In the process of researching another entry, Welcome to the Family Hammells!, there was a little bit of information going further back that didn’t quite fit into that post. It involves the mother of Jennie Hammell-Featherston. I do find it a little interesting I’m filling in the information for generations after and before Jennie before I am able to do it for her. I’ll take whatever information I can get though, so no complaints here.
Where We Left Off
In the previous entry we really only knew the names of Jennie Hammell-Featherston-Nagel’s parents. Bernard Hammell and Alice Hackett. My next steps are to try and gain as many records as I can that will give me more information on her parents. Even a little bit of new information will help me start narrowing things down and maybe even finding people who went missing in the census in later years. Here is where the family stood at the end of that last entry:
Author’s Note: For the purpose of keeping this family easier to follow, I will refer to Jennie Featherston-Parkin as “Jennie” and her mother Jennie Hammell-Featherston-Nagel as “Jane”. With quotes, to further distinguish who we are talking about. Not just for this entry but all entries going forward.
New Record – But Unreliable For Now
I was able to find a church birth index entry for “Jane” on both Ancestry and FamilySearch1 but I still need to try and see the actual record for that. It seems to be a very robust Catholic Church register though, so I have quite the to do list for that record set. The original record set isn’t searchable on FamilySearch but it is included in the New Jersey Births and Christenings record set. This index has actually been very beneficial to me for getting the exact location of my New Jersey records to order from the Archives. This exact one will have to wait until I can make it to a FamilySearch center, which I should probably try to do soon.
This record set also found a brother named James2 who is five years younger than “Jane.” This led me to fill in some more information. It turned out that James married a woman named Louise Widasech in 18833. They had one child named James. He also formed a “James Hammell Association” which really confused me for awhile until I realized it was some sort of club that James formed, they gathered regularly, formed a shuffleboard team, and took annual rides. The earliest mention I saw of it was 1888, and one last mention in 1904.
In the 1885 New Jersey State Census, Alice is even living with James, his wife and son4. Sadly James’ son would pass away in 1888 of diphtheria5. After his death the family would take in a foster daughter, but I haven’t been able to track down much information on her and where she came from. She appeared in the household in the 1900 United States Census6 and would live with Louise for a short time after James’ 1903 death78.
How Do I Know This James Is Connected?
You might be thinking I’m in danger of adding a random family to the tree without verifying things just based off this information. That’s not the case though, there are a few more things helping me to decide this James is the actual brother of my “Jane”.
In Jane’s second marriage certificate to William Nagle, the witnesses to the marriage are a Louise and John Hammell, whose address is 163 Summit Street9. I am inclined to think John is meant to be James. It is about 8 months before James’ 1903 death and I haven’t found any evidence of a John Hammell but it’s still possible I am missing something. 163 Summit Street is associated with James and Louise for a very long time and he ran a pub at the location10. This address is also where the James Hammell Association would have their regular meetings.
The 1890 Death of Alice Hammell
The biggest piece of evidence I found linking James Hammell to “Jane” and Alice is the loose probate papers found in the FamilySearch Full Text search11. In those papers we have first James Hammell, son and Jennie Featherston, daughter informing the Surrogates Court of Essex County that their mother died intestate. This means she had no will.
The second is a hand written letter from Jane. I repeat. A handwritten letter from “Jane“. In the letter Jane is protesting the letters of administration being assigned to anyone before some other legal matters are settled. This letter is dated the 31st of January 1890. Then finally, just one day later we have James and Jane both renouncing their rights to be appointed as administrators of the estate.
Lastly we have Alice’s death certificate12. It gives us a little more information and another new address. If you were wondering if I’m logging these addresses and who is living with who in what years, you’d be thinking the same thing I am. 277 Warren Street is new for me in my tracking but it’s possible it’s a hospital, especially considering there is so little information given about her personal circumstances. The cemetery where she was buried is an Irish Catholic burying ground which fits with the Catholic baptismal records we found before.
My Next Steps
I am currently waiting for two more marriage records from the New Jersey archives. They will maybe help clear up “Jennie” and Sadie’s timelines but we won’t know until the records come!
Footnotes
- St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Catholic Church, “St. Patrick’s Pro-Cathedral Parish registers, 1850-1926,” database, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 30 Oct 2025), entry for Ann Jane Hammell baptism (1852). ↩︎
- St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Catholic Church, “St. Patrick’s Pro-Cathedral Parish registers, 1850-1926,” database, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 30 Oct 2025), entry for James Hammell baptism (1857). ↩︎
- New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History, New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900, 8 1883-1884: Louise Widasech, James Hammell marriage; digital image, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, “Marriage, Atlantic-Warren,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/312728: 1 Nov 2025). ↩︎
- 1885 New Jersey State Census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Newark, Ward 4, p. 193, dwelling 727, family 1118, line 5782, James Hammell household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Nov 2025). ↩︎
- New York State Department of Health, “New York, U.S., Death Index, 1852-1956,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61535 : accessed 1 Nov 2025), James Hammell death (1888); citing City of Yonkers Register of Deaths, 1884-1889, p. 75. ↩︎
- 1900 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Newark Ward 7, enumeration district (ED) 66, sheet 12-A, dwelling 160, family 281, James Hammell household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Nov 2025); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623, roll 964. ↩︎
- “Hammell,” Newark Evening News, 30 Apr 1903, p. 13, col. 1; digital images, Newark Public Library (https://newark.historyarchives.online/ : accessed 1 Nov 2025). ↩︎
- 1905 New Jersey State Census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Newark, Ward 6-8, 4th and 5th District, p. 14-A, dwelling 204, family 310, line 38, Louisa Hammell household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Nov 2025). ↩︎
- New Jersey New Jersey Bureau of Vital Statistics, marriage certificate 12738 (1901), Naegel-Hammell; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton. ↩︎
- “Office of the Board of Excise Commissioners of the City of Newark; list of names applying for liquor license,” Newark Evening News, 19 Aug 1902, p. 14, col. 3; digital images, Newark Public Library (https://newark.historyarchives.online/ : accessed 1 Nov 2025). ↩︎
- Essex County, New Jersey, Probate Records, 1794-1902, unrecorded estate papers of Alice Hammell (1890); digital images, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 Feb 2026). ↩︎
- New Jersey Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate H197 (1890), Alice Hammell; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton. ↩︎