For some time now, I've been seeking the naturalization petition of my second great-grandfather Philip Power, from the tiny townland of Cullencastle, (sometimes Cullen Castle), in County Waterford, Ireland. It seemed the likeliest place to find this record was Wayne County in upstate New York, but while those documents have been placed in large bound books in the County Clerk's office in that place, those books don't contain an index. Adding to the task, Lyons, the city where the office is located, is a bit of a hike for me and the civil servants there are less than helpful. I'll leave it at that.
On a whim, not really expecting much, I pulled up Google and typed in, "Wayne County New York Naturalizations". To my utter surprise there were hits, like this one-- https://www.ongenealogy.com/listings/wayne-county-ny-genealogy-records-online-at-familysearch/
The green links took me to Family Search whose genealogy devotees HAD indexed the images! When will I learn to pay closer attention to their online catalogue? I clicked on the first link with a beginning date of 1855 which was Declarations of Intent, where I struck out. However, right on that page was a link to Naturalizations, the same one labeled Naturalization of Aliens, 1855-1905, above. And there I found him, Phillip Powers. For some reason in the US they always tack an S on the end of his name--
Which reminds me of the excellent news from Ireland. I have corresponded with the site irishgenealogy.ie, the one that hosts the Civil Registrations, and word has it the remaining early death records are being worked on and will hopefully be posted by year's end. There is a good chance those records hold the death date of Edmond Power, father of the above Philip Power. Now wouldn't that be grand? It would feel like I'd finally tied up my Power family loose ends. For five minutes anyway, until I thought of something else I needed to know about them. But back to the naturalization petitions... Feeling like a kid in a candy shop I began a search for another second great-grandfather of mine, James White from Rathdowney in County Laois. I had his declaration, but I had never located his naturalization...until now that is--
There was no doubt this was my grandfather, one sponsor was Darby Hogan who I'd found associated with James in other records; the other was William Ryan with whom James can be seen living in the 1855 census of Palmyra, New York, the same year this record was filed. Then there is the distinctive way James formed the letter J in his signature at the bottom of the document, it was identical to the signature on his declaration.
I spent another hour looking through the naturalizations, then before signing off I switched to another family line, this one on my mother's side. I'd had such good luck with the internet I decided to do a check on Phebe Galloway, who like her husband Daniel Gray seemed to have passed away before 1860, leaving three young children. I've always been curious about what happened to Phebe and Daniel and I run searches on them every so often. Two of their children did well, but the middle child, George Edward, led a very troubled life that would end in his suicide in 1897 at age forty-three. He married and was the father of two sons, neither of whom reached adulthood. The first passed at age eight in 1883; the second in 1896 at age sixteen in a drowning accident while swimming in the canal near their home in Port Byron.
I was a little confused by news articles maintaining the drowning occurred close to the Gray home. The Erie Canal is quite a bit north of their former home, not what I would call nearby. The articles mentioned a bridge in the neighborhood so I ran an image search to see what turned up. I did find a bridge in Port Byron, the wrong one as it turns out, but the accompanying article did explain the canal location given by the newspapers. Unlike today, at the time of the accident in 1896 the Erie Canal ran smack through Port Byron! In the early 1900's New York moved the canal to follow the Seneca River, north of town. Who knew?
I will never cease to be amazed by the incredible internet that makes information so readily available to those in search of their ancestor's stories, and nit pickers like me who need to be able to picture exactly what occurred and where.
