Susie Cronin and her daughter, and the Sacketts and the Cronins

Dabbling in genealogy is one of the big uses of the Internet. However, unlike some other Internet wondering/wandering, one is very much restricted when relying on free sources of information. Over the years, one can find some vendors charging for things that are discoverable elsewhere, but if you really want to find things without running down city halls and libraries and newspaper archives all over the country (or the world!), you have to put down some money.

Over the past few years I have used subscriptions to genealogical and newspaper archives to build (slowly) family trees for both myself and my wife, making connections that were not otherwise passed down to us. In my wife's case, there has been one consistent mystery that we have occasionally tried to pin down without much success. Recently, Ancestry.com offered free access to its birth, death, and marriage records, which inspired me to try once again. This time, we appear to have gotten closer to some sort of story we can tell ourselves.

The starting point to all this is Margaret's paternal grandmother. Her birth origins were basically a family secret, though her grandchildren learned a few things: that her mother's name was named Susie Cronin, that she was raised by an aunt, that there was an important "Uncle Ownie," and that her birth father was a Sackett (specifically, according to one or her grandchildren, one Seymour Sackett). That's it.

Below is the story that I think we can tell now, as well as links to the historical record that lets us tell this story.

The "Other" Gertrude Sackett

Telling the Story of the Sacketts: the "Other" Gertrude Sackett

When the internet search began for the story of Susan Cronin and Gertrude Sackett, I thought we had "found" Gertrude Sackett, thinking that a close birth record was hers, and then linking her with another woman who had a liaison (and then married and divorced Seymour Sackett). However, as I continued to dig deeper, I decided that this was an "other" Gertrude Sackett (her half-sister, as presumably born of the same father). 

As the Sackett family site mentions, there was some confusion about this Gertrude Sackett's birth as it was recorded twice, once in Greenfield, MA, under a different name, and once in Cambridge, MA (after the fact). In either case, she was born before her mother and Seymour Arthur Sackett were married. A second daughter (Bertha) was born a few years later.

Don't know where Mary lived before her divorce (need to check City Directories in Connecticut when access to MyHeritage for 1890s).

From Ancestry.com, we learn that she married, had one son, and died in Bridgeport in 1967.

The Historical Record

Following is an itemized list of each of the documents or records I have come across in this investigation.

1. Registration of birth of "Emily" illegitimate female child of Seymour A. Sackett (sewing machine salesman) and Mary A. Norwood, Greenfield, July 16, 1887:

2. Registration in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in January 24, 1888, of birth of "Gertrude Adella Sackett" on July 16, 1887 in Greenfield, child of Seymour A. (agent) and Mary Elizabeth.

3. According to Sackett Family Association genealogical information on Seymour Austin Sackett, "He married second in Boston, Massachusetts, on 16 August 1887, Mary Elizabeth Norwood, daughter of Emery Norwood and Emily ___."     In addition,

After Seymour's death, Mary returned to New Haven, Connecticut, and was listed there in the 1897 city directory. According to Seymour's newspaper obituaries, he and Mary were divorced. These reports also state that he and Mary had two daughters. There are two records of a daughter born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on 16 July 1887, one for Gertrude Adella in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, birth register, and one for Emily in the Greenfield register. It would be unlikely that twin daughters were not registered together and this would suggest that Gertrude and Emily were the same. Alternatively, if there were two daughters, it is possible that an error was made in recording the date of birth in one of the registers (both registers would have been written up some months later, the Greenfield register being dated February 1888 while the Cambridge register is undated).

4. Report from New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Carrier, September 28, 1895: "Mary E. Sackett was granted a divorce from her husband, Seymour A. Sackett" and "was also awarded the custody of two minor children." They were reported married on August 17, 1887.

5. Clipping from New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Carrier, July 15, 1896. Report of death of Seymour A. Sackett, on July 14, 1896. "He leaves a divorced second wife with two young daughters in New Haven".

6. Long story from New Haven Daily Morning Journal and Carrier, October 16, 1896, about annual donation day at New Haven Orphan Asylum, mentioning that Gertrude Sackett did a recitation of "A Wonderful Trick" and that Bertha Sackett did a recitation of "The Reason Why" and won a prize of $1.

7. In 1897 New Haven City Directory, Mary Sackett is shown as a dressmaker and widow of Seymour Sackett:

8. Re-marriage to Edwin Balbier, from Morning Journal and Courier Friday, Aug 27, 1897 New Haven, CT Page 4:

9. 1900 census. [Census taker clearly transposed names of daughters and step-daughters from birth years and places.] Gertrude Sackett (as corrected, born in Massachusetts in July 1887) and Bertha Sackett living with Mary E. Balbier (and husband and two young daughters) in New Haven:

In 1910 census, Gertrude and Bertha have taken the Balbier name.

10. Clipping from Hartford Courant of March 3, 1910 about search for "Bertha and Gertrude Sackett, children of Seymour A. Sackett":

More specifically, from Page  8 of Hampden County Leader, published in Westfield, Massachusetts on Friday, March 11th, 1910

[Moseley was an attorney for the banks in Westfield, and also, according to obituary in Williams College,  "was deeply interested in the work for children of the Shurtleff mission to the children of the destitute. Of that organization he was president of the board of trustees."

Ellen Shattuck was Seymour Sackett's sister.

11. Ancestry.com facts of "Gertrude Adella Sackett Balbier"