Hi, Keith.
Hyde Park was the Welsh section of Scranton around the Belleview slope
{among others). The "Welsh Cemetery" also known as the Washburn Street
Cemetery aka the Hyde Park Cemetery is notorious for the burials of the
Avondale Disaster victims. It's just a neighborhood across the Lackawanna
River from downtown Scranton. My wife's grandparents lived there at the
time of her Grandfather's death in December 1910.
It's also the burial place for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's father who
was from the area.
Marriage records are available on microfilm at the courthouse. We've
retrieved the certificate for my wife's grandparents but it's not easy.
There is an index to help but nothing is online and hours are limited. Takes
about an hour if you know what you are doing. Same is true for birth
records IF they were registered. My wife's father's birth at a hospital in
1911 (six months after his father's death) was registered but his four older
sister's births weren't. My father's birth in 1918 was not registered as he
was born at home.
We've also found passenger records but prior to 1892 they are problematic.
Ellis Island is the post 1892 source but earlier records are spotty.
At the time I'm not sure passports were used by most people. Certainly not
by our relatives. You showed up and ran the gauntlet of doctors and
officials at Ellis Island at that time. Only the sick seem to have been
turned away. The grandfather killed in 1910 arrived as a 17 year old with
another family using their surname. The grandmother was a daughter of the
mother of that family who was living in the US with her grandmother.
(Almost worth a novel.)
Just to tie up the names, the grandparents were George Thomas and Elizabeth
Jones. The family George arrived with was Mary Jones Amos and her (second?)
husband Thomas Amos. We're going slowly insane trying to get any more
detail.
Regards and good luck in our search.
Bill Evans.
----- Original Message -----
From: "keith thomas" <k.thomas.3(a)virgin.net>
To: <BlaenauGwent-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 5:14 PM
Subject: [Bla'Gwent] HYDE PARK SCRANTON TO NANTYGLO/SARAH ANN JONES
hello list
The list has been quiet recently so i thought i might pick our PA
counterpart`s brains
Per the 1901 uk census ,at my ggrandfather thomas thomas`s public house
The Swan nantyglo was a young lady
sarah ann jones u aged 18 born scranton usa servant
per the 1891 census sarah ann aged 8 born Hyde park america is living
with her grandparents richard /ann thomas and widowed mother mary jones
(born)nantyglo) aged32. at 26 garn road nantyglo , to the rear of the pub.
In 1881 per the Lds richard/ ann thomas together with single daughter mary
thomas are resident in nantyglo.
Mary obviously married married either in the UK or the USA a short time
after april 19881
Free bmd is almost complete for the years 81-83 and i cannot find a mary
thomas/?jones marriage in that time scale in Bedwellty or Crickhowell
districts
I would be grateful for any reply toany of the following questions or for
any other info
Would Sarah Ann be an american citizen with passport rights etc
and would such records exist?
What, if any birth records exist for hyde park scranton for 1883?
Do any marriage records exist for the area?
Would anyone have any knowledge of passenger lists for arrivals in the
uk or from departures from PA?
keith
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