52 Ancestors Week 13

LIGHT A CANDLE

My Votive Candle Collection

     This week's theme made me think of my Grandma Begue. She always lit a candle at church to pray for someone in the family. Also when she was angry with someone she would say, "I'm going to light a black candle on her." I never saw her light a black candle, but I know she was very superstitious.  I collect votive candles and thought maybe a black candle had something to do with Voodoo, which was common in New Orleans, but when I looked up the meaning of burning a black candle I found it was not to cast a Voodoo spell on someone but for protection from negative energy or to break hexes or curses.

     I wrote a lot about Grandma Begue for Week 7, so I decided to write about her parents this week. I think some of her superstitions came from her mother, Anna Hathaway Gonzales. Her last name is listed in many different ways, Hattaway, Hardaway, Hartway, and even Hartwig. She was known to all of the family as Little Grandma. She died in 1943 when I was almost 3 years old so I barely remember her but my Mama had lots of stories about her. 

      Anna Hattaway and her twin Hannah were born in Algiers, Louisiana, on 3 January 1860, daughters of Peter Hardaway/Hartway/Hartwig from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Bernardina Harmeyer of Alfhausen, Hanover, Germany. Little Grandma said she was born with a veil, meaning that the amniotic sack covered her head. This was said to have given her the power to communicate with the dead.

      Little Grandma said that she was the sickly twin and had to be carried around on a pillow because she was so frail. She survived but her twin died. Anna  is listed on the 1860 census as 5/12 years old with her parents Peter and Dianah Hatherway. In the 1860 Mortality Schedule Dianah [Hannah] Hatherway is listed as dying in February at age 1 month of inflammation of the lungs after being ill for seven days. She was Peter and Dina's sixth and last child. (One of the strange coincidences of genealogy is that I named my daughter Dina before I knew that Bernardina's nickname was Dina.)

        Little Grandma's father died sometime between 1862 and 1870 leaving her mother to raise five daughters and one son. Peter had been a ships carpenter and worked on the riverfront in Algiers which later became part of New Orleans. During the Civil War and the blockade of the port he may have gone off aboard ship. Little Grandma only knew that he went away and never came back. He is listed with his family on the US census in 1860 but not in 1870. Bernardina died 8 October 1883. 

         Little Grandma married John Henry Gonzales (1856-1907) on 15 April 1880. He was also born in Algiers and worked on the riverfront and as a fireman. His father, John Gonzales (~1820-1884), was born in Northern Spain and his mother, Anne Farnan (1827-1910), was born in Ireland. Anna and John Henry Gonzales had seven children, only three of whom survived to adulthood: Joseph Manuel (1882-1938), James Peter (1886-1957) and Sarah Ann (1888-1965). 

      On the 1900 census, the John H. Gonzales family is listed in the Algiers section of New Orleans at 716 Newton Street near Valette. John H. is 44 and a day laborer, wife Annie is 36, son Joseph M. age 17, is a day laborer, son James P. is 13, daughter Sarah A. is 11, and John's mother, Ann, a 73 year old widow is living with them. John Henry Gonzales died 6 February 1907 of chronic nephritis at age 51.

     In 1910 Little Grandma, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Jim, and Great Great Grandmother Anne Farnan Gonzales are living at 936 Valette Street in Algiers with daughter Sarah Ann Gonzales and her husband John Begue and their first child, Robert, who is 1 year old.

     Little Grandma died at age 83 on 6 July 1943 of arteriosclerotic heart disease. Her obituary says that she was survived by nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren. I'll have to light a candle for her.

James Peter Gonzales, Anna Hathaway Gonzales, and Joseph Manuel Gonzales 1932