in pursuit of a pedigree

Kate Lyden (3 Nov 1886-5 Apr 1957)

Kate Lyden is a major brick wall, mostly because her mother married a few times and Kate went on to marry twice herself, and lie about her name and age a lot. Here’s what I know for sure.

She’s born 3 Nov 1886 to Michael & Mary Lyden (spelled Lidon in the registry entry). Michael Lyden married Mary Hartman on 7 Sep 1884. Both of these events occured in Philadelpha, Pennsylvania. I discovered both entries at the Philadelphia City Archives on February 2008.

In the 1900 census, Mary has married George Cannon, and her daughter is using the name Katie Hartman. Has Michael died? Possibly. Did Mary divorce him? Unlikely but something to investigate. A divorce would explain why Kate is not using her father’s name.

When Kate marries William Peter Crompton in 1906, she states her name as Agnes Hartman, her parents being Mary Mahoney and John Hartman. I have this marriage certificate from the New Jersey State Archives in October 2007. I knew that Mary had been married three times, from a photo of George Cannon that my grandmother (Kate’s granddaughter) had labeled as “3rd husband - George Cannon” so at the time I assumed that John Hartman was Mary’s first husband, and father of Frank Hartman, a man we have photos of that are labeled as “Grandmother’s Brother Frank Hartman” as noted by Beatrice Trainer, granddaughter to Kate Lidon.

I knew from my grandmother that Kate’s name had been stated as Katherine Agnes Barnes at the time of her death, so I assumed that she was using her middle name. How in six years, she went from a lovely name like Kate to, well, Agnes, I guess we’ll never know, but it makes sense.

She states her age on the certificate as 19, which in September 1906 is completely true. In 1910, she’s Agnes Crompton, age 24, living with her parents with her two daughters. By 1918, she has secured her divorce and has married Ernest Seward Barnes, age 21. Quite a few things have changed about our dear Kate/Agnes since her first marriage. She is now stating her name as Agnes Mary Lyden, her age as 24 (she’s actually 32), she’s never been married and her parents are Michael Lyden and Mary Mahoney.

Good grief.

I have yet to send for a copy of her death certificate to find out who, if any, parents are listed there as well as a birth date. I knew going into the research that we knew next to nothing about Kate/Agnes and her parents but I didn’t realize how hard it would be track anything down.

So what do I know for sure? Kate/Agnes was 70 at the time of her death. She married twice. She lied about her age and her name on official documents (though it’s possible she did it to have her marriage blessed by the church without going through a pesky annulment) and she either didn’t know Michael Lyden was her father in 1906 or a mistake was made. It’s possible.

I tell my mother that her great-grandmother is a pain in my ass because I have thousands of unanswered questions about her that, barring some sort of miraculous discovery of a diary or letters, will never be answered and it’s frustrating. For now, I’ll chalk it up to a vain woman who never wanted to be older than her husband and possibly wanted to put her first marriage completely out of her mind.

I know that I’ll have a few answers after I send for her divorce records, but there are a lot of things I’ll never know. Until I die and I can nag her in person but that’s a long way off hopefully.

What does this teach me? When I make weird decisions, to write down why or tell someone because I would hate for my great-great-granddaughter to want to murder me as well.