Schenectady - Grandmom O'Meara's Hometown

Grandmom O'Meara, born Winifred Mary Burke, lived much of her childhood and young adult life in Schenectady, New York with her parents, Mary (O'Brien Hickey) Burke and Michael H. Burke, her half-brother Thomas Patrick Hickey and her brother Patrick Henry Burke. She was born in Schenectady on October 5, 1891. By 1897, she and her family had relocated to Butte, Montana - presumably so that her father, Michael H. Burke (pictured below) could find work in the mines there ((known for high wages but notorious for dangerous conditions) since jobs were scarce in Schenectady due to the recession experienced by most of the country.  It seems likely that the Burkes first relocated upstate in Mineville, New York in hopes of finding work since Grandmom's brother Patrick was born there in 1896.

By 1910, Thomas Hickey was stationed in the Philippines with US Military and Naval Forces and the rest of the family had returned to New York state, settling in a house they purchased at 16 Foster Avenue in Schenectady within a block of historic Union College and within close proximity to American Locomotive Co. (ALCO) and General Electric, presumably for work opportunities at one or the other. (Census forms indicated Michael Burke was employed as a laborer in the locomotive industry and that both Patrick Burke and Thomas Hickey also worked in the locomotive industry as a toolmaker and a machinist, respectively. Grandmom worked for both a furrier and a milliner in their retail shops.)

While the house numbers on Foster Ave have changed in the years since, it appears the Burke home still stands. (The houses on their block were built between 1890 and 1900 according to internet real estate sites.) The Burkes were still living in this house in 1920, though brother Patrick had moved to Detroit, Michigan for employment as a toolmaker in the automotive industry.  They solid it in 1923 shortly after the death of Grandmom's mother Mary O'Brien on December 31, 1922 and began renting rooms around the corner at 319 Carrie Street.