My grgrgrandparents were reportedly killed in an elevated train wreck in NYC. I have tried unsuccessfully to find a mortality list for this accident. I tried the museum, etc. No one had any suggestions. This accident was about 1880’s in Brooklyn or Manhattan. Does anyone have any suggestions? My grgrandmother was left an orphan as a result but I still cant find a record of the deaths. They names were Suthard and Mary Taylor from Staten Island or Richmond Co NY.
I suggest checking with the New York library, find out where they store their microfilm; with that you can look at the newspapers of the time (quite interesting but very time consuming). Of course, if you do not have any type of reference date, your research could take quite a while.
If you know any of the death dates of relatives, you could use that info (by checking the obituaries in the paper) to trace your family history and with that information perhaps narrow your search parameters.
I believe there was an accident on the Brooklyn elevated railway system, possibly near downtown involving a Fulton Street train and one on the Lexington Avenue (Brooklyn) elevated line, or possibly between a Broadway (Brooklyn) and Lexington train at Gates Avenue. One person who can probably answer your question authoritatively is Karl Groh, and his email is www.webster1214@webtv.net. He will be happy to hear from you.
This is not the accident that surpassesd all at Malbone Street in Brooklyn around 1910.
Anyway my mom died in Queens & I needed a copy of the certificate I wrote to the department who handles that paid some dough re mi & in a bit I had what I wanted. I think the name of the department is vital stats. [:o)]
The accident that happened on the line that is now the rebuilt Franklin Avenue shuttle was the Malbone Street wreck. It happened during a strike on the Brooklyn Rapid Transit, around 1917, not 1910 as I indicated earlier. A strikebreaker motorman who was not familiar with the changes that had been made to the line, took a Coney Island bound Brighton train from Brooklyn Bridge (I think possibly from Sands Street Station, not Park Row in Manhattan, but again Karl Groh can give you the facts), and switched off the Fulton Street line as scheduled at Franklin Avenue (where now the shuttle connects only with the underground A and C train subway line) and then did not slow down for the sharp curve entering the tunnel before Prospect Park Station. This sharp curve and tunnel, existing today, on the southbound track, was inserted to provide a junction with the new subway line from downtown Brooklyn, the Manhattan Bridge and Montegue Street Tunnel and the Nassau Street and Broadway subways in Manhattan. (which subway connection had not been opened yet, the Manhattan Bridge tracks were use at the time only by the Sea Beach trains, if I am correct) He took the curve too fast, and the lead car jumped the track with the left front of the wood elevated open platform gate car hittling the concrete of the left side of the tunnel portal, while the right side with the motorman’s cab continued into the tunnel. The train was packed with standies. The following cars piled up, some telecoped, some had car bodies sheared off from the floors. The motorman was unhurt and ran through the tunnel to escape. He was later brough to trial.
There may have been an accident in the steam days directly at Franklin Avenue and Fulton Street, but I think the one you are referring to was either in downtown Brooklyn where the Lexington line crossed the Fulton Street line or at Gates Avenue, the junciton between. One of these accidents was most peculiar in that one 0-4-4T Forney locomotive ended up vertical, either smokebox to
Kevin, his spelling is just fine (in fact, better than yours…)
He’s using an abbreviation for “great-grandparents” and “great-great-grandparents” (etc.) to save time and bandwidth. It’s not sticky keys or stuttering fingers…
Even a rudimentary math estimate of the number of generations since 1880 or so might have led you to understand what the multiple syllables might mean – if you hadn’t been so eager to correct his spelling of “potato,” as it were ;-}
Actually, it was the grammar: what you should have said was “bobszem, please check your spelling.” (Using ‘you’ for ‘your’ is a fairly common error, so you shouldn’t feel unduly dumb…)
The ‘take-home’ point here, however, is that if you really MUST respond to a topic with nothing more than nit-picks about spelling, grammar, expression, etc. – at least TRY to keep similar-category nits out of your comment… ;-}