Meet the Dillworths is a three-part series focusing on one branch of the McGill family tree written by Kerri Fawcett.

Meet the Dillworths (part 1)

We will start with Gertie McGill, or to give her her proper name, Gertrude Margaret McGill. She was the daughter of William Johnston McGill and his wife Charlotte Ross. Gertie was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania on November 23, 1867, the oldest of nine children and a sister to our Anna Tina McGill. Gertie moved around the western Pennsylvania area with her family, living in Cornplanter, Venango County in 1870 and then Titusville, Crawford County in 1880. The family eventually came east to Bayonne, New Jersey in the early 1880s, just before the Statue of Liberty was erected in New York Harbor. What a change it must have been for her to go from the small towns and countryside to the excitement of living just across the river from New York City.
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On November 22, 1887, the day before her 20th birthday, Gertie would marry John C. Dilworth, the son of Irish immigrants, Patrick Dilworth and Mary Sheehan, from Cork. John was born in New York in February 1866 and at the time of his marriage he was a waymaster. What does a waymaster do? He was responsible for a section of railroad track, making sure it was unobstructed so the trains could pass by safely. The couple were married by Justice of the Peace F.W. Hulsebus in Northfield, Staten Island, New York and they soon started their life together in Bayonne.

It did not take long before children would enter their world. They were all born in Bayonne. Their eldest, Patrick Joseph, was born on January 26,1888. He was followed by Mary on November 19, 1890, Gertrude on July 6, 1893, Anna on August 20, 1896 and twins Julia and Elizabeth on September 9, 1900. Brothers John Michael, born on October 26,1903 and William Joseph, born on June 9, 1906 would complete the family.

While Gertie and John did have eight children, sadly, like so many families at that time, not all of them reached adulthood. Influenza, smallpox, measles and tuberculosis swept through families and neighborhoods quickly as people often lived in close and cramped conditions. The Dilworth's lost their twin daughters, Julia at the age of 18 days on September 27, 1900 and then Elizabeth at the age of 23 months on August 15,1902. In the next year, on April 7, 1903, they lost their son Patrick William at the age of 15. In 1905, on December 6th, they lost their 9 year old daughter Anna. All of these children are buried in Hudson County Catholic Cemetery, or as it is called today, Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

John and Gertie were married just a few months shy of 20 years. They saw their fair share of sadness during their time together. While most of the world was focused on the Great War in February of 1917, there was one interesting story concerning them in the Bayonne Review newspaper. Apparently John was due to be a juror but showed up to court drunk. He was excused but ordered to come back the following day. He did not show up to court that day so he was fined $25 or five days in County Jail for contempt of court. His defence was that he had to visit his sick wife who had tuberculosis in a Long Island hospital. Two days later, the same newspaper printed another story, this time from Mr. McGill, a relative of Gertie who stated that she does not have tuberculosis and she is not in the hospital but is staying with him in Staten Island. I believe this Mr. McGill could be her brother William Johnston McGill Jr. who was living in Staten Island at the time. Our Gertie was not blessed with a long life and she passed away a few months later at the age of 49 on July 31, 1917 at their home, 88 West 13th Street in Bayonne.

During the next 14 years, John would move a few more times and then retire from his job at the Tide Water Oil Company where he worked for 40 years as a cooper. Perhaps he spent some of his time following the New York Yankees as they had one of their greatest years in 1927 with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Closer to home, he could have been watching the construction of the Bayonne Bridge, which was opened on November 15, 1931. A few weeks later, John passed away at the age of 65 on December 6,1931 at the home of his daughter Mary and son-in-law Peter Long, 84 West 16th Street in Bayonne. Gertie and John's funerals both took place at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Bayonne, otherwise known as Our Lady Star of the Sea Church. They are also buried in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City in the family plot, Block K, Letter U, Number 72.

Of their four children to survive into adulthood, apparently William Joseph was the only one not to marry. We do not know a great deal about him. William was unemployed when he filled out his World War Two draft card on October 16, 1940. He was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. His eyes were blue, his hair was brown and he had a light complexion. It appears that he was in Saint Francis Hospital in Jersey City at the time he filled in the card and he passed away in the same hospital almost four years later on March 8, 1944 at the age of 45. His funeral took place on Saturday, March 11th from St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Bayonne and he was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.

Their daughter Mary married Peter Anthony Long in 1916 at St Mary's Church in Bayonne. Peter was born on November 7, 1893 in Jersey City. He worked for the Esso Standard Oil Company in Bayonne. In the 1920 census, Peter's occupation was a boiler maker and in 1940 he was a clay burner at the oil company. They did not have any children. Mary was living at 118 West 14th Street in Bayonne when she passed away at the young age of 44 on September 26, 1935. Her funeral took place at St. Mary's Church and she is also buried at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City. Peter went on to remarry in 1937. His bride was Anna M. Coughlin and she was born in January 1899 in New Jersey. Like Peter, she also worked for the Esso Standard Oil Company. Anna worked in the shipping department. According to two very short mentions in The Bayonne Times, Peter and Anna went on a three week motor trip to Florida in April 1939 and then another three week motor holiday to southern Canada in August 1940. Peter passed away on March 14, 1947 at 807 Avenue A in Bayonne. Anna lived until the age of 67 when she passed away on January 21,1954 in Elizabeth. They are both buried in Newark at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

In parts two and three, we will focus on the remaining two children, Gertrude Dilworth and John Michael Dilworth. Part two will be shared next Friday. Thanks for reading!

Meet The Dilworths.

Meet the Dillworths (part 2)

Gertrude Dilworth is the reason why I decided to do a little story about her family. A few months ago, I found the obituary of her father John C. Dilworth in The Bayonne Times. One part of it caught my attention: survived by...Mrs. Gertrude Creole of Havana, Cuba. Havana, Cuba?! What was she doing in Havana, Cuba? I could not imagine how she wound up there and I made it a personal challenge to find out. Was I successful? Spoiler Alert: Partially.

Through Gertrude, I was introduced to her Russian husband, Berno Creole, or to give him his original name, Berno Criouleansky. There were some newspaper articles and records on Ancestry and I found him quite interesting. I joked with Tina how I should write a story on the whole family and call it Meet The Dilworth's. And here we are, although delayed a few months by real life and other genealogical finds grabbing my attention. Finishing this story has been on my mind for weeks and I just had to get it completed so I can move on to other projects. So now let me tell you a little more about the remaining two children of Gertrude and John C., Gertrude and John Michael!

Gertrude Dilworth was born on July 6,1893 in Bayonne. She was the third child of John and Gertie and worked as a bookkeeper. By the age of 27, she was living in Manhattan at 342 West 56th Street. Like her mother, she got married on the day before her birthday too. Gertrude became the bride of Berno Creole, on July 5,1921 at City Hall in Manhattan. Since Prohibition started the year before, I hope they were able to sneak into a New York City speakeasy club to celebrate their wedding. Her 48 year old groom was living at the same address as Gertrude and his occupation was a commission agent. Berno was born on May 6, 1872. Where was he born? According to his marriage record, he was born in Galatz (Galati), Romania. On most other documents, he said he was born in Russia and he specified the town of Reni, Russia on his naturalization form. Reni and Galati are about 10 miles apart and as he said he was Russian more than Romanian, I think he was born in Russia. However today, Reni is in Ukraine.

From newspaper articles and Ancestry records, we know Berno was a salesman. This was his occupation when he was living in the Tampa, Florida area where he was naturalized as a US citizen on February 16, 1912. Where did he work as a salesman? Berno frequently travelled back and forth between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. From Havana he sometimes also travelled to Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to sell American goods. According to his passport application, he lived briefly in Havana from October 1917 to May 1918. Then in the early 1920s, he sold hosiery and underwear to Cuba, Mexico and South America when he worked for the James Risk Company, based at 346 Broadway in New York City. Later in life he worked for his brother Simon, a merchant, in Key West. He also travelled from New York City to Florida often and in the early 1930s, he listed Washington DC as his home address. For an immigrant from Russia who came to America in February 1901 via Southampton, England on the ship Lahn, he certainly was a well travelled man.

Let me focus on Havana in the 1920s for a minute. It was quite a popular place. Between 1915 and 1930, Cuba hosted more tourists than any other Caribbean country. Writer Ernest Hemingway moved here and Irving Berlin wrote a song about it, titled "I'll See You in C-U-B-A". This description is straight from Google AI: In the 1920s, Havana, Cuba was a vibrant and cosmopolitan city, often referred to as "the Paris of the Caribbean". It was a thriving economy, particularly due to high sugar prices, and attracted many American tourists, including those seeking to escape US Prohibition. The city was known for its numerous bars and its diverse population, with a significant influx of American bartenders. Estimates suggest there were as many as 7,000 bars in Havana at this time. Many of these bars were run by American bartenders who moved to Cuba to seek work during US Prohibition.

So, in 1931 the Empire State Building opened as the tallest building in the world and John C. Dilworth passed away in December. From his obituary, Gertrude was living in Havana. I do not know how long she was there but she made at least four trips to Havana over the years prior to her father's death. According to some passenger records on Ancestry, she had visits in 1921, just after their marriage, and again in 1924, 1930 and June 1931. She could have travelled more but these are the only records available for now. Their marriage broke down within the next few years. The couple separated but never divorced. The 1940 census has Berno living as a lodger at 318 W23rd Street in Manhattan. He was 66 years old with no occupation but still listed as married.

I do not know where Gertrude was in 1940, but in 1939 she was living at 427 Boulevard in Bayonne. It was on September 29, 1939, World War Two had just started a few weeks ago in Europe, when Berno attempted suicide. He boarded a Hudson River ferry, the Binghamton, bound for Bayonne. As the vessel crossed the Hudson, Berno tied his ankles together and then pushed himself overboard. As he landed in the water he suddenly changed his mind and yelled out for help. The crew of a passing tugboat, the Walter L. Meseck, saved him and gave him first aid. When they docked in Hoboken, he was taken to St. Mary's Hospital to recover.

About two weeks later, on October 12th, Berno registered to vote as a Democrat in New York. He spent another year or so in New York but then made his way back down to Florida. He moved back to Key West just before the death of his brother Simon in May 1941. On his 74th birthday, May 6, 1946, Berno was living at 602 Duval Street when he had a heart attack and died. His obituary stated he was due to be buried at City Cemetery in Key West. It did not mention his wife Gertrude.
Around the time of Berno's death in Florida, Gertrude was still living in Bayonne. She got a job working as a bookkeeper for the Lawler Electric Company. She would work here for 20 years before retiring about 1968. On Monday, March 20, 1972, Gertrude was living at 930 Avenue C in Bayonne when she passed away at the age of 79. Her funeral took place on Thursday, March 23 at St. Mary's, Our Lady Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church in Bayonne and then she was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington. Plot info: Blk-10 Sec-G Gr-148 1C Her obituary did mention her "beloved husband Bernard".
As a side note, when I was looking for photos of the ferry, the Binghamton, to add to this article, I was a bit surprised at what I found. I have actually been on this ferry...and so has my mother, my husband Colin and his mother Vera! Does anyone in the North Jersey area remember in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Binghamton was actually docked in Edgewater, NJ and used as a restaurant? When Colin and Vera came to America in November 2000, we went there for lunch. It was rather spooky when I realized Berno was on board this ferry at the lowest moment of his life. Thankfully he survived and I hope he found peace and happiness before he died.

Next Friday will be the last part of the series, focusing on John Michael Dilworth and his family. Thanks for reading!

Meet the Dillworths (part 3)


I did not know anything about the seventh child of John and Gertie when I first started to research this family. John Michael Dilworth was born in Bayonne on October 26, 1903. He was 13 when his mother died in 1917. In the 1920 Federal census, John was living at 537 Boulevard with his widower father, John, older sister Gertrude and younger brother William. Also in the household was his other sister Mary and her husband Peter Long. He was 16 years old and already left St. Mary's School. John had a job working in an office as a life insurance clerk. By the 1930 census, he was still working as a clerk but now he was in the oil yards. A few years later he was a shipping and receiving clerk at the Ingram-Richardson Corporation.
There was a contest to find Miss Bayonne and men were encouraged to write in to nominate some local women. Our John was not shy and he submitted his nomination which appeared in The Bayonne Times on July 14, 1927. He recommended Miss Anna McCarthy who, in John's words "is five-two, 105 pounds, has pretty auburn hair and a voice that thrills. She's a hello girl in the Bell system". I wonder if they were dating or he was just interested in her. Perhaps he could have taken her to the movies to see the first "talkie" when The Jazz Singer came out that year.

However, just about a year later, on June 18, 1928, John was mentioned in The Bayonne Times for a different reason. The car he was travelling in as a passenger was involved in a hit and run accident. Their car was sideswiped and the other vehicle sped away. He was in the car with two other men and one woman, who was not Anna. They were all treated for minor injuries at City Hospital in Newark.

On December 6,1931 John's father died. Just over four months later on April 9, 1932, John got married. He finally married his Hello girl, Anna Mary McCarthy. They married in Manhattan in the Roman Catholic Church Our Lady of Perpetual Help on East 61st Street. He was 28 and still working as a clerk. His bride Anna was 25 years old, born on December 24, 1906 in Bayonne. She was the daughter of Irish immigrants Anna Daunt and Daniel McCarthy. Daniel worked as a boiler maker in a boiler factory.

Children would soon enter the lives of John and Anne. In 1933, the year Prohibition ended in the US, their daughter Kathleen Anne would enter their world on April 20th. She was followed four years later by her brother James who arrived on October 31, 1937. Both were born in Bayonne. They would have been the only grandchildren of their father John's parents, John C. and Gertrude Dilworth, who sadly were now both deceased.
By the time little James joined the family, they were now living at 5 Washington Parkway in Bayonne and John Michael Dilworth was no longer an office clerk. He was now a tavern owner. We should not be surprised to find a tavern owner in our family tree! John's first tavern was at 393 Boulevard and then, by 1941, he was at 755-757 Boulevard. Both taverns no longer exist in Bayonne.

Our John was not just a tavern owner, he was a local politician. In 1939 he put his name on the ballot for one of five spots as Bayonne City Commissioner. He ran as an Independent Democrat with the slogan of Economy, Civil Service and Orderly Government. He started his own Association and hosted some dances, with his brother William on the dance committee. I think it is fair to say the election on May 9, 1939 was just like the title of the movie that was released a few weeks earlier, Gone With the Wind. John did not come last, but he was a long way from claiming a spot on the commission. I hope he was at least proud to have tried to make a difference in his community.

As the 1940s started, John was managing his tavern and still trying to run his Association as a social club. The children Kathleen and James were growing up and World War Two was raging across Europe and in the Pacific. When Kathleen was an adult, she wrote a letter to The Jersey Journal about how her mother, Anne, was like Rosie the Riveter and went to work to help the war effort. She, along with her brother Bill and sister Ellen McCarthy worked seven days a week at the Electro-Dynamic Company on Avenue A in Bayonne making motors. After the war was over, Anne went back to her original job as a telephone operator. She worked for the Oildom Publishing Company and then was chief operator at Salomon Brothers in New York City when she retired in 1964.

The tavern business was keeping John busy. There were several accounts of break-ins, alarms going off in the middle of the night and broken windows. Then there was stories of underage drinking at the tavern and John getting arrested, his liquor license suspended, some fines to be paid. In 1946 even his bartender was arrested for illegal bookmaking. It was not easy being a tavern owner at the time. In 1953, the tavern started serving "The Finest Italian Foods" like pizza pies, ravioli, jumbo shrimp and also hot roast beef dinners and all kinds of sandwiches.

The tavern was not the venue for the wedding reception of John and Anne's daughter Kathleen. She married Army war veteran Roland Lawrence Wilke on July 4, 1952 in St. Mary's Church in Bayonne. Roland was born on May 24, 1924 in Bayonne and he worked as a printer in the Oildom Publishing Company, where his mother-in-law Anne worked. Is that how he met Kathleen? Later Roland would work as a printer for the Quinn and Bowden Publishing Company before retiring in 1987. He was also a past commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 9119 in Roselle, NJ, and a member of the American Legion, Post 19, in Bayonne. He was in the Philippines during the war. Roland passed away on April 14, 1998 in Bayonne. Kathleen passed away at the age of 81 on September 4, 2014 in Bradenton, Florida. She and her husband Roland are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, NJ.
Here is a link to Kathleen's online obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/kathleen-wilke-obituary?id=18826590

Kathleen and Roland would go on to have three children. Their son Roland Lawrence Wilke, Jr. was born on August 14, 1953 in Bayonne. Roland Jr., otherwise known as Larry, had a few encounters with the police. The first I know of was in 1973 when he was about 20 years old. He was ordered to pay a $25 fine for interfering with police officers and becoming abusive. Then in 1981, he was arrested for DUI, in 1985 and 1986 he was arrested for drugs, mainly PCP or angel dust. On September 6, 1988, Larry passed away. According to a message in the newspaper, the family thanked the doctors and nurses at Bayonne Hospital. His funeral took place at St. Henry's Church and he was cremated. He was only 35 years old.

Kathleen and Roland also had two daughters, Eileen and Patricia Kathleen. Eileen was born on October 31, 1954 in Bayonne. She married Robert H. Kopec in February 1979 in Bayonne. Robert was born on April 11, 1949 in Jersey City and passed away a few years ago on October 16, 2022 in Stockholm, NJ. Robert served as a chef in the US Navy and then after he was discharged he became a microbiologist. They had two children, Joseph and Kristin. Kristin is married to Scott Patterson with two sons, Eugene and Ian.

Here is a link to Robert's online obituary: https://www.vanemburghsneider.com/obituary/Robert-Kopec

Patricia Kathleen Wilke was born on November 8, 1958. She was christened on Thanksgiving morning (November 27th), 1958 at Assumption Church in Roselle, NJ. Her Godmother was her grandfather John's sister, Gertrude Creole. I do not know much else about Patricia except she had a son, Christopher Wilke, and she passed away before her mother Kathleen died in 2014.
Last, but not least, we have James Dilworth. Did you forget about James? He was the second child of John M. and Anne. He was quite a bright young man, a very good debater when he was at Bayonne Vocational High School. And then there was nothing. No mention of him at all, anywhere. Then I read his sister Kathleen's obituary online and all the way at the end was a comment left by a friend of his (who called him John and and not James, but I believe this is our James). The comment went on to say that "John" was living in Puerto Rico when he suddenly found out he had colon cancer in November 2013 and he died a week later. It does not sound like James had a family of his own but I hope he found happiness in Puerto Rico.

So, that is just about the end of our story. We just have to finish the lives of John M. and Anne. The end of 1962, John was in trouble again at the tavern, serving underage customers. The stress was probably not good for his health. He was in Bayonne Hospital when he should have been in court one day in early January 1963. They postponed the hearing until January 21st when John pleaded guilty to serving beer to teenagers and allowing minors to congregate in his tavern. Five days later, on January 26, 1963, John passed away at the age of 59. His obituary said it was after a short illness. His funeral took place at St. Mary's Church in Bayonne and he is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington. One last thing about John, his nickname was Pickles!
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As for his Hello girl, Anne, in 1980, she moved to Puerto Rico. Could she have been inspired by her sister-in-law Gertrude Creole and her stories of Cuba many years before? Maybe that is when her son James moved there as well? He was the informant on her death certificate, listing his name as James J. Dilworth. I am guessing the J stands for John. Anne died on August 2, 1988 in Levittown, Puerto Rico and she was cremated.
That is the end of our story. I hope by now, you feel as if you have met the Dilworth family, or at least know something about our Bayonne cousins. Thanks for reading!

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