Death Certificate for Theresa Williamson

The second item I received today was the death certificate for my natural great-grandmother, Theresa (Hambsch) Williamson. Theresa died on 12 February 1925 from complications after the birth of my grandmother. This certificate does not do more than document what I already knew, other than providing the cemetery where Theresa is buried (Holy Trinity Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY). After Theresa died, her older two daughters went to live at the St. Joseph's home for girls in Queens, NY, while my Grandmother was taken in by her Godparents.

Harry Mathias Williamson's World War I Draft Card...and an unexpected breakthrough!

Harry Mathias Williamson is my Grandmother's natural father. This is his World War I draft card.
What immediately caught my eye was his birthdate (4 May 1880) - I didn't have that before now. Also, this gives his address and his occupation (he was a truck drive/teamster, or in this case "Delivery Helper"). But the real breakthrough is also the most curious: he listed a sister, Mabel Thompson, as his closest relative. Why is this curious? Because he was married to my great-grandmother at the time. I would've expected to see her there. So why is this a breakthrough? Because by looking for both Harry and Mabel, I was able to locate their family in 1900. That simple discover has led to two additional generations of Williamsons.

But that's not all. Harry's birthdate, 4 May 1880, which was unknown until now, is exactly 1 month prior to the 1880 census (1 Jun 1880). That made it very easy to find his family in the 1880 census. Again, that coupled with a little luck gave me two more generations on that side of the family.

I'll detail what I found in another post after I organize and file all the census pages that I pulled.

You've got to remember the basics...

Ancestry.com saved me from a stupid mistake of not following one of the basic premises of census research: I didn't look at the rest of the page while searching for my Grandmother's natural parents. I was looking in the 1920 for Harry Williamson, with his unnamed wife (who's maiden name was Hambst), and either one or both daughters: Claire or Francis. Using Ancestry.com's great search feature, I found them fairly quickly (see line 29-31 of the attached photos), even learning that my natural great-grandmother's name was Theresa:

Even though I store very little of my research on paper by putting most in the computer, I do like to pull out a census form and copy everything down so I can think about each item. So that's what I did. But, I never looked around the rest of the page. Luckily for me, as I was backing out of the form, I noticed that Ancestry.com had three other people listed as part of the household. Duh! So going back into the form, I quickly realized that not only had I found my natural great-grandmother, but her mother and two brothers (see lines 32-34 for Walburga Hambsch and her sons Anthony and Peter). Wow. What luck!