When I started my family research in 1991 I learned an amazing thing. I had always known that my paternal grandfather Joseph Cassidy was an only child born to 40-something parents but I did not kow that his father had been married twice before and lost two children and two wives in child birth. No one knew the names of the wives or the sexes of the children. As I pursued my research I wanted to find those answers. I started by patiently asking my aunt again and again over the months about her grandparents' deaths. They were buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY and I needed a year of death to have the office search the records. Finally she remebered that her grandfather died in June the year her brother was born, 1928 and the grandmother died in June when she was ten, so 1932. I reminded her that her birthday was in October so was she ten making 1933 or was it 1932? She thought about it and said I was ten so it must be 1933. The cemetery was able to tell me the location of the plot and the day that my great-grandfather Joseph Cassidy bought it, January 1, 1883. Happy New Year I thought. I asked the cemetery if they could give me the years of burials and they said there were six in the grave: 1883, 1883, 1889, 1889, 1928 and 1933. This seemed to match up nicely with the family tradition of the two wives dying in childbirth. Or did it? I asked them to look for the burials on Jan. 1, 1883 for Mrs. Joseph Cassidy and her baby. They found a Margaret Cassidy, age 35, born Ireland on that day but no baby. I thought that was odd. Months later when I was back East for my sister's wedding my wife and I got up VERY early and went into Manhattan for research at the Municipal Archives. For $5 a day I could look at their microfil death records. I started with the 1882 death index looking for Margaret Cassidy because if she was buried on Jan. 1 she would have died the previous year. I found her and it said that she died from peritonitis mentioned partuition which my wife the MD said she had given birth. The dates of the doctor's care struck me from Dec.22-Dec.29, 1882 when she died. I assumed that she went into labor on the 22nd and had trouble and died from infection a week later. My wife wonders if the infection was caused by a Caesarean section. Her address was on East 18th St. and her parents were Felix and Margaret Mc____, too hard to make out. This left me in a quandry why is there another 1883 burial if the baby died at birth in 1882? Obviously the baby lived and that is why it was not buried on Jan. 1, 1883. I got the death index for 1883 and looked for Cassidy infants who would have been born the previous December. I was lucky as only one fit that bill, Mary Cassidy, died June 28, 1883 age 6 months. She was living at East 14th Street and her parents were Joseph and Margaret Cassidy and died of diarrhea. The different address was probably explained by the need for a wet nurse, so Mary was moved. I checked the 1882 birth index and then found Mary's birth certificate which showed her parents' names again and that she was born on East 18th St. and that she was the first child born to Margaret. Well done, I thought. When I got home I checked the Catholic Directory and figured out that Immaculate Conception parish would have been their church. I wrote and they found Mary's baptism on Dec. 24, 1882 with Ann Reynolds and Michael Cassidy as sponsors. Michael was Joseph's brother. It also said that Margaret's maiden name was McKeon. They could not find a marriage in the records for Joseph and Margaret in 1881-1882. Next I turned to the second wife and child. I was nervous if they had cross year death and burial like Margaret because I had no names and no dates except 1889. Mary was my great-grandfather's mother's name. His father's name was Michael. My grandfather was named Joseph after his father so I thought maybe the second child was a son. I was wrong. I asked the cemetery to find a burial for Michael Cassidy in 1889 and there were none. Next I went to the LDS family history center and ordered the NYC death index for 1889. I looked through all the Cassidy deaths looking for Cassidy women of child bearing age. As luck would have it all the women were either under 10 or over 60 that year except Ellen Cassidy age 34 who died in May 1889. I called the cemetery back and they found her. I thought they could tell me about the baby too still assuming that it died with her at birth but the woman said no newborn was buried in that grave in 1889 but there is an Ann Cassidy age 11 months buried in July 1889. I went back to the family history center and looked at the film again and found the entry for Ann. I wrote to the Municipal Archives(which I hear no longer does this sevice) and they sent me their death certificates. When they arrived it told me that Ellen died of lung problems and had been treated for 9 months which would take it back to Ann's birth in Aug. 1888. They lived on East 38th St. Her parents were James and Ann Hart. Ann died at 11 months from diarrhea. I knew they would have attended St. Gabriel's in the East 30s so I wrote and paid the "nominal" $15 fee for Ann's baptismal certificate. It said she was born on Aug. 2, 1888 and baptised on Aug. 5th with Kate Hart and Mick Murphy as sponsors. They could not find Joseph and Ellen's marriage so I lost that "nominal" $15. I one day went to the Mid-Continent Library in Independence, MO and tried to find Joseph Cassidy in the 1880 Census. Since he had no children under 10 and therefor no soundex I was not too eager to scroll through but I did find him at the same apartment house on East 18th St. that he was in 1882. Shocked I saw he was already married to Margaret by June 1880. His brother Michael was also listed. I wrote back to Immaculate Conception and they found a Nov. 25, 1878 marriage between Joseph Cassidy and Margaret McKeon. Lastly I found Ann's birth certificate from 1888 which said Ellen had had two previuos children who were no longer living. As they were not in the Cassidy grave I assume that Ellen was previously married and lost her first husband and children. I kow now not to look for a Cassidy-Hart wedding but a Cassidy-Who knows what wedding. I will ave to get back to the church that hold's St.Gabriel's records. This quest has been a lot of fun and helped me appreciate the use of various records from family tradition, to cemetery records, to church records, to vital records and finally census records. It also makes me remember these ladies. Margaret went four years of marriage without having a child only to die from a hard childbirth. Ellen remarried and had a new family only to die nine-months later. Sadly both their daughters died too. Some might ask why spend so much time searching these women. I did it because as the youngest child of the ninth child of the only child to survive my great-grandfather I know that if these ladies had not died I would never have been born. I feel I owe it them to search what I can of their lives with my ancestor and to pray for the repose of their souls since they do not living have descendants. Family tradition was correct in that both women had problems with the births but fortunately both girls lived long enough to be baptised and create some paper trails to help with the research. Family tradition is usually based in fact even if the story has been adulterated over the years. Use your common sense to weed through the fact and the fiction.