily Independent newspaper on ancestry.com and came across a notice that the funeral of Gerhard Linnemann had been held the day before. I assumed that this was Elizabeth's brother. I went to search the previous days and they were not available on ancestry.com!

That fall, I went to Monessen with my father, brother and sister to do some genealogy research. We went to the Monessen Public Library and spread out to start digging. I went right to the microfilm machines to search the newspapers and this is the front page news that I found:

Man Tied Belt Around Neck and Strangled Self While Family Is Absent

Gerhard Lennemann committed suicide yesterday afternoon around 4 o'clock in a bedroom of his home, corner of Schoonmaker avenue and Tyler pass. With a strap drawn tightly about his neck and tied fast to the foot of a bed, the victim of his own rash act was found.
He unbuckled his belt from his waist, circled it about his neck and after tieing himself to the bed dropped to the floor where he was found when dead. At the time of the tragedy there was no person about the place. Members of the family had gone out for a Sunday afternoon walk and had asked Mr. Lennemann to accompany them, but he said he preferred to remain at home. It is stated that there was no hint at suicide and no member of the family thought of such a thing.
The deceased was about 60 years of age and leaves a widow and several children. About six years ago he was injured in a coal mine and at times he seemed to feel irrational as a result of that trouble. He would take spells of anger and brooding, and it is thought that in a despondent state of mind he decided upon a short route to death. The widow and children survive.

Wow - were we surprised! My father never heard anything about this growing up. At this time in 1918, two of Gerhard's children were probably still serving in World War I, one had moved to Chicago and two were married. His daughter Elizabeth had just had her second child only a month earlier.

So was Gerhard really "mad"? Or was his anger, brooding and despondent state a result of the coal mining accident? I don't know if we will ever know, but it was certainly one of the bigger surprises that I have found since I started digging round the roots of my family tree.

Woodmen of the World

I am finally getting around to sorting through, scanning and posting all of the info we found on our research trip to Pittsburgh in November. I know, it's February! We came home and got right into the holiday seasons and it never happened. So here we go ...


Our first stop was at Braddock Cemetery (also known as Russell Cemetery). We were here four years ago, but returned because I had found a few others who were buried there. It was my son's first trip to Pittsburgh (and first genealogy trip!), so we stopped to see the Cubbage plots first. Next to them is the tombstone of William Arthur Speedy, the husband of my great grand aunt Margaret Schwenk/Swank.

On the top of his tombstone is the Woodmen of the World Memorial:

Woodmen of the World is a fraternal benefit organization that was founded in 1890 in Omaha, Nebraska. They primarily provided insurance to it's members, in addition to fraternal and social benefits. William Arthur Speedy's tombstone has some of the symbols of the organization that are often found on headstones - the tree stump and olive branches. Other symbols include an ax, a felled tree or a dove. In the early years, many distinctive Woodmen of the World tombstones were created in the shape of a tree stump. This was discontinued in the late 1920's due the cost.

So we know a little more about William Arthur Speedy. Watch for more posts about him!