Another Look At Facebook

   

   

Lester Robinson, Boy Scout

 
     I admit to having mixed feelings about Facebook, more specifically about it's founder, but that's the topic of another blog.  Today I was looking at a Facebook site I belong to called, "Things I Remember About Manchester", Manchester being the village in which I grew up.  My father grew up there too, as did both his parents and his grandparents. Needless to say, my family has lots of memories of this place.

      Every so often members will post old photographs of the village and it's denizens.  If I'm lucky the poster will know the identity of the persons in their photo. Today was one of those days.  I was taking a quick look to see what had been added recently and found a collage of photos I hadn't seen before.  I only clicked on the group because one of the pictures looked interesting, causing a slideshow to open. The next photo after the one that had piqued my interest, and shown above, was labeled, Lester Robinson, taken in the 1920's. Lester was the son of my second great-aunt Clara Warner and her husband Burt Robinson.  I'd never seen an image of Lester before though I knew from census records that as a young man my grandfather had lived with Lester and his parents for a time, so this was an exciting find.

     And how about this photo?  Lester in his home made car--

Maybe Lester took Grandpa for a spin in this baby.

     You never know what might turn up unexpectedly on one of these sites, so I plan on keeping a closer eye on this one in addition to the Facebook sites of Irish counties I belong to.  In fact, I think I need to go seek out sites for the hometowns of some other ancestors.

Tuesday's Tip/Personalized Place Directory

    

      When I first began researching my Irish ancestors, I was primarily working with records in the United States.  Once I was able to make the leap to Irish records it was slightly bewildering.  Civil Parishes, Catholic Parishes, Registrations Districts, Poor Law Unions-- there was so much to remember.  And they sometimes changed.

     After stopping what I was doing to look up the Civil Parish of Ballyraggan for the third time, (it's Graney), I hit on the idea of creating a word document listing all the relevant townlands and all the land divisions pertaining to each.  When I find a new place of interest, I add it to my list. This document resides in the upper right corner of my computer desktop, in easy reach when I'm looking at records.  I use my list constantly as I'm prone to jumping from one family line to another, it's one of the best research tools I've created yet. .  

A Perfect Day For DNA

     

     Being stuck in the house here in upstate NY with over a foot of  snow on the ground and more sifting down, this seemed like a good day to check my family's DNA tests.  The results from those Christmas gifts of DNA kits should be starting to show up on Ancestry about now, meaning there could be a batch of new relatives waiting to be found.  Checking for matches with my uncle's test, as close as I can ever get to my late mother's DNA, I found a few new ones but none had trees nor did the shared matches.  I run into that a lot in that line.  I've been having better luck with the group from Ireland.  As mentioned in the last blog post, I've found more solid DNA evidence that my White/Keyes connection is from Rathdowney Parish in County Laois (Queens), and today some new McGarr matches turned up.

     I also took a closer look at my new DNA results on Ancestry after reading somewhere that the results for Ireland are getting more specific.  All I can say is, yes they are!  Ancestry named my areas as Northern Tipperary, (my Ryans and O'Dwyers), North Munster, (my Gunn and Browne families in Kerry), and Leinster, (my McGarrs and OHoras in Kildare and Carlow--along with the Whites and Keyes in Laois).  That's pretty darn specific. Not to quibble, but the Ryans and O'Dwyers were actually from mid-Tipperary, technically South Tipperary, but their area does show up in the circled area on my DNA page map.

The red dot (mine) on the Ancestry map marks Churchfield in Tipperary, home to the Ryan and O'Dwyer families.

     Even with the lack of trees linked to many kit results and submitters who don't answer their email, I've never regretted being tested or hounding my relatives to spit in that little vial.  One of the great things about DNA is the way it can confirm your traditional research even if your matches don't cooperate.

     One "very high" match at the 4th to 6th cousin range I find very highly interesting is that with an attached tree containing a man named John White who was born in County Laois in 1818.  That makes him the right age to be a brother of my 3rd-great-grandfather James White Jr.  Even better, one of our shared matches is for a kit with the surname Keyes among it's branches. The John White tree has 50cM of matching DNA across 3 segments, I'm not an expert on DNA, but that's a significant amount.

     The names of John White's children are also significant.  If he is indeed my James' brother then, like James, he is the son of James White Sr. and Margaret Keyes.  My James named his first son James and his second daughter Margaret. John did exactly the same.  Is that conclusive proof John and James are brothers?  I have to admit it's not, but I think they most probably are.  And it gives me a strong clue this needs serious investigation.

Exactly What Is A Chartery? You May Want To Know And An Update

     The discovery of several new DNA matches in my Keyes line has me back on their trail as the new year begins.  The area this family lived in was very close to the border with Tipperary so you never know where a record might show up.  Which is a good thing since their parish in Laois, Rathdowney, has a large chunk of missing records in exactly the time frame needed for the ancestors who fled the famine to America.  They being in many cases the link between Ireland and the United States.

      Margaret Keyes and James White senior, the parents of my 2nd great-grandfather James White, were married in Ireland sometime around 1817.  Unfortunately, the marriage records for Rathdowney skip from 1810 to 1939 with nothing in between.  Checking the records from Templemore, across the line in Tipperary, I didn't find them, but did come across the marriage of William White and Ann Delahunty in 1846.  

     As it happens, there was an Ireland born James White living in Marion, NY , (close to my James White after his emigration), who married Margaret Touhey in 1878 at the Catholic Church in nearby Palmyra, NY.  His parents in the record of that marriage were William White and Anastasia Delahunty.  This James White was much younger than my 2nd great-grandfather and clearly not a son as his son James the 3rd is accounted for.  So who was he?  Given his marriage record, I believe he was the child of William and Anna from Templemore.  I also tend to believe this William and my granddad were brothers.

     If William lived in Laois it would be a great clue. Taking a closer look at his marriage record in Templemore, seeking an address which is sometimes included, all I found was the phrase "married at the Chartery", Chastery?  What was that?  It reminded me of something that was part of a church, but it finally dawned on me I was thinking of vestry... that couldn't be it. I ran some searches on Google without any luck, trying different spellings and the keyword "church" or no keyword at all.  The hand writing wasn't the best, as you can see below.

     Finally I hit on the right combination of letters along with the keyword Catholic.  There at the site "Catholic Online" I found a definition that fit-- the word was chantry, as in "a detached chapel chantry built in a churchyard or outlying district".  So apparently they were married in a small chapel rather than the main chapel.  Not that it really matters, sadly there was no townland given, but I like to know these things.  Familiarity with words in use by the clergy could be helpful in future research.  At least the word wasn't French  for workhouse.

Update-- The baptism of James White, the son of William White and Anastasia Delahunty has been found in RATHDOWNEY PARISH!

Edna VanHee 1884-1977

     I came across this photo today on Ebay and was captivated by that wee face and the unusual pose.  Unlike many formal, stiff, starched pictures of young children this one captured the baby's sweet, innocent smile and the utter delight of a child learning to walk.  On the back was written, "Edna S. VanHee taken the day before she was a year old".  Since I'm completely unable to look at an old photo without wondering who that is looking back at me, I needed to find out how Edna's life had unfolded-- so I turned to Ancestry.  The photographer's studio was in  Palmyra, New York so Edna and her family must have lived in that vicinity.  The New York State Birth Index shows Edna was born 7 November 1884 in Marion, Wayne County, New York, very close to Palmyra which would date the photograph 6 November 1885.  The 1900 census gave her age as fifteen, still in Marion, and revealed her parent's names; Peter from Holland and his wife Francena a native of New York. Edna would grow up in the rural town of Marion as an only child on her parent's farm.

     I found Edna's father Peter VanHee in the 1870 census of Marion living with his parents and siblings.  Peter was born in 1858 in Holland and the next child in the family in 1861 in New York; somewhere in that three year window Peter and his parents immigrated and settled in upstate New York.  By 1880 Peter was working as a farm laborer for Harry Clark, also in Marion.

     Skipping ahead to 1920, Edna can be found still living with her parents at age thirty-five.  It looked like Edna was going to end her days a spinster, but then I stumbled upon a marriage record.  In 1922 Edna married Burton Clark, a farmer four years her senior.  It was a first marriage for both of them and while thirty-seven and forty-one seems a bit long in the tooth to decide to wed, hopefully Edna was happy in her marriage.  Could Burton be related to Harry Clark who had employed a young Peter VanHee back in 1870?  While Clark is a common name it's possible.

     Edna's parents must have missed her a great deal after almost four decades of having her under their roof, but she didn't stray far.  Her husband's farm was located in the town of Walworth, New York which borders Marion.  A newspaper article from 1935 noted Edna's father Peter visiting her there in Walworth, her mother having died in 1929.  Peter followed his wife in 1936, both are buried in Marion Cemetery.  Probably because she married fairly late in life, Edna never had any children of her own but kept busy teaching Sunday school to her neighbor's children at their local church.  Her husband Burton died in 1964, and Edna herself passed in 1977.  

     I couldn't locate an obituary for Edna, the last mention I found of her was a deed transfer in February of 1977 for property in Walworth executed by Edna S. Clark of Newark.  Newark is the seat for Wayne County and the location of the county home for the aged.  Being a childless widow, it would appear Edna spent her last days in that facility and while there sold the farm in Walworth.  It makes me a bit sad Edna wound up alone in the world, I hope she did have visits from old neighbors and perhaps her former students.

Another Auburn Tale

   

     I've been reading the wonderful book about President Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin titled, A Team Of Rivals.  Ms Goodwin is a Pulitzer prize winning author well known for her historical writing.  This particular book looks closely at the cabinet members, (the rivals), during the Lincoln administration, one of whom was William H. Seward, a former governor of New York who lived in Auburn in that state, the place many of my Irish ancestors settled after arriving in America.  While looking online at some articles about Mr. Seward I came across this description of a holding at the University of Rochester library--

Box 6  Jan 13, 1844, New York Weekly Tribune page 3, an address by the Irishmen of Auburn, New York, to Governor Seward with his reply.

     "The Irishmen of Auburn", well that got my attention!  I knew my McGarr ancestors were in Auburn by the early 1840's, well before my O'Horas arrived there during the famine, I needed to see this article and find out what those Irishmen were up to.  I looked around the net and finally found the edition of January 13, but no article.  I was getting a little discouraged but I did some wider searches and finally found it in the January 9 edition and also in the Auburn paper.  I'm glad I persevered, it was a fascinating article.  The so-called address to Governor Seward was actually a letter written to him dated December 19, 1843, the second signatory of which was John Magar.

     In part, the letter mentioned, "patriotic zeal in and of a people long oppressed by tyranny, and who at this time loudly invoke the generous efforts of every man who has a heart to feel for the woes of others; for a country blighted by the withering hands of despotism which would otherwise compare with other nations of the earth...poor and lonely though she be, the time is at hand, we trust, when her spirited sons, aided by American liberality, and patriotism, will raise her to eminence...  The letter closes with, "gratitude, respect, and esteem" from the signers as "Irishmen and Friends to Ireland".

     It's not often I find such a personal connection to events, usually I find myself wondering what my ancestors thought of what was going on in their world but this pretty well spells it out.  What, I wondered, had Governor Seward done to merit this appreciation?  And who were these Irishmen, were they part of a political club?  Auburn had an active branch of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the late 1850's, so it was reasonable to think there may have been earlier political groups. 

     But first, what was going on in Ireland in 1843?  Why did the Irishmen of Auburn believe the time was near when Ireland would be raised to eminence?  Because, 1843 was the year of Daniel O'Connell's monster meetings and agitation for repeal, with a goal of abolishing the Act Of Union passed in 1800 that made Ireland a part of England.  Further research in newspapers showed Auburn had it's own Repeal Association which assembled at the town hall on the 25th day of November in 1843, (three weeks before the letter of appreciation to Seward), to accept from Governor Seward's hand a letter he had written, at their request, to Daniel O'Connell ... and my relative was a member ... I just love this stuff.  You can read Seward's letter here if you're interested.

     Now the question became, who was John Magar who signed the letter to Governor Seward?  There were two in Auburn at that time, one is the man I strongly suspect was the brother of my third great-grandfather Daniel McGarr, the other was Daniel's cousin.  It's going to be hard if not impossible to figure out which John signed the letter, but in the end I guess it really doesn't matter.  They were both relatives of mine and I'm proud of what they were doing.  It also amazes me that John was familiar with William H. Seward, governor and later secretary of state to President Lincoln.  Genealogy never stops surprising me.

I Do Believe In Spooks!

     Most of you will recall the title of this post as the utterance of the Cowardly Lion in the movie, The Wizard Of Oz.  It could also have been the notion running through my mind a few nights ago as I participated in my first "ghost walk" in Palmyra, New York.  After the passing of my husband last year I cast about for something to occupy the time I now had in plentiful supply, settling on joining a group called Historic Palmyra.  Chosen not only because it was nearby and history is something I enjoy, but also because the building which houses one of the museums they operate was once a hotel/bar owned by the husband of my distant cousin Catherine Ryan Riffenburg, daughter of Thomas Ryan and Mary Power.  Furthermore, Catherine's first cousin, my great-grandmother Maggie Power, was shown working there as a teenage domestic in the 1900 census.

     Catherine and Maggie are far from the only ancestors of mine who once called Palmyra home.  Cornelius Ryan, (a different family of Ryans than Catherine), lived there after arriving from Tipperary and the Hogans, Sheehans, and Slatterys all were there for a time in the mid to late nineteenth century.  As easily imagined given the state of medical science at that time, there were more than a few tragedies associated with those families. Cornelius died at age 33 leaving a wife and young son Oliver; his widow Anna Hennessey died just six months later.  Anna's sister Ellen Hennessey, who with her husband Edward Welch became Oliver's guardians, died a year after that, causing the grief-stricken Edward Welch to commit suicide on her grave.

     Ten years earlier, Cornelius' sister Sarah Ryan had died in Palmyra at age 26 not long after her marriage to William Slattery, quite possibly in childbirth like her sister Ellen Ryan Maher who had passed a month before Cornelius in 1877.  Though Ellen's demise was in Ohio, she was buried in Palmyra.  William Slattery's wife before Sarah Ryan had been Catherine Hogan, a sister of  Bridget Hogan who was married to Sarah, Ellen, and Cornelius' brother Andrew Ryan.  Catherine is another likely candidate for death in childbirth.  It's quite involved I know.  But the point is, I felt like I had lots of material to work with here, vis a vis possible spirit activity.

     First stop on the walk was the oldest cemetery in the village where a woman wielding two dowsing rods asked questions of several of the "residents".  Which they appeared to answer!  Then on to a marvelously preserved general store dating back to canal times, and lastly to the old hotel.  Would Grandma Maggie stop by?  I can't say I'm positive ghosts really do exist though I definitely lean that way.  Over the years I've experienced what I consider unusual events, like the time I set out alone to find Aurelius, NY, first home in America of my great-great-grandfather James O'Hora from County Carlow.  Though my map said I was still miles away, at least the way I read the map, suddenly I somehow knew I was already in his town. (I was in fact, one road over from the farm he had lived on.) And the time I first saw French Cemetery in Victory, NY and was able to walk with no hesitation directly to the grave of my 4th great-grandmother.

     I did my best to remain open and approachable as we sat in the darkened former hotel listening for footsteps or knocks. Sad to say none were forthcoming.  Disappointing, but given the large size of the crowd, due to a pirate festival being held the same night on Main Street, it didn't seem to me especially conducive to ghostly appearances.  Were I them, I would have taken a walk until the intruders left my home.

     Still, the idea of communicating with family members who have gone to their rewards is an intriguing one.  So many questions could be answered!  The night really wasn't a loss, it was great fun to suspend disbelief while wandering the darkened old buildings, and to wonder, "what if"... and I even met a pirate.