James J. Joyce, Son of a Ship Caulker, Timothy Joyce

Josephine Bernadette's father, James J. Joyce, was born in Savannah, Georgia on October 31, 1857 and died on April 25, 1916 (according to his grave marker). He was the son of Timothy Joyce and Mary Keenan, both born in Ireland.

In 1860, James Joyce was 3 years old. The census of that year (posted at the Census Records page), reported that James' father, Timothy, worked as a ship caulker. According to an interesting educational website by the Maryland Historical Society,

Caulking is the process by which wooden ships are made watertight. To seal the cracks between the ship's wooden planks, caulkers use a caulking iron and mallet to stuff them with oakum (pieces of old rope) soaked in pitch (a dark, sticky substance like tar). When the wood gets wet, it swells, narrowing the cracks between the planks. The oakum also swells, ensuring that absolutely no water can leak through the cracks. Caulking requires a great degree of skill and experience to be done properly. 

Below is an image of workers caulking a ship.

Taken from Alamy.com

Below is a photo of a tool box and caulker's kit from Massachusetts whaling ship days. You can see the caulkers (depicted in the above image) sitting on similar boxes while doing their work. If you're interested in learning about the trade in more detail, go to the Whaling Museum website; there's a full description there.

Taken from New Bedford Whaling Museum site

 Leather seat with wood sides and bottom. Contains one caulking mallet, five caulking irons, one seam raker made from a race knife, one instrument (seam raker), and one spare mallet handle.

This was an important trade in the shipbuilding industry, as you can imagine. The Maryland history website talks about racial tensions that were developing in the early 1800s in Baltimore between black and white ship caulkers. According to the website, white caulkers resented the power black caulkers (some of whom were enslaved) seemed to possess. One result of this tension was that shipbuilders in the city began to hire more white caulkers, particularly immigrants. Perhaps Savannah was going through some of the same changes that resulted in immigrants such as Timothy Joyce, James Joyce's father, taking up the caulking trade.

The Irish Ancestors: Josephine Bernadette Joyce

Since today is St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be fitting to continue research into the Sternberg family tree with their Irish lineage, starting with Eric's great-grandmother, Josephine Bernadette Joyce, the wife of William R. Ozburn Jr.

Josephine Bernadette was born December 22, 1900. According to the Savannah Vital Records, she was delivered by Dr. W.W. Owens, who at the time was on the staff of the Savannah Hospital-Huntington, now known as the Candler Hospital. Below is a photo of the building as it looked in 1900:

taken from the Georgia State Archives

Josephine (sometimes called Bernadette) was the daughter of James J. Joyce and Ellen Cecilia Murphy, both born in Savannah. She was the youngest of eight children born to the couple; three died in childhood.

In 1910, according to the census of that year, Josephine was 9 years old. Her father was 51 years old and the owner of a meat market in Savannah. Also listed in the family were her mother, Ellen, and siblings Timothy Keenan, Katherine, (Joseph) Reed, and Marie. Timothy (age 23) was working at his father's store as a clerk that year. Also living with them is a boarder, Mary McGraw. Below is a segment of the census showing the family (highlighted in green). Bernadette (Josephine) is highlighted in yellow (spelled Burnette here). They lived at 297 Abercorn St in Savannah. That residence is gone now, but it looks to be a very nice neighborhood, and I'm guessing it was then, too.

You can also see from this census record showing the family, starting on line 68, that Ellen (Ella here) Joyce is 46, has been married 27 years and has given birth to seven children, with five still living. That's actually a mistake; in 1900 she also was shown as having had seven children, before Josephine was born, with four living. So in 1910 she would have had eight total children, with five living. Those three children are buried in the family plot at the Catholic (Cathedral) Cemetery in Savannah. Below is a photo, taken from Find-a-Grave, of the grave stone that shows their names and dates of birth and death.

You can see that the two girls died within a few weeks of each other. I found the record of their burial and learned that the baby, Eleanor, died of convulsions and the six-year old, Angela, died of diphtheria. I can only imagine how devastating that must have been for Josephine's family, especially only six years after losing their first born, James G., at four years old. At the end of 1894, the couple had only two of their five children left. A rough decade for that family, to be sure!

W.R. Ozburn & Co.: Provisions and Cold Storage

In the 1920 census, William R. Ozburn is shown as being a broker of merchandise. His son Forrest also works for the business as a salesperson. Below is a segment of the 1920 Savannah census showing those occupations:

To get a better idea of what kind of business the Ozburns own, we can look at the 1922 Savannah City Directory. Below is an excerpt from that publication.

You can see that Forrest and William Jr. both work for the company, and that it is a provisions and cold storage company. The address where their building was located, 800 Wheaton St, is now a vacant lot, but it is very close to a railroad track, which would have been convenient for a business that stored and shipped wholesale groceries.

In 1920, Ozburn and Hartmann were listed in the Ice and Refrigeration Blue Book. Below is their listing and an excerpt from the book's Preface that describes the purpose of the book, provided by Google Books.

William R. Ozburn Jr.'s WWI Service

In 1918, William R. Ozburn Jr. registered for the draft for World War I. Below is a copy of his draft registration, dated September 12, 1918.

As we can see from the above document, William Jr. was 20 years old in 1918 and as yet unmarried. He lived with his parents in the house on West 38th Street. He was of medium height and build, had brown eyes and brown hair. And apparently, the night before he appeared for his registration, he had broken his arm in an auto accident. I wonder if there was a write-up in the newspaper about that?

We can also see from the registration that he worked as a ship fitter for the Foundation Company in Savannah. According to Wikipedia, a ship fitter might work for either the Navy or a civilian ship builder. If working for a ship builder, then he would be "a worker who 'fits' together the structural portions of a ship by either welding or by riveting." The shipbuilding company William Jr. worked for, the Foundation Company, had operations in four locations: Savannah, New Orleans, Tacoma and Portland, WA. Below is a brief description of the Company:

The Foundation Company was a construction company headed by Franklin Remington, who came from the Remington firearms company and who also started the Remington typewriter business. His war effort was focused on building wooden ships that could provide food for the French, but many were incomplete when the war ended and were scrapped in the 1920s. The Savannah shipyard was located just upstream of downtown Savannah, where the port's facilities are today. (from Ship Building History)

One of the ships built by the Savannah Foundation Company that was sold to the French Navy was Jemmapes, a patrol trawler. Built in April 1919, it ended up as a Merchant Marine fishing trawler named Foam. In 1942 it was sunk after being shelled in the North Atlantic. William Jr. may have worked on that ship.

It's curious that the registration card didn't mention William Jr's previous service in the National Guard. Below is a copy of the WWI Service Card that tells a little bit about that period of service. Note that it says he was declared 25% disabled upon discharge. I wonder what that disability was from?

William Robert Ozburn Jr. - Early Years

Bernadette Vivian Ozburn Sternberg's father, William Robert Ozburn Jr., was born in Fulton County, GA, on 13 July 1898 to William Robert Ozburn Sr and Vivian F. Cline. (See "Three Generations" pedigree chart, in Pages, in the left hand column of this page.) They were married September 7th of the previous year. William Ozburn senior probably worked as a railroad baggage handler at the time, since that was his occupation in 1899, when he lived in Macon, GA. Here is the listing in the Macon City Directory for that year:

Central Georgia Railway is the company he worked for as a "bagmn," probably bag man. The asterisk by his name meant that he was married. This was before the directories started listing the first name of the wife in parentheses next to the man's name.

In the 1900 census, William and his family were living in Atlanta and William was one year old. His father was working for Georgia Central Railway as a baggage master by that time, so it looks like he got a promotion when he moved to Atlanta. The Atlanta City Directory also shows him as being a baggage master in 1900.

The 1910 census has the Ozburn family living in Richmond, GA. William Sr., aged 33, was working as a manager in a beef company. Vivian was aged 29. By this time, William Jr., who was 11, had two siblings: a brother, Forest, age 9; and a sister, Norwood, age 4.

The 1910 Savannah City Directory, however, lists the Ozburns as living in Savannah, as does the 1908 Savannah Directory. So it's not clear why the census would show them living in Richmond county in April of 1910.

By 1916, when William Jr. was 18, William Senior apparently owned a business called W. R. Ozburn & Co. At this time, the Ozburns were living at 217 W 38th St in Savannah. Here is an excerpt from that listing:

And below is a photo of what the house looks like today. It sold last year for $198,000.

According to the real estate listing, it was built in 1910 and currently has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. I guess that would've been enough room for a family of five back in 1916. The interior is quite attractive now, but whether it looked like that in 1916 is unknown. The below picture came from the Zillow website.

Annie Lamon Sternberg as Wife and Mother: 1920 to Death

Throughout the 1920s, Annie and Jerome lived in Savannah. The city directories show them at various addresses with Jerome holding a variety of jobs. (See the posts about Jerome for some of that information.) Beyond the city directories, though, there are few records documenting Annie's early marriage years.

The 1930 census shows them with their two children, Jerome Jr. and Ida. Below is an excerpt from the census record.

You can see (in the column to the right of Race) that Jerome is 40 and Annie is 27. Two columns over from that is their age at first marriage--16 for Annie and 31 for Jerome. But as I have pointed out earlier, that means that Annie's first marriage was not to Jerome, because when she was 16, he would have been 29 and still unmarried. So whom did she marry when she was 16? And was she divorced or widowed when she married Jerome? And did that marriage have something to do with her living at the convent? There is no record I can find of Annie's earlier marriage or divorce, if there was one. So, that must remain a mystery, for now.

In 1940, according to the census, the Sternbergs were 10 years older and still living in Savannah. Below is a segment of that census. (We don't see Jerome listed because he's at the bottom of the previous page.)

One item of interest in this census record is the "Highest Grade of School Completed," in column 14. Her children were currently attending high school. (Ida had completed 3 years and Jerome Jr. had completed one year.) But Annie said she completed only grade 7. That makes me wonder how long she was at the convent school--was it only a few months? Or maybe the two girls were boarders but not students. We know that the convent was still operating as a school in 1941, so presumably it would have been a school in 1920. Were they just that far behind in their education? Another mystery, to be sure.

At any rate, Annie's children would soon lose their mother. The 1940 census was taken April 15, 1940, and in September of that year, Annie died. I have not been able to find the cause of her death, but it should be listed on her death certificate which can be obtained from Georgia. Below is the death index record for Annie Sternberg with the certificate number listed.

That certificate may also show where Annie was buried. I have not been able to find a record of her grave site. Jerome is buried at Laurel Grove, but it's not clear whether Annie was buried with him.

Anna and Nettie at the Ursuline Convent

In 1920, the two Lamon girls, Anna and Nettie, were living at what I have learned was the Ursuline Convent, at 1505 Assembly Street in Columbia, SC. It was also a school where students could board, though in 1920 only three girls were living there, Annie and Nettie and a third girl, Frances Sensusky.

The Ursuline Convent had a long history in Columbia. Below is a short description of the school, taken from a Works Progress publication, South Carolina: A Guide to the Palmetto State, published in 1941.

The URSULINE CONVENT, 1505 Assembly St., is a red brick building erected in 1891; it adjoins St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church. As the Academy of the Immaculate Conception it was established in 1852 by the Sisters of Mercy. They were succeeded by the Ursuline Nuns, who came to Columbia from Black Rock, Ireland, in 1858. After the first building, corner Main and Blanding Streets, was burned in 1865, the convent occupied several others before its present quarters were built. The curriculum includes a high school for girls and parochial school for girls and boys.  (235)

The site is marked with this historical marker:

The first convent building, burned in 1865, was one of those destroyed by General Sherman in his march through South Carolina during the Civil War. There are some first hand accounts of this event, and in fact, the Lowcountry Digital Library has a nice digital collection of letters about the Ursuline sisters in Columbia; if you are interested in reading more, click on this link: Ursulines.

So somehow the Lamon sisters were allowed to board at this famous institution and, presumably, to continue their education.