#32 - Sunday's Obituary #1: George Gillen, Sr.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (2021-01)

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is a series of weekly prompts to get you to think about an ancestor and share something about them. The weekly prompt is provided by www.amyjohnsoncrow.com. The prompt for the week of January 4-10 is "Beginnings."  I'm interpreting the prompt as this post is my Fresh Beginnings for Family History Blogging. 

I started blogging, in earnest last year.  I started off very well.  I did 19 posts between January and the middle of July.  While I didn't make a post every week, 19 out of 30 weeks was a good start.  Then the effects of the COVID-19 restrictions and teleworking began to take a toll on my motivation.  I only made two posts for the back half of the year.

So, this is my Fresh Beginnings in 2021!

Sunday's Obituary #1 - George Gillen, Sr.

The Brooklyn Citizen 
Brooklyn, New York
29 Jun 1926, Tue  •  Page 2

George Gillen, Sr. is part of my material family history.  I do not do much direct research on this family line as my mother and aunt do a large amount of research.  So I do not want to duplicate the effort.  My mother sent me this obituary after recently locating it on Newspapers.com.  

George William Gillen was born to Jacob and Katherina Gillen in 1852 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.   Geoge was the oldest of four children.  His siblings were Catherine (1856-1874), Frederick (1859-1941), and Gustav (1862-1941).  Frederick is my Great, Great Grandfather.

George married Eliza Lang on February 1, 1873.  They had a total of 11 children, 9 of whom survived him.  Catherina (1874), Margaretha (1877), Gustav (1879), Ella (1882), George, Jr. (1883), Marie (1885), Elizabeth (1887), Henry (1889), Jacob (1892), Anna (1894), and John (1895).  

Eliza predeceased George on January 19, 1904.  After his death on June 27, 1926, he was buried with his wife in All Faiths Cemetery, Queens, New York.  

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You can see in my biographical sketch that I have some holes.  In my previous blog posts, I felt that my posts needed to be reasonably complete and not have any holes (or at least big holes).  As part of my Fresh Beginnings and in order to complete a blog post a week, I'm not letting that be a limiting factor to writing.  Amy Johnson Crow, in her information about the 52 Ancestors blogging posts says "Anything you write is more than what you had before."  So while this post may not be complete, it is more than I had before, and I can always come back and fill in the holes when I have the information.

The blogging prompt "Sunday's Obituary" was created by Leslie Ann on her blog Ancestors Live Here.