Today's Tip/Don't Rely On Those Indexes Of New York Vital Records

     Yes, I know that's not a new tip however, there is one mistake that keeps popping up in the New York State Vital Records Indexes, (birth, marriage, and death), that are now available on Ancestry.com.  

     Quite a few of my relatives passed away in Rochester, New York.  Even if it wasn't their usual place of residence, Rochester has the biggest hospitals in my area so for many of them Rochester was the final earthly stop on their pilgrimage to eternity.  The problem is, the abbreviation for Rochester, "Rch", keeps being mistranslated by the transcribers at Ancestry as Richmond, NY.  I don't know how the New York clerks abbreviated Richmond, but there you have it; and not once or twice, but many times.

     I don't know if this is happening with other cities, but if you're looking for relatives in Rochester, maybe even in Richmond, be aware of these errors.

My Serious Crush on DNA, In Which A New Branch Is Added

     Long ago I turned to the FAN method (friends, associates, neighbors) in my attempt to find the birthplace of my second-great-grandfather James White.  It's now been determined, by me, that James hailed from Rathdowney Parish in Queens County, now known as Laois.  A large gap exists in parish records of Rathdowney, and all United States sources have been exhausted, so I will never find the proof  of Grandpa's home spelled out anywhere.  But then, there was DNA!  I've written before about the proof that has emerged here.

     Among the neighbors of Grandpa James White, could often be found the family of Michael Driscoll from Ireland.  In Palmyra, New York and later in Manchester, New York, there were the Driscolls right along with the Whites.  I had a feeling there was a connection.  Years passed while I attempted to find the link between these two families, and now DNA has provided an answer.  In Palmyra, St. Anne's marriage records contain the nuptials of Mary White and Dennis Driscoll.  Great, right?  Well it was, but while the first names of Mary's parents were John and Mary Ann, my James' parents were James and Margaret Keyes. Why is it never easy?  That record also gives the name of Dennis' father as John Driscoll who I now believe was a brother of the Michael who seemed to always live near my James. Enter DNA; a match with a tree containing the surname Driscoll came to light a few days ago, and the owner actually answered my email inquiring about her tree.

    As we compared notes, the emails flew and the puzzle began to take shape.  Me sharing the marriage record of Mary White and Dennis Driscoll, she sharing that someone long ago had mentioned a great-grandmother with the maiden name of White, the information we were sharing was all beginning to fit.  I now tend to think Mary White Driscoll was the daughter of my James' brother John who stayed in Ireland.  When my grandpa James' son was baptized in 1857 his godmother was Mary White, strengthening their connection.

     Then other names began turning up, names I knew from earlier research.  Like the name Mary Floodman, at whose home it turns out Mary White Driscoll died.  Mary Floodman was the former Mary Lawlor, granddaughter of Sarah Keyes (there's that surname again).  Mary Floodman in the New York State Census of 1915 referred to Mary as her aunt, (she was probably a much older cousin, but often in such cases the elder was given the title of aunt).  My father remembers people named Floodman visiting his grandmother, Ellen White O'Hora, the granddaughter of Margaret Keyes many decades ago and he id'd the photo below.  More proof!

Ellen White O'Hora nd Mary Lawler Floodman

     We began tracing the children of Mary and Dennis Driscoll, one of whom was William Driscoll.  A search of the 1892 New York census turned up William Driscoll, of the right age, living with none other than James White!  Not my grandfather James White, but his nephew, the son of his brother William White.  I had seen this census before, but had no idea who William Driscoll might have been, why he was living with the Whites, or why when James' wife Margaret Touhey died, her obituary referred to William Driscoll as her "foster son".  I knew now.

    Mary and Dennis seemed to disappear after 1880; returning to St. Anne's records I found the burial of Dennis Driscoll in 1880, he had died after the census that year, but no trace was found of his wife Mary White Driscoll.  Then an email from my new cousin arrived-- in the 1900 census of Canandaigua, New York, in the home of Catherine Driscoll McAnniff ,(eldest daughter of Mary and Dennis), and her husband Joseph was living Mary McDuff, Mother-In-Law.  No wonder it took so long to find Mary, she had remarried and had a new surname.  And a new child too; nine year old Joseph McDuff who was born in Pennsylvania.  Young Joseph's marriage record in 1916 gives his father's name as Martin MacDuff from Scotland and his mother as Mary White from Ireland.

    I'd long believed Mary White was a close relative and that the Driscolls were an important part of the story, now I have my proof.

The Fascinating Life of Howard Richard Valentine

Howard and his second wife Rae

     While working on my Galloway line this week, I came to the children of Milo's daughter Sally Ann who married Daniel Valentine and moved to Illinois.  I'd never before gone into this branch and as I followed the hints Ancestry threw my way, I came to Sally's grandson Howard Richard Valentine who had an amazing number of hints attached to his name.

     Howard was born to Sally's son Richard and his wife Mary Pickens on 4 March 1885 in Chicago, but he didn't stay put for long.  In 1906 he turns up in Boston where he married Beatrice Galvin whose parents were natives of Ireland.  Their son Richard was born the following year in Illinois.  In May of 1909 Beatrice passed away and Howard returned to his parent's home with his small son.  He can be seen with them in the census of 1910 though his wandering seems to have continued.  On the 9th of March in 1910 Howard can be found returning to New York City from Colon, Panama.  The manifest gives his occupation as Artist. A passport application filed in 1918 shows Howard was in Australia for several months in 1915.

     Sometime before 1918, Howard married again, his new bride being Rae Bell of Chicago; I've found no marriage record and I'm not sure if Bell was a middle name or surname, but she used "Rae Bell Valentine" in official documents. Howard and Rae were both listed on the passport application of March 1918 which was to be mailed to "South American Tour LTD" in New York City.  Howard's occupation was "theatrical" and he and Rae's destinations were Argentina, Brazil and Chili.  A Google search for South American Tour brought up an ad in The Yankee Clipper in 1917--

Dumb acts?

     In the years 1915 and early 1918 the first world war was still being fought.  What was Howard doing roaming the seas?  In September of 1918, Howard and Rae can be found in Mobile Alabama where Richard worked as a welder in a shipyard but they didn't stay long, by May 9th in 1919 when their daughter Patricia was born, they had returned to Chicago. Her birth did not slow them down.  

Patricia Valentine

     In 1922 Howard, Rae and three year old Patricia set sail for England as they again did in 1926.  In 1929 they can be found returning to New York City from Hamburg Germany.  Unlike the passport application the ship lists didn't provide an occupation, but for some reason, Howard's passport was cancelled and he reapplied in March of 1922, stating he intended to travel to England, France, Belgium, and Holland for "theatrical business" as an actor.  Always, Rae and Patricia accompanied him.  In the new passport application Howard revealed he had spent three weeks in Canada in 1921 and that he had a contract with a man named Percy Reiss.

     A Google search for Percy Reiss brought up the January 1920 issue of the theatrical trade magazine,Variety.  In it Reiss states he opened and managed the Victoria Palace theater in London.  Howard had apparently dropped South American Tours, maybe he didn't care for the "dumb acts".

     This is an enormous amount of travel for a young family, it makes me wonder why?  According to the 1910 census Howard was an actor, the 1920 says a truck rider, and in 1930 Howard operated a repair shop.  Rather diverse occupations.  I admit I was intrigued, but that wasn't the end of the Valentine travels. 

     I couldn't find them in 1940, but when Howard registered for the draft in April of 1942, just a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he and Rae were in Honolulu.  Howard was again a welder, this time for the US Navy... at Pearl Harbor!  I don't know if he was there at the time of the attack, but this guy had more excitement than ten people, did I mention I'm intrigued?  Howard and Rae stayed in Honolulu where Howard passed in 1965 and Rae five years after.  Their daughter Patricia made her home there also.  You may be wondering what became of Howard and Beatrice's son Richard.  He seems to have stayed with his grandparents through Howard's travels becoming a dentist as an adult, with a wife, the house in the suburbs of Chicago and a son and daughter.  Probably the obligatory 1.6 dogs too.

Richard Valentine, son of Howard and Beatrice Galvin

    In my wilder fantasies I picture Howard as a spy or CIA agent.  Whatever the truth of that is, there's no denying he had an incredible life!

Louis Armstrong, (Not That One), What Really Happened?

     

The Ambridge Aliquippa Bridge under it's original name 

     On a drizzly January afternoon in 1933,  Louis Armstrong of Ambridge Pennsylvania parked his car on the Ambridge Aliquippa Bridge, high above the Ohio River, and stepped out.  There would be no witnesses to what occurred next, but it wouldn't be long before his empty car was noticed and a search for the owner initiated.

     Louis, born in 1880 in Seneca Falls, New York was the first child of Thomas Armstrong, an immigrant from Northern Ireland, and Hannah McGarr, the daughter of Irish immigrants.  He was also my third cousin, three times removed.  Louis grew up in Seneca Falls, moving to Pennsylvania sometime between 1900 and 1904, the year he married Minnie Brack of Pittsburgh.  Over the ensuing years their family grew to include four daughters and one son, Louis Jr., but by 1930 the family had fractured with Minnie and the children living in Pittsburgh while Louis lived as a boarder in Ambridge about 20 miles away. In 1930 Minnie described herself as married; Lester told the census taker he was single.  What could have caused the breakup at a time when divorce was uncommon and the great depression was raging?  Louis' death certificate held a possible answer.

     The county coroner fixed Louis' time of death at 1pm, and gave the following cause--  
Suicide-Drowning-Jumped into the Ohio River from the Ambridge Aliquippa Bridge.  
Contributory--  Temporary insanity due to head and neck injuries in auto accident two years ago.  

     Search as I might, I couldn't find any mention of the car accident, finding the newspaper account of the suicide took hours.  With a name like Louis Armstrong a lot of the hits were for the musician.  Finally I located the article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette but it was on a pay site.  It did give the newspaper name, date and page where the article could be found however, so I tried the Library of Congress site which was malfunctioning and then a college library site but I didn't have a user name or password.  Then I remembered that Google has some digitized newspapers, (you didn't really think I was going to pay to see the article did you?).  The Google newspaper archive project has been long abandoned, but the newspapers that were already posted are still there and one just happened to be the paper I needed, the January 20 edition--

      Less than 3 hours after his car was found abandoned on the Ambridge-Aliquippa bridge, the body of Louis Armstrong 48 of Ambridge, was removed from the Ohio River at Legionville by employees of Lock number 4 yesterday afternoon.  Search for the owner of the abandoned car had been started when the body was found.  Armstrong, an automobile salesman, is believed to have leaped from the bridge while despondent, and is reported to have attempted to end his life by asphyxiation previously.  He roomed at 318 Park Rd, Ambridge, and leaves a widow and children in Pittsburgh, friends said.

     It's hard to say with certainty that the car accident was responsible for the breakup of the Armstrong marriage or the suicide, but a quick internet search brought up medical research into victims of traumatic brain injury and concussion that showed a marked increase in suicides among that group.  With the scanty information we can't tell if Louis' brain itself was damaged and affecting his behavior, or if his seeming depression stemmed from discomfort or limitations from his injuries.  The mention of neck injuries and the fact he went from an active job as foreman at a drilling site, as seen in the 1920 census, to auto salesman may indicate Louis was a victim of chronic pain. As in so many cases, this tragic story makes me wonder if Louis could have benefited from modern medicine and treatments.

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.