Bernard McCauley (II) married Susan Reilly on October 18, 1911.  The fact that the couple secured a license was (thankfully) published in the Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper on October 19, 1911.  I say this because I spent many hours trying to locate the official certificate using the number published in the NY Marriage Liscense Index for Brooklyn, but found a different file associated with that number.  The index stated if there were different names associated with the number, it could be the license was not returned to the proper office. I also find the public notice unusual and amusing…was there a 24-hour wedding license sale? I know my family dearly loves a bargain…. “Buy it now and if she turns you down it was only good for a day anyway.” Their names are at the bottom of the notice.

I knew little of my Great Grandmother Susan Reilly McCauley before 2019. Family members seemed tentative remembering her first name. That fall I vised the Calvary cemetery where they are buried and was able to secure her first name and date of death. Recent discoveries indicate Susan Reilly was also born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States around 1906 and her parents’ names were Thomas and Margaret, and my father’s notes indicate she also had a sister named Maggie. I will be continuing my research for the ship manifests and to discover what part of Ireland from which they came.

They set to work creating a family. Bernard McCauley (III) was born on August 15, 1912, and Thomas almost two years later, on June 24, 1914.  Bernard McCauley (IV) notes indicate that Susan’s health was failing after the birth of the two children and Bernard (II) hired a woman to help her with the boys and maintain the household. Bernard McCauley (II) fulfills an immigrants dream and becomes a Naturalized Citizen in 1917. This document is below.