An Initial Summary for her Descendants:
Letter written to the Great Grandchildren of Catharine Burke in Feb 2007.
What do we know about Kate Burke?
From a single picture I know that Kate is my Great-Great-Grandmother. The photo is labeled Kate Beaver, born Burke. There are other facts confirming this.
In the 1900 US Census, Kate Beaver is living with her daughter Edith and son-in-law C. Edward Ecker in Newark. We are told she was born March 1853 in Ireland of Irish parents, and the she came to America in 1870. By 1900 she was a widow and had only one child. Her daughter was born Oct 1878 in New York, so I assume she was married to Mr. Beaver before 1878. (There is no marriage certificate available.) (Subsequently I learned from the marriage certificate of Charles Edward Ecker and Edith Beaver, that the brides farther was William Beaver, and the grooms William Ecker.)
In 1910, Kate Burke is living with her daughter Edith Ecker in Newark. No one else is in the household on 18 Wickliff St. There is a discrepancy in the ages given. Kate is said to be 50, which would have her born in 1860 not 1853. Edith Ecker is said to be 30 which would have her born 1880, not 1878. All the other facts line up and there is little doubt of the identities. I cannot find the rest of the Ecker family in that 1910 census. Kate was listed as a peddler of shoestrings.
The records of the 1890 Census are lost. She may not have been included in the 1870 census (see below). I cannot find her in the 1880 census as either Burke or Beaver. I have not yet found traces of Kate Beaver after 1910. She might have died before 1920, most likely in New Jersey.
There is another tentative piece of information. On Sept 26, 1870, the ship s.s. Nevada (originating Liverpool, England) landed with a single 18 year old Katherine Burke on board. She is listed separately with other “Queenstown Passengers.” Queenstown is now Cobh on the Cork coast of Ireland, a major port of emigration for the Irish. The birth and immigration dates are consistent with what is known about our Kate in 1900, and I have no other compatible records. This may be her. (I trust the 1900 census records better than 1910.)
I am not sure how I am going to find anything more about her. There are no Irish Census records that I know about. I do not know her village or County in Ireland. I will try looking in the New York City archives again for a marriage certificate or the birth record of Edith Beaver now that I have more dates. My first request for a death certificate from 1910 to 1920 in NJ came back empty handed. I will try for a death certificate in New Jersey after 1920.
Do we know where in Ireland she came from? Do we know anything about her marital history, or the circumstances of her death? What was going on in 1910 when she was apparently living with her daughter Edith but without her daughter’s husband or children? Anything might help. In 1910, Edith was 9 years old. She had an older brother Arthur who would have been 14, and she had lost two siblings before her birth: Hazel and an unnamed child.
Love, Peter Feb 3, 2007
Amended 8/11/2007