Scattered Stones: The Orphan’s Journey
The Orphan's Journey
Brooklyn, New York → Caldwell, New Jersey
"In January 1924, Lillian Robertson was eighteen years old. By the end of that month, both her parents were dead. This is the story of what came next—how the orphaned daughter of a stone cutter's son and a mat maker's daughter built a life, raised a family, and left behind nineteen grandchildren who carry her story forward."
This episode tells the story of
My Grandmother
The woman who transformed loss into legacy
In the previous episode, we followed Joseph Robertson and Mary Agnes Kenny—the son who searched for his missing father, and the mat maker's daughter who became his wife. Their story ended in tragedy: Joseph died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 14, 1924. Mary Agnes, already weakened by tuberculosis, followed him to the grave just twelve days later.
They left behind three children: Lillian, age eighteen; Helen, age sixteen; and Joseph Jay, just four years old.
This episode follows the eldest—Lillian Josephine Robertson—from the moment she became an orphan to her golden anniversary sixty-three years later, surrounded by the family she built from the ashes of loss.
The Little Misses Robertson
The "little Misses" who vacationed in Saugerties with Aunt Marie MacKinney.
Lillian Josephine Robertson was born on July 9, 1905, at 125 Ryerson Street in Brooklyn. She was the first child of Joseph Robertson and Mary Agnes Kenny—and, through them, the granddaughter of both David Paterson Robertson, the Scottish stone cutter who vanished in Georgia, and John Kenny, the Brooklyn mat maker whose craft sustained four generations.
Two years later, her sister Helen Gladys arrived. The girls were close from the start—photographed together in their Sunday best, matching dresses and ribbons, the very picture of early twentieth-century girlhood.
Family stories tell of summer vacations to Saugerties, New York, where "Aunt Marie MacKinney" welcomed the "little Misses Robertson" to her home. Other summers were spent at Cape Elizabeth, Maine. These were the golden years of childhood—before tragedy changed everything.
In 1920, when Lillian was fifteen, a baby brother arrived: Joseph Jay Robertson, named for his father. The girls doted on him. Their father, Joseph, was thriving in his career at Frank Baldwin & Son, working as Manager of the Marine Department. The family had joined the migration from Brooklyn to suburban New Jersey, settling at 18 Elm Road in North Caldwell in October 1923.
Three months later, their world collapsed.
January 1924: Twelve Days Apart
On January 14, 1924, Joseph Robertson died of a cerebral hemorrhage at their new home at 12 Elm Road (the street had been renumbered). He was thirty-nine years old. The same type of stroke that had killed his mother, Elizabeth Gray Robertson, in Brooklyn twenty-two years earlier.
Mary Agnes was already fighting tuberculosis. Whether the grief accelerated her decline or whether her body simply gave out, we cannot know. She died on January 26, 1924—twelve days after her husband. She was forty years old.
In less than two weeks, Lillian and her siblings had lost both parents. Lillian was eighteen, Helen was sixteen, and Joseph Jay was four. The orphaned children faced an uncertain future in a house that had been their home for only three months.
The religious divide that had marked their parents' lives continued in death: Joseph was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery (Protestant) in Brooklyn, while Mary Agnes was laid to rest at Immaculate Conception Cemetery (Catholic) in Montclair, New Jersey. Even in death, the couple could not lie together.
The Kenny Women: Four Generations in Hats
When tragedy struck the Robertson children, it was the Kenny women who stepped forward. "Aunt Maime" MacKinney—Mary Agnes's aunt, the sister of her mother Margaret McKenny—became part of the safety net that held the orphans together. The network of great-aunts, aunts, and cousins rallied around Lillian, Helen, and little Joseph Jay.
Their story of resilience across four generations is told in Four Generations in Hats: A Brooklyn Story of Resilience.
The Three Orphans
The three Robertson children remained in North Caldwell after their parents' deaths, cared for by extended family. But four-year-old Joseph Jay posed a particular challenge. Too young to care for himself, he was passed between his older sisters' households as they established their own lives.
Family oral history, passed down through Barbara O'Brien Hamall and her first cousin Judy Robertson (Joseph Jay's daughter), tells us that young Joseph spent time in both households—sometimes with Lillian and Miles O'Brien, sometimes with Helen and Leslie Verhoek. Word has it he wasn't always thrilled about staying with the O'Briens. Uncle Miles, it seems, was "a bit strict."
Joseph Jay grew up to serve in the United States Navy, writing letters home to his sisters throughout his service. After the war, he married Ellen Marie Hansen in 1947 and had one daughter, Judith Ann Robertson. He died on August 22, 1991—just three weeks before his sister Lillian's death on September 13.
The three orphans of January 1924 had stayed connected for sixty-seven years. In the end, they left this world together, just as their parents had—within weeks of each other.
Finding Her Way
By 1927, Lillian had moved to an apartment at 610 Bloomfield Avenue in Verona, New Jersey, working as a clerk. She was twenty-two years old, supporting herself, still processing the grief of losing her parents three years earlier.
It was there, through an introduction by "Aunt Betty" Mulholland, that she met a young carpenter named Miles Murtha O'Brien. His brother-in-law Danny Mulholland was friends with Miles, and the connection was made. The orphaned daughter of a stone cutter's son met the Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants.
They married on January 28, 1928, at St. Gabriel's Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn. It was Miles's twenty-fourth birthday. Lillian was twenty-two. Both listed their residence as 376 Milford Street, Brooklyn.
St. Gabriel's R.C. Church, Brooklyn. Witnesses: James O'Brien and Helen G. Verhoek.
The witnesses were James O'Brien (Miles's brother) and Helen G. Verhoek—Lillian's sister Helen, who had married Leslie J. Verhoek sometime between 1924 and 1928. The two sisters who had once posed together as "little Misses Robertson" now stood together as married women, having survived the tragedy that had orphaned them.
The marriage certificate tells us everything about where these families came from: Miles's father was Miles Murtha Lawrence O'Brien, born in the Village of Jamaica, Queens, New York. His mother was Margaret Egan, born in County Mayo, Ireland. Lillian's parents were Joseph Robertson and Mary A. Kenny—both listed as deceased, a reminder of the orphan's journey that had brought her to this altar.
Building a Family
Miles Murtha O'Brien was born on January 28, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York. He worked as a carpenter, building new homes during the construction boom of the late 1920s and beyond.
Lillian and Miles began their family immediately. Their first child, Lillian Marie, was born in 1928—the same year they married. Jeanne Marie followed in 1930. By the time of the 1930 census, they were living in Brooklyn with two young daughters, Miles working as a carpenter for new buildings.
The Caldwell years.
A third daughter, Barbara Ann, arrived in 1935. Then, in 1938, the family made a significant move: from Brooklyn to Caldwell, New Jersey—the same area where Lillian had been orphaned fourteen years earlier. She was returning to build a new life in the place where her childhood had ended.
By 1939, the O'Briens had settled at 38 Central Avenue in Caldwell. In 1940, they moved just down the street to what would become their longtime home.
Back row: Jeanne, Barbara (age 10, in hat), Lillian Marie (in hat). Center: Miles holding a twin, Helen Grace (age 6), Lillian holding a twin.
This is the only photograph of the complete family with Helen Grace.
Fifty-four years after John Kenny's death, his great-grandchildren grew up in prosperity that would have seemed impossible to a boy and his widowed mother in 1855 Brooklyn. Barbara and Lillian Marie both wear stylish hats—four unbroken generations of dignity, style, and resilience passed down through the Kenny women.
The Children of Miles & Lillian O'Brien
| Child | Born | Died | Married | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Lillian Marie | 1928 | 1992 | Ambrosio | Old Bridge/Parlin, NJ |
| 2. Jeanne Marie | 1930 | 1993 | John Garrison | Longwood, FL |
| 3. Barbara Ann | 1935 | 2022 | Hamall | My mother — Atlanta/Peachtree City, GA |
| 4. Helen Grace | 1940 | 1948 | — | Died age 8 |
| 5. Michael Joseph | 1946 | Living | — | Twin; Maj. USAF (Ret.); Warner Robins, GA |
| 6. Miles Murtha Jr. | 1946 | Living | — | Twin; Maj. USAF (Ret.); Fayetteville, NC |
Losing Helen—Twice
In 1940, Lillian gave birth to her fourth child—a daughter she named Helen Grace. Though not identical to her sister's name, the choice was unmistakable: a tribute to Helen Gladys Robertson, the sister who had stood beside her through the tragedy of 1924, who had witnessed her marriage, who shared the burden of raising their orphaned brother.
"Dear little Helen, so sweet and so fair..."
But tragedy, it seemed, followed the name Helen in this family.
On July 21, 1942, Lillian's sister Helen Gladys Robertson Verhoek died in North Caldwell, New Jersey. The cause: tuberculosis—the same disease that had killed their mother eighteen years earlier. She was approximately thirty-five years old. She left behind her husband Leslie J. Verhoek and two children: Leslie John Jr. and Mary Catherine.
"VERHOEK — Of North Caldwell, N.J., on Tuesday, July 21, 1942, HELEN GLADYS ROBERTSON, wife of Leslie J. Verhoek and mother of Leslie John Jr. and Mary Catherine Verhoek. Funeral will be held at the Home for Services (Arthur K. Brown, Inc.), 77 Roseland Avenue, Caldwell, on Thursday at 8:30 o'clock; thence to St. Aloysius R.C. Church, where a requiem high mass will be offered at 9 o'clock."
— Brooklyn Eagle, July 22, 1942
The "little Misses Robertson" who had once posed together in matching dresses were now separated forever. Lillian had lost her parents at eighteen; now, at thirty-seven, she lost the sister who had shared that orphan's journey with her.
Six years later, in 1948, tragedy struck again. Eight-year-old Helen Grace O'Brien died. The family had now lost two Helens—the aunt in 1942, the daughter in 1948.
Lillian's eldest daughter, Lillian Marie, wrote a poem for her little sister:
For Helen Grace
Dear little Helen, so sweet and so fair,
With beautiful eyes and lovely hair,
A more beautiful baby we could have not seen,
In all God's creation, you reigned as a queen.
Your burdens were heavy, your tasks were few,
And we of your kingdom, so little could do
To lighten the burdens He gave unto you.
Dear little Helen, so lovely and pure,
Burning with love of that we are sure,
One morning quite early He called unto thee
To come unto Him, the fair Countenance to see.
And so you departed from us here below
To kneel by the side of the Sacred Heart's glow,
And pray for the family, who loves you so.
— Lillian Marie O'Brien
Lillian had now lost both parents before she was nineteen, her only sister at thirty-seven, and her own daughter before she was fifty. Yet she persevered. In 1946, she welcomed twin boys—Miles Murtha Jr. and Michael Joseph—who would both serve as officers in the United States Air Force. The family continued.
Fifty Years in Caldwell
The 1940 census captures the O'Brien family at 38 Central Avenue in Caldwell: Miles, age 36, working as a carpenter; Lillian, age 34, managing the household; and their four children—Lillian (12), Jeanne (9), Barbara (5), and baby Helen (1 month old).
Miles (36), Lillian (34), and their four children—including one-month-old Helen Grace.
By 1950, they had moved to 58 Central Avenue—just down the street. The family had grown to include six children, though Helen Grace had been lost two years earlier. The twins, Michael and Miles Jr., were four years old. Miles Sr. continued his work as a carpenter. The family worshipped at St. Aloysius Church in Caldwell.
Lillian had come full circle—returning to the community where her childhood ended to raise her own family. The place that had been the site of her greatest loss became the home where she built her greatest legacy.
Golden Anniversary: 1978
The orphan of 1924 had become the matriarch of a family spanning generations.
On January 28, 1978—Miles's 74th birthday—the couple celebrated their golden anniversary surrounded by family. The photograph from that day shows Miles and Lillian with seventeen of their nineteen grandchildren gathered around them.
Fifty years earlier, Lillian had been a twenty-two-year-old orphan, having lost both parents four years prior, standing at the altar of St. Gabriel's Church with nothing but hope and the witness of her sister beside her. Now she sat as the matriarch of a family that numbered in the dozens.
The stone cutter's granddaughter and the mat maker's granddaughter had built something lasting.
Final Years
Miles Murtha O'Brien died on January 16, 1984, at age seventy-nine. He and Lillian had been married for nearly fifty-six years. His obituary noted he was a retired carpenter, a parishioner of Notre Dame R.C. Church in North Caldwell, and survived by his wife, five children, and nineteen grandchildren.
Retired carpenter, married nearly 56 years to Lillian.
Lillian outlived him by seven years. In the summer of 1991, her brother Joseph Jay Robertson died on August 22. Three weeks later, on September 13, 1991, Lillian Josephine O'Brien followed him. She was eighty-six years old.
Her obituary listed her as a longtime Caldwell resident, survived by three daughters, two sons, nineteen grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.
Both Miles and Lillian are buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, New Jersey—together at last, unlike her parents who rest in separate cemeteries divided by faith.
Bookends of Loss
The Robertson siblings entered and exited life together:
January 1924: Both parents die twelve days apart, orphaning three children.
August–September 1991: The two surviving siblings die three weeks apart—Joseph Jay on August 22, Lillian on September 13.
Six Generations: From Scotland to America
George Robertson (1809–1872) • Mason, Blairgowrie, Scotland
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David Paterson Robertson (1842–c.1910) • Stone Cutter, Brooklyn & Georgia
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Joseph Robertson (1884–1924) • Marine Industry, Brooklyn
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Lillian Josephine Robertson (1905–1991) • The Orphan, Caldwell, NJ
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Barbara Ann O'Brien (1935–2022) • Keeper of Stories
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The Next Generation • Carrying the Story Forward
Timeline: Lillian Josephine Robertson (1905–1991)
Evidence Analysis
The Return to Caldwell
The decision to move back to Caldwell in 1938—to the same area where she had been orphaned—represents a significant choice. Rather than avoiding the place of her trauma, Lillian chose to build her family there, transforming a site of loss into a place of regeneration. The 1940 census places them at 38 Central Avenue; by 1950, they had settled at 58 Central Avenue, where they remained for decades.
The Tuberculosis Legacy
Tuberculosis claimed both mother and sister: Mary Agnes Kenny Robertson (1924) and Helen Gladys Robertson Verhoek (1942). This devastating disease threaded through the family, taking both generations of "Helen" figures in Lillian's life. The pattern underscores the medical vulnerabilities of the era and the cruel repetition of loss.
The O'Brien Family Origins
Miles Murtha Lawrence O'Brien was born in the Village of Jamaica, Queens, New York. His wife Margaret Egan was born in County Mayo, Ireland. Their son Miles Murtha O'Brien married Lillian, continuing the Irish-American Catholic tradition that the Robertson children had been raised in through their mother's Kenny family. The 1928 marriage certificate and Miles's 1904 birth certificate document this lineage.
Joseph Jay Robertson
The youngest orphan split his childhood between his sisters' households. He served in the U.S. Navy during WWII (documented in draft registration cards), married Ellen Marie Hansen in 1947, and had one daughter, Judith Ann Robertson. His death on August 22, 1991, preceded his sister Lillian's by just three weeks—echoing their parents' deaths twelve days apart sixty-seven years earlier.
Military Service: The Next Generation
Both twin sons, Michael Joseph and Miles Murtha Jr. (born 1946), served as officers in the United States Air Force, retiring as a major and lieutenant colonel respectively. The WWII Draft Registration for Miles Sr. documents the family's military connection during wartime. The twins' service continued this tradition of national service.
Research Opportunities
Helen Grace O'Brien death records and cause of death (1948); complete documentation of Joseph Jay Robertson's Navy service; Verhoek family records after Helen Gladys's death; guardianship records for the three orphans 1924; additional Kenny family connections to the orphaned children.
Primary Source Documents
The documents below represent the original records used to reconstruct Lillian Josephine Robertson's journey from orphaned teenager to family matriarch.
Childhood & Origins — 1905-1924
Marriage & New Beginning — 1928
Census Records — 1930-1950
Family Photographs — 1940s-1978
Loss & Legacy — 1942-1991
Sources
Census Records:
1930 United States Federal Census. Year: 1930; Census Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Page: 21B; Enumeration District: 0543; FHL microfilm: 2341277. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
1940 United States Federal Census. Year: 1940; Census Place: Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey; Roll: m-t0627-02330; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 7-73. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
1950 United States Federal Census. National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Caldwell, Essex, New Jersey; Roll: 3361; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 7-107. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022.
Vital Records:
New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Birth Index, 1878-1909. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
New York, New York, Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018. New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Brooklyn. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.
New Jersey, U.S., Death Index, 1901-2017. New Jersey State Archives; Trenton, New Jersey; New Jersey, Death Indexes, 1904-2000. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
Military Records:
U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards For New Jersey, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 486. Ancestry.com.
Social Security Records:
U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014.
Newspapers:
Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999. Brooklyn Times Union; Publication Date: 27 Jan 1928; Publication Place: Brooklyn, New York, USA. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2020.
U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. The Central New Jersey Home News; Publication Date: 15 Sep 1991; Publication Place: New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. Ancestry.com.
Directories:
U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Family Sources:
Family photographs courtesy of the O'Brien and Hamall families. Poem "For Helen Grace" by Lillian Marie O'Brien, family collection.
The Orphan's Promise
A Letter to Lillian's Descendants
"This family will not fall apart. Not while I'm standing."
In this companion piece, Lillian speaks directly to the generations who carry her story forward.
Read the Legacy Letter →Thank you for following the Scattered Stones series.
From George Robertson's stone cottage in Blairgowrie, Scotland, to Lillian's home in Caldwell, New Jersey—six generations, 180 years, and one family's journey across an ocean and through the American experience.
The stones are no longer scattered. They are gathered here, in these pages, so that their stories will never be lost again.
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