James McDermott had been able to move into 58 Underhill Ave. in 1860 because James Nicholas Keenan had arranged for the disposition of his younger siblings.
James Keenan had moved his own family elsewhere in the 9th Ward, renting a house located, as near as I can determine through cross-referencing, where Monroe and Throop Ave. intersect (now Bedford Stuyvesant). This is validated by the baptismal records of James’ sixth child, Annie, who was born there on Feb 7, 1860 and was baptized at St. Francis in the Fields Parish, which had been established in 1850, and which, located at Putnam Ave near Bedford Ave., would have been the closest Catholic church to James.
But what of the other of Matthew and Mary’s children?
We don’t know where Matthew TJ was, but he was 18 years old by then, and likely out on his own and apprenticing into a trade.
You will recall that Sarah had moved to Boston after her father’s death and had been living there with her grandparents. On September 6 of 1859 she married George B Trumbull of Boston. Apparently she had gotten herself “in the family way” because her daughter, Emma Lizzie, was born March 24, 1860, just seven months later.
In 1860 we find Catherine Keenan (age 14) working as a servant for the Lynchs who lived at 56 Underhill Ave, right next door to her grandfather’s residence.
Elizabeth (age 15) was likewise engaged as a servant in the home of a Dr. Joseph Hutchison, living on Clinton Ave. near Gates Ave. in the 11th Ward (part of the old 7th Ward), but only a six block walk from Underhill Ave. Dr. Hutchinson was an eminent physician in Brooklyn and became president of the New York State Medical Society in 1867 .
The youngest of Matthew’s daughters, Bridget, would have been only eight or nine years old at this time, yet she appears with none of the remaining relatives. In 1865, however, there was a B. Keenan (14 years) who shows up on the rolls of Sisters of Mercy orphanage in Brooklyn. It is possible that, finding no one willing to take in Bridget, and saddled with six children of his own, that James had turned her over to the Sisters.
James himself spent only a year on Throop Ave. In the 1861-62 Lain Street Directory James is shown located at “Pacific n Grand Ave” just a few blocks from the old house on Underhill. His family remained there till James’s death in 1864.
