Fabric Diary Years 1921-1954

Inez and baby sister Gladys 1914

     A few years ago I was contacted by a gentleman who had purchased a diary once owned by Inez Worden.   I don't know how to begin figuring out what my relationship to Inez is.  My family tree on Ancestry says she is my second cousin twice removed, but I think we are also what I would call double cousins.  My third-great-grandfather Paul Worden is Inez's grandfather and another of my third-great-grandfathers, James Warner, is Inez's great-grandfather.

     This diary isn't a typical one, rather it's a record of fabrics which I assume were used by Inez in making garments for herself and family members.  The new owner didn't buy the diary because Inez had owned it, he was interested in the fabrics but then he grew curious about Inez and in searching the net for her came across my blog.  The gentleman generously offered to photograph the pages for me and I have to say he outdid himself.  Every single page is photographed and he took the time to do many closeups of the swatches.  He sent me 91 attachments! I can't imagine how long this took him, but needless to say I'm very grateful.

Inez's lacy graduation dress

     As I was doing some organizing in my computer files today I came across those images again.  There isn't much in the way of narration in this diary, but most of the swatches are labeled as to what they were used to construct.  Many were aprons for Inez, her mother and her two younger sisters, along with dresses and skirts, even coats and hats.  In spite of a lack of narration, the diary does tell a story of sorts.  For instance, from the page above I see the fabric Inez wore on her high school graduation day in 1925.  The detailed notes she made indicate two years later she dyed the dress yellow.  I don't know what the 1945 date signifies.

Blue guitar playing dress

     Inez and her sister Gladys, who died tragically at the age of twenty-two after an operation, were members of a band called the Hawaiian Serenaders.  Inez played guitar in the group, and here we see her, "guitar playing dress", and the pink fabric from which she fashioned a lei.

     Below is a sample of the fabric Inez used to make a shirt for her "Pa"

A shirt for Pa

     There are forty one pages filled with swatches; it's interesting seeing the sort of fabrics that were used in the 1930's and early 1950's.  In many instances, Inez went back years later to make a note as to what became of the item made from the swatch, like, "gave to Mother", or, "donated to clothing relief".   Inez lived until 2001, passing away at the age of 96.  Surprisingly, I never met her even though we lived in the same small village.  I'm  willing to bet that over the years our paths crossed while shopping or doing our banking and I would recognize her face, but she was never pointed out to me.  Of the three Worden sisters, none had children so the line has died out, but a wee bit of Inez lives on in this diary.

One More War Of 1812 Veteran

   

     No, this is not turning into a War of 1812 blog, but today was one of those days when I found something completely unexpected so I must blog about it.  Discovering that so many of my ancestors fought in 1812 made me wonder about the Galloway family on my mother's side.  Nearly all the fourth-great-grandfathers on my father's side were in Ireland in 1812, so the soldiers of that era in US military history are necessarily her line.  The grandfather in question is George Galloway.  He is the earliest Galloway I've been able to prove and I know precious little about him.  Most of his information was from the 1850 census of Phelps, New York in which he gave his birth date as 1775 and the place as Massachusetts.

     The first census George appeared in was the 1800 in Vermont with his wife Armina and firstborn son Milo, I'm confident it's my George because Milo claimed birth in Vermont in later census records.  The 1810 census showed the Galloway's living in Brownville, New York in Jefferson County near the Canadian border.  I'm sure I have the right family here, because George's son Russell, in the 1855 New York State census of Arcadia, gave his birth place as Jefferson County, New York in the year 1807.  By 1820 the Galloway's had moved further south to Lyons, New York. They were actually in Wayne County, (then part of Ontario County), in 1819 when George had a letter waiting at the Lyons, NY post office there.  George doesn't appear in the 1830 census though his grown sons do.  He was still in Lyons in March of 1828 when he witnessed the will of his neighbor Caleb Tibbits so it's doubtful he left the area.

       The Newark, NY post office in the town of Arcadia published notice of an unclaimed letter for George in 1837, and the 1840 census places him there in Arcadia where his son Milo was residing.  George's son Russell was in Phelps, NY in 1850 and so were George and Armina although in neither case did they live with their sons.  George died between 1850 and 1855.   That was the full extent of my knowledge of George's life.  I've been having fairly good luck with 1812 ancestors so I thought I'd give George a try. 

     My first search in Ancestry military records brought up a payroll abstract dated September of 1812 from the New York State Militia for a Private George "Galoway", serving in the 76th under Col. Gersham Tuttle; in service at Sackett's Harbor.  Then another abstract, this one dated

August of 1814, still a member of the 76th.  After quite a bit of searching, I discovered the 76th was associated with Jefferson County, New York, Grandfather's place of residence!  What's more, he was the only George Galloway in the area.  The 1810 census shows several other George Galloway's, but two are way down by New York City and one is in Dutchess County.

     This was looking promising, it appeared Grandfather served through the entire war, or most of it at any rate, it ended just six months after the date on that last payroll abstract. What would have made him serve that long?  This was not a popular war, many men never enlisted at all.  The reason, as it so often is, was probably money.  This notice appeared in a Jefferson County, New York newspaper:

Sept. 28, 1810   Newspaper--American Citizen
By order of Hon. Moss Kent, judge for this county of Jefferson.  Notice is hereby given to all the creditors of George Galloway, of the town of Brownville, in the county of Jefferson, an insolvent debtor, that they shew cause, if any they have, before said judge, at his office in the town of LeRay, in the said county of Jefferson, on the first day of November next, why an assignment of the said insolvent's estate should not be made, and he be discharged pursuant to the acts on such case made and provided.  Dated Aug. 31st, 1810.

     George was up to his neck in debt in mid 1810.  During that era one could be thrown into debtor's prison for being unable to pay one's bills.  That line in the news article about being discharged makes me wonder if he had been incarcerated?  Hopefully it was his debts being discharged and not George.  Either way, the militia could have looked like a way to earn some cash.  It may even have erased his debt; neighboring Vermont State forgave minor debtors in exchange for enlisting in order to encourage service in their state militia.  
     
     Given that my George Galloway was the only one in Jefferson County, I do think think the military records are his.  Since he survived the war George wouldn't be found in the pension applications.  Prior to 1871 those were reserved for disabled soldiers and widows of soldiers killed in the service.  Soldier's Compiled Service Records for the War of 1812 are not yet online though an index can be found at Ancestry.  Here's hoping NARA decides to digitize those files soon.

   

The Privates Thomas Garner--Father And Son

     After writing about my fourth-great-grandfather Private Thomas Garner Jr. who fought in the war of 1812, I found myself curious about his father, Private Thomas Garner Sr.  Both men were soldiers fighting England, although their wars were thirty-eight years apart.  The family lived on the island of Martha's Vineyard in the town of Tisbury.  Thomas Jr. was born there but I'm not at all sure where Thomas Sr. was born.  It was probably somewhere in Massachusetts, but I've found no documentation.  I did have the good fortune to come across a book called, "The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts", by Charles Edwin Banks at Google Books.  Using contemporary letters, rosters and other documents, Dr. Banks put together a detailed picture of  life on Martha's Vineyard at the time of the American Revolution.  I was disappointed to find Thomas Garner in only one spot in the book, a muster roll, but the index contains several entries for a Thomas Gardiner followed by the name Garner in parenthesis. I've seen that before, in the birth record of, "Elizabeth Gardner (Garner)", written just like that. Do they know something I don't?

As I was finishing this post, I found this on Family Search among the index cards to Massachusetts Muster Rolls--they DO know something I don't

     In the book, "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War",  I found Thomas Garner, a private in the company of Lt. Jeremiah Manter's detachment stationed at Martha's Vineyard 20 November 1776--31 December 1776.  He only served one month and ten days?  Not much of a record, but--if Lt. Manter's company was a detachment, what entity had they been detached from?  The answer was in Dr. Bank's history of the island.  By late 1776 the war wasn't going well for the American side, they needed every man they could get at the front on the mainland so the order went out to disband the island defenses.  On page 354 I found a roster titled, Captain Nathan Smith's Seacoast Company Stationed On Martha's Vineyard 1776, From The 1 Day Of September To The 21 Day Of November.  Thomas "Gardner" was in that roster. 

     After the company was ordered to disband, the island residents were none too happy to be left defenseless.  To appease them, the Massachusetts General Court allowed for a detachment of twenty five men to be selected to remain active on the island.  Thomas Garner/Gardner was among those chosen and went straight from Captain Smith's Company to Lt. Manter's detachment.  It should be noted the original company under Capt. Smith had no soldier named Thomas Garner, it was Thomas Gardner; Thomas was moved from the defunct company to Lt. Manter's it has to be the same Thomas with a slightly different surname.  You would think they could get a name like Garner correct.

     There was still more, I re-checked the book of Massachusetts Soldiers to see if  perhaps there might be more about Thomas Garner under the surname Gardner. This is what I found:

 Gardner, Thomas, Martha's Vineyard (also given as Duxbury). Private Capt. Nathan Smith's co. stationed at Martha's Vineyard for defense of seacoast; also return of men enlisted into the Continental Army from Capt. Nathan Snow's co. (South co in Abington) Col. Mitchel's (3d Plymouth Co) residence Martha's Vineyard...

There were many more companies and officers listed in a small time span, searching their names I deduced Thomas Sr. had joined the 14th Massachusetts in the Continental Army.  Amazingly, also included in the book was the reported date of Thomas' death, 14 September 1777!

     Dr. Banks mentioned in his book that many soldiers from the Vineyard joined regiments of the Continental Army on the mainland after the seacoast defenses were dissolved which explains Thomas being all over Massachusetts until his untimely death. As usual, in finding some answers I now have another pressing question, what happened to Thomas?
     

Equal Time For Private Thomas Garner Jr.

Fort Brown in upper left 

     Now that John Vincent's war has been fairly well researched, I'm reminded I failed to do much more than family research for another 4th great-grandfather Thomas Garner Jr.  He too fought in the War of 1812 and this farmer tuned soldier has a story apart from his parents, wife and children.  Born at Tisbury, Massachusetts on January 17th in the year 1773 to Thomas Garner Sr. and Ann Williams, Thomas Jr. was the oldest child in his family.  A sister, Elizabeth, was born at Tisbury 5 October 1776, but I've found nothing more about her.  There were probably other children as well. 

     The Garner home, located on the island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, was very exposed to the English navy during the American Revolution.  On several occasions Tisbury was threatened by British sailors who helped themselves to livestock and other provisions.

The Garners moved to the more secure mainland Massachusetts at some point, but tracing Thomas Sr. has proven difficult.  He may or may not be the Thomas Garner enumerated at Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1790.  He's the only Thomas Garner found north of the Carolinas so it could be him;  but a soldier of the Revolution named Thomas "Gardner" from Martha's Vineyard reportedly died in 1777, so perhaps not.  I've seen his name mistakenly spelled Gardner before.  Nothing else is known of the Garners from 1776 until 1797 when Thomas Jr. married Prudence Lamphere, at Hartland, Vermont about one hundred forty miles from Marblehead. 

     Thomas Jr. can be found in the 1810 census about twenty miles north of Hartland in Sharon, Vermont with Prudence, their daughter Lucy and another daughter, probably Clarissa.  When war with England again broke out in June of 1812 Thomas Jr. remained at home in Sharon for nearly two years, not enlisting until 22 March 1814.  After seeking the answer as to why Thomas would suddenly decide to join the army at so late a date, I discovered that two months before he enlisted congress approved a large increase in the cash bounty paid to soldiers with the goal of encouraging enlistments and re-enlistments as well.

     Three months after leaving home Thomas found himself a patient in the hospital at Plattsburgh where he remained for several months, returning to duty in late August; just in time to be present for the Battle of Plattsburgh.  From his application for an invalid pension we learn Thomas was not fully recovered at the time of the engagement but he stated, "...I continued to do duty during the battle".  His regiment, the 31st US Infantry, drew the unenviable assignment of duty in the trenches fronting Fort Brown during the fight but Thomas survived the battle, returning home to Prudence in Vermont.

1812 Cockade and Eagle

     His pension application is an interesting document, full of detail.  It even contains an inventory of the clothing and equipment Thomas was given when he reported for duty; one hat, one coat, one vest, two overalls, three pairs of shoes, one pair of stockings and one of socks, one blanket, one frock, one pair trousers and one pair gaiters, along with a cockade and eagle. 
It includes the testimony of a doctor describing his digestive system as, "much deranged", and that of his captain, Ethan Burnap, who speaks of Thomas Jr. being, "attacked by camp distemper", [dysentery] and relapsing after the Battle of Plattsburgh. Burnap blamed the relapse on exposure to the brutal far northern winter, as the regiment was forced to live in unheated tents until their barracks were completed at the beginning of December.  There are also statements from Thomas Jr.'s two daughters, Lucy and Clarissa providing their married names and addresses.

     At some point after the war Thomas Jr. moved his family to New York State, settling in Summerhill in Cayuga County.  They were there by the time of the 1840 census.  His wife Prudence passed away in Summerhill in December of 1848 and their daughter Lucy Garner Robinson died six months later from consumption, also at Summerhill.

     One remaining mystery in the story is whether Thomas Jr. married again after his wife Prudence died.  The last census he appeared in is New York State's 1855 census of Summerhill in which can be found Thomas Garner age 84, (really 82), and his "wife" Laney Garner aged 59.  The 1850 census of Summerhill is in terrible condition and Thomas cannot be located in it.  I believe he was there but his entry is among the illegible. It's doubtful, at least to me, that Laney was his wife.  Thomas had severe health problems involving a paralyzed sphincter which caused very disagreeable symptoms and in his pension application he claimed he had no money, I can't believe anyone would have found him an attractive candidate for marriage, but stranger things have happened...

Private John Vincent's One Battle...Maybe

     In last week's blog I lamented the lack of a source to provide me a definitive answer as to which general my fourth-great-grandfather John Vincent served under during his all too short stint in the US Infantry during the War of 1812?  Was it Wilkinson or Hampton, they being the two major generals in the Plattsburgh area?  My guess was Hampton and I guessed right.  

     After a search on JSTOR* I found an article which included the journal kept by General George Izard during the fall and spring of 1813/1814.  Izard joined General Hampton's division in August of 1813, the same month John Vincent joined the army.  It doesn't get much better than an eyewitness account from grandpa's commanding general!  His journal literally spelled it out for me, General Izard noted in an entry on 16 October 1813, "...my brigade, the 2nd, composed of the 10th, 29th, 30th and 31st regiments of Infantry."  John's enlistment record and his widow's pension application both identified his regiment as the 29th Infantry, now I was making progress.

     From the articles and books I've found and now the journal, I have a fair idea of what John's war looked like.  He enlisted on 10 August 1813, by that time the US Army had moved it's headquarters from Plattsburgh, New York to Burlington, Vermont on the opposite shore of Lake Champlain.

      On October 21st, 1813 General Izard marched from Chateauguay Four Corners to Fort Hickory where he, "...found the infantry and moved into the woods".  It would appear infantryman John Vincent was at Fort Hickory in mid October, which was not really much of a fort.  

     It was instead a blockhouse, a stout building with small apertures through which soldiers inside could fire at attackers in relative safety from return fire.  With General Izard's arrival, the division would now march down the Chateauguay River and cross into Canada.  On the 26th of October the Americans came face to face with Canadian soldiers and their Native American allies on the north bank of the river.  The general's journal gives the positions the 29th took during the ensuing fight and other details.  Unless he was ill on that day, John Vincent fought in that battle.  It did not go well.  Mistakenly believing they were outnumbered the US forces retreated and by November 2nd were encamped back at Four Corners.

     Izard's journal entry on 7 November remarks that a number of sick men were sent to Plattsburgh and that of 15 November notes Izard had been ordered to Plattsburgh to settle his men into winter quarters, "We march with a snow storm at our back. Very cold".  Several entries in the journal refer to the brutal northern winter and rampant sickness in the ranks. The following day's entry recounts selecting the sick to be sent to Burlington which possessed a large hospital.  Could one of those men have been John Vincent?  His Army record states he was sick at Burlington when muster was taken there on December 31st.

     I have to wonder why any soldiers were sent to Burlington?  By the time the men to be sent there were chosen, the division was  halfway to Plattsburgh, why send them to Burlington across the lake, a much further distance?

     While I don't know what illness took John's life, dysentery, brought on by bad food, bad water, and bad hygiene, was one of the most common causes of death during the war.  Another fourth-great-grandfather of mine, Thomas Garner, also fought in the War of 1812 and although he survived his bout with the disease, it left him with permanently damaged bowels.  Doctors of the time had no idea how to treat infectious diseases nor did they understand the mechanism through which they were transmitted. 

     John's last days must have been miserable. Sick, cold and many miles from his loved ones, he died at Plattsburgh on February 27, 1814, only six months after enlisting.  Peter Dox, who was also from Saratoga County, testified on behalf of the Widow Vincent for her pension application and told the court he cared for John during his illness and helped to bury him there at Plattsburgh.  John is quite probably among the one hundred and thirty-six unknown solders who were discovered during excavations at the post over the years.  They are honored by a monument in the north corner of the cemetery, but it saddens me to think he died such a lonely death and now rests in obscurity.


*JSTOR is a worthwhile resource for scholarly articles that can be searched and read, (six articles per month), for simply registering. For a fee you get unlimited use and the ability to download text.

     

Of Patience, Family Bibles, And The Internet

     My fourth-great-grandfather John Vincent died during the War of 1812 fought between the newly established United States and England from whom the US had declared it's independence. His death was from disease but I can't help but hope he got to harass the English a bit beforehand.  I've always wondered what prompted John to leave his wife and four young children to enlist twelve days before his youngest child's first birthday in August of 1813?  The answer may well have been money.  That year the fledgling congress authorized increases in both the monthly pay and the cash bounty for soldiers. 

     Thanks to the pension application filed by John's widow I've learned quite a bit about him, but it hasn't been easy.  Another thing I've found is there is a dearth of information on that war.  It's not for nothing that the conflict is often referred to as the forgotten war.  From surviving documents I've learned where John enlisted and in what regiment, learned the names of his captains and other officers, but I've been mostly unsuccessful in finding anything like a history of his regiment.  Nor does there seem to be any source that would tell me which of two generals his known officers served under, Wilkinson or Hampton, but I'm leaning towards Hampton.

     Once one gets away from the New England states, information from that period is very difficult to come by and John's war was mostly fought in New York.  John's son Thomas is next in my line and while I know he died as a young adult, there are no sources to indicate the cause. One needs a lot of patience and perseverance to put together a picture of the ancestor's life during that era.  Luckily though, sometimes patience is rewarded.

     Thomas' sister Janet Vincent was the youngest child of John.  An infant when he left Saratoga County she would have no memories of her father.  Being a female she presented the extra challenge of tracing a woman whose surname changed at her marriage.  The break came with viewing an application to a lineage society which included the information that Janet's mother Mary Clement Vincent had married again after John's death in 1814.  Her new name was Mary Howland which opened the door to not only the aforementioned pension application, but eighty-two year old Mary Howland herself in the 1860 census of Butler, NY in the home of  "Jenett" Witherel.  Janet had been found!  She also appears in her mother Mary Howland's pension application as does her husband Darius Witherel.  Or Wetherel, or Wetheral, or ... it's one of those names whose spelling is a challenge.

     The census of 1850 also shows Mary in her daughter's household along with a young man named Ray Witherell who is not with the family in any other census.  Who was he?  It would have been easy to believe he was Janet and Darius' son but that couldn't be assumed.  The answer to that question came several months later in a family bible at the top of the right hand page.

     Ray was in fact the son of Darius' brother John.  The bible also shows "Jennett" Vincent wife of Darius, the birth of their son Hadley and barely visible above Hadley's name can be seen the faded words, infant daughter... 1840 died the sa...  A local history of Butler, NY mentioned Darius being a wealthy farmer and the fact he and Janet were parents to four children only one of whom reached adulthood, Narcissa who was born in 1851.

     So I keep searching the internet hoping for newly digitized records because patience is something I have plenty of when it comes to genealogy.

1812 Pension Files, Some Headway But Still Taking Ridiculously Long

    

     I continue waiting for those War of 1812 pension files.  The work seems to be progressing, as of today there are 2,211,532 digitized pages, 648 more than yesterday -- but who's counting?  We are up to the surname Rowe so hopefully by the end of the month or early November we may see the S surnames beginning to come online.  Unfortunately I'm waiting for the V surnames.  The S and T names may take awhile but I'm hopeful by early next year I will be able to look at the Vincent applications.

     A few years ago when digitizing had virtually stopped  I ordered my fourth great-grandfather John Vincent's file from NARA.  It confirmed his regiment was the 29th NY Infantry and his enlistment date of 10 August 1813.  It also answered many questions like the date of his death, 27 February 1814, and revealed he died at Plattsburgh, NY of disease.  I'm waiting to get a look at the other Vincents who appear in the pension index.  Specifically John I. Vincent who was probably the John Vincent from Halfmoon in Saratoga County, NY who enlisted a year after my John.  Many Ancestry family trees have John I. married to Mary Clement, but he wasn't.  Mary Clement married my John Vincent.  That was spelled out in the pension file I ordered which was in the widow Mary's name.  It contained the date of their marriage at Halfmoon and witnesses including Mary's brother John Clement.  

     Also, John I. was named in his father Jeremiah's will written in 1821, seven years after my John's death in an Army hospital during the frigid northern New York winter.  The few account I've found of conditions in the Army camp that winter of 1814 paint an abysmal picture, terrible weather with much illness among the soldiers.

     I may well be disappointed by the file when I finally lay eyes on it if it even exists.  I know John I. survived the war and pensions based on service rather than death or disability were not granted until 1871 when he would have been quite elderly or deceased, but I'm hoping there may be some clue in those files as to who my John was; like where he was born and who his parents were.  Both John Vincent's were living in Saratoga County, NY when they enlisted and were quite possibly related.  Or perhaps an unknown brother had a file?  As noted above, I will probably be disappointed but I have to check.  I've exhausted every other record I can think of to search...

What On Earth Is Banope? Or Irish Research Is Hard

                                                                                             Wikimedia Commons

     Eighteenth century, Kildare.  What baptismal records still exist from that time and place are in varying states of preservation, some easily readable, others barely decipherable.  Some records no longer survive at all, and there's the rub.  Even after finding a likely record it's impossible to tell if that record seems so likely because the better one is no longer available.  Nor is it always easy to tell if that better record even ever existed.  In other words, I don't know what I don't know.  With home baptisms common in pre-famine Ireland, it sometimes happened that the event didn't make it into the church register, or was entered incorrectly; as in the case of my great-great-grandmother Maria McGarr's sister in the early 19th century:

Children of Daniel McGarr and Anne Donahoe

     
     The third baptism down gives no first or last name for the child and no father's name.  Only the name of the mother along with the date and family address made it possible to deduce this was the baptism of Bridget McGarr who later came to America with her sister Maria.  I could easily have missed the fact Bridget McGarr ever existed.  She doesn't appear in any other records in Ireland and married soon after arriving in the US in 1851, changing her name to Kinsella.

     It's that much harder when seeking the parents of our great-great-grandparents. Using the naming pattern I guessed the first daughter, Catherine, in the baptism records above was probably named for her father Daniel McGarr's mother whom I believed to have been Catherine Murphy, and Maria was logically the name of her mother Anne Donahoe's mother.  I'm not sure why the infant Maria's name appears as Mary above, she is Maria in all US records, but in viewing the original entry, I found she was indeed recorded as Mary in the Baltinglass register.

     My search for the birth of Anne Donahoe and Daniel McGarr has been, in a word, frustrating.  Daniel can't be found at all and the closest I can find for Anne is a baptism that occurred in August of 1798 at Ballymore Eustace about 15 miles north of the couple's future home in Ballyraggan.  This baptism, written in Latin, gives the parent's names as James and Maria Donahoe and the godparents as Edward Cavana [Kavanaugh ?] and Maria Barnaval [Barnacle?].  There is no indication of what Maria's maiden name may have been.  If this is indeed Anne's baptism, the naming pattern would indicate Anne should have named a child James, but there is a five year gap between her daughters Mary and Anne's baptisms so it can't be ruled out there was a son named James. 

     The address contained in the baptism of Anne Donahoe is perplexing, it looks like "Banope" but there is no townland of that name.  The closest I can find is Banoge in County Wexford quite a distance away and definitely not in the right parish.  But that looks like a letter "p" to me, not a "g", an example of which can be seen in the top line of the entry, it's tail dangling down between the "e" in Donahoe and the B in "Banope".

Banope?

     A few pages on in the same register however, the below entry is found, now it looks like Banoge :

     
   There are two other baptisms of children of James and Maria Donahoe--an earlier one of Catherine in 1793 and one of William in 1802.  Their addresses were Tober and Toberkevin.  I can't find Toberkevin either, though there is a Tipperkevin near Ballymore Eustace.  There are two more Donahoe baptisms in Ballymore Eustace parish with the mother being Maria but this time the father is John. One was John Jr. in 1788 and the other was Bridget in 1804; both give their address as, "Toberkevin".  I almost wonder if this is in fact the same couple? Then the name John of Anne and Daniel's youngest son would fit the naming pattern, although I believe Daniel's father was also named John.

     Obviously, there is a lot more work to be done on Anne's parents.  I have no proof they were even from Ballymore Eustace parish, I'm examining it because it's the only parish with extant records that includes an Anne Donahoe whose mother was named Maria.  That made it seem like a good place to start, but it could be the answer was not recorded or has fallen victim to the ravages of time.  A sad truth of early Irish research.

A Long Ago Memory Plus A Tip

Can you guess which one is me?*

      Like many researchers of Irish Catholic descent, I've found more than a few nuns in my tree.  I never met any of those relatives, but they call to mind those I have personally known.  The ones that really stand out were the Sisters of St. Joseph who taught me when I was small.  As a child they seemed to me so large and imposing in their black habits and their wimples, giant crucifixes swinging from their waists. I was convinced that if they so chose, they could call down the wrath of God upon me so I was on my best behavior in their presence.

     This is not a tell all however, I have no bad memories of my time with the Sisters.  What I do recall are sing alongs, the little plastic rosaries they gave us, stacks of beautiful pastel colored cards bearing images of saints.  I remember playing games with them, Duck Duck Goose and Farmer in the Dell.  The only annoyance was the elderly Sister with a penchant for gently poking us with her pointer during Mass should our backsides slump onto the seat behind us when we were supposed to be kneeling in our pew.  To this day I have my wee rosary and I do not slouch.

     I've thought of those nuns many times over the years and wondered what brought them to our little parish?  I was never quite clear on that.  They would arrive in early July and by August they were gone.  Curiosity finally got the better of me and I wrote to the order's archivist in Rochester to inquire.  This is the letter I found in my mail box a few days later--

Dear Ellen,

I received your email inquiry about the Sisters who taught catechetics at St. Dominic’s Parish in Shortsville in the 1960s.  Our Sisters were sent to parishes throughout the Diocese – principally, rural areas -- in the summer to provide religious education to Catholic children who were not able to attend Catholic schools.  Shortsville was one of the summer “centers” for catechetics from 1948 to 1963.  (After 1963, Shortsville doesn’t appear on our summer assignment lists.)

Here are the names of the Sisters who taught at St. Dominic’s in the summers of 1961, 1962, and 1963:

Summer 1961 and Summer 1962

Sister Mary Martha

Sister Rose Bernard

Sister Euphrasia

Sister Mary Leon

Sister Bernice

Sister Anna Gertrude

Summer 1963

Sister Mary Martha

Sister Anna Gertrude

Sister Mary Leon

Sister St. John

Sister Mary Claver

Sister Paulitta

Sincerely,

Kathleen Urbanic

Congregational Archivist

     I also found a newspaper article about their 1963 visit in The Canandaigua Daily Messenger--

     The Rev. John F. Wolach, pastor of St. Dominic’s Church, has announced that summer religion classes for children of the parish will be held July 8-25 from 9-11:30 a.m.  Six sisters of St. Joseph will instruct the pupils of grades one through eight. 

     I was one of those first graders, preparing for my First Communion which would take place the following year.  The yearly visits had ended by 1964, but several of the Sisters returned to see us through this momentous occasion that year.  I was glad to see them.   

     Now for the tip.  Finding that article was not easy.  The newspaper is available on Ancestry, but hard as I searched nothing came up.  Finally I went to Newspaper Archive.com.  In a matter of minutes I had found the article, which the site allows a snippit view of, and noted the date of publication.  I then returned to Ancestry and searched the newspaper by date. Voila!  

    

*Back row next to Father

     

A Love Story For The Ages

     

                                                                                         Wikimedia Commons

      Harborcreek.  A small town in Erie County Pennsylvania just south of it's border with New York State and mentioned briefly in my great-grandfather Edward O'Hora's obituary as his brother Daniel's residence in 1920.  I had no idea Harborcreek would be the key to Daniel's story.  Daniel, born in Owasco, New York in 1865, was the black sheep of my branch of the O'Hora family; he came and went, sold liquor without a license, seems to have had a common law wife, and was disowned by my grandmother's generation. 

     Daniel's obituary noted he had worked for the New York Central Railroad as a bridge builder which would have necessitated frequent travel so finding him in censuses was a challenge at times.  One I did find him in was 1900, living in Rochester, NY...with a wife?  Her name was Hattie and Daniel said they'd been married five years.  But that wasn't possible, four years earlier he had been living with his parents as a single man.  Hattie had four children with the surname of Sabin so she clearly had been married before at some point.

     Recently, I took a close look at Hattie and began gathering facts about her life.  She was born Hattie Taylor in Savannah, NY in 1864.  I found her marriage to her first husband Edwin Sabin in 1886 and confirmed the names of their four children, I also found a news article reporting Edwin Sabin's abandonment of Hattie and their children.  Over the years Daniel and Hattie lived together at times, and at other times apart.  When they cohabited she used his surname and when they weren't together she used Edwin's.  In 1917 she up and married a man I'd never heard of before, Albert Kent, claiming in the application it would be her second marriage. She signed the document, Hattie Sabin.  That, and the fact no record of her marriage to Daniel exists, leads me to believe theirs was common law.  I don't know what became of Albert Kent, but he was soon out of the picture.

     I can't locate Hattie or Daniel in 1920.  I have a hunch they were together and most likely in Harborcreek just as Grandpa Edward's obituary indicated Daniel was.  Several pages in the 1920 census for that place are completely faded away.  It would certainly explain why both of them are among the missing that year.  While Daniel's career caused him to be omitted from several censuses, I've found Hattie in all of them, except the 1920.

     From 1925 til Hattie's death in 1937 she and Daniel lived together in Hattie's hometown of Savannah, NY as man and wife with Hattie again assuming Daniel's surname.  Also in their household during those years was a young girl named Reva Geibel identified as Hattie's granddaughter, born in Pennsylvania.  After some searching I found Reva's details, she was the child of Hattie's youngest daughter Bessie Sabin and she was born in Harborcreek in 1919.  Was that a coincidence?  I don't think so, I think they were probably all there in 1919.  But what was the attraction to Harborcreek?  That question inspired me to do some digging into the New York Central RR.  I found that the NYCRR had a station in Harborcreek and that Harborcreek was right on the railroad line that ran south from Buffalo, NY -- the city Hattie "Sabin" was living in sans Daniel in 1905 and 1910.  This was no coincidence.  It was beginning to look like Daniel was the connection between Hattie and Harborcreek.

     I now believe Hattie and Daniel got together shortly after she parted with Edwin Sabin.  As Daniel's job took him to the western part of New York State, (directly above Harborcreek PA), Hattie and her kids went with him.  Once in Buffalo there was a falling out, with Hattie reverting to the surname Sabin and Daniel going on his way.  After Hattie's brief marriage to Albert, she and Daniel reunited and moved to Harborcreek where his work probably took him and eventually back to Hattie's hometown of Savannah.  I think Daniel and Hattie must have had genuine feelings for each other, even if their marriage wasn't exactly everyone's idea of real.  After all, they were together off and on for nearly forty years, longer than many legal unions.

I Think I'd Be Happier If I Wasn't So Thorough

     

     A while ago I mentioned here that I'd received the death certificates of a James White and his wife Margaret who died at Ballycoolid in Queen's County.  They were prime candidates for parents of my 2nd great-grandfather James White Jr.  Now I'm not so sure.  In fact I really doubt I have the right James and Margaret.

     I often see if I can disprove my theories as well as prove them, in the interest of accuracy.  The names, dates, and location all lined up for the individuals in my certificates, but since maiden names or parent's names don't appear on early Irish death certificates I couldn't be positive these were my people; James and Margaret are not uncommon forenames in Ireland.  Today I did a search at Find My Past's free database of Catholic Baptisms.  For search terms I used Queen's County for the place, the surname White for the subject, and only the forenames James and Margaret for the subject's parents.  I didn't use surnames for either of the parents.  Several hits came up in the White's home parish of Rathdowney, all of which were probably a bit too late to be the correct James and Margaret. 

     I clicked on the first one and held my breath...please don't let the address be Ballycoolid, please don't let the address be Ballycoolid...the address was Ballycoolid.  Damn.  So was the second hit, and both gave the mother's name as Margaret Duigan.  My 3rd great-grandmother was Margaret Keyes, Duigan didn't cut it.  It appears the James and Margaret in Ballycoolid are not direct ancestors of mine.  Of course there could have been two James and Margaret Whites residing there, but it doesn't seem likely.  I did have a sneaking suspicion that my great-great-great-grandparents probably didn't live into the 1870's, life expectancy being what it was in 19th century Ireland.  I repeated the search using County Tipperary as the place since Rathdowney is right on the border of Queens and Tipperary but nothing promising came up.

     While it's disappointing to discover one's supposition is incorrect, what you find to be untrue can also be helpful.  I've now been able to rule out the James White in Griffith's Valuation of Ballycoolid as my man.  That leaves only two other possibilities in Griffith's, James White in Errill and James White in Knockardagan. In Knockardagan there is a James White Jr. along with a James White Sr.  That's useful since I know from marriage records that my James White was a Junior.  The surnames Kayes, (a variation of Keyes), Fitzpatrick, Lawlor, and Delaney, all names associated with my Whites, also appear in the townland.  Interesting too is the presence of a William White, ( I strongly believe my James Jr. had a brother named William), and a Bryan Ford who could be the father-in-law of my James Jr.'s oldest son, who was named James White, (of course he was).

     Errill is slightly less interesting name-wise with several Fitzpatrick's and a few Hennessy's, a family who settled in the same area as James in America and one of whom married a Keyes here.  The fact is, with no early census records, no Catholic burial records, a huge gap in Rathdowney church records precisely in the period needed for my research, and no civil registration in the 1830's, I may never find exactly which James White is the right one, but then again, I had all but given up on finding a home county, let alone a parish for James.  And after all, as can be seen on the map above, the two places are only a little over a mile apart, I guess I can live with that.

Thankful Thursday

     Like most of the graves at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Macedon, New York, John Crotty's was a mess.  The brother of my third-great-grandmother Honora Crotty Power from County Waterford, John was buried near the top of St. Patrick's with his wife Ellen Mullet and the Wallace's, they being Ellen's sister and her husband.  I say top because the cemetery lies on a steep hill.  One of my first blogs was about St. Patrick's woeful state of disrepair and it's precarious location.  My son and I tidied up what we could but it was a job for more than two people.  This required a small army...one armed with chainsaws and earth movers.  Large branches and ancient trees  were falling upon the gravestones while their massive roots snaked through the cemetery upending others.  It was truly a sad state of affairs.

Before photo.  Crotty grave on the left.

     
     Last week I made the first trip of the year to check on Uncle John and Aunt Ellen, planning to pull the weeds that were constantly encroaching on their resting place and pick up whatever branches had fallen over the winter.  The rainy spring had delayed my visit, and I was dreading what I might find.  I began to climb the hill but stopped in confusion, their graves were in this direction, but where were they? Where were the trees?  Nothing looked the same, was it  possible I had forgotten the location of their graves?  No I had not--they had been cleaned!  The copse of decaying trees surrounding the stones that I had always wanted to take a saw to had been removed and the lower growing foliage had been mowed.

   

After

   

  I don't know who or when, but somehow their burial place had been beautifully restored.  Perhaps a Scout Troop or other civic organization?  I have no idea, but I'm so grateful to whoever it was.

Well That Was Way Off

    

                                                                                                                             Wikimedia Commons

     Have you ever begun research on a family and come to conclusions about that family only to have those conclusions completely upended?  That has been my experience with the White family of County Laois, or Queens County as it was known at the time they resided there.  Conclusion is probably too strong a word, it was more of a perception based on a census record indicating my great-great-grandfather James White could neither read nor write and the eventual loss of his farm to public auction.  Taken together they set an image in my mind of a poor, struggling immigrant.  Remember, at that time I was new to genealogical research and believed census records, as official government documents, were factual in every way.  I now know that is a far cry from reality.  For instance, I have yet to read a census record that has a correct date of immigration for any of my ancestors.

     My ideas about James began to change the day I found his naturalization papers, both his application and his final papers.  It was evident to me he had signed them himself.  The personal information contained in the documents was handwritten by a clerk, but the signature at the bottom was clearly in a different hand.  I saw that Grandpa James had a very distinctive way of forming the letter J in his name and it differed from that in the body of the document.  The letter J in the signatures was identical on both instruments, that was an eye opener!  

                  Signature bottom right, the J differs from that in the first sentence.

In going back to re-examine those census records I found that only one of them, the 1880, listed him as illiterate.  Somehow, I missed that.

     Then there were the Irish records.  It's only fairly recently I've discovered James' home county and parish.  Even at that, James White is not an uncommon name in the area around Rathdowney and I was never quite sure which James White belonged in my tree.  Looking at Tithe Applotments, Griffith's Valuation, etc... I originally discounted some of the individuals as unlikely, James White the baker?  That record couldn't be Grandpa James' father, who was also named James, or his grandfather could it?  But there was also DNA evidence, strongly indicating that a John White from the same place as Grandpa James was his brother.  That John White was a member of the RIC, which did not thrill me, but John must have been literate.

     Yesterday I received the death certificates of a James White and his wife Margaret who died in Donaghmore Parish in Queens County in the 1870's.  I know from James' marriage record in Palmyra, New York that his parents were James White and Margaret Keyes.  I cannot say with absolute certainty these are the correct certificates of  my James and Margaret, but the names, dates, and place match so there is a good chance.  When Margaret died in 1872 in Ballycoolid, her certificate states she was the wife of a farmer.  The informant was James White.  When James died, he was listed as a widower with the occupation of land surveyor.  What?  After some digging on the net, I found that there were any number of "amateur" surveyors during that era.  James the elder could well have been both a farmer and a surveyor--and may have been literate if that was the case.  The informant on James' death certificate was Julia White, a name I've come across before in my White research.  In Palmyra a woman named Mary Fitzpatrick from Ireland, living with Grandpa James' sister Catherine, was, (from her later marriage record), the daughter of a Julia White and her tombstone reads, "Born In Queens Co. Ireland".

     I've learned a lot from the evolving story of James White.  It's easy to make the assumption that post famine immigrants like James were seeking a better life in America due to things like landlord oppression, poverty, lack of education, or the wherewithal to attain one.  And in some cases that is true.  But it's also true that social and economic conditions at home were not conducive to even an educated Catholic doing as well there as he could abroad, so leaving may have seemed a smart choice.  Which reminds me of the answer my favorite Irish bartender gave me when I asked him if he didn't miss Ireland.  To my surprise he grinned at me and replied, "America, land of opportunity".

     

In Honor of America, Country of Immigrants

                                   Monument to the lost passengers of the Carricks 1847

     It's the 4th of July in America, the national party in honor of a proclamation of independence made 243 years ago. There will be fireworks, parades, and picnics; a well deserved tribute to the brave rebels who made their stand so long ago and backed it up with their lives.  Their sacrifices made our way of life today possible and we owe them a deep debt of gratitude.

     A different sort of memorial will also be taking place this morning, to the north, and about 400 miles east of Quebec. A burial ceremony for immigrants desperate for a better life in North America whose dreams were snatched from their grasp as a massive storm destroyed their ship and stole the lives of their children.

     Their tale began in 1847 in a Sligo suffering in the throes of famine and came to an end on a rock strewn beach at Cap des Rosiers, Canada, as the survivors struggled ashore-- drenched, cold and screaming the names of their missing loved ones in an attempt to be heard above the crashing waves. Of the 180 people who sailed on board the Carricks, only 48 survived. Approximately 87 were buried there on the beach while the rest were never found. Most of the victims of the catastrophe were women and children.

     Local legend for years told the story of a mass grave on the beach but it came to the attention of a wider audience in 2011 when the remains of three children were found washed ashore. Testing proved these were small victims of the 1847 shipwreck, between the ages of seven and twelve, whose bones showed all the marks of famine and malnutrition and indicated a diet low in protein and dependent on potatoes.  Unfortunately the bones contained no DNA.

     A representative of the Irish embassy in Quebec will speak at their funeral today and plans to say,"While this is very much an Irish tragedy it remains also part of Canada’s story, recalling the enormous humanitarian generosity of Canadians in keeping Canada’s ports open at the migrant’s time of need".  Jason King, a native of Montreal and the academic coordinator at the Irish Heritage Trust and National Famine Museum in Ireland notes, “It invites us to reflect on people’s experiences today when they embark on similar types of journeys.”  

     I certainly will give thanks today for men like Thomas Jefferson who espoused the premise, "a right nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them".  Along with my sincere thankfulness for those who assisted all my immigrant great-great-grandparents when they left Ireland one hundred and seventy some years ago fleeing the famine and seeking a home in America.  What would have become of them had they been turned away?

How Many Black Sheep Can One Branch Hold?

     

                                                           Bjarki Sigursveinsson

     My great-great-grandfather, James O'Hora from County Carlow, was a lovely man.  I'm sure of it.  When he passed away in 1902 all the area newspapers sang his praises, and if you're familiar with old newspapers you know they really didn't hold back if they disliked you.  Even during his lifetime his local Shortsville, New York newspaper published many complimentary articles about him.

     Then there was his brother John's family.  John's local paper in Auburn, New York referred to his sons as part of the "notorious O'Hora gang" and seemed to take great pleasure in detailing their misdeeds which in truth were many.  After John's death his wife Catherine got in on the act with several arrests of her own, as did one of their daughters Catherine Jr.

      Another daughter of theirs, Anna, was married at seventeen to a man of twenty-three named Michael Travers.  Two years after their marriage Michael and Anna became the parents of a daughter who lived only four months.  The following year their son William was born and two years later, in 1873 another son, John, came into the world.  Anna died that same year quite possibly of childbed fever; the baby survived however and seems to have thrived.

     Like his O'Hora brothers-in-law, Michael Travers was a regular in the columns of the Auburn paper's crime section.  A month before Anna's death he was charged with selling liquor on a Sunday, but he seems to have gone on a real tear after her passing.  Within six months he was arrested with his brother-in-law Michael O'Hora and found guilty of assault and battery.  In early 1875 his liquor license was revoked but that would prove to be the least of his problems that year, Michael was about to be indicted for manslaughter--

Feb 13 1875--The Coroner's inquest in the case of Callahan O'Connor, mentioned in our last issue, was concluded last evening at six o'clock.   The testimony of Dr. Gerin who conducted the post-mortem, was to the effect that O'Connor's death was caused by rupture of the bladder.
     The testimony of several witnesses, who were present at the den of Travers, on the evening when deceased was injured in wrestling with that individual, confirmed O'Connor's ante-mortem statement, and the jury found as their verdict, that Callahan O'Connor came to his death on the 11th inst., in the city of Auburn, from injuries received at the hands of Michael Travers, on the evening of February 8, at his saloon on North street.

      Where Michael's two young sons were during this period can only be guessed at, they would have been about four and two. Michael himself was enumerated as a resident of the city jail  when the New York State census was taken in 1875 but his children appear nowhere in it's pages.  They weren't shown where they might be expected, in the home of their grandmother Catherine, perhaps they were made wards of the county.  Michael beat the manslaughter charge when a jury at his trial that December refused to convict, but he continued his fractious ways earning himself multiple arrests following one after the other, mostly incidents of fighting and excise tax violations.  He was refused a liquor licence in 1878 but the 1880 census reports his occupation as saloon keeper, apparently a licence was obtained at some point.  That census also reveals a new wife fifteen years Michael's senior with a brood of her own.  His sons William and John were also back with Michael at this point but not for long.  William was removed from his care in 1886--

May 19, 1886 Auburn--Willie Travers, the incorrigible, as to whom Recorder Gulon was reported to be in a dilemma, the other day, was finally committed to the orphan asylum. Yesterday morning he got away to see the circus and has not been seen himself since that time.

and in 1888 John was fatally injured while playing in the railroad yards.  Michael's wife Ellen passed away the first day of November the following year.

     Not much is known about the final years of Michael's life, he doesn't appear in later censuses.  The Auburn paper reported in 1883 that he lost a piece of property when he defaulted on a mortgage but nothing else until 1894.  In March of that year Michael was admitted to the Onondaga County Almshouse near Syracuse.  The admission form is a revealing document.  It shows Michael's birthplace of County Kildare, his age of 52, and that he sought admission to the almshouse due to sickness and his inability to do more than light work.  It notes his "habits" which were intemperate but said his parents were of temperate habit.  Michael stated his education was limited and that he had one sister and one living child.  It also notes he had earlier spent two months at St. Joseph's, a charitable hospital in Syracuse.

     Michael died in Syracuse in December of 1903.  A two line death notice in the Auburn newspaper was his only tribute. His surviving son, William, followed in his father's footsteps being himself a regular guest of the Auburn jail--

1895--William Travers was arested this afternoon on a warrant charging him
with assault in the second degree. The complainant is Elizabeth Ferris, a resident of Delevan street who alleges that Travers, who bears a hard reputation,struck her over the head yesterday with a piece of iron which he grabbed from a
stove. The woman's head is badly cut.

     Elizabeth Ferris wasn't unknown to William, she was in fact a sister of his late mother Anna.  It's hard to imagine what could have caused him to attack her so viciously.  In 1919, like his father before him, William was admitted to an almshouse.  When asked about his habits William owned up to being intemperate but when asked about his father's habits he blatantly lied and termed them "good" though it's understandable if he didn't want to open that can of worms.  William seems to have never married, probably a good thing, and died in Auburn at the age of 57 after a fall from a hayloft.

     It's puzzling how two branches of the same tree can be so radically different.  Grandpa James and his sons were hard working farmers and good neighbors while those that remained in Auburn seemed to have been lost souls.  I often wonder if perhaps that was part of the reason James left Auburn and moved far away from them.