Thomas Birney

Thomas Birney is of interest to Watch Tower historians in that he was Charles Taze Russell’s Uncle. Thomas’ sister was Ann Eliza, CTR’s mother. CTR’s older brother, who only lived to be five years old, was named after Uncle Thomas. Below is his obituary published in 1899. It is a bit garbled; it says that Thomas Birney came to America in 1821, but that was actually the year he was born. He belonged to the 2^nd Presbyterian Church, as did Joseph Lytle Russell, his brother in law, for a time.

When Thomas died he was buried in the Allegheny cemetery, the same cemetery, albeit in a different area, as CTR’s immediately family. Below is his headstone.

 

This gravestone is reproduced from the Find a Grave site for the Allegheny cemetery with thanks to WB and GH. The cemetery records show this to be Section 24, lot 46. In the same grave (grave 1) is buried Mary Ann Birney (1832-1906), so we must assume she was Thomas’s wife, and in the same lot are buried Eva Birney, died 1950 (no birthdate and grave 3) and Mary Birney, died 1953 (no birthdate and grave 4). Gravestones for these others are also found on the Find a Grave site. The stones give birth years for Thomas and Mary Ann, but the cemetery records only record the year or date of death for Eva and Mary. They apparently died unmarried, so their name never changed, which is probably why they are buried in the family plot.

It shows that descendants of the Birneys were in the area at least until the 1950s. One wonders if there are any relatives still there who could be contacted.