Joseph Jerome Harrington

In my continuing search for the members of Cassandria Hooper Harrington Rogers Kauffman's birth family, I'm always trolling for new records. Here again is what  know about her. All her records say she was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. But those records don't specify "city of " or "county". In my experience, it's often somewhere in the county. She appears in the 1850 census as a mill girl, married my great, great grandfather and had two children. He went off to the Civil War and died. She lived for a while with members of the Rogers family but eventually remarried.  She was married to William Kauffman and died just after the turn of the century. Her death record in Orange, Ma says father's name "Joseph" and mother's name "Nancy". Her marriage record to my gg grandfather says the same. 

I have never found reliable records for either parent in Massachusetts. There is a marriage in Oxford which for various reasons I have doubts about. I have never found other siblings, a death record, anything I could verify.

My gg grandfather left  behind a packet of letters from the war and in that packet were two letters to Cassandria from her brother: Joseph Jerome Harrington Jr.. The records I ordered from the National Archives refer to his name as Joseph Harrington (alias Jerome). Apparently he went by Jerome. He was a corporal in the 51st infantry. I found a few census records that I believe are him. And I found a death record in a veteran's hospital in Chelsea. It sounds like he was in bad shape at the end of his life. His death record says father's name "Joseph" and mother name "? Green". Parents from Connecticut. So armed with that I narrowed them down to Thompson, Windham County, Connecticut. I found a marriage record with the last name spelled Harrenton, but no birth, no confirmation of family connections and no death.

Once DNA came along I got a few hits for descendants of the Green family. So I'm on the right track. Still nothing for the Harringtons.

So back to Joseph Jerome. I went back to the state death record and found he was buried in Mountain View Cemetery right in Shrewsbury. He wasn't on FindaGrave. So I wrote the town clerk and told him where and when I thought he was buried. What followed was truly and act of genealogical kindness.

This nice guy named Kevin told me first of all there was no charge to look up the lot card. Most cemeteries charge for everything these days. He discovered that Jerome was buried in the GAR plot in an unmarked grave.

Jerome's burial place

The black bar is where we think he is buried. So he went out, did the probe, took the picture and then contacted the veteran's agent to have a small metal marker put on this spot. All on his own initiative. He sent me records he and the agent found including a small obit.

the obit

So Joseph Jerome will get a marker with his name, dates and a remembrance of his service. 

And all this from the kindness of a city employee.

UPDATE: The city of Shrewsbury got together with the folks who memorialize the war veterans and ordered a marker. It arrived just in time for Memorial Day. So now he is remembered. So pleased.

A happy ending.