The Ancestors Geneameme

Here's my participation in the new geneameme from Geniaus:

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 

Which of these apply to you?

1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents [yes, but one of them is still hearsay - hearsay I trust, but undocumented nonetheless]
2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors [I just counted; I can get to 49! Argh!]
3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents [I'm counting this a yes, because I can picture photographs of each of them, but I realized many of those reside with my parents or grandparents; I'll have to make a point of getting copies for myself.]
4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times [The most known marriages in my direct line is an underwhelming 2]
5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [Not as far as I know, at least!]
6.  Met all four of my grandparents
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents [I met 2]
8.  Named a child after an ancestor [Give me a couple years to work on this one!]
9.  Bear an ancestor's given name/s [Is it too late to italicize this one? I love my name, but I also think it's ironic that as the family historian, I'm the only one of my siblings without a family name.]
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa [At some point, don't we all? Still working on finding him though. Where are Neolithic vital records held?]
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings 
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi [Not a direct ancestor, but I'll count it, since priests can't be direct ancestors, anyway.]
17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones [Yes, my Murphys lived in city crowded full of Irish immigrants. That's a lot of fun.]
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December [I have a 3x great uncle who was baptized on 25 Dec; he probably wasn't born that day, but it's a possibility.]
24. Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
25.  Have blue blood in your family lines
26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century [Things get murky right around the turn of the century, but I do have two lines where I know at least something about an ancestor born in the late 18th c. - even if that doesn't always include his name!]
29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [I'm sure I do, I just haven't seen it yet.]
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university [Both my grandparents on my father's side went to college - my grandmother to be a teacher, and my grandfather went on to get his MBA, I believe.]
33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence [Family stories say yes, but I'm still looking for evidence]
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime [A few relatively mundane recent crimes, and one rather tragic, sensational 19th century crime that I'm working out the details of before I share it publicly.]
35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine (Tell us where) [Does right here on my blog count?]
36.  Have published a family history online or in print (Details please) [I'd love to, one day.]
37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries [Not yet, but it's in the works - probably in 2 weeks or so! Wait for my post about the incredible serendipity that brought it about!]
38.  Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family [I wish!]
39.  Have a  family bible from the 19th Century [I wish!]
40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible [I wish!]

Tombstone Tuesday: Here lies Mathew Madigan

Some time ago, I called up Calvary Cemetery to find the grave location of my great-great-great-grandfather, Mathew Madigan, but was told that they had no record of his burial, despite the fact that all indications - in his death certificate and his obituary - were that he'd been buried there. Commenter Mitch Waxman told me that there'd been a fire in the 1890s that destroyed some records, and suggested many useful work arounds, but I tried a different route. Knowing that Mathew's son James Madigan had died just a few years later in 1894, but not knowing where he was buried, I took a shot in the dark. I called up Calvary and asked for the location of James Madigan's grave, providing his date of death, and just keeping my mouth shut about the fact that I didn't actually know whether he was interred at Calvary at all.

I got lucky! Calvary was easily able to provide me with the location of James's gravesite. They were able to tell me that there are 8 people interred at the site, but couldn't tell me who without great expense. And then I got more lucky, and moved into my new apartment to discover that I could see Calvary Cemetery from my house! While I took a field trip down to Calvary the first week I moved in, and found the Madigan grave in just minutes.

 The front of the stone reads
"Erected
to the memory of
Mathew Madigan
Died Sept 11 1892
Aged 50 years
also his wife
Margaret Madigan
Born May 20 1837
Died July 13 1882
Aged 45 years
also Mathew Joseph
Aged 1 year & 7 months"

The back reads
"James
Madigan
Died Oct 9 1894
Aged 23 years
Mathew W. Roche
1907-1908
John Roche
1905-1910"

I had hoped that finding the grave would give me some information about Margaret Sullivan Madigan, but I never imagined I'd find a birth and a death date! I started my afternoon knowing less about her than any other member of the family, and ended up knowing more. Mathew Madigan remarried after Margaret died, and I believe young Mathew Joseph was his son by his second wife, unless he had a son named Mathew who died young in each of his marriages. The stone lists 6 names; Calvary told me there were 8 bodies. I suspect that the last two belong to two other children of Mathew and his second wife Johanna. Both young Mathew and a daughter named Josephine were recorded on the 1892 NYS Census and nowhere else, but Johanna's answers in 1910 to the question "Mother of how many children?" indicated 4 children born but only 1 still living. Loretta was the child who lived to adulthood, and Josephine and Mathew died young, but I believe that the 8th body is that of the still-unidentified 4 child.

I don't know exactly who John and Mathew W. Roche are. Mathew Madigan's second wife was a Roche by birth, but his daughter Margaret was a Roche by marriage, marrying a Michael Roche who may have been a relative of her stepmother Johanna. The two boys may have been Mathew and Margaret's grandsons, the sons of their daughter Margaret, or they may have otherwise been relatives of Mathew through his second wife Johanna.

The other interesting thing to note is that James Madigan's death date doesn't match the date that his sister gave in her application for letters of administration for his estate. According to the probate records, he died 9 Aug 1894. That was the date I gave the cemetery when I called. According to the gravestone, he didn't died until 9 Oct 1894. I don't have his death certificate, but the index at italiangen.org confirms the earlier date. My best guess is that there was simply an error inscribing the stone.

Mulvaney Family: A Summary

I realized not long ago that I might be facilitating certain cousin connections more so than others. I have a picture of the entire Mulcahy family at a wedding, and, when posting about it, I listed the names of all the Mulcahys and their spouses, including maiden names. No wonder so many of my Mulcahy cousins have found my blog by googling their grandparents' names! So here's a post on the Mulvaneys!

Julia (Toner) and Patrick Mulvaney married in 1893 and had 8 children. Raymond Mulvaney died as a toddler. William Mulvaney and Harold Mulvaney died, unmarried, as young men in the 1930s. James Mulvaney married Florence Goggin. Mae, or Mary R., Mulvaney married John Daniels. Grace Mulvaney married Stephen Kessell. Thomas Mulvaney married Elizabeth Gilies. And my great-grandmother, Veronica Mulvaney, married Joseph E. Mulcahy.

Julia Toner Mulvaney (polk dots) with her children James Mulvaney,
Mary R. (Mulvaney) Daniels, Veronica (Mulvaney) Mulcahy,
Tom Mulvaney, and Grace (Mulvaney) Kessell. 

Julia Toner Mulvaney with her children's spouses, Steve Kessell,
Florence (Goggin) Mulvaney, Elizabeth (Gilies) Mulvaney,
John Daniels, and Joseph Mulcahy.