Rebecca Lithgow

Note about birth year and family

Rebecca's death certificate describes her as being born around 1830. This differs from census records that claim she was born around 1835. There are two possibilities for origin families in County Donegal - one the family of Robert Ewing, where a Rebecca was born around 1837, and the other the family of another immigrant to Philadelphia with a large family - James Ewing, where that Rebecca was born around 1829. Her family of origin thus does depend quite strongly on which of these dates; both also have a daughter Sarah, about the same age, which aligns with what we know about Rebecca's life

The likelihood is higher that she was in fact the daughter of James.

Life

Rebecca Ewing was born in a town known as Blacks Miltown, in the parish of Donaghmore, County Donagel, Ireland, in 1829, to a Presbyterian household. Her father's name was James, and her mother was Mary Diagley. She had a younger sister named Sarah, born in 1840. Rebecca took ship to Philadelphia, in 1850, shortly after the rest of her family left for Philadelphia.

After arriving in Philadelphia, Rebecca and Sarah apparently made their way as servants in the households of relatively well-off Americans. Rebecca eventually married William Lithgow in about 1863, who was also an immigrant from Northern Ireland, and was about five years her senior. He worked in the Philadelphia Gas Works. She had three children by him: William, Henry (known as "Harry" informally), and Mary. But in 1871, apparently as the result of a miscarriage, she died of infection. Husband William was been unable to take care of daughter Mary (three at the time), and apparently enlisted the help of Rebecca's sister Sarah Ewing to look after the girl. It was therefore Sarah Ewing that raised Mary to adulthood.

Rebecca Ewing is buried in Mt. Moriah cemetery, in Philadelphia, although I have not found a grave marker for her.

Origins

I was able to find son William's death certificate, which gives Rebecca's maiden name as "Ewing". This is consistent with the name given as Mary Snyder's mother on her wedding license, but she had the first name wrong: "Sarah Ewing". So I'm confident we have the right family.

Death

Rebecca is seemingly in Mt. Moriah Cemetery somewhere, because I've found her death certificate here.

Her birth year is estimated on this cert and her maiden name is not present. The cause of death on the original is listed as "Inflam. of the womb", which is probably shorthand for post-partum infection. If a child was born in 1871, there's no record of it, so likely it was a miscarriage that went bad. This might explain why Mary was given to her aunt to raise, if that's indeed what happened: without anyone to look after her at home at age 3, her father would have been unable to care for such a young girl.