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!