Catherine never married. In 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses, she was living with her sister, Elizabeth (Thomas) Chrissinger, her brother-on-law Jacob Chrissinger, and nephew John Chrissinger, in Unity Township, Westmoreland County. A girl named Lucinda Roberson also lived with them (relation unknown).
By 1880, however, Elizabeth was gone (she had passed in 1873). The household now consisted of Jacob Chrissinger, his son John, his sister-in-law Catherine Thomas, and a little girl named Katie Lopes.
Katie, born in 1874, was the grand-daughter of Elizabeth and Catherine's sister Mary (Thomas) Lopes.
Katie's mother, Mary Elizabeth (King) Lopes, died when Katie was only 2 years old, and her father left the children in the care of various relatives.
So Catherine Thomas, at the age of 62, took in the little girl who had been named for her and raised her............what a job that must have been!
I have a quilt that was made for Katie, I like to think, by her great-aunt Catherine. It is child-sized, and has scenes hand-embroidered in red and yellow thread on a bleached cotton muslin background.
Little Katie grew up, married, had her own fine family, so she must have been raised well by Catherine Thomas.
Catherine Thomas died in 1899.
Catherine is buried in St Lukes Cemetery in Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County, in a plot with her sister Elizabeth (Thomas) Chrissinger, Jacob Chrissinger, her nephew David F Lopes (Katie's father), Mary Elizabeth (King) Lopes (Katie's mother), and Lucinda Roberson.
(photo courtesy of the photographer spirit_walker)
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