Birkbecks

The Birkbeck family is one of my husband's lines. His 3rd great grandmother was Isabelle Elizabeth Cauldwell who married John Birkbeck. The Birkbeck family was one of the earlier settlers in Brooklyn, NY. John's grandfather is mentioned in books about Brooklyn's history as early as 1810. John died a sad deathin 1845, drowning in the bay about 50 feet from shore when the boat he was in capsized and he could not swim. He left his widow Isabelle and three young children. I have found Isabelle in several Brooklyn city directories up to 1878 then a probable match on the 1880 census and then she is gone. I discovered her today quite by accident in the 1894 and 1895 Denver CO City Directory living next door to her daughter and son in law Lucy and Erastus S Bennett. She is not listed in 1896 but her son Albert is. Following up on this I searched for Albert and found him on the following census in Denver. I knew that he had died in California and looked at other results at Ancestry.com for California. I found a beautiful record from the US National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 1866-1938. It gives the information about his Civil War enlistment and discharge. He was discharged from the war due to a gunshot wound to his left leg. I had found a record of his Civil War pension at Footnote last year but this was nice information to have about what his disability was. The new record from the National Home also gave a description of him 5'9" and dark complected.