{"id":890,"date":"2024-07-15T08:41:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T12:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/?page_id=890"},"modified":"2024-12-05T13:01:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T18:01:43","slug":"celena-elizabeth-wills-1904-1956","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/celena-elizabeth-wills-1904-1956\/","title":{"rendered":"Celena Elizabeth Wills (1904-1956)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celina Elizabeth Wills, called “Lena” was the first of the nine children of\u00a0 Elizabeth Bissonnette and John Albert Wills, born on July 25th, 1904 at home at 42 Congress Street, Cohoes, New York.<\/p>\n

\"Birth
Birth Certificate of Celina Elizabeth Wills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celina was baptized on September 19, 1904 at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Cohoes.\u00a0 Her godfather was her uncle, Joseph Bisnett, Libbie’s older brother.\u00a0 Her godmother was her\u00a0 grandmother, Celina Bissonnette<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Below, Lena with her siblings. Lena is seated holding Johnny.<\/p>\n

\"children
Four Wills Children: Anna, Johnny, Celina and Julia. Celena, seated,\u00a0 is holding Johnny.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1910 census, Lena is 6 years old and not attending school.\u00a0 She lives with her parents and two younger sisters above her father’s photography studio\u00a0 on Broad Street in Schuylerville, Saratoga County, New York. Here is the building on Google map.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Location of John Wills Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her father, John Albert Wills, had a photography studio for a short period in the downstairs store front. The family continued to live in various locations in Schuylerville until 1917 when they returned to Cohoes.<\/p>\n

Lena met Robert Francis Cranney, a young man raised in St. Vincent’s Male Orphan Asylum<\/a> on Western Avenue in the city of Albany. He can be found there, 7 years old, in the 1910 census along with 240 other boys.\u00a0 Childhood in an orphanage must have been brutal for young Bob Cranney.\u00a0 This orphanage was founded in the mid 1800s by the Christian Brothers and changed its name to LaSalle in the 1920s.\u00a0 In 1910, it was a rough place to grow up.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Robert Cranney and Celena Wills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celena and Robert married\u00a0 October 2, 1923 at St Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in Watervliet, New York. It was not a happy marriage by any standard.\u00a0 When I was growing up, I heard many stories about Bob Cranney – none were good.\u00a0 Bob Cranney was known to physically beat Lena and her sisters believed the physical abuse caused Lena to develop a seizure disorder and her premature death.<\/p>\n

Lina and Bob Cranney had four children:<\/p>\n

Gloria Jean Cranney 1925-1992<\/p>\n

Robert Francis Cranney, Jr 1926-1997<\/p>\n

Kenneth Cranney 1928-1978<\/p>\n

Richard Cranney 1930-1992<\/p>\n

\"four
Left to right: Grandmother Elizabeth “Libbie” Wills ne\u00e9 Bissonnette, mother Celina Cranney ne\u00e9 Wills holding Gloria Jean Cranney, great grandmother Celena Bissonnette ne\u00e9 Beauvais.\u00a0 Note Libbie`s massive goiter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Below are family photos of the Cranney children:<\/p>\n

\"\"
Joan Cranney wears a bonnet on Saratoga Street, Cohoes.\u00a0 The boy beside her is believed to be Robert Cranney Junior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Kenneth Cranney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Richard Cranney 1933<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celina Elizabeth Wills, called “Lena” was the first of the nine children of\u00a0 Elizabeth Bissonnette and John Albert Wills, born on July 25th, 1904 at home at 42 Congress Street, Cohoes, New York. Celina was baptized on September 19, 1904 at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Cohoes.\u00a0 Her godfather was her uncle, Joseph Bisnett, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Celena Elizabeth Wills (1904-1956)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-890","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/890\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francoamericangravy.com\/wills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}