Alice's Journal



In 1997, Alice Burlington Somers sat down to record her memories in what she called "my journal", so we're calling it that, even though I suppose it's technically a memoir.

The first chapter, entitled "Childhood", contains Alice's memories of growing up in Montvale New Jersey during the 1920's and 30's. It tells stories of her childhood and of her family, including the halcyon days spent at the seashore in Belmar NJ.  Alice had a great love for the Jersey Shore all her life, and this chapter gives us a glimpse of the happy days spent there by the whole family.  Alice was the youngest of six, having four older brothers and one sister. I remember her saying once that those childhood days were the happiest ones of her life. And they laid the foundation  for the woman she would grow up to become.

Hope you enjoy reading  Alice's Journal

Cindy's Memorial at Burning Man

Hilary, Jessica and Henry at Burning Man

Burning Man 2011

Henry, Jessie and Hilary and placed a memorial to Cindy in The Temple at Burning Man. Hilary made the photo montage, Henry added the note, and Jessie placed the verse by Rumi.

They placed the items in the right-most out-building. It was the last part of The Temple to fall.

Link to their album

Cindy would have loved being at Burning Man!

Cindy and Henry Koeppel

Picture gallery: Celebrating Cyn!

Jeanne Marie Baer

We were saddened during the Christmas season by the loss of our cousin Jeanne Marie, the first grandchild of Harry and Ella Burlington. 

click to enlarge

Jeanne Marie's obituary as it appears in The Rockland Journal:

Jeanne Marie Baer (nee Keahon) passed away December 23, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 80. Jeanne Marie was born in Teaneck, New Jersey to Harold Vincent Keahon and Ethel Burlington on January 9, 1931. She was raised in Pearl River and graduated from Pearl River High School in 1948. She went on to the College of Mount St Vincent and obtained a Degree in Nursing.

She is survived by her son, Robert Nirenberg of Thousand Oaks, California; two grandchildren, Jennifer and Hillary Nirenberg, four stepchildren, John and Lloyd Nirenberg, Adrian Lalonde and Bruce Baer. She is also survived by her brother, Jeffrey Keahon, and two sisters, Janice Keahon and Julianne Wiley, all of Pearl River.

Jeanne Marie was a nurse, a mother, a grandmother and a "big sister." She spent her life looking after other people whether they were patients, family or friends. She will be greatly missed by all of us.

Published in the The Journal News on December 28, 2011
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/lohud/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=155221471

Guest Book Comments:

We were so saddened to hear the news of Jeanne Marie's passing. I well remember her vibrant spirit and love of family. She will be dearly missed by so many! May memories serve to comfort you in the days ahead. Our deepest sympathy to her family and friends, and to my dear cousins...Jeffrey, Janice and Julianne.

With love,
Maureen Burlington Caffrey and family
________________________________________________

Saddened to hear about Jeanne Marie's death. Please know I am thinking of all of you. With Love to Jeffrey, Janice, Julianne and all.

Sheila Burlington Finnerty
________________________________________________

May your memories shared with Jeanne Marie warm your heart in the days ahead. With sympathy and love to all of her family, especially to my cousins, Jeffrey, Janice and Julianne.

Patsy Burlington Madden
________________________________________________

As the obituary states, Jeanne Marie did spend her life looking after people as well as animals. She was a great animal lover and I was happy to support her animal charity in Palms Springs. Also, she went out of her way to visit Carol and me when we were living in Myrtle Beach, SC, flying in from California. I enjoyed my visit with her and Jeffrey in Palm Springs in 2000. She was a gracious hostess and went out of her way to plan many events for me to enjoy there.

Robert Burlington
________________________________________________

Our deepest sympathy to Jeffrey, Janice and Julianne, and to Jeanne Marie's son Robert and to her grandchildren, and to all her extended family. She will be remembered with love as a generous and giving person, a lover of animals, a fun personality with more than a touch of Auntie Mame in her.

The Alice Burlington Somers Family
________________________________________________

January 02, 2012

To my cousins, Janice,Julianne and Jefferey, I send my sincere condolences in the loss of Jeanne Marie on December 23rd.

Though I have not seen her in many years, I will always remember her as a beautiful, interesting, flamboyant older cousin, who had a wonderful talent for telling the most exciting tales of her life experiences, as well describing the interesting places she had traveled to.

I am sure the positive energy that she brought to every encounter will be missed by all her family and friends.

My husband Gary joins me in these sentiments.

Ali Battersby
Alice Burlington Battersby, (daughter of Joe Burlington)
________________________________________________


Guest Book: http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/lohud/guestbook.aspx?n=jeanne-baer&pid=155221471&cid=full


Fond Memories
When Jeanne Marie was living in New York City with her husband Sam Baer, she lived not too far from me, and we would periodically meet. She and Sam would take me out to dinner at neighboring restaurants. She was always doing something like sending me health information or dropping off some home-made bread. And she was always coming and going in a swirl of glamor. She was a great socializer and would regale me with stories of the notable New Yorkers she knew. Her socializing continued when Jeanne Marie moved to Palm Springs, where she had a grand time making new friends. She loved Palm Springs, and brought her special energies there just as she had to the New York scene.

Jeanne's other side was her caring side - she was a nurse, a motherer, a lover of animals.   I remember the cacophany of  little dogs and birds that would greet me whenever I visited! She was like a mother to her younger brother and sisters after their mother died. In later years, she'd  be forever doing something for one or another of her relatives -- for her niece Brenda and her nephews Andrew and Shane, and for her cousin Carol's daughter Debbie, when she moved to town. We all had standing invitations to visit her in Palm Springs, and some of us did. She loved her Aunt Alice (my mother), and always made a point of staying in touch with her.

Farewell Jeanne Marie, and we will not forget your kindness and your  joi de vivre.

Pamela

left to right: Mary Hauck, Jeanne Marie Baer, Jeffrey Keahon, Anne Hoban   

Jeanne Marie gathered with relatives at St. Margaret's Church in Pearl River NY, for the wedding of her niece, Brenda Burlington Wiley. (Sept. 2008)
(see photos: http://burlingtonfamily.com/BWC/index.html)

If anyone has pictures or reminiscences of Jeanne Marie that they would like to share, please leave a comment or contact us at:   burlingtonblog@gmail.com

Craig Burlington's Blessing

    

"to behold the wonder of this amazingly beautiful tot, "Joseph Novello Burlington,"

new grandson to both our families, was truly a sacred moment for us all, "liminal" to say the least, where the veil between heaven and earth, is wafer thin.

A new Joseph Burlington in the world!

JOSEPH NOVELLO BURLINGTON

born Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 11:27

6 lbs. 14 oz. and
GORGEOUS!!!  

 

 Joseph's third cousin Kaishu:

Kaishu Ng

Born May 8 2006 At: 12:45pm

Weighing: 8lb 4oz

Measuring: 19"

Kai was born in 2006, so he's a bit older than Joe, but I was struck by the resemblances, including their birth dates and times. Both share the same great-great grandparents, which makes them third cousins. Here's the lineage:

Great-great-grandparents:
Harry Joseph Burlington and Ella Augusta Mauchet 

Great-grandparents:
Walter Burlington           Alice Burlington Somers 

Grandparents:
Craig Burlington             Cindy Somers Koeppel

Parents:
Jean-Paul Burlington           Hilary Somers Ng

Children:
Joseph Burlington                    Kaishu Ng


And Happy Birthday to Bob Burlington, who was born on May 11!  Bob is the grandson of
Harry and Ella Burlington, youngest son of Arthur and Mildred Burlington and first cousin of Craig Burlington and Pamela Somers.

Cyndy

Cynthia Somers Koeppel
Jan 14 1946 - Feb 20 2011

Such utter sadness thinking of the grief in Henry's family and ours over the death of his spirit-filled wife and our cousin, Cyndy, on this past Sunday night, February 20th.

Our deepest sympathy to Pam, Artie, Hilary, and most of all to Jessica, Heidi, Henry and their family.

Love from Addie and Craig Burlington


Dear Pam,
May the wonderful memories shared with Cindy warm your heart in the days ahead.

With Sympathy and Affection,
Patsy Madden


Dear Pamela,
We were all saddened to hear about Cindy. We were hoping her trip to California and her daughters would be successful. Even though we don't see cousins very often, we are still one very connected family.

We are also grateful to you for doing a beautiful job on the Burlington website. Thank you.

Our thoughts are with you, Hilary and Artie, also Henry and the girls.

With love,
Anne and Gene Hoban
Mary and Don Hauck
Ali and Gary Battersby


Dear Pamela,
I too was saddened to hear about Cindy's premature death. I offer my sincere condolences to you. I heard about it first from our cousin Julianne.

I didn't know Cindy well, but I'm proud of our family and the work you've done to memorialize the Burlington legacy.

I will be looking for more pictures to send to you.

Cousin Bob Burlington

Dear Pamela,
I have long been thinking about you and your loss of Cindy. Cindy was so young, and so upbeat and fun. We all loved Cindy. A sadness that doesn't go away. It's nice to know that when you've finished your life here on earth, and crossed the finish line, you have done your best. She did that! With special love to you Pam, from all of us here.

Love,
Aunt Mary Burlington

Dear Pam and Family,
We were deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Cindy  - how we loved her!

I spent time working with her at Vantage Health in Edgewood a few years back and it was delightful to spend time with her. Please extend our sympathy to her family and we will keep you all in our thoughts and prayers.

Love,
Maureen (Burlington) and Phil Caffey

Dear Pam,
Hoping that memories of Cindy will be a comfort today and always.
Love,
Julianne Keahon Wiley and family

Pamela,
Very sorry for your loss.
Love,
Brenda and Vincent Wiley-Commisso

archive updates

Patsy Madden sent us a picture of the Burlington brick that was donated to Rosemont College. The brick contains the names of all the Burlington girls who went to Rosemont: Alice, Mary, Pam and Patsy.

Jeffrey Keahon sent in a wonderful picture of Alice and Arthur Somers and their wedding party, on the boardwalk in Belmar NJ. Jeff's mother Ethel Keahon was Alice's sister and beautiful Matron of Honor. My father's younger brother Edward Somers was Best Man. Click on this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to see the picture: http://burlingtonfamily.com/EBK/family.html

To go to the home page of the archives, click here:

http://burlingtonfamily.com/

,

Deep thanks to Cousin Bob Burlington, a benefactor who has very generously donated a state-of-the-art scanner to the blog. Bob says the following:

Your work on the family blog has brought our family heritage to life. I feel strongly about making some contribution to your efforts.  I think the Blog is a great thing and I hope it floats in cyberspace forever. Eventually, I hope to get back to geneology. Right now I'm working full time with a side business and have little time for anything.  Hopefully, I will be able to join the ranks of the retired in 2014 (when I'm 66). I look forward to an ever expanding Blog, and as I promised, I will find some pictures and other items of interest for the "Arthur" section.

Bob Burlington

I look forward to working with Bob on future projects!

Do you have news to share with the family? If so, please send it in, along with any pictures. Also, we're short on dates, so if you can provide any birth dates, wedding dates or death dates, as well as corrections to any of the pages, please email them to:

news@burlingtonfamily.com

Happy New Year, Burlingtons!

Not only has our blog been revamped, but the Burlington Family Archive has also been totally reorganized! It now contains a site for each branch of the Burlington family -- for each child of Ella and Harry J. Burlington -- Arthur, Joe, Ethel, Bill, Walter and Alice. When people from each of those branches contribute pictures or stories, they will initially go on the pages for their branch, so the contributor gets credit for them, then eventually they will get merged into the section where they belong. There are also separate links to special family events such as weddings, funerals and reunions.

We've recently added some great pictures of Joe Burlington's family that came from Anne and Gene Hoban. They can be found in the Joe Burlington section.

Craig Burlington also sent us some wonderful family pictures that can be found in the Burlington Family section, and also in the Walter Burlington section.

I've updated my mother's page with quite a few new old pictures that can be seen in the Alice Burlington section .

There are new pictures in the other sections as well, so be sure to look at each link. But we need more contributions, so please share your pictures and anecdotes with the family! We could use some more Keahon family photos in the Ethel Burlington section. And if you have any pics to add to the Bill Burlington section, they'll be especially appreciated, as many of his family's precious photos got lost during a move.

If you prefer to scan the pictures yourself, you can either email them to me or post them somewhere online (like Picasa or Flickr) where I can access them. If you do that, please make them as large as possible, and I'll size them down. Another option is to mail your pictures to me and I'll scan them and then return them (or send me copies).

Speaking of which, I've learned that my scanner is now out of date, and the newer models can actually do sharper scans of old photos, removing lint and cracks and other blemishes in the process. I'm requesting donations (see the bottom of this page) so I can purchase one of these new, "state of the art" scanners.

I should also mention that the Arthur Burlington section contains the original genealogy report that Bob Burlington had done quite a few years ago. We thank Bob for that, and we'd like to get more research done, so donations for that project are being accepted as well.

I wish you all the best in the upcoming year, and may we Burlingtons always find time to reunite in cyberspace :)

News from Craig

Craig Burlington's family
click to enlarge

2010 was an eventful year for Craig and Adelene Burlington and family.

On Easter Monday, April 5th, Laurence Clayton Daniels was born to Stephanie and Larry.

On July 24, Jean Paul and Megan Burlington were married in Westover Chapel, Middlebury Ct.

On June 13, Adelene retired and on October 10, Craig retired from St. Luke's, EG, after 18+ years in the ministry.

Felicitations and best wishes to all the family!

Congratulations to Yaixia & Shane

Yaixia Justiz and Shane Wiley will be married on February 26, 2011, in warm and sunny Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.



Shane is the son of Julianne Keahon Wiley, and brother of Brenda Burlington Wiley, whose wedding we covered here in 2007.

They will be having a traditional Catholic wedding at The Cathedral of San Juan de Bautista. The Cathedral dates back to 1521. As such, it is one of the oldest buildings in Puerto Rico and the second oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere.

After the church ceremony their reception will be held at the Hotel El Convento, originally a Carmelite convent built over three centuries ago, located in the heart of Old San Juan, just a short walk from the church.

Here is the link to their wedding site:
weddingwire.com/shanelovesyaixia

Best wishes to Yaixia and Shane, and we look forward to seeing pictures of the wedding!

Introducing our daughter, Tianshu!!!

Dear All,

We are super excited to let you know that yesterday we met, and are now in progress on bringing home, our sweet daughter, Tianshu!

She's 10 months old and from Kunming in the Yunnan Province of China. She's adorable and easy going and super cute. She is sitting on the floor, playing with stacking cups and laughing as I write this email. She is just the best! Kaishu is doing great with the adjustment to big brother and Poshu thinks she's pretty swell too. She likes both Mommy and Daddy very much, but seems partial to Mommy, perhaps because Mommy gave her some ice-cream when Daddy wasn't looking!

Hope you all can meet her soon!

Love,
Hilary, & Yu-Shen and big brothers Poshu and Kaishu


First moments together

The boys checking out their new sister


First family photo


So happy! So lucky!

Thanksgiving

This time of year I'm reminded of the Thanksgiving gatherings we sometimes had at the Joe Jefferson Club in New Jersey, thanks to "Uncle Joe" Burlington, who was a member there. All my uncles were sportsman, following in the footsteps of their father, Harry J., who had a great interest in the outdoors, fishing, hunting and golf. Joe was perhaps the most athletic of the brothers. And my mother Alice Burlington was also quite an athlete in both high school and college, and was inducted into the Rosemont College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.

The last family gathering at the Joe Jefferson Club may have been the celebration of the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Joe and Phyllis. Thanks to Ann and Gene Hoban, we have pictures to remind us that it was a big family reunion, and a memorable day indeed. Pictures from that event have now been added to the family archives, and are viewable from the Joe Burlington page.

I did my best to identify people, but could use some help. If there's someone you recognize, or if I've misidentified anyone, please let me know. Each picture can be referred to by the identifying number displayed directly below it.