You Are Where You Came From

1901 Irish Census - Gillen Family

2012-01-17T06:00:00.005-05:00

A little before the holidays, I was contacted by a 2nd cousin twice removed on the Gillan side of the family. In composing my much-belated response to him, I realized that he had probably come across our ancestors on the 1911 Irish Census when he visited this blog, but that he hadn't found them on the 1901 Irish Census. For some reason, I never posted it, back when I was posting all of the other information about this family.

It shows Martin Gillen, age 70 (born c. 1831), a farmer, with his wife Honor Gillen, age 60 (born c. 1841). Living in their house are their sons Michael Gillen, age 31 (born c. 1870) and his wife, daughter-in-law "Eliza," age 28 (born c. 1873), as well as their two grandchildren, Mary, age 3, and Martin, age 1. All of the adults speak both Irish and English, and all can read, but Honor cannot write.

The household appears on line 14 of Form B1. A glance upward tells me that I need to explore more of the census forms for Tawnykinaff, Co. Mayo, Ireland. There's another Gillen family, a couple Grimes families (Honor's maiden name was Grimes), a few O'Donnells (Martin had a daughter who married an O'Donnell, and her children Nora and Hugh lived with their aunt, Mary Gillen Quinn, in Brooklyn), and some Stauntons (Martin's obituary mentions a Mrs. T. Staunton, his niece).

According to this form, the Gillens had 2 "out-offices and farm steadings." Their house had walls of "stone, brick, or concrete;" a roof of "thatch, wood, or other perishable material;" "2, 3, or 4 rooms;" and 2 windows at the front.

According to the next form, Form B2 (which I'm having trouble downloading at the moment, or I'd include it), the Gillen's two out-buildings are a calf-house and a barn.

2011 Family History Goals . . . Holding myself accountable

2012-01-08T17:25:00.001-05:00

A little more than a year ago, I posted about my genealogy goals for 2011. I went back this afternoon to review how I'd done and realized that the research goals I had thought up for myself had done nothing to guide my research over this past year. Every one of those questions is still open. It's not that my research hasn't progressed; on the contrary, I've made some great progress. It's just been haphazard, serendipitous, uncoordinated, and disorganized. Here's a review of what I wanted to do, and what actually got done:

1. Who were Matthew Madigan's parents? Still no clue. But I did move in down the street from Mathew's grave, where the tombstone gave me invaluable information about his wife, my great-great-great-grandmother Margaret Sullivan Madigan.

2. Who built the house at 85 Luqueer Street? I'm closer to figuring this out, in a manner of speaking. Having moved to NYC, I'm physically closer to the Brooklyn Department of Buildings. But I work full-time, and it's rare that I have the opportunity to head down to Brooklyn during business hours. Although I don't actually have any additional information on the house, I did recently discover the NYC Real Estate Record online, which I need to page through more extensively. And, of course, I actually visited and walked through the house a few months ago. But I don't know who built it.

3. When did Richard Toner die? Still no clue. I can't find any evidence of this at all, and this is a family whose life events were well-documented in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and his death would have likely been around 1880, so it should be indexed by the Italian Genealogical Group website, but it's not.

4. What killed Patricia Mary Gillan Chase Marra and her daughters, Patricia and Michele Elizabeth Chase, on New Year's Eve, 1947? No idea.

5. What happened to Mary Mulvany? Still no idea. However, I did find out where her parents were from in Ireland, a giant leap forward I hadn't expected to make!

6. Where was Mary D'Ingeo Gatto born? I don't know, yet. But I ordered her SS-5 just before Christmas, so I hope to find out at least where she said she was born.

7. Who were Hugh Quinn's parents? I still know exactly nothing about Hugh Quinn's parents, or family, or origin.

To answer these questions, I would like to:
Finally visit my local Family History Center Once I moved to Queens, I discovered that my local Family History Center was mere blocks away. I've visited numerous times, but have been looking at the Italian lines of my family (in fact, all the Italian lines except the one included above, Maria D'Ingeo's family) to answer some questions my grandparents have.

Visit the Brooklyn Historical Society I didn't, but my cousin Patty did, and we had a remarkable adventure result!

Visit the NYPL's Milstein Division I was there once, but it wasn't an ideal situation and I didn't learn as much as I could have had I been prepared.

Visit the various research rooms in the downtown Brooklyn county government complex Not in the past year.

Devote some time to browsing the Brazil Catholic Church Records and the Brazil, Sao Paolo Burial Records atFamilySearch.org This I haven't done at all, not for lack of access but for lack of time and willpower.

Familiarize myself with Florida genealogy I haven't spent any time at this at all.

Family History Related Personal Goals:
Get a job, so I can once again afford to order the records I need Create vital records for my descendants to find! (namely, a marriage license and marriage record, this coming April!) Done and done! I'm employed, full-time, at a fantastic job I never dreamed I could get at this point in my career, and happily married, with a license and marriage record for our descendants to find. My one regret is that we never got around to publishing and engagement or wedding announcement in the paper for future researchers to find.

Instead of making new goals for 2012, I'm going to stick with the ones that I was supposed to be working on over the past year. (This is slightly disingenuous, as I have other goals floating around in my brain that I want to, and will, work on. But I'm keeping the old goals in the mix, too.)

Happy researching in 2012!

You Might be a Genealogist if. . .

2011-12-01T22:19:00.000-05:00

. . . the major selling point of your new apartment is that you can see the cemetery from your front porch.

Serendipity: A visit to the old homestead

2011-11-18T23:32:00.001-05:00

I never imagined just how far "cousin bait" would take me. Several months ago, I got a blog comment from a heretofore unknown - to me - second cousin once removed. We corresponded over e-mail for a while about the Mulcahy family, our history, and the story that my great-great-great-grandfather had built the house where our family had lived for 3 generations, before it passed out of the family. My new cousin Patty headed out to the Brooklyn Historical Society to do some research, and here's where the real serendipity comes in.

Imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from Patty saying that she hadn't found much in the records . . . but that the person who signed in above her at the front desk had given her address as exactly the house we were researching.

Patty went ahead and copied down the e-mail address she had provided, got in touch with her, and two weekends ago, on a Sunday, we went down to the home where my great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother were both born, and got a private tour of the entire building, given by a current resident!

Our family lived in that building from at least 1876 until at least 1930. In 2011, we were able to see, in one of the apartments, that there have since been substantial renovations. There were moldings on the ceiling that didn't follow the walls, and decorative ceiling medallions that were bisected by walls that hadn't been there when they were installed. We saw the laundry poles in the backyard, though we weren't sure what they were. (We guessed correctly, as it turns out.)

The people who live there now were incredibly gracious, and let us see multiple apartments. The resident we who was acting as our tour guide took us around and knocked on the neighbors' doors, and they were all unbelievably nice, and interrupted their Sunday afternoon to let us poke around in their homes. I couldn't believe how lucky we were! It was one of the most exciting moments in my genealogical journey, and I still can't get over the serendipity that brought it about!

The Ancestors Geneameme

2011-10-15T12:03:00.000-04:00

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?

Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents [yes, but one of them is still hearsay - hearsay I trust, but undocumented nonetheless]
Can name over 50 direct ancestors [I just counted; I can get to 49! Argh!]
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.]
Have an ancestor who was married more than three times [The most known marriages in my direct line is an underwhelming 2]
Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [Not as far as I know, at least!]
Met all four of my grandparents
Met one or more of my great-grandparents [I met 2]
Named a child after an ancestor [Give me a couple years to work on this one!]
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.]
Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland
Have an ancestor from Asia
Have an ancestor from Continental Europe
Have an ancestor from Africa [At some point, don't we all? Still working on finding him though. Where are Neolithic vital records held?]
Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer
Have an ancestor who had large land holdings
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.]
Have an ancestor who was a midwife
Have an ancestor who was an author
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.]
Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z
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.]
Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
Have blue blood in your family lines
Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
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!]
Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [I'm sure I do, I just haven't seen it yet.]
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.]
Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence [Family stories say yes, but I'm still looking for evidence]
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.]
Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine (Tell us where) [Does right here on my blog count?]
Have published a family history online or in print (Details please) [I'd love to, one day.]
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!]
Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family [I wish!]
Have a family bible from the 19th Century [I wish!]
Have a pre-19th century family bible [I wish!]

Tombstone Tuesday: Here lies Mathew Madigan

2011-10-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-01T00:59:00.000-04:00

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.

My first introduction to my great-great-grandfather, Hugh Quinn

2011-09-16T15:12:00.000-04:00

"Did I ever tell you about Molly and the kittens?" Pop asked over dinner one day. We'd never heard about Molly and the kittens, so my grandfather continued, "Molly - my mother - was the second oldest. There was Agnes, Molly, Marty, and Helen.* Now, when Molly was maybe 7 or 8 years old, they had a cat, and the cat had kittens. And one day she came home from school, and the kittens were gone. When she asked her father where they were, he told her that he'd drowned them. He was trying to make it sound better so he told her that you always had to drown the first litter - you know, for health reasons. And what does Molly say but, 'Then why didn't you drown Agnes?!'"

I know that drowning kittens was common in "the old days," and I do what I can to avoid presentism. But Hugh Quinn is really one of my more mysterious ancestors. All I know about him is that he was born in Ireland, died in Brooklyn in 1914, and he drowned kittens. Sometimes I wish my very limited knowledge was of something a little more sympathetic!

*Helen was older than Marty, and he left out Terrence, the youngest.

September 11, 2001

2011-09-11T06:00:00.001-04:00

I've struggled with whether to blog about my memories of September 11, 2001, as suggested at Geneabloggers. It seems trite, somehow, a superficial way to treat the scariest, most vividly horrific day of my life. But I've been thinking about that day all weekend, and I want to write about it. So I'll write, and I think I may even hit "publish" when I'm done.

The night of September 11, 2001, and the afternoon of the next day, I wrote down my experiences, because I thought I'd want to remember them. I didn't realize at the time that I wouldn't be able to forget if I tried. I've never had to refer back to what I wrote when writing or telling someone how I experienced the day. The memories are too vivid, and too detailed. This will be long, I must warn you. I've tried to edit it before, and I can only revisit the memories in minute detail. They don't make any sense to me when I try to cover just the important points.

I was a sophomore in HS, in Chemistry class, when an announcement was made over the PA system. The assistant principal got on, and announced that the principal was going to make an announcement. Then the principal came on, and announced that two planes had been "purposefully" flown into the Twin Towers. My first reaction was a flash forward, to some time in the future, as I told my yet-unborn children how their grandfather had been killed the day the World Trade Center was bombed.

I specifically remember thinking "bombed," though I knew quite well that the announcement had not said that the towers had been bombed. But what word does the English language have for when you fly passenger planes into skyscrapers full of people? "Bombing" was how we conceived of terrorism at the time. It wasn't immediate that we were actually able to settle on using the word "attack" to describe what had happened that day. If you read other people's accounts of their memories, they are often full of terrified phone calls telling them to turn on the TV because "something happened in New York!" And so I thought "bombed," though I knew the word was inaccurate. But mostly, I just thought my dad was dead.

But only for a split second. Immediately thereafter, I went into what I suppose you would call "denial." It was simply inconceivable that my dad could be dead. I wouldn't be able to handle that. He just couldn't be. And so, I went about my day. "If anything's really wrong," I thought, "they'd tell me." (By
"really wrong," I, in my adolescent self-centeredness, thought only of things that would affect my own life.) I had two close friends in that class who, I later found out, didn't know what at all to do with me. They knew my dad worked in the Twin Towers, but I was not at all acknowledging the fact. I simply did my chem lab. I burned my finger on some hot glass. But I didn't talk about my dad. (My sister, a floor below me, I learned, was crying and leaving class repeatedly to call my mom. I, meanwhile, was acting as if everything would be okay, because, well, it just had to be.)

When my first of two periods of Chemistry was over, an unusually large number of people were called down to the office. I took comfort in the fact that Laura and I weren't among them. If anything were really wrong, they'd be calling us down to the office. All those kids who got called down, those must be the kids whose parents were injured or killed. Our dad must have been okay. It didn't occur to me that it might be hours, if not days, before some people were accounted for, and that there was no way that anyone had heard from or about my father - or anyone else's - yet.

During our second period of Chemistry, there was another announcement: a plane had hit the Pentagon. And another: all after-school activities were cancelled. And then, after that period - we were called down to the office. I went to my locker first. I took the long way to get there. I just didn't want to hear what they might be about to tell me. I ran into a friend. She said she'd been looking for me, she wanted to talk to me. I - not at all realizing the scope of what was happening, not realizing that it must be first on everyone's mind, not just my own - thought she was going to tell me what the drama with her boyfriend at the football game Friday night had been about. Instead, she asked how I was. "I don't know," I answered. "I'm going to find out." How I was depended entirely on what they told me in the office - and again, at this point, I assumed that "they" (the office staff? my mother? the authorities?) would know whether Dad was okay.

Outside the office was a large crowd of students. One gave me a pinky-swear that my dad would be okay. I thought that was inane, but didn't say so. Another told me that my sister had been crying, really hard. I don't remember who that was, and I'm glad, because it made me think that Dad was dead and Laura had already been told. (She was probably just trying to let me know that my sister needed me.) Another told me to go talk to the woman wearing the red sweater. I went to talk to her. All she told me - this was supposed to be the big moment of truth - was that Virginia Ward was coming to pick me up. "I don't know who that is." But that was the name she had. A friend suggested that it might be Virginia R*****. She was the only Virginia we knew. Of course it was her. But I wasn't thinking clearly.

She came to pick get us, and then we had to go get my youngest sister at elementary school. Virginia asked me to come inside with her, since I was the oldest. In the front hall - there was a desk set up, anticipating the high demand for pulling kids out of school - a teacher told us that the kids hadn't been told yet. Virginia told me that I'd have to tell Anna, because she should hear it from family. I was lost. I felt like just a kid myself. I didn't know what was going on. How could this be my job?

As Anna left her classroom, she put her chair on her desk, just like everyone always had to do in elementary school. I seemed like such a normal, everyday, childhood movement. I couldn't believe it could coexist with what I was about to tell her. As we walked down the hall, she asked "Why are we getting picked up?" and I had to tell her. "A plane hit Daddy's office building." She reached out and held my hand. And then Virginia added, reassuringly, "But the plane hit very high up, and your Daddy's office was very low down, so I'm sure he'll be okay," or something to that effect. I only remember the beginning of the sentence, because it was new information to me. I hadn't known where the plane had hit, or remembered what floor Dad's office was on, and I hadn't thought to ask.

When we got to the house, there were lots of cars outside, and all I could think of was the scene in "Cheaper by the Dozen" where (spoiler alert) the kids come home after school, and they know something's wrong because of all the cars lined up outside the house, and it turns out that their father has died of a heart attack. If there are lots of cars outside, then Dad must be dead!

We went inside, where a number of my aunts and one uncle were, with my mom. Everyone was crying, and everyone hugged us. I saw Mom crying; it was to be expected. I saw several of her sisters crying; to be expected. But then I saw my dad's sister's crying face, and I knew he was dead. And then someone said something along the lines of "there's nothing we can do but wait," and I realized for the first time that no one knew anything yet. They were all just as clueless as I was. We were all waiting for news.

I remember seeing a tower fall for the first time as I walked into the TV room to greet my uncle, but I had no conscious awareness of what I was seeing. My mom went upstairs, and Virginia came over and whispered to me that maybe I should go up and check on her. This seemed uncharacteristic of me (you'll recall that I've already mentioned my adolescent self-centeredness), but I did it anyway. Mom said she just wanted to shower. I came back down. Virginia left, but soon returned with several pizzas and a few bottles of soda before leaving us to wait and watch with family. No one was hungry.

Most of my detailed recollection ends here. All the waiting was kind of a blur. I don't really know what we did with ourselves, and what I do remember, I don't remember in order. My aunt arrived, bringing with her my cousin Grace, who was not quite 2 at the time. She was, for me, literally a saving Grace. She prattled happily in baby talk, and let us occupy ourselves with something other than the news and the worry. We colored. She was just learning her colors, and that day, everything was "lello." I thought that was ironic. Or symbolic. Something. I noticed, as we stood around coloring, the outfit I was wearing - new clothes, because it was the beginning of the school year. I had on a green three-quarter sleeve shirt, with light blue jeans and a black belt. I made a mental note not to ever wear that exact outfit again - whether out of respect or superstition, I'm not quite sure, but I know I never did it.

At one point, Grace and I were alone in the play room, coloring. The phone rang. There was a bit of a commotion. I couldn't tell whether it was a good commotion or a bad commotion, and I couldn't make out anyone's words. I was terrified. For a minute, I couldn't bring myself to go into the other room. I wanted to stay where I was, pretend I hadn't heard anything, and not have to hear whatever they had learned. I forced myself to pick Grace up and go into the living room, where my mom said, "That was Lester's wife Leann. Dad and Lester are walking uptown together."

We didn't have any details - Dad and all of his friends had been trying to get in touch with their wives, but the cell phone service was overcome by demand, and most of them couldn't get through. When Lester finally reached his wife, I guess, she was given a list of numbers to call to let everyone's family know that they were alive. My family is probably not the only one that thinks fondly and gratefully of Leann, though most of us have never met her. On such a terrible day, she was the one tasked with the telling of good news, and we who received that good news have never forgotten her.

The rest of the afternoon became about logistics. Locating Dad, and other relatives at work in the city, and trying to get them home. No one could drive into the city, Dad's car was stuck in a parking garage near Ground Zero (though we had yet to hear the phrase) and mass transit was suspended. Who could get the closest to a bridge or tunnel, to pick them up as soon as they got onto the New Jersey side? How could we organize it? We got one phone call from Dad, from a restaurant he had stopped at, but after that he was difficult to reach.

We played soccer on the front lawn at one point. We might have watched a movie? My aunt brought my cousin by after picking her up from school, "because of Uncle Kevin." I hadn't even been sure that I would be picked up from school, and Uncle Kevin was my dad. I was only beginning to comprehend how much bigger this was than just how it affected me.

People were stopping by the house, some of them not even knowing that Dad had been in the World Trade Center. The best man at his wedding happened to be in town - I was reminded that it was my parents' anniversary. A coworker of his, who had mercifully taken a vacation day, dropped something off. Neighbors, friends, everyone wanted to see how we were.

Late that afternoon, two of my friends came by the front door. I stood on the step and talked to them for a while. They asked about my dad; they told me how school had gone after I left. They told me that Samantha D*** had been crying in gym class. "Why?" I asked. They looked at me like I was crazy. "Because of your dad." I was still so focused on how I was being affected that I wasn't aware of what the attack meant to other people, those who knew my family and those who didn't, those who were in the towers and those who weren't.

Then we saw someone walking up the road, his shoes in his hand. I assumed it was some dumb teenager. Who else would carry his shoes in his hand for no good reason? "Who is that?" I asked. My friend faltered. "I . . . I think it's your dad." It hadn't occurred to me that he would be walking home, and so it hadn't registered that it could be him. I stayed on the step, unsure of what to do. Should I run to him, or run inside to tell everyone else that he's home?

Suddenly, my mom burst out of the side gate, somehow having seen him coming from the backyard. She was followed by my sisters, my grandmother, and everyone else at my house. I, too, went over to them, and we had our reunion near the top of our next door neighbor's driveway.

There's more, of course: the church service that night; doing my math homework before bed, since I was pretty sure my new math teacher was so strict she wouldn't find even a national and personal tragedy to be a reasonable excuse for not handing in your homework; crying on the soccer field the first day that after school activities returned, as the physical exertion finally caused my emotions to overflow; the dreams I had in the weeks after, about watching my dad die on TV; gathering at my grandmother's on Friday, with a "God Bless Kevin" cake, so that everyone who had worried about my dad could see him. My experience of September 11 extended well past the hours of the actual day. There are things that happened months or even years later that I consider part of my memories of that day.

"Well THAT'S a unique way to die!"*

2011-09-08T09:19:00.001-04:00

Ever since I learned that my great-great-grandmother's brother, Samuel Toner, died "suddenly" at age 18, I've given him remarkably little thought. Short life, no issue - what else was there to research? It had crossed my mind to wonder what had killed him, but I didn't order the death certificate (rather - ledger entry) to find out. Yesterday, I was searching for the Toners - each of them individually - on GenealogyBank, and I came across an item of note, published in the New-York Herald Tribune on 22 September 1870, the day after Samuel's death.

Samuel Toner, residing at the corner of Van Brunt and Tremont-sts., and employed at Smith's Flour Mills in Hamilton-ave., fell into a bin of bran, yesterday, and was suffocated.

That must have been an awful and frightening way to go, and such a shock to his family!

I figured that if his death had been significant enough to be a news item in the Herald-Tribune, it had probably merited more than just his death notice in the Brooklyn Eagle, and so I went to Fulton History and read the paper for Sept. 22. Sure enough, I found it, right there in small, faded type that makes a poor candidate for OCR.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 22 September 1870

It reads:

SUFFOCATED.--About eleven o'clock yesterday, a young man named Samuel Toner, 19 years of age, was found suffocated in a bed of bran in the flour mill of Mr. Smith, in Hamilton avenue. His body was conveyed to the residence of his parents, on the corner of Van Brunt and Tremont streets, and the Coroner was notified to hold an inquest.

I'm certainly glad I checked the second paper, or I'd have no idea to look for records of the coroner's inquest!

*My husband's response when I read him the death notice.

Book Review: Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

I stumbled upon Aaron Lansky's Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books at a thrift store; I'd never heard of it before, but the title caught my attention and the blurb on the back sealed it for me. Even though I don't know the first thing about Yiddish (I can spell yarmulke, which is apparently more than most Irish Catholics can say), and even though I have the pretty common bias that leads to my spending my pleasure reading on the histories and stories of people like myself and like my ancestors - the Irish, the Italians, the New Yorkers, the Catholics - as a historian and a bibliophile, I couldn't pass up a book about the rescue of 1,500,000 books.

I wasn't disappointed. Even as someone who's never so much as seen The Fiddler on the Roof, I found the story of the rescue of Yiddish literature to be touching and profoundly moving. I cried more than once. I learned a lot, too. I picked up the story assuming that Lansky was setting out to save rare, priceless, historic books, and learned that he had much more inclusive standards of what was worthy of saving then I did. He aimed to save all the books - the entirety of Yiddish literature. The story begins with the author, a graduate student, and a rag-tag team of friends and volunteers salvaging books from dumpsters, and ends with the founding of the Yiddish Book Center and the digitization of the entirety of extant Yiddish Literature.

The book is full of funny, touching, stories about Lansky's encounters with the elderly Jewish people who donated the books of their youth, and, more than that, passed on their culture with them. Although I'm sure that the book would be particularly interesting to readers with Jewish heritage, it's a story that would fascinate anyone with an interest in books, culture, literature, or history.

(This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links.)

Rosa D'Ingeo's Immigration Records

2011-08-31T12:56:00.000-04:00

For a long time, I'd had immigration records for all the D'Ingeos but one. Vincenzo's was easy to find and Domenico brought his all younger daughters over together, but Rosa's immigration record eluded me. A few weeks ago, I described the process of finding it using the always-helpful Steve Morse One-Step site.

Rosa D'Ingeo is found on line 13 of these pages. She's listed as Rosa D'Inseo, 16. She's listed as a domestic, although it appears to have been written in after the fact by someone with different handwriting than the person recording the other information. Her nearest relative "in country whence alien came" was her father, Domenico from Toritto, and she's going to New York. She had a ticket to her final destination, said she paid for her own passage, and it looks like she had $28 with her. She was being met by her brother Vincenzo, and there's an address given for him, but it's difficult to read. She was 4'8" tall and was born in Toritto, Italy.

Rosa also shows up at the back of the passenger manifest on the Record of Detained Aliens. She is, again, listed as Rosa D'Inseo. She was detained awaiting her brother, Vincenzo, whose address is here given more clearly as 221 W. 19th St.

Learning from other people, OR, GenealogyBank is awesome!

2011-08-22T19:19:00.000-04:00

I finally caved and got a subscription to GenealogyBank. I told myself it was mostly for my husband, whose ancestors come from backwards states like Massachusetts and New Jersey, states whose newspapers haven't been made available online en masse by the unbeatable Thomas M. Tryniski of the unmatched FultonHistory website. My ancestors are all New Yorkers - even more, they're (almost) all Brooklynites, up until the last 50 years. What more could I ask than a site that has the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, plus dozens and dozens of other New York papers, just in case?

I should have known better. After all, I read lots of genealogy blogs, right? If you didn't know better, you might assume I pay attention to them, too. I sure thought I did. I remember two posts in the not-too-distant past about making sure you check multiple newspapers for your ancestors. Kerry Scott, of ClueWagon, posted Why You Should Always Check the Second Newspaper. That was literally the title of the post. Why you should always check the second newspaper. And what did I think? "Good thing I don't ever have to check other papers, since everyone in Brooklyn read the Eagle!" Humor me for a moment and take a look at the Brooklyn Public Library's list of Brooklyn newspapers that they have on microfilm. You don't have to read it. Just look at how very long it is. Then you can roll your eyes, if you must. Meanwhile, Liz Haigney Lynch of The Ancestral Archaeologist posted News You Can Use, in which she even mentioned multiple Brooklyn newspapers. And it's true that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that the responsible thing to do would be to one day check out the Brooklyn Daily Standard Union. But the Brooklyn Public Library was so very far away, and reading years of newspapers on microfilm can be so very tedious. I still didn't think I needed a subscription to GenealogyBank. After all, GenealogyBank doesn't have the Brooklyn Daily Standard Union, so what good will it do me? I'll still need to get to Brooklyn to read the Standard Union, and what other newspapers will do me any good?

It turns out that the one newspaper that will do me the most good is one I didn't even know I needed. By the 1910s, the Mulvaneys were publishing their death notices in the Daily Eagle, like all good ancestors do when they know the Eagle will be available free online in a century or so. But a few decades earlier, back in the 1870s and 1880s, it seems that the Mulvaneys were dedicated New York Herald readers.

In less than an hour from the time when we began our GenealogyBank subscription, I had come across the following, from the 10 February 1883 edition of the Herald:

MULVANY - On Thursday, February 8, BRIDGET, beloved wife of James Mulvany, native of Kells, county Meath, Ireland. Friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral, from her late residence, 127 King st., Brooklyn, Sunday, 11th, at two o'clock.

How long had I been trying to find out where in Ireland these Mulvaneys originated? Oh, only approximately forever. It was the one last family whose Irish hometown I didn't know. And "Kells, county Meath" waited, tucked away in a database I wasn't willing to subscribe to because I was sure that all the newspapers I would ever need the Eagle (free online) and the Standard Union (only on microfilm) (and occasionally the Times, but really not until after consolidation, which wasn't until the immigrant Mulvaneys were long dead).

In sum, pay attention to what you read, listen to people who know more than you do, read lots of newspapers, and don't be as dumb as I am.

Runs in the Family

2011-08-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

There's a funny thing about connecting with cousins over the internet - it happens in lots of different ways, but I've begun to notice patterns. Family tendencies, maybe.

The O'Haras and the Gattos appear to have no internet presence at all - they're the branches of my family who I haven't encountered in my research.

The Gillans I've met primarily on surname message boards, though one also landed here after a Google search.

The Mulcahys are extremely fond of Googling their grandparents' names. Several have found my blog by doing so.

The Mulvaneys, on the other hand, are prone to doing genealogy. I've connected with a number of them through Ancestry family trees, and we have a nice little group of people to share research with as we find it.

The Lanzillottos do genealogy, too, and I've encountered a couple of them through Ancestry.

(As I write this post, though, I think I might be creating some of these tendencies instead of just witnessing them. Have I visited message boards for all my surnames? And I realize that I have one or two posts where I list all the Mulcahys and their spouses - of course their grandkids can find them by Googling their names! I guess I need to get on that with the rest of my lines - too bad there's no big family picture like the one that was the catalyst for the Mulcahy posts.)

Looking just a little harder to find Rosa D'Ingeo

2011-08-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

I have long had the immigration records of my great-grandmother, Maria D'Ingeo Gatto and a portion of her family; she immigrated in 1917 with her father, Domenico, her sisters Angelica and Giovanna, and an unrecognized woman, Maria Lupo. The family said that they were being met by her sister Rosa; I know that she also had a brother, Vicenzo "James" D'Ingeo. I had never been able to find arrival records for Rosa or Vicenzo on Ancestry, but some time ago I searched a little harder and came up with Vicenzo's arrival records on the Ellis Island website. But I never had any luck at all finding Rosa.

Then, last week, Ben bought the Who Do You Think You Are book by Megan Smolenyak, and I read it. In it, she mentions the Steve Morse One-Step webpages. Now, of course I knew about the One-Step site. Of course I had visited the One-Step site. But it occurred to me that I had never really used the One-Step tool to systematically search for and find something that was eluding me.

I didn't even go into it looking for something I couldn't find; I went into it looking for something I knew was there. My Ancestry.com subscription has lapsed, and we're letting it stay that way for a little while longer, and then maybe discussing if it might be more worthwhile to direct our limited genealogical funds towards a different database for a time. So when I needed information about Maria and her father Domenico from their passenger manifest (and this week I'm on a computer that includes neither my saved documents nor my genealogy software), I used Steve Morse's Ellis Island Gold Form to find the passenger manifest I'd already seen, by filling in information I already knew it contained. And I realized that this long-ignored tool might be able to do what it was intended to do and help me find something I had never been able to find. So I tried a little harder, and in 15 minutes or less, I had Rosa's arrival records, dated 6 Dec 1911, where she was recorded as Rosa D'Inseo. She stated that she was meeting her brother Vicenzo and that her closest relative in Italy was her father Domenico, in Toritto. It was really her! I think I'd begun to suspect that she had married before immigrating, and I'd never find her arrival records without knowing her married name. But it turns out that I just wasn't looking hard enough!

Later this week I'll share Rosa's elusive arrival records with you!

(The above post includes Amazon.com affiliate links.)

The other Richard Toner; or, At least MY ancestors didn't bite off rats' heads

2011-07-25T13:34:00.001-04:00

Online newspaper searches taught me that not only was my great-great-great-grandfather not the only Richard Toner in late 19th century NYC, he was also not the most interesting Richard Toner in NYC.* Although g-g-g-grandpa lived a memorable life (high- and low-lights include immigrating to America with his bride, and trying to kill himself after a fight with his teenaged son), he was not nearly as newsworthy as the young man who shared his name, the Richard Toner who was known as Dick the Rat.

My ancestor Richard Toner almost certainly knew of the existence of the younger, and seemingly rougher and scarier Richard Toner across the river in Manhattan; Dick the Rat was written up in NY and Brooklyn papers for any number of things, and even appears to have been the subject of an early silent film short by Edison's studios, Rat Killing (1894) (now lost).

Dick the Rat made the newspapers for such diverse accomplishments as:

(1) Taking over his father-in-law's business

The New York Times, 2 Jan 1871

(2) Explaining his trade to the New York Times

The New York Times, 30 Jan 1876

(Read the rest of the article here.)

(3) Being arrested on suspicion of shooting John Casey in the thigh

The New York Times, 17 Feb 1876

(4) Handling a dog who could kill 7 rats a minute

The New York Times, 18 Feb 1878

(5) Shooting himself in a drunken stupor

The New York Times, 3 July 1880

(6) Being inappropriately intimate with a married woman

The Sun, 4 Dec 1887

Wikipedia reports that he was also known to regularly bite the heads off of rats, but I haven't come across that tidbit in any of the contemporary sources that I currently have access to.

*My ancestor Richard Toner died before consolidation in 1898, so he wasn't ever really a Richard Toner in NYC. He was a Richard Toner in Brooklyn, and Dick the Rat was a Richard Toner in Manhattan. But even before Brooklyn became a part of New York City, the two cities were geographically and culturally close, a connection that increased dramatically with the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.

Magna Carta Conservation at NARA

2011-07-22T12:05:00.000-04:00

As someone who worked at NARA, where most documents are handled with clean, dry, bare hands, I've never understood the vehemence with which some people insist on gloves for the handling of old documents. I've done it at jobs where it was the institution's standard practice, but not without voicing my objections. My understanding is that it provides increased risk with little to no added benefit over bare hands. (Photographs, of course, are a completely different story!)

Brooklyn Online Resource: John D. Morrell Photograph Collection at BHS

2011-06-30T10:39:00.000-04:00

The John D. Morrell Collection is a collection of photographs of buildings and street scenes from 1950s-1970s Brooklyn. In 2008, the Brooklyn Historical Society received a grant to have the collection digitized, and all 2,675 photographs are online as part of their image gallery. The collection includes photographs in both black & white and color. According to the finding aid available through the BHS website, the photographs cover all of Brooklyn but concentrate on the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Bath Beach, Flatbush, Downtown Brooklyn, and Carroll Gardens. (Luckily for me, my people hail from Red Hook, of which Carroll Gardens was once a part, so my main area of interest is pretty well represented.)

If you use the "Advanced Search" function, you can specify the "John D. Morrell" collection, and then keyword search on the names of streets or neighborhoods. Doing this, I was able to find pictures of some of my ancestral homes, as well as pictures of the neighborhoods my ancestors lived and worked in. There are also pictures of schools, stores, and other local landmarks. It's easy to find addresses online using Google Street View, but this collection could include buildings that were around at mid-century but are no longer extant, or give you a perspective not as far removed from the time when your ancestors actually lived there.

You can see the collection here.

The pictures our descendants would love to have

2011-06-27T06:00:00.002-04:00

One of the things about searching for evidence of the major life events of people who lived a hundred years ago is that you start to view all of the major life event you experience through the eyes of people who live a hundred years from now. I would be pretty darn excited to see a slideshow of dozens of pictures from my great-great-grandparents wedding, so I imagine this is the kind of thing my great-great-grandchildren would love - once they went to their local museum to use some old-fashioned machine called a computer that it could be viewed on.

Kathleen & Ben: ROCK STAR video slideshow from Small Moments Studios on Vimeo.

Timing is Everything

2011-06-23T12:17:00.000-04:00

This actually just happened. If you look closely at the above screenshot, you'll see that I opened the Brooklyn Historical Society's Photo of the Week e-mail this morning, to find a picture of one of the dry docks of Todd Shipyard in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Now look even closer, at the other tabs that were open when I got that e-mail. One of them was a brief history of Todd Shipyards. Another was a search I'd done for "todd" in Emma, the BHS "Archives, Manuscripts, & Special Collections" catalog.

Here's a screen shot for another window I had open at the time:

I'd been about to compose a request to the Brooklyn Historical Society to ask whether they had any collections pertaining to the Todd Shipyards facilities in Brooklyn.

I spent yesterday at the Library of Congress reading Every Kind of Ship Work: A History of Todd Shipyards Corporation. I spent last night searching WordCat for copies of the Todd Shipyards mid-century in-house newsletter, The Keel.

And then today, with no effort at all on my part, up pops Todd Shipyards in my inbox! I think I may have to rephrase my question about whether BHS has any collections relating to Todd Shipyards.

I've been researching Todd Shipyards because my great-grandmother's brother, Harold Mulvaney, was killed while he was working there in August, 1933. He drowned in the East River. The death certificate judges his death an accident, though rumors have trickled down through the years that his family wasn't so sure about that. But the Mulvaneys didn't like to talk about things, and so I don't have much information. Ever since I learned, yesterday afternoon, about the existence of The Keel, I've been hoping that I could find a copy of the issues for 1933, and maybe find some mention of the incident or memorial to Harold after his death. (None of the institutions listed in WorldCat as holding copies has issues for 1933.) Harold was killed on Pier 5 in 1933, when, according to his death certificate, he accidentally fell overboard. The picture I received this morning was taken at Pier 1 in 1928. I have no idea whether Harold had been working at Todd Shipyards 5 years prior to his death, but it's entirely possible that he's actually in the crowd of men pictured surrounding the dock, above.

I can't help but think that this serendipity is a good omen for this line of inquiry.

(The above post includes Amazon.com affiliate links.)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Graduation Day

2011-06-15T06:00:00.004-04:00

As we head into full-blown graduation season, I thought this would be a nice photograph to share.

This is a photo of my grandfather, William J. O'Hara, on his graduation day. I don't know the identity of the other people in the photograph, though the guy to his right looks familiar - I'm sure I've seen pictures of him before, somewhere. (Update: The guy posing with Pop has been identified as his close childhood friend Henry Gorra.) I don't know what he's graduating from - just from looking at him, it seems plausible that he could be 13, graduating from grade school - which, if I'm not mistaken, was St. Saviour's - or that he could be 18, graduating from Regis High School. My guess is the latter; I think those other boys look a bit old for middle school. I've had one relative suggest that it was actually college graduation - she thinks Pop looks even too old for high school, but I'm not sure I agree.

I can't tell what building they're in front of. The piece of a sign that's visible in the upper right-hand corner reads

GRA

FROM SCHOOL of

KILLED IN ACTION IN ITA

Pop was born in 1930, so a grade school graduation would have taken place around 1943/4, and a high school graduation around 1948/9. At first, I thought that his sign might help date the picture, but it seems more likely that it's a plaque commemorating an alumnus who was killed overseas, who could have been a graduate of either school, killed at any point during WWII.

How would Great-Grandma bake?

2011-06-07T12:03:00.002-04:00

There are a couple of genealogy or history related books on my list of things to read while I'm unemployed/a housewife (Annals of the Famine in Ireland; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), but what I've recently started reading instead is Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is a fascinating, enlightening, eye-opening book, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless you're open to taking a long, hard look at what you eat and where it comes from. Of course, I do think the author probably has his biases, as we all do. I recently watched his movie The Botany of Desire, where he rails against monoculture. He certainly makes good points, but to attribute the Irish Potato Famine strictly to the fact that growing a single variety of potato left the crop more open to disease with not one single mention of a single political, economic, social, or religious factor? Yes it's a movie about biology, but the Potato Famine wasn't a strictly biological tragedy, and can't honestly be presented as one. If he's committed similar omissions elsewhere, though, they haven't been in areas where I'm knowledgable enough to pick up on them. With that in mind, and if you want to know where your food comes from, I'm enjoying The Omnivore's Dilemma so far.

Now, one of the most exciting wedding presents we got was a bread machine, and I'd already started using it to bake bread recreationally. I'd have nice, thick, slices of homemade bread during the day as snacks, or a slice for breakfast, or as a side with dinner. But we were still buying loaves of sliced bread to make sandwiches. It was almost as if we thought of the fresh, homemade bread as some sort of novel new extra, not "real" bread like the stuff in the plastic bag from the shelf in the store. Thanks to this book, I made the somewhat radical decision not to pick up any bread when I went grocery shopping yesterday, despite the fact that we had no store-bought bread at home. (When I told Ben that I would make him a sandwich on homemade bread for lunch today, he responded "I'm going to have to get rid of that book!")

I also have recipes for baking bread the old-fashioned way, in the oven, and I'm thinking of trying out a sourdough starter, too. But what I'd really like to do is bake bread the old-fashioned way. The recipes I find on the internet can't be the same as the recipes my great-grandmothers would have learned a century or more ago. (Is cottage cheese really a standard bread ingredient? Or, more to the point, was cottage historically a standard bread ingredient?) The bread recipe that Grandma Molly learned from Mary Gillan Quinn, or the recipe that Nana learned from Julia Toner Mulvaney? That would be a recipe I'd love to try. The 19th century was no nostalgic era of good nutrition and food purity (see: swill milk) - but I'd still be really interested in baking the bread my great-grandmother baked. (When I add milk, it'll be milk that complies with FDA regulations, after all.)

I used the Fulton History website to search old newspapers for bread recipes. As it turns out, bread recipes did not often appear in late 19th century newspapers. (If everyone knows how to bake bread, why print the recipe? When was the last time your local paper printed a step-by-step guide to sending an e-mail?) They often appeared in mid-20th century papers, but I'm not really interested in bread recipes from the 50s, when everyone was eating Wonderbread, anyway. There were only a couple of recipes I came across that met my criteria, and I may try them all - if I can figure them out!

Elmira NY Morning Telegram, 1898

Geneva NY Gazette, 1879

Interesting - a recipe for potato bread, I guess. Not sure whether I'll try this one. I also can't tell how much flour Miss Davidson added. (Is it really more important to tell us where the flour was milled than to tell us how much of it to use?)

Hudson NY Evening Register, 1886

Syracuse NY Evening Herald, 1895

Can anyone help me with this - what is "sweet milk"? I'd like to try my hand at some of these, but some of the terminology is a little difficult to penetrate.

106th Carnival of Genealogy: Swimsuit Edition

2011-05-31T12:05:00.001-04:00

These two handsome gentlemen are Harry Kunze, on the left, and Martin Quinn (Uncle Marty), on the right. They were my great-grandmother Molly Quinn's brother (Marty) and brother-in-law (Harry). Harry was married to Molly's younger sister Helen Quinn. Marty married Elizabeth "Bobbie" Byrnes. My sources (aka my great-uncle, Molly's son) tell me that this picture "was probably taken on Rockaway Beach or some other local beach" - local being local to the NYC area. He estimated it was taken around 1925, which would make Harry Kunze about 26, and Marty about 23. Based on the information they gave in the 1930 census, Harry and Helen would have been married for about a year.

Of course, my favorite part of this picture is the swimsuits themselves! How cool!

Where lies Mathew Madigan?

2011-05-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

My great-great-great-grandfather was Mathew Madigan. He died 11 September 1892. According to the death notice in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, he was to be buried at Calvary - that is, Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY.

According to his death certificate, he was buried at Calvary Cemetery, on 14 September 1892. The undertaker was Jos. L. Hart of 496 Court St.

But according to Calvary Cemetery, who I called this afternoon, they have no record of his being buried there in September of 1892. I'm not sure what to do next.

When a Family History Nerd Gets Married: The Bachelorette Party

2011-05-23T17:35:00.002-04:00

I had some misgivings about allowing myself to have a bachelorette party at all. Clubbing and loud music and dancing are not my style. Wearing "BRIDE" or "Last fling before the ring" t-shirts is not my style. Luckily, my fantastic sister had something else altogether in mind: a genealogy-inspired bachelorette party designed just for me!

A normal bachelorette party location:

A Dance Club

My bachelorette party location: A tour of NYC's oldest bars!

Ear Inn (image source)

McSorley's Old Ale House (image source)

Normal bridal party shirt:

My bridal party's shirt:

(I think they were making fun of me.)

Normal bride's shirt:

My shirt:

Probably from here?

It reads:

#1 Leave no stone unturned, unless it is a headstone.

#2 Handwriting legibility is inversely proportionate to a document's importance.

#3 The further away a cemetery or library is, the more awkward the opening ours will be.

#4 The relative you most need to talk with is the one whose funeral you are currently attending.

#5 Wherever you find two or more sibling, there also will you find two or more surname spellings.

Normal bachelorette party pin:

My bachelorette party pin:

Is my bridal party not obviously the very best ever?

Next time you're in McSorley's look for the "Genealogy is Cool" pin stuck above the door jamb!

And to hearken back to the discussion of making money in genealogy, I know a maid of honor who might be able to make a living as a genealogy-themed party planner!

(Several of the links in this post are Amazon.com affiliate links.)
(Cross-posted at When Hoya Met Saxa)

Creating family history isn't any easier than researching it!

2011-04-27T10:01:00.000-04:00

I have several half-written posts that I had wanted to post this week (and last week), but I haven't had a chance to finish them. Our wedding is this weekend, going on a quick pre-honeymoon (we haven't planned the real thing yet), and then immediately moving to a new city. So I've been a little busy, and will stay busy for a while. It will probably be weeks before I do any more research, or post again.

Remember, the next time you look at a marriage certificate or wedding photo, that in the weeks leading up to it, that ancestral bride was figuring out guest lists, sending invitations, figuring out what to wear, completing her trousseau, and packing up her entire life in preparation to move out of her parents' home. She probably was not ordering favors over the internet, hiring a make-up artist, or having an engagement session with the photographer, but still - none of the major life events that are recorded for posterity are ever easy!

Genealogy and Profit: A Hobbyist's Perspective

2011-04-20T06:00:00.014-04:00

There is a robust discussion going on in the genealogy blogosphere this week, at Geneabloggers and elsewhere, about making money in genealogy.

I have perspectives on 2 fronts.

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I've always had Google Adsense on my blog, but I recently also added Amazon.com affiliate advertising and occasional links (and a link to Ebates, because you can earn by referring others, but also because it's a fantastic site, and I think anyone who ever shops online should use it). (Yes, that was an affiliate link.) I don't expect to make any money from it, but I hesitated a lot before I did it, and I still have conflicted feelings about it. It doesn't bother me in the slightest when other bloggers monetize their blogs. So many of the bloggers in the genea-blogging community offer real services. Their blogs are informative, or very interesting, or incredibly well-written. The kind of material that people SHOULD be getting paid for. And since I'm not paying for it, well, heck, I'd be thrilled for Amazon, or Ancestry, or Google to be paying them for it. They DESERVE it!

But me? Little old me, with my inconsistent posting, my boring writing, my very few hits? Not only do I not do anything to earn money, I shouldn't even have the balls to attempt to make itty bitty bits of it. It feels . . . presumptuous, maybe. Or naive.

But I'm broke. I had a low-paying job, which I'm about to leave, to have a no-paying job as a housewife. (I'm getting married. Girls don't keep working after they get married.) If ads on my blog mean an extra $15 or $20 a year (which it doesn't, not even close - but a girl can dream), well, I'm at a point in my life where that's not much, but it's not nothing. So I added affiliate links to my blog. But I'm not sure it's appropriate. I'm a hobbyist. This isn't my job. I probably shouldn't be trying to get paid.
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When I was most recently looking for work, I would occasionally be caught browsing Ancestry.com or writing posts on this blog when I was supposed to be looking for openings or finishing job applications. I kept hearing it suggested - from my mom, in exasperation that I didn't have a job yet; or from a cousin, when I was sending him my resume one week and Grandpa's immigration papers the next - that I should just do genealogy for a career. "You like this, and you're good at it. Why not do it for money?" I kept pointing out that I'm not remotely qualified for that. There are professionals out there - people with training, with experience, with resources at their disposal, people who can write narratives, and cite sources properly, and all the other things that are involved in genealogy beyond just searching online and making the occasional visit to a local repository. I know a lot of the principles involved in good genealogy, things like the "reasonably exhaustive search," but I just don't have the resources to do these things for myself yet, and I couldn't possibly claim to be able to do something for someone else without ever having given it a try myself.

I think I eventually got my point across when I compared myself to my sister, a yoga instructor. "You studied yoga for years before you started teaching. You were good at it. Surely you could have just started charging people to teach them yoga? Why bother specifically getting trained as a yoga teacher? Instead, you waited and went through intensive training as a yoga instructor before you started charging others for your services; it would have been unethical, unprofessional, and possibly even dangerous to do otherwise. Genealogy is the same way; every industry has ethics and standards." (Granted, a bad researcher won't usually cause physical injury, but don't underestimate the danger of inaccurate "facts!")

Is a genealogy career something I might consider in the future? Absolutely. Maybe in a few years, if I'm a stay-at-home mom and our income is stable enough to allow me to make the upfront investment in becoming a qualified professional genealogist, it would be a good time. (Although, I can't for the life of me figure out how genealogy makes a good work-from-home career; I can't even make it a work-from-home hobby!) But I'm not qualified to make a career out of genealogy now, and I don't have the resources - or, honestly, the interest - at this point in my life, to become qualified. And it wouldn't be right to charge people for services I'm not qualified to provide.
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**Just kidding about the working thing. I'll be looking for work after I get married, I just probably won't have it right away!

When a Family History Nerd Gets Married: The Bridal Shower

2011-04-18T06:00:00.004-04:00

My fantastic sister Anna created this word search as a game for my bridal shower, which was a few weeks ago. As you can see, the list of words includes some of our favorite interests, like Ben's Redskins and my Yankees; the places we met, including Georgetown and Vital Vittles; and all of the surnames in our lineages!

(cross-posted at When Hoya Met Saxa)

Mathew Madigan's Death Certificate - 11 September 1892

2011-04-14T06:00:00.002-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, I received in the mail the death certificate of my great-great-great-grandfather, Mathew Madigan. He died on 11 September 1892 - the location appears to be given as 85 Lurfriese St., but it may actually be his home address, 85 Luqueer St. He died on the first floor of a house with 3 families. His age is given as 51 years old, although his death notice in the Brooklyn Eagle gave it as 50. He was Irish-born, as were both of his parents, and had been in America for 30 years, or approximately since 1862. (I have yet to find immigration records for him, and his naturalization papers don't give an immigration date, but the earliest date on them is 1866.)

Mathew suffered from Gastro Enteric Catarrh for 3 months before his death, and was attended by his doctor, G.W. Welty, M.D., from 15 July 1892, through 10 September 1892. He died the morning of 11 September at 9:30. The secondary cause of death was Asthenia, or weakness.

He was buried at Calvary Cemetery on 14 September 1892. The undertaker looks like it was Jas. L Heart of 496 Court St.

I'm not 100% sure as to what Gastro Enteric Catarrh is. Catarrh is defined as a mucous buildup in the nose and throat, according to Google, but that's not gastrointestinal at all. The 1903 Text-book of the Practice of Medicine by James Meschter Anders indicates that it's a childhood diarrheal disease:

The 1907 A text-book on the practice of medicine by Hobart Amory Hare seems to indicate that in adults, it's more of a discomfort with possible vomiting:

Since the death certificate indicates that Mathew Madigan suffered from Gastro Enteric Catarrh for 3 months, it was clearly a somewhat chronic condition, not an acute attack of diarrhea or anything else, but I'm having trouble finding any definitions of chronic gastro enteric catarrh. The most "chronic" gastric distress I've ever had lasted about a week, and based on that experience, I am not remotely surprised that a 3-month bout of intestinal distress could contribute significantly to weakness and loss of strength, or asthenia.

SNGF: You Might be a Genealogist if . . .

2011-04-09T17:40:00.000-04:00

I'm honored that Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun for this week was inspired by my post from earlier this week, "You Might be a Genealogist if . . ."

The ones I've posted in the past are:

You might be a genealogist if . . .
. . . you know exactly what you want to get with your tax refund, and it's your great-great-great-grandmother's death certificate.
. . . your mother and sister ask questions like "What are all the surnames in our family and Ben's?" when gathering information for games for your bridal shower.
. . . you've ever gotten a message from your significant other that says "Happy anniversary - I renewed our ancestry.com subscription for another year!"
. . . you've thought of the birth of a new cousin as "making the next generation's genealogy."
. . . you got a little jealous when your boyfriend wanted to hang out with a former flame, but you got INCREDIBLY jealous when he received a copy of his great-grandfather's diary in the mail.

I'm excited to see what everyone else comes up with!

You might be a Genealogist if. . .

2011-04-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

. . . you know exactly what you want to get with your tax refund, and it's your great-great-great-grandmother's death certificate.

WWI "Emergency" Officers, Camp Gordon, GA

2011-04-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

Every so often, I Google the names of ancestors in hopes of finding anything that might be out there. It's not usually a successful endeavor. Last week, though, I googled my great-grandfather's full name - "Joseph Eugene Mulcahy" - and got a hit! (and it wasn't even from my blog!)

I had long known that Papa had been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the Army on 1 June 1918, since my cousin John had sent me a copy of that promotion, which I posted here, very shortly after I began this blog - but that was all I knew. Someone - who goes by "MaryCarol" - posted a list of all of the 1,744 men promoted to 2nd Lieutenant at that time on a Rootsweb Freepage.

The list of names comes from the personal paper of her grandfather, Captain Flag Allen Drewry, but there's no source given on the background information. It states that enlisted men were given 3 months' officer training before being promoted as "emergency" officers to replace those who had been killed overseas. What a pall under which to receive a promotion! Information on Camp Gordon, in Atlanta, where Papa was stationed, says that it was the largest temporary training camp in the South, consisting of 2,400 acres, 1,635 buildings, and could house 46,612 men.

Assuming the information is accurate, there are some fascinating nuggets that provide insight into my great-grandfather's military service.

(MaryCarol. "WWI 1918 Camp Gordon GA 1700 Promotions to 2nd Lieutenant." http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kinfolke/WWI_1918_Camp_Gordon_1700_Promoted_2nd_Lieutenant.html)

Who Do You Think You Are?: Gwyneth Paltrow

2011-04-02T18:13:00.000-04:00

Watching WDYTYA on Hulu, and I have but one question: What freakin' 1890 census were they looking at? Could they share?!

I'm sure they were looking at the 1890 Veteran's Schedule, or else they were looking at the looking at the 1892 NYS Census, which does make a fantastic substitute for the 1890 US Census. They were either approximating with phrases like "10 years earlier" and "in 1890" (?!), or just thought that mentioning that Gwyneth's ancestor was a Civil War veteran was irrelevant (?! again) - or it wasn't a census record at all. The casual reference to finding the family in 1890 really threw me!

Still, I'm loving how much time they're spending in NYC this season - that's where all my people came from!

WDYTYA in Brooklyn!

2011-02-18T09:12:00.000-05:00

This morning, I got an e-mail from the Brooklyn Historical Society, which will be featured on tonight's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? Tonight's episode explores Rosie O'Donnell's history. I hadn't realized it would involve Brooklyn! Just last week, I thought to myself "I wish they'd do an episode with NYC ancestors. I bet I'd be exposed to some resources I'm unfamiliar with." Ask and ye shall receive!

According to both the e-mail and the BHS website,

BHS will be featured in an episode of the popular NBC program "Who Do You Think You Are?" this Friday, February 18 at 8:00 p.m.. The episode will feature actress, singer, author and media personality Rosie O'Donnell on her quest to learnmore about her family history. Mark your calendar and set your DVR. You don't want to miss this!

Interested in doing your own family history research? BHS' Othmer Library and Archival collections contain many resources for those interested in genealogy and family history research. Click here for a detailed listing of our resources that are most frequently consulted by genealogists and family historians. You can also download a pdf guide to Brooklyn related genealogy resources at both BHS and other libraries here.

I'm so psyched! Unfortunately, I'll be in the car tonight when WDYTYA is on. Is there a protocol for the excitedly live-blogging shows while you watch them tomorrow morning on Hulu?

Mulvaney Family, 1875

2011-02-02T23:43:00.001-05:00

When I visited the NYPL several weeks ago, this was one of the 1875 NYS Census records that I found, the record of the Mulvaney Family. It's hard to tell, because the addresses are cut off in the image, but I believe that across the margin is written the word "King" and next to that the number "121." If that's so, it's a couple doors down from 127 King, the address where John Mulvaney was living when his father died in 1885. It's a further few doors away from 135 King, where Bridget Rothwell Mulvaney died in 1883, and a couple blocks from 197 King, where the family was enumerated in 1880. They apparently spent at least a decade just moving up and down the street.

The family is enumerated as James Mulvaney, 48, an Irish-born carpenter and naturalized voter; Bridget, 43, his wife; Thomas, 20; John, 18; Patrick, 15; and Mary A., 13. The children are all Brooklyn-born, and none of them have occupations listed, although 5 years ago, at age 15, Thomas had already been listed as an "Ap. Carpenter." I'd imagine that certainly Thomas and John, and maybe Patrick, were working by this point in time. Looking up the page, however, it seems that only heads of households and other verifiably adult males - men in their 30s and 40s - had their occupations noted. They live in a brick house worth $5,000.

The Best Resource I'd Overlooked

2011-01-30T22:02:00.003-05:00

I got a real surprise when I noticed last night that the Kings County Estate Files database on FamilySearch allows you to "log in to view image." How had I missed that?! I'd used the collection before, but mostly just as an index, not realizing I could see the documents themselves. Well, last night, I logged in, and what a treasure trove I found! A few of the documents I'd already seen, having visited the Kings County Surrogate Court in person, but others were new to me - and had so much information!

The first estate file I found was that of James Mulvaney, my great-great-great-grandfather, who, I learned, died 17 Nov 1885. We'd long had a general timeframe for his death - mid-1880s, and we knew he had survived his wife Bridget, who died in 1883, but this was the first actual date of death I'd found. The list of survivors was more exciting, though. James left "no widow, but three children, to wit John Mulvaney, Patrick Mulvaney, and Mary Ann Mulvaney, all of full age, also James Mulvaney, about 5 years of age, and Thomas Mulvaney, about 3 years of age, children of Thomas Mulvaney, a dec'd son of said dec't."

Everything fits perfectly with what we knew of James's descendants, except that there's much more information about Thomas than ever we'd had before. Knowing he'd died in his 20s and was buried in his birth family's plot, I'd assumed he'd died unmarried and childless, but that appears not to be the case. We had, however, been lead to believe, by Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, that Thomas had died in 1889, which is incompatible with his already having been deceased in 1885. My initial thought is that it's possible that a handwritten "1884" was misread or mistranscribed at some point as "1889," but this is a point that's going to need further research. Maybe the Thomas in the family plot isn't even the same Thomas! The existence of these two sons, James and Thomas, is an exciting lead to follow, too. I'm a descendant of Patrick, I'm in contact with descendants of John, and we're trying to find out what happened to Mary Ann. I didn't even know Thomas's descendants were another avenue to research, but now I'm looking forward to it.

I also found a useful file on the estate of James Madigan, brother of my great-great-grandmother Mary. I'd never had any idea what happened to him, but now I know he died, leaving no wife or children, as a young man in 1894.

Online Resource: Rockland County Messenger

2011-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

I don't have Rockland County ancestors - although my descendants will - but I wanted to highlight an online resource I came across for people researching in Rockland County, NY. The New City Library - which houses our library system's Local History Room, including genealogical resources - is digitizing and making available online editions of the Rockland County Messenger, which was published weekly from 1847-1898.

Not all years are included, and I don't know whether the ones that are missing will be added in the future or are simply unavailable. The system offers both a "browse" and a "search" function. At first I thought that browsing didn't work, but then I realized that you just have to wait for the links to individual issues to load - and that during the time you're waiting, nothing appears to be happening. Trying clicking on a year to browse, and then counting to 15. I know we're not used to that in the internet age, but try to remind yourself how much longer than 15 seconds it would take to drive to New City and scroll through microfilm. Search is faster, but not necessarily better. Whether it's a function of the text recognition technology being used, or is due to the quality of the images, the OCR software seems unfortunately prone to reading text as strings of gibberish. I imagine this would affect search results, so I might recommend browsing during the time periods you're looking at as a supplement to searching.

It appears that the library has plans to make additional collections available in this manner, which could really be a boon for local researchers. Although I don't have any ancestors in Rockland during this time period - my people didn't arrive until the 1950s - I'm enjoying searching on the names of old inhabitants and places I'm familiar with to see what I can find out about the area!

Toner Family, 1875

2011-01-18T01:15:00.001-05:00

When I was at the NYPL a few weeks ago, I found the 1875 NYS Census of the Toner family.

This is important, because it's the first time that I've actually been certain I was seeing young Julia (my great-great-grandmother) as a member of her family. Though I've seen plenty of records connecting my Julia Toner to this Toner family, I had yet to find her listed as a member of this family on a census. Given that she's 8 years old here in 1875, I also find it likely that she is, in fact, the same person as the 2-year-old Judith listed on the 1870 census. The Toner family has a strange relationship with the names Judith and Julia, each of which often pops up where it isn't expected, and disappears from places where it should be. They are sometimes used interchangeably, and sometimes flat-out incorrectly. Here, the family is listed as
Thomas Loughlin, 34, caulker
Eliza Loughlin, 18

Richard Toner, 49, painter
Julia Toner, 46
Mary A. Toner, 21
Louisa Toner, 17
John Toner, 15
Julia Toner, 8

The apparent errors here are Julia Toner, 46, and John Toner, 15. The wife/mother of this family was Mary, not Julia - but I've ceased to be surprised when one of the Toners is incorrectly called Julia. Pretending to be named Julia must have been their favorite hobby - unless this name is a clue to something bigger that I'm just looking right past? The son who would have been 15 in 1875 - indeed, the only son who had survived to 1875 - was named William.

Elizabeth Toner married Thomas Loughlin in 1874. Both here and in 1892, the Loughlins are living with Elizabeth's parent(s). In 1875, they live with both Toners and all of Elizabeth's siblings; in 1892, the Loughlins and their children living with Elizabeth's mother, Mary Tonner.

The Toners have a reliable presence in census records as well as newspapers from 1860 to about 1875, and then everything goes wacky. I can't find anyone but the Loughlins in the 1880 census. In the 1892 NYS Census, the Loughlins are back, this time with Elizabeth's mother Mary Toner living with them - but no mention of any of her other children. I can find Mary Ann Toner married to Thomas Murphy and living with their children, but that's all. Richard is presumably dead. Julia is gone until 1900, and her soon-to-be-husband is single when he's enumerated with his relatives - they didn't marry until the next year. Louisa never again appears in census records that I've seen, but doesn't die until 1918, at which point her death certificate indicated that she had been living uninterrupted in New York City for her entire life. William doesn't appear to show up in 1880 or 1892, but was also apparently a life-long resident of NYC when he died in 1899. Where did they all go?

2011-01-14T19:28:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that I blog in fits and starts. Something always seems to come up, preventing either genealogical research, or blogging about genealogical research, or both. One minute I'm blogging, and the next I'm too busy to blog, because I'm in school, or planning a wedding, or looking for a job, or, finally, gainfully employed! (Does it make me a real, live, grown-up if my job does not allow for blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, or otherwise wasting time on the internet when I'm supposed to be working?) I hope to be able to get back both research and blogging soon, as my schedule adjusts to having 8 hours/day eaten up with the aforementioned gainful employment!

You might be a Genealogist if. . .

2011-01-03T06:00:00.003-05:00

. . . your mother and sisters are planning games for your bridal shower. They ask questions like "Where did Ben go to high school?" "Where did you and Ben meet?" and "Could you give me a list of the names of all the lines in our family and his?"

Might they be planning me a genealogy-inspired shower game?! I can't wait!

A Visit to the NYPL

2010-12-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, I took a somewhat impromptu trip to the New York Public Library's Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History, and Genealogy. This had been one of my goals for the upcoming year, but I wasn't quite as well-prepared as I should have been. I had been heading into Manhattan for a job interview, but, having both forgotten my cell phone and left very early in anticipation of blizzard-induced mass transit delays, I did not know that the interview was cancelled (thanks, blizzard!) until after I was most of the way there. (I had to stop and use a pay phone to call home and have my sister check my messages. Come to think of it, there must be a way to check my voicemail remotely. But I don't know what it is.) I was already most of the way to the city, so I decided to keep going and stop at the library. (I entertained the idea of going all the way to Brooklyn for research, instead, but luckily decided against it. I later learned that that borough hadn't been plowed yet.)

An early start on my New Year's goals! Go me! However, I was armed only with a copy of my resume, and a list of references - none of my genealogy notes, nor my notebooks for taking genealogy notes. I worked primarily from memory, and wasted some time on extra research, like using City Directories to look up addresses I already knew.

I primarily looked at the 1875 New York State Census, but I wasn't able to locate the family I had most wanted to find. One of my goals for the coming year is to find out where Matthew Madigan came from, so I had hoped to find the Madigan family. Finding them living at 85 Luqueer St. would also have provided a clue as to when the house was built. I didn't find them, though, so I suspect they may not have yet moved from Manhattan (where they lived in 1870) to Brooklyn (where they lived in 1880). Unfortunately, the Manhattan returns were destroyed before they could be filmed, and the information no longer exists. (Matthew Madigan did not show up in the 1875 NYC Directory for either Manhattan or Brooklyn.) However, I found a couple of Mulvaney families and the Toners. I was glad to find the Toners, as I haven't been able to find them in either 1880 or 1892.

Spending all day poring over microfilm made me feel like a real live genealogist.

Pay phones and microfilm, all in one day. How very retro of me!

2011 Family History Goals

2010-12-27T15:12:00.000-05:00

I'm not nearly as organized in my research as I should be. For 2010, I'm trying to come up with a few specific research questions to answer, and I intend to devote much of my research time to those questions. I know I'm supposed to focus on one line at a time, but frankly, for me, that's a recipe for getting bored and giving up, so I'm trying to come up with one primary question for each of a few different lines.

1. Who were Matthew Madigan's parents?
2. Who built the house at 85 Luqueer Street?
3. When did Richard Toner die?
4. What killed Patricia Mary Gillan Chase Marra and her daughters, Patricia and Michele Elizabeth Chase, on New Year's Eve, 1947?
5. What happened to Mary Mulvany?
6. Where was Mary D'Ingeo Gatto born?
7. Who were Hugh Quinn's parents?

To answer these questions, I would like to:

Finally visit my local Family History Center
Visit the Brooklyn Historical Society
Visit the NYPL's Milstein Division
Visit the various research rooms in the downtown Brooklyn county government complex
Devote some time to browsing the Brazil Catholic Church Records and the Brazil, Sao Paolo Burial Records at FamilySearch.org
Familiarize myself with Florida genealogy

Family History Related Personal Goals:

Get a job, so I can once again afford to order the records I need
Create vital records for my descendants to find! (namely, a marriage license and marriage record, this coming April!)

The genealogy of Christ: he is conceived and born of a virgin

2010-12-25T01:53:00.000-05:00

In honor of today's feast, I reproduce here the beginning of the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judas and his brethren. And Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar. And Phares begot Esron. And Esron begot Aram. And Aram begot Aminadab. And Aminadab begot Naasson. And Naasson begot Salmon. And Salmon begot Booz of Rahab. And Booz begot Obed of Ruth. And Obed begot Jesse.
And Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias. And Solomon begot Roboam. And Roboam begot Abia. And Abia begot Asa. And Asa begot Josaphat. And Josaphat begot Joram. And Joram begot Ozias. And Ozias begot Joatham. And Joatham begot Achaz. And Achaz begot Ezechias. And Ezechias begot Manasses. And Manasses begot Amon. And Amon begot Josias.
And Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon. And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel. And Salathiel begot Zorobabel. And Zorobabel begot Abiud. And Abiud begot Eliacim. And Eliacim begot Azor. And Azor begot Sadoc. And Sadoc begot Achim. And Achim begot Eliud. And Eliud begot Eleazar. And Eleazar begot Mathan. And Mathan begot Jacob.
And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations, from Abraham to David, are fourteen generations. And from David to the transmigration of Babylon, are fourteen generations: and from the transmigration of Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations.
Matthew 1:1-17

Douay-Rheims Bible

Merry Christmas!

Dear Genea-Santa, I've got some ideas for you

2010-12-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Dear Genea-Santa,

Everyone else wrote to you last week, but I've got a letter of a different sort. No requests, just a suggestion. Maybe you could get some institutions to work on it with you for next year.

Wouldn't it be fabulous if records repositories offered gift certificates?! I'm sure I'm not the only family historian to have the experience I've had this season. You're asked, "What do you want for Christmas?" And you simply can't think of anything you need. "But isn't there anything you'd like?" Well, there's great-great-grandma Mary King's death certificate, available at the NYC Department of Health . . . or Aunt Agnes's death certificate, which has to be ordered from Albany . . . or any of a dozen other records you know the location of, but haven't gotten your hands on yet. It's not quite the same as asking for a pair of boots from Nordstrom, or a jacket that has to be ordered from L.L.Bean. And you kind of get funny looks when you ask for them. (I know, because I tried it this year!)

But if there were a way to make hundred-year-old birth certificates available as gifts that lay people (you know, non-genealogists) could understand, maybe they'd take advantage of it, to our advantage! Genea-Santa, you're a genealogist. You understand the kind of excitement that would greet, say, a gift certificate good for 2 birth certificates and a death certificate from your local archives. What genealogist wouldn't love to pull out of his stocking a gift certificate for $50 towards marriage records from an ancestral village?

So work on that, Genea-Santa, because I know what I'd love to find under the tree next year!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Katie

Help me do a good deed this holiday season

2010-12-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

This is not about family history. But it is about family - about finding a beautiful little boy a family for the future.

I've recently become aware of a wonderful charity called Reece's Rainbow. A 501(c)3 non-profit, Reece's Rainbow raises grant money for the international adoption of children with Down Syndrome. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, babies with any physical or mental disability are often abandoned to orphanages soon after birth. Facing almost no possibility of being adopted in their own countries, they are sent to mental institutions at age 4, 5, or 6. Conditions in these institutions are terrible (here is a Human Rights Watch report on Russian institutions; conditions are similar throughout Eastern Europe), and many children do not survive. Many of these children with special needs have only one chance for a long, healthy, and productive life - or any life at all - and that one chance is international adoption.

There are many, many families out there who would love to adopt one of these little children, but the high price tag of adoption - it can cost $20K or more - makes it impossible. This holiday season, I have signed up to raise money for one specific little boy on Reece's Rainbow - Colby. You can see his picture in the icon on the right sidebar. He is a beautiful blond-haired, four-year-old boy with Down Syndrome who, because of his age, is at significant risk of being transferred to an institution soon. Having a grant fund of any size significantly increases the chances that Colby will be adopted, and will not spend the rest of his life languishing in a mental institution.

I don't do things like this often, but this is important. Colby's life depends on it. This holiday season, can you find it in your heart to make a donation to his grant fund?

If you click on the icon in the sidebar, it will take you to the Reece's Rainbow site, where you can follow the "click here" link and scroll down to find Colby's name and picture. Click "add," and a donation to Colby's grant fund will be added to your cart, seen on the upper right side of the page. (The default donation is $35, but you should be able to increase or decrease this amount on the next page.) All donations are tax deductible.

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do."

~Helen Keller

Update: Because I have neither the experience nor the ability to convey the desperate need these children face, I'm linking to a post by a woman who recently adopted a son from an Eastern European institution. The heart-wrenching conditions she describes are what face these orphans if they are transferred out of the baby houses. May I suggest you read The Sad Reality by Julia at Micah Six Eight.

Wedding Photos

2010-12-20T06:00:00.005-05:00

This post goes out primarily to my cousins - distant and not-so-distant - who may read this blog. Ben and I have decided that we'd like to include our* family history obsession in our wedding celebration, and so we're collecting the wedding pictures of our direct antecedents to incorporate into our decor. We have most pictures of our parents, grandparents, and some great-grandparents, but we'd like to collect as many as possible.

Some pictures we're looking for, if they exist - (some of these predate the widespread availability of photography, but it can't hurt to ask) :

Marilyn Mulcahy & William O'Hara

Veronica Mulvaney & Joseph Mulcahy

Mary Madigan & Michael Mulcahy

Margaret Sullivan & Matthew Madigan

Johanna Roche & Matthew Madigan (Johanna's not a direct antecedent, but I'll take what I can get)

Margaret Ryan & James Mulcahy

Julia Toner & Patrick Mulvaney

Bridget Rothwell & James Mulvaney

Mary Cullen & Richard Toner

Mary Quinn & John O'Hara

Mary King & John O'Hara

Bridget Hopkins & Michael King

Margaret C---- & Nicholas King

Bridget Kearney & Patrick O'Hara

Mary Gillen & Hugh Quinn

Mary Nora Grimes & Martin Gillen

If you happen to have photos - preferably wedding photos, but other photos of the couples named would be appreciated, too - please contact me at kathleen.scarlett.ohara AT gmail DOT com.

*we're getting married. I can start saying "we" are obsessed with genealogy now, right?

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Stockings

2010-12-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

My family had a variety of different stockings growing up. My dad's was the one he had as a boy; my mom's was a traditional looking red stocking; mine was white with a print, and Laura's, similarly, was red with a print; Anna's was a traditional red and white, like mom's.

Everyone's has their names on it. I had never loved the way the name on mine looked, so, at maybe 12 or so, I tried to rewrite it on the opposite side. That side came out worse. While I like my stocking, of course, it never 100% lived up to my ideals of what a stocking could be.

This is supposed to be the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, but I've got the ghost of Christmas future hanging around me these days, what with the wedding and the rest of my life coming up.

Ben and I recently discussed what to do about Christmas stockings next year, for our first married Christmas. Do we take our stockings from our parents' houses? Buy new ones? Neither one seemed right. Just buying new stockings seemed so . . . callous. How could you just replace your Christmas stocking? But taking our childhood stockings from our parents' houses seemed a little bit like, I don't know, tearing our childhood families apart. It made me sad to imagine just four stockings hanging on my parents' mantle. The stocking family would look like it had lost a child.

We came up with another option. Replacing our childhood stockings at Target seemed soulless, but I thought we could invest new stockings with lots of soul if they were homemade. I'm going to spend some portion of the next year crocheting us stockings! I may pick up some Christmas colored yarn at some after Christmas sales, or I may just use the red and white yarn I happen to have at home. At the moment, I'm leaning towards using this pattern from Crochet Today magazine. The beauty part of it is that if I vary the orders of the colors, the stockings can match without being identical, plus I can always make additional matching-but-not-identical stockings in the future, should our stocking family ever need to expand!

Brooklyn House History

2010-12-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

I've long had it in the back of my mind that I really should research the history of 85 Luquer Street in Brooklyn, the house where my great-grandfather, Joseph Mulcahy, was born. I've been told that it, along with 89 Luquer Street next door, was built by his grandfather, Matthew Madigan, but I cannot yet prove it. The family was living there as early as 1880; census records don't indicate whether they owned or rented until the 1920 census indicates that Mary Madigan Mulcahy, Matthew's daughter and Joesph's mother, owned it.

85 Luquer Street, at the far left

Now that my interest regarding the property has been peaked yet again (by our friendly family ghost, perhaps?), I'm getting interested in seeing what I can learn about it.

I've used the NYC Department of Buildings and Department of Finance websites to determine the BBL, or Borough, Block, and Lot number, necessary for finding any information about a NYC building. (It's 3/373/52.) Each of these websites allows you to search for different documents relating to a property; however, the documents available online date to well after my family's occupancy of the house. Deeds and mortgages prior to 1966 should be available at the Brooklyn City Register's Office, so that's one step in my journey towards the history of 85 Luquer St.

Another step is going to be to go to the Brooklyn Historical Society to look at their Brooklyn Land Conveyance Collection.

Now, to get to Brooklyn one of these days!

Search Terms - "85 luquer"

2010-12-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

I was just glancing over the search terms that led people to this blog over the past month, and a curious string of them caught my eye:

tragic "85 luquer" street brooklyn ny
death "85 luquer" street brooklyn ny
ghost "85 luquer" street
obituary "85 luquer" street brooklyn ny

Clearly all entered by the same searcher, but Google doesn't tell me any more than that. I know of several 85 Luquer Street deaths - either deaths that happened there, or residents thereof who died elsewhere - but I don't know of any particular tragedies. 85 Luquer Street was the ancestral home of my Madigan and Mulcahy lines, rumored to have been built by my great-great-great-grandfather Matthew Madigan.

A list of death:
-Margaret (Sullivan) Madigan, 1880-1888 - died while a resident, location unknown
-Matthew Madigan, 1892 - died while a resident, location unknown
-Matthew Madigan, Jr., 1892-3 - died while a resident, location unknown
-Josephine Madigan, 1892-3 - died while a resident, location unknown
-unknown Madigan - possibly died a resident, location unknown
(That's probably the most tragic string of deaths I know of at 85 Luquer. Margaret died between 1880 and 1888, and Matthew remarried and had 3-4 more children. In the 1892 NYS Census (enumerated 16 Feb. 1892), he's listed with the children from his first marriage, his second wife, and 3 young children from his second marriage. In September, he died. By the time his estate was administered in April 1893, 2 of those young children, Matthew Jr. and Josephine, weren't listed among his heirs. 1892 was certainly a tragic year for Matthew's wife, Johanna Roche Madigan. But I never suspected anything more tragic than low life expectancy and high infant mortality.)
-Stillborn Baby Mulcahy, c. - I've been told that one of the Mulcahy children had a twin who was stillborn and/or died at birth
-Michael Mulcahy, 1917 - died at French Hospital while a resident of 85 Luquer St.
-Mary Madigan Mulcahy, 1927 - died at Holy Family Hospital while a resident of 85 Luquer St.

Of course, 85 Luquer St. had several other apartments, as well, and there could have been tragedies happening around the Madigan and Mulcahy families that I am not yet aware of. I'd love to know what led the searcher to know or suspect that there were tragedies or ghosts at 85 Luquer!

I don't believe in ghosts, but I admit I did get very excited by the possibility that one of my ancestors is still hanging around the old Brooklyn homestead!

Genealogy in the News

2010-12-07T18:12:00.000-05:00

(make that "Genealogy in the 'News'")

From today's Rhymes with Orange comic strip:

Off-Topic: Wedding Dress for Sale

2010-11-18T21:59:00.001-05:00

Know anyone getting married? Before I bought my wedding dress, I bought another dress that I've decided not to wear. I'm finally getting around to trying to resell it. It's a new, perfect condition, size 8, ivory, strapless, beaded wedding gown by Emerald Bridal. You can bid on it on eBay here! Tell your friends!

Marriage of Nora Agnes Quinn and Bill Maines

2010-11-11T01:57:00.000-05:00

Some time ago, I was contacted by a fellow researcher who thought we might be related via the Gillan/Gillen family.

There were certainly a lot of coincidences. Both of our Gillan lines were from the same area in County Mayo, Ireland. Other relatives were able to give me a noncommittal "I think that family were cousins." It appeared that my great-great-grandfather, Hugh Quinn (who was married to Mary Gillan) witnessed the naturalization of Patrick Gillan, patriarch of the other Gillan line. It also appears that Mary's brother, Martin, witnessed the marriage of one of Patrick's children.

My Gillans and his kept popping up in each others' records. But then we encountered a very unexpected connection. My correspondent mentioned that one of Patrick Gillan's children had married a Maines, and I mentioned - off-hand, not thinking this was important information - that one of Hugh and Mary's children had also married a Maines.

The information we already possessed made it pretty clear that Mary Gillan Quinn's daughter Nora Agnes had married Ellen Gillen Maines's son William Augustus. The real question is whether or not they were related before they were married.

I went ahead and ordered their marriage license and certificate.

William Augustus Maines of Saugerties, NY, a postal clerk, married Nora Quinn of 924 E. 32nd St., Brooklyn, NY, on 3 July 1932. They were married, in Brooklyn, by Fr. John Fox, whose given address (3624 Glenwood Rd.) indicates that he was a priest at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, which is probably where they were married.

Their marriage was witnessed by Terrence Quinn, Nora's brother, and Mary P. Gillen, who is clearly related to one or both of them!

I contacted the Brooklyn Diocese to find out whether they would have needed a dispensation to marry if they were related by blood. They would, as long as they were third cousins or closer! Of course, I have no idea of the degree to which they may have been related, so I'll have to request a search for the dispensation to find out if it exists. First, though, I need proof of death. I have an obituary for Bill Maines, d. 1962, which will suffice for proof that he is deceased. Next, I have to order a death certificate for Nora, who doesn't appear to have been mentioned in the newspaper when she died. I have a general idea of when she died (early-mid 1940s), but no idea where. (She was living in Saugerties, and was buried there, but a search for a death certificate in the town came back "no record found." Next, I have to look elsewhere in NYS.) Then I'll be able to request a search for a dispensation.

(But I'm not going to do it yet. From now through Christmas, I'll be foregoing genealogical records so as to be able to donate what they would cost to Colby's Angel Tree fund. Could you sacrifice a record or a luxury this month to give a child a chance at a new life?)

Genealogy at a Family Reunion

2010-11-01T21:04:00.000-04:00

I have the good fortune to have a cousin and a second cousin who recently decided we needed to get together. All of us. So my Lanzillotto relatives will be having an impromptu family reunion in a couple of weeks. And I've offered to bring the genealogy! (plus a side dish and a case of beer) Here are a few of my ideas:

1) Make copies of particularly interesting family records for people to peruse.
2) Make copies of family photos to display.
3) Encourage others to bring photographs - and documents, if they have them. (I may keep my printer in the car in case anything shows up that demands being copied and/or scanned.)
4) Put together a family tree to display, with advance help from relatives. I'm definitely going to include the generations from my grandparents to their grandparents, but I don't know whether or not the younger generations will be able to fit on something I make by hand. Off the top of my head, my mother's generation is at least 20-25 cousins; my generation is 42 that I can think of, but probably more; the generation after mine is 8 that I know of, but that's because we're only just getting started!

What other ideas are there for involving genealogy in family reunion?

Personalizing History

2010-10-31T15:00:00.001-04:00

If genealogy is good at one thing, it's personalizing history. It gives people today a sense of ownership of yesterday.

This morning, I was browsing TIME magazine, and (being entirely uninterested in the political races which took up most of the issue) read a short article titled "Brief History: Cholera Outbreaks." I got to the line that read "An 1866 New York City epidemic led to the creation of the city's board of health, the first in the U.S.," and my reaction was "That's our cholera epidemic! The one that killed Julia and James Thomas!"

Ownership is probably not the right word, and maybe I shouldn't be using a possessive pronoun. But I felt an immediate sense of recognition, and connection to the epidemic of 1866, as well as a very real awareness that, while an article about historic and current cholera epidemics might seem academic, we're actually talking about real diseases that killed - and continue to kill - real people. Julia was 15 and James Thomas only 2 1/2 when they died.

"Boring"!?

2010-10-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

2 Years

2010-10-26T14:02:00.000-04:00

There I was, browsing Twitter idly while trying to convince myself that I really should get up and exercise, or do something productive before too much of this day got away from me, when I was surprised to notice that I was reading the name of my own blog without even taking it in. I did a double take. Sure enough, geneabloggers was wishing me a happy blogiversary! I've been paying so little attention to my blog lately that I hadn't even noticed that the 2-year anniversary of my first post was coming up.

A lot has changed since then. This blog was initially public, then was soon made private, because I thought genealogical information was too identifiable to be shared. Then it was made public again, partially as (often successful) "cousin bait," partially because I wanted to be able to be a part of the genealogy blogging community, partially because I was afraid the password protection was scaring off family who might otherwise enjoy it on a casual basis, and partially because I realized I had to trust that my relatives are all too smart to use their mothers' maiden names as passwords. (Right? You're all too smart for that, right?) I've expanded the family lines I research, having started with my father's maternal ancestors and progressed to the point that I'm now researching all of my ancestral lines - or trying to. (Some are easier than others, as always!) I've met cousins online, collaborated, shared what I know and learned from what they've shared. I've finished grad school, moved to NY, started looking for jobs (anyone know anyone who's hiring at a museum/library/archive in NYC?), gotten engaged, and started planning a wedding. And yes, I've gotten so busy I don't devote as much of my time to genealogy research or genealogy blogging as I'd like to. I hope this is a short-lived condition, and that I'll soon be back to posting more than a couple of times per month.

Thanks for a great two years, friends!

"Secrets"

2010-10-21T22:31:00.000-04:00

I got feedback on the post Honoring (the wishes of) the Dead, not all of it in the comments, and it seems that everyone thinks I should share. (Of course, everyone who responded is also related to me and the lines I'm researching in some way, and is thus rather invested in outcome.) I have decided that I think I will share . . . but I will only share something I know. In other words, you'll have to wait until I find a primary source document. (The reference I have is from about 15 years after the fact.) No speculation. It'll take some research, some time, and maybe some money to find the necessary primary source document, but I'll get there eventually. (Maybe not soon. I've got a wedding to plan. Not much of my free time goes to genealogy these days.) I'm also not telling - yet - what branch of my research this relates to. But I promise you, it's not some big scandalous secret. It's fairly mundane, actually. You'll be bored when you find out, trust me. But I'll share.

Vincenzo Cianciotta, Caduto in Guerra

2010-09-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

Wednesday morning, I went to my grandmother's house, and she shared with me some information about her side of the family. She mentioned that her mother's older brother, Vincenzo Cianciotta, had died "in the war." (The generation made me assume WWI; I was right.) She also mentioned that the town had named a street after him. I'd jotted down all the names she gave me (I hadn't previously known the names of any of my great-grandmother's siblings), and when I got home, I googled the one who had apparently had a street named after him.

The town of Bitetto, Bari, in Puglia, Italy, lists on their website all of the streets in town that they named after fallen soldiers in any war, listed alphabetically. You can find a brief biography of Vincenzo Cianciotta - in Italian - at the bottom of the page for Cianciotta.

Roughly translated, it says:

Born at Bitetto, 16 January 1884, ID number 11587, deceased 8 October 1916 at Vizintini, dying at 11 am at 32 years of age. Son of Saverio and of Arcangela Scigliuto, married to Antonia Occhiogrosso and father of one daughter, residing at via Barberio 19. Died following a bullet wound to the head. Buried at Vizintini. Soldier of the 9th Infantry Regiment.

(I hope that's more or less accurate. My Italian was once fairly good, but I haven't used it in 2-3 years now. I should probably brush up if I'm going to start looking more closely at my Italian ancestors.)

From what I can figure out, Vizintini (or Visintini) is a hamlet in the town of Doberdo del Lago in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which was involved in the Battles of the Isonzo. Vincenzo's date of death falls a couple of days before the Eighth Battle of the Isonzo (10-12 October 1916), so it seems that he was either injured during the Seventh Battle of the Isonzo (14-17 September 1916) and did not die for nearly a month, or he was injured and killed between battles.

I'm going to see what I can learn about requesting Italian military records.

Honoring (the wishes of) the Dead

2010-09-15T21:43:00.000-04:00

I was at the Records Room of the Kings County Surrogate's Court one morning last week. I found a piece of information I'd been wondering about for almost as long as I've been researching my family history. I can't be 100% sure that the fact is accurate, as it's not a primary source - but it's closer to it than anything else I'd come across, so I have a decent amount of confidence in its accuracy.

Now, the reason that this one fact has eluded me is because the person it concerned didn't wish it to be known, but rather, took great pains to avoid revealing it while alive. And this has always left me a bit conflicted. If I were to discover this fact, and know it with any degree of certainty, would I share it? (I'm not sure I've reached that degree of certainty yet, so I don't think I'd be spreading this information yet, anyway.) I've never gone looking for a primary source for this fact, precisely because I wasn't sure what I'd do next. On the one hand, it seems inappropriate to keep it from curious relatives, especially those who have shared lots of information with me over the years. But would that be the right thing to do? I know that the dead have no expectation of privacy, but I wonder if disrespecting our ancestors' wishes amounts to disrespecting our ancestors. If I had no respect for my forefathers, I would not be occupied in the genealogical pursuit, now, would I?

Do I share?

Well, Sweet Heart

2010-08-26T06:00:00.005-04:00

I want to highlight a blog that I've been enjoying lately. Charlotte at Well, Sweet Heart is transcribing and blogging the love letters of her great-grandparents, and they make a terrifically sweet and poignant read. I can't think of anyone who would appreciate this project more than geneabloggers and geneablog readers, so do go check it out!

Tombstone Tuesday: Mulvaney Family Gravesite

2010-08-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

Last year, I took a trip to Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn to see a variety of family graves.

This is the stone on the grave of my great grandparents, Veronica Mulvaney (d. 1982) and Joseph Mulcahy (d. 1970), as well as my great-great-grandparents, Julia Toner (d. 1938) and Patrick Mulvaney (d. 1919). Also listed on the stone are several of Julia and Patrick's sons, William and Harold (d. 1933, both of them).

My information on the grave had come courtesy of my uncle, John Griffin, who had requested information on the plot a number of years ago.

There's additional information in this letter. The plot was purchased by Patrick Mulvaney and his brother John, and I believe that the Gertrude Mulvaney, who died in 1890 at 1 year old, was John's daughter. (John later had another daughter named Gertrude, this one living to adulthood.) Mary Hughes is a mystery; no one has any idea who she was. Raymond Mulvaney was Julia and Patrick's young son, who died as a toddler. (He shows up on the 1905 NYS Census.) I believe Patrick's entire body is buried here, not just his leg. The date of burial corresponds with his date of death, and it's been suggested that he went into the hospital to have his gangrenous foot amputated, but the surgery ended up killing him. Arrangements would have been made to have his leg buried, but, sadly, his entire body needed to be buried instead.

Recently, though, one of my new Mulvaney cousins called Holy Cross, and got information that indicated that neither the gravestone nor the letter pictured above is complete. Holy Cross told her that there are four additional bodies interred in the plot, as well. These, it seems, were initially interred elsewhere, and were moved to this plot after John and Patrick bought it c. 1890. Thus, the information on most of them is spottier, but they were listed as:

Bridget Mulvaney, 53
James Mulvaney, 60
Thomas Mulvaney, 27 (3-1-1889)
James Mulvaney, 8

We've yet to find death certificates for anyone besides Bridget, although I'm looking.

You Might be a Genealogist if. . .

2010-08-19T01:35:00.000-04:00

. . . you've ever gotten a message from a significant other that reads "Happy early anniversary- I renewed our ancestry.com subscription for another year!"

Bridget Mulvaney Death Certificate - 8 February 1883

2010-07-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

Even though I've been far too busy for genealogy lately (there's not much time for genealogy when you're finishing grad school, planning a wedding, and hunting for a job!) I had the good fortune to be contacted, separately, by a couple different Mulvaney family researchers. I benefitted greatly from their research, and gave them everything I knew, even though I haven't had time to put much new effort in lately. Then I put them in touch with each other.

As a result, I have some new material to post - for which I can't claim any credit - from the Mulvaney side of the family. Sometimes, genealogy finds you!

This is, we believe, the death certificate of Bridget Rothwell Mulvaney. She died on 8 February 1883, in her 50s; the age given reads either 53, 55, or 58. The age she most often gave in census years corresponds with a birthdate of around 1832, which would put her at 51 in 1883. She's female, white, and married, which means that her husband James must have died after 1883. I've been unable to find him in the 1892 NYS Census or the 1900 Federal Census, so I should probably be looking for his death between 1883 and 1892. She's Irish-born and has been in the US for what appears to read "30" years. (That corresponds with immigration around 1853, which is feasible, as their oldest son, Thomas, was US-born around 1855. (However, I just reminded myself, there was possibly an older child, a girl named Mary Ann, who was baptized in NY in 1852, and seems to have died before 1860.)) She has lived in NYC those entire 30 years. Both of her parents were Irish-born, unsurprisingly. Her place of death was 135 King St., Ward 12, Brooklyn. The only address we ever had for the Mulvaneys was 194 King Street, which is mere blocks away. Had they moved? Or was one of her children living nearby, and she died at his house? If the latter, she'd probably been there for some time. We see from the remainder of the certificate that she'd been ill - with paralysis and asthemia - for 4 months before she died, since October 7, 1882.

More later on where Bridget went next!

Baby Pictures

2010-07-21T16:33:00.001-04:00

My cousin John just sent me this picture of my great-grandfather, Joseph Mulcahy, and his younger brother Michael.

Joseph is on the left, slightly older and with the adorable curls (so that is where my sister Anna gets her curly hair!) - and is that a riding crop he's holding?! Joseph was born 3 September 1896, and Michael was born 11 March 1899, so I'm guessing this picture was taken in late 1899, maybe right around when Joseph turned 3.

Joseph and Michael were the 4th and 5th in a family that, at the time, included 5 children. I'm not sure where their older siblings are in this photo - in 1899, Margaret would have been about 9, James 7, and Matthew 6. The picture includes only the babies of the family.

What's most interesting to me is that Papa's face really seems never to have changed. Even at the age of 3, you can see the very strong resemblance to his pictures as an adult. (Examples here and here.)

Genealogical Intuition - Can You Trust Your Gut?

2010-06-10T06:00:00.003-04:00

The blessing and the bane of the family historian's toolkit. Intuition. That feeling. Just knowing. It's happened to me twice in the past couple weeks, and while it was kind of exciting ("That's what I thought! I knew I was right!"), it was also a little disconcerting. I knew I was right? No. Now I know I was right. Before, I just thought I was right.

Genealogists spend a lot of time talking about standards of evidence. And yet, it's so hard to ignore that feeling that keeps pulling you towards that one particular record when you have no indication that the individual in that record is any more likely to be the ancestor you're searching for than any of the other people who have (or don't have) his name.

1) I explained recently how I'd been drawn to a particular John O'Hara in Ancestry.com's Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in New York City, 1792-1989. And it seems I was right! Now, I wouldn't have used an extracted index to add information to a database or family tree. But some of us grad students without full time jobs live in genealogical poverty and don't have the freedom to send away for - and pay for - records we aren't sure pertain to our research. Given that every incorrect record I order is one correct record I can't afford, would I have been justified in paying for that record just because I thought it was the right one? (Remember, nothing in the record gave me any reason to think it was the right one. I just had a feeling.)

2) I was recently looking for my fiance's relatives in the 1901 Irish Census online. We knew that his great-grandmother's name was Bridget Theresa Healy, and that she was variously recorded as Bridget, Theresa, and Tess. Between census records, vital records, and a family diary, information indicated that she was "of Waterville, County Kerry, Ireland," her parents were James Healey and Bridget Sullivan, she was born around 1884 and immigrated around 1904. So she should have been in Ireland in 1901. But we couldn't find her! (Because she developed tuberculosis and spent time in a sanatarium before dying young, she's identifiable on few US Censuses, and her daughter, Ben's grandmother, knew little about her.) Ben was unconvinced by the widowed Bridget Healy, a woman old enough to have been Bridget Sullivan Healy, who was living with several of her kids - no Bridget Theresa - near but not in Waterville, but I had a feeling. He preferred a couple of other Bridget Healys, of Bridget Theresa's age, who didn't match certain other details. I had no particular reason to think I was right - there were several Healy families in the Waterville area, some of whom had daughters of the proper age but parents with the wrong names, or vice versa - and literally the only thing we knew about the Healys was that Bridget Sullivan Healy had to be old enough to have borne a child in the mid-1880s. It's pretty easy to fall into the right age range when that range is 40 years wide. We didn't have a lot to go by.

Should I, or should I not, have insisted on taking the Waterville family most seriously? I certainly wanted to. I was so sure, but without any evidence.

Eventually, we discovered the Church Records Project at the Irish Genealogy website. We were able to find extracted baptismal records for Bridget Theresa Healy and several other children of James Healy and Bridget Sullivan. From there, I could match up the names and ages of the other children born to the couple to the children still living at home with Bridget in 1901. Ben doesn't like it when I point out that I'm right, but in this case, well, I wasn't wrong.

Can genealogical intuition be a useful tool? Or is it glorified guessing that can lead you down dangerously wrong paths with false confidence?

This American Life: Conventions

2010-06-09T11:02:00.001-04:00

Today at work, I was listening to an episode of This American Life. While it's not at all related to genealogy, I thought the episode, Conventions, might be interesting to those of you geneabloggers and others who will be at the SCGS Jamboree this weekend! You can download it on iTunes for $0.99 or stream it online for free at thisamericanlife.org. It might make for some fun listening as you travel to the Jamboree this weekend, and it sure made me wish I'd be joining you!

Genetic Genealogy

2010-06-04T06:00:00.012-04:00

I love finding genealogy in unexpected places. On one of the non-genealogy blogs I often read, I found this story last week. From Conversion Diary:

A few years ago my family was asked to participate in a study ofHNPCC, a genetic mutation that causes colon cancer. My dad's family is known to carry it, so some researchers who combine genetics with genealogy wanted to get info from us to find out more about how this mutation has spread. Thorough the study we found out that my dad has it (hence his colon cancer 25 years ago); I had a 50/50 chance of inheriting it, but I didn't get it (whew!).

What I found most interesting was the fact that they've traced all cases of HNPCC back to one man who came to America from Hesse, Germany in the early 1700's. All of us who have or have parents who have the HNPCC mutation are related to one another. I've seen the researcher's chart (names omitted) that shows all these thousands of people spread out all over the country, all going back to this one guy. I found that fascinating.

I hesitate to call it a "cool" story - because of the unfortunate genetic propensity to colon cancer in her family - but I think it's amazing that the researchers were able to determine exactly where that mutation first occurred, and in whom it first occurred, not to mention the relationships of all the people he passed it on to! As a family historian, though, I just think it's a shame that the descendancy chart she saw had names omitted!

Does that say what I think it says?!

2010-06-03T09:59:00.001-04:00

There was a while when I was searching for the passenger manifest showing my great-grandfather, John O'Hara, returning to the US as a child after his family had spent a few years in Ireland. There were a couple of possible John O'Haras in the right time period, but I wasn't ever sure just which one was him. The most likely one showed up on the passenger manifest all by his lonesome, 4 years old, without any parents or younger brothers listed nearby, though it was noted that he was "going with father + mother." I thought I'd looked through all the pages of that manifest to find his father (and the rest of his family?) but either I meant to but didn't, or I missed them when I did. When it finally occurred to me that I should be searching on his brother Eugene's name instead, I got a hit, for Eugene, on the same ship, which sailed in 1902. The family of 5 is listed on 3 different pages.

Eugene and Patrick are on the first page of the manifest, almost obscured by damage:

As I said, Grandpa JJ is all on his own page:

And their parents, John and Mary, are on yet another page:

Now, it was months ago that I found these records, but it wasn't until last night - I wanted to look at their "place of last residence" to see if I could find them in the 1901 Irish Census - that I looked particularly closely at just what this manifest said. Next to John Sr.'s name, it says in big letters that he's a US Citizen. Written directly underneath that, though (and I mean underneath it, like the handwriting overlaps, not underneath it like on the next line), it says when he became a citizen!

I can't necessarily read the whole thing, but it says something like "Cit. paper of #29 something something Kings Co., NY, Oct 14/98."

Wait, for real? All this time, the exact date of John O'Hara's naturalization had been sitting right there in my files and I hadn't noticed it? I'd been looking at naturalization indexes this week, and, as per usual, the number of John O'Haras who had naturalized in NYC between the late 1880s and 1900 was staggering. (I can't even imagine how people research Smiths, when I have so much trouble with O'Haras!) There was one that seemed particularly likely, but I couldn't be sure and didn't know if I wanted to take the chance on ordering it. This morning, I searched on Ancestry for John O'Hara naturalized in 1898, and lo and behold, that John O'Hara that I'd been tempted by? That John O'Hara was naturalized 14 October 1898!

I think it's safe to say that I'll hesitate no longer!

1901 Irish Census

2010-06-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

The 1901 Irish Census has gone live at the website of the National Archives of Ireland! I know what I'll be doing tonight!

The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar

2010-05-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

This morning I happened upon another episode of This American Life that was all about genealogy! In "The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar,"a woman starts to investigate a family story she grew up with, with very interesting results. It's a really great story, complete with newspaper clippings, court files, finding relatives on the internet, and everything else genealogists enjoy! You see what happens when you're nerdy enough to search "archives" in a radio show's archives? (Wrap your mind around that!) You can download the episode for $0.99 on iTunes, or stream it for free from thisamericanlife.org.

(As a disclaimer, it is a story that demonstrates how genealogy can be "another reason for your family to hate you," which we know, of course, is usually not the case. But when it does happen, it's probably related to stories as cool, as involved, and thus as crucial to relatives' sense of self as this one.)

1905 NYS Census - Loughlin/Renehan

2010-05-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is the 1905 NYS Census of the Loughlin-Renehan family. Julia Mulvaney's sister Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan lived at 213 Conover St., with her (second) husband, Thomas Renehand and several of her children (from her first marriage), Thomas, John E., William, and Kate Loughlin. Thomas is 52, Elizabeth is 48, Thomas Loughlin is 23, John is 21, William is 19, and Kate is 11. Thomas Renehan is a day laborer, Elizabeth does housework, Thomas and John E. Loughlin are "Machinist Help," and Kate is "at school." I wonder whether Thomas and John E. are "help" for their uncle, Julia's husband Patrick, who was a machinist. (It appears that there were several machinists on their block as well; it wasn't necessarily Patrick they were working with.) There's a 9 in parentheses next to "at school" by Kate's name. When I saw numbers in parentheses on the census return for the Mulvaneys, I assumed they referred to the grade the child was in; the numbers over there matched up to what grades the kids would have been in. There, the 11-year-olds (James and his cousin Thomas) have the number 4 in parentheses. Eleven-year-olds in 4th grade is appropriate, but 11-year-old Kate certainly wasn't in the 9th grade. What do you think these numbers mean?

Census Taking, History Making

2010-05-16T17:58:00.000-04:00

In this census year, I think we're all gaining a little insight into the ways our ancestors were enumerated in prior censuses. The Census Bureau had our 2-apartment building listed as containing 3 residences, so even though my roommates and I sent back our census form weeks ago, we just got a visit from a very nice, but slightly flustered census taker. (She started to fill in our information on the form for the house next door before I corrected her.)

The experience left me wondering what's going to happen when our descendants go looking for us in the 2010 census 72 years from now. I acted as the informant who said that the upstairs apartment was vacant, and they already had our response for our ground floor apartment, but I had to provide the information for my roommates and I all over again because something had to be filled out for the third (non-existent) residence. She included a note that the basement and the ground floor were one apartment, but now that they have our information twice over, what happens?

Are we counted twice? There must be provisions in place to avoid that, considering that getting an accurate count is the whole point of the census.

If they only "count" one return, is it the one we sent in for the ground floor apartment, or the one I just helped her fill out, for the non-existant third residence? I sure hope it's the former, because I am not the most reliable source of information for my two roommates. I couldn't remember the birthday of one of them at all. I was pretty sure it was August, but didn't supply even that information because I wasn't positive. I thought I was positive about the other's birthday, but nope, I was off by two days. Imagine the damage I may have done to some genealogist in the future!

And what if we do get counted twice, or at least if both returns are kept, as they probably will be? We're all familiar with the phenomenon of finding an ancestor twice in two different places in a given year's census, but what happens when you find an ancestor twice in the same place in one year's census? Does the universe implode?

Besides, since my name is listed as the informant for the upstairs apartment, my descendants could one day find me listed on the returns for all 3 of the 2 apartments in this building!

Treasure Chest Thursday - My Grandmother's Wedding Dress

2010-05-13T06:00:00.005-04:00

(Cross-posted at When Hoya Met Saxa)

When I was at home last weekend, I tried on my very first wedding dress, the dress my grandmother wore when she married my grandfather in the 1950s. It's satin with lace, and it was worn by both Grandma and, in the 1980s, my aunt Linda. (The lace isn't original, but was replaced when Linda wore it, and is so yellowed that it would have to be replaced again if I were to wear it.)

I'm going to keep shopping around, doing some of my shopping in relatives' closets and some of it in bridal boutiques. But here's dress #1.

Ben, the rest of this post is not for your eyes.

I learned a couple of things when I tried it on.

The first is that I don't know anything about trying on wedding dresses. When I first tried to put it on, I thought it didn't fit. Apparently it's supposed to go on over your head; you don't step into a wedding dress. My maid of honor being as inexperienced in these matters as I am, we were both clueless. My aunt had to come back (into the piano room, where we try on wedding dresses at Grandma's) and help me into the dress. (It still didn't fit; I'd have to have panels added to the back, if that could be done, to make it fit.)

The second was that it's not all about the dress. A lot of it is about the person wearing the dress. I tried it on and was standing on the step in my grandmother's bathroom. My aunt Cathy said she loved it, my sister Laura was ambivalent, and my mom and grandmother told me it was up to me. Then I stood up straight. It was like a completely different dress, and like a completely different person. It looked WAY better. I could really see myself wearing this dress - if it could be made to fit me, and if I was able to improve my posture over the next year. (I've been trying to stand up straighter anyway, since no one wants to look slouchy in her wedding pictures.)

Without further ado, here are the pictures of me, looking not prepared to be photographed, in my grandmother's bathroom:

My hands are behind my back because I have to hold the back of the dress closed, since it doesn't even come close to zippering. Picture that with fresh, white lace, and fitting somewhat better.

The zipper is covered by dozens of buttons, all up the back. My grandmother started to button them, although only a couple would button, since it's too small. She said she didn't remember it having so many buttons. (I pointed out that her maid of honor, Aunt Tess, probably remembered them!) There was something magical about having my 83-year-old grandmother button me into the dress she'd worn on her wedding day fifty-some-odd years ago. That, more than anything else, made me want to wear this dress.

"They changed it at Ellis Island": Betty White on SNL

2010-05-11T05:59:00.000-04:00

"Blarfengar Blarfegnar" spelled L-E-E S-M-I-T-H. And I thought it was bad when my 2nd great aunt Helen Quinn was enumerated as Hellen Quinne!

1905 NYS Census - O'Hara Family

2010-05-10T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is the 1905 New York State Census record of the O'Hara family. They're living at 586 Baltic St., only about a block and a half from where they lived at 527 Baltic St. in 1910. In the interim, however, they probably lived somewhere else entirely, as the church they attended in that neighborhood, St. Augustine's in Park Slope, has the 1905 record of their daughter Malinda's baptism, but not what should have been the c. 1908 record of their daughter Mary's baptism. Neither girl lived long enough to celebrate any of the other sacraments.

In 1905, the family is listed as John, 30; Mary, 29; John, 8; Eugene, 6; Pacey, 3; and Malina, 2 mos. Malina should be Malinda, and Pacey should be Patrick, although for all I know he may have been called Pacey. Both parents were born in Ireland, while all the kids are listed as American-born, though Patrick was actually born in Ireland in 1902. The family had moved back to Ireland and lived there between 1900 and 1902. In the column "number of years in the United States," John has answered 17 and Mary 16. I wonder if that's given as "number of years since immigration," or if it's been adjusted for the ~2 years they had spent in Ireland since they immigrated. If the former, they immigrated in 1888 and 1889, respectively. If the latter, it may have been more like 1890 and 1891. All are citizens. (I've yet to attempt to wade through the astronomical numbers of John O'Haras in Brooklyn at the turn of the century to find John O'Hara's naturalization papers.)

John is a stableman, and Mary does house work. John Jr. (my great-grandfather, AKA Grandpa JJ) and Eugene are "at school," but neither "Pacey," nor Malinda is.

1905 NYS Census - Quinn Family

2010-05-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

This not-very-clear image is the 1905 NYS Census that records the Quinn family living at 1371 Atlantic Ave. I could have sworn that I already knew the Quinns lived on Atlantic Ave at some point, but maybe I only knew they lived in the neighborhood from when they lived nearby on Fulton Street, as there are no Atlantic Ave. addresses in my list of family homes. The family is recorded as the Quinnes: Hugh J., 38; Mary, 38; Agnes, 10; Mary, 8; Hellen, 5; Martin, 3; the last name begins with a T and is illegible but clearly too short to say "Terrence." It may say "Terry." Uncle Terry is 1. Hugh and Mary were born in Ireland, and all their children were American-born. The column for number of years in the US appears to say "W" for both of them; I can't figure out what number is intended. Maybe "20"? I think they're all listed as Citizens, but that column is pretty difficult to make out, too. Hugh is an engineer, Mary does house work, and Agnes and Molly are "at school." Neither Helen nor the boys are in school yet.

Surprisingly, Agnes is listed as Agnes, the earliest example of her use of the name that I've come across. Besides this, she's Nora until the 1920 Census.

Family Search Indexes 1905 NYS Census!

2010-05-07T23:44:00.003-04:00

They're not done yet, but I've already found several of the families that I'd never been able to find by browsing the unindexed images!

Thank you!

2010-04-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

Lots of business to get around to, but I wanted to throw up a quick post - after a long time - to thank those bloggers who awarded me the Ancestor Approved Award! I don't have time to fulfill all the requirements just yet, but I want to thank

Karen at Genealogy Frame of Mind
Mary at Me and My Ancestors
Craig at Geneablogie

Please visit their blogs!

The Gillen Families: Naturalizations

2010-04-05T20:00:00.002-04:00

Some time ago, I found Mark Gillen, brother of my great-great-grandmother Mary Gillen Quinn, in the naturalization indexes online at Ancestry.com. I pondered whether I would learn anything new by trying to get my hands on the record, and decided on inaction for the time being. Sometimes, good things come to those who wait. Mark Gillen's naturalization record came to me!

It was sent to me by someone who came across my blog and thinks we may be related through the Gillen line. I'm almost certain he's correct, but we have yet to figure out exactly how our lines are connected. My line is the descendants of Martin Gillen; his line is the descendants of Patrick Gillen. They came from neighboring towns (Tawnykinaffe and Crimlin) in Co. Mayo. The aforementioned Mark Gillen was Martin's son, who lived in Brooklyn from the 1890s on. A Martin Gillon witnessed the wedding of one of Patrick's daughters in Brooklyn in 1899. One of Patrick's grandsons married one of Martin's granddaughters in Brooklyn in the 1930s. Some of the most damning (read: tantalizing) evidence, though, are these naturalization records. The above record, of Mark Gillen, is the naturalization record of Martin Gillen's son Mark, who lived with his sister, Mary Gillen Quinn, my great-great-grandmother. I know this because Mark and his witness Hugh Quinn were kind enough to write their addresses under their signatures, and both lived at 332 Bergen St. This is where Hugh and Mary Quinn were living in 1900 with their 3 daughters and Mary's brother Mark Gillen. Mark Gillen was naturalized in 1894.

Two years earlier, a Patrick Gillen had also been naturalized in the King County Court. His naturalization, too, had been witnessed by a Hugh Quinn. They were not then kind enough to their descendants to record their addresses, so I don't know whether this was the same Hugh Quinn who would marry Mary Gillen about a year later, around 1893.

We're still working on figuring out the connection between the two Gillen families. I've got a couple lines of questioning to follow up with some relatives, and I've ordered the marriage certificate between the two Gillen grandchildren, Agnes Quinn and Bill Maines. I don't know whether that will shed any light. What undoubtedly would, if it existed, would be any dispensation Agnes and Bill might have needed to be married in the Catholic Church if they were related, but according to the Diocese of Brooklyn's website, only dispensation records from before 1890 are open for research. I'm trying to gather as much information as possible on the families at this point, and hoping something will clear things up. Any research avenues you can suggest?

The House on Loon Lake

2010-03-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last week at work, I was listening to an episode of This American Life from a few weeks ago. (Yes, I'm allowed to listen to podcasts at work.) This episode, "The House on Loon Lake," was a mystery story, and guess how they solved it? Using genealogy! I highly recommend it; you can listen to it streaming on the This American Life website, or download it (for $.99, I believe) from iTunes.

John J. O'Hara Death Certificate - 3 Dec 1946

2010-03-29T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is the death certificate of my great-great-grandfather, John J. O'Hara. His son, John, who provided the information, was my grandfather's father, aka "Grandpa JJ." John Sr. died 3 December, 1946, at the age of 68 years; his birthdate is given as 1 January 1878. His wife was Mary E. King, and his job was as a realtor. In the 1930 census, Grandpa Molly and Grandpa JJ are seen living in the same apartment building as JJ's parents. But they, like most of the people in the building, rented. John Sr. owned. It's my understanding that he owned the entire building and the rest of the residents were his tenants.

He was born in Ireland, but was a US citizen. His parents names are given as Patrick O'Hara and Bridget Kearney. I would swear to you that I had once seen a document among my grandfather's papers giving John's parents names as Patrick O'Hara and Catherine Walsh, but that was before I got really interested in genealogy, and whatever document that was has been misplaced, and no one I ask has any memory of it ever existing.

John died in Kings County Hospital, where he'd spent all of October and November. The causes of death listed are "Carcinoma of sigmoid" (Colon Cancer) and "Bilateral Pubic Cold Abscesses" (I don't want to know). A contributing cause was the incision and draining of the abscesses, so it seems he may have taken a turn for the worse after they treated him, although the certificate says that the operation was on October 18, and he didn't die until a month and a half later.

Mary Toner's Death Certificate - 26 Aug 1899

2010-03-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

Mary Toner's death certificate! Woo hoo! . . . or maybe not. To be frank, while I'm inclined to believe that this is Mary Cullen Toner's death certificate, I'm not positive, and there are several pieces of information that make me wonder whether maybe Mary Cullen Toner had another relative, likely an inlaw, Mary Somethingelse Toner.

This Mary Toner died 26 Aug 1899, at 270 Van Brunt Street, which was where Mary Cullen Toner's daughter Julia lived with her husband Patrick Mulvaney and their children (3 or 4 at this point: James, Grace, and Mae, certainly, and Willie may have been born this month). In 1892, Mary Cullen Toner was living with her other daughter, Elizabeth Toner Loughlin, so it's reasonable to think that she spent time living with each of her daughters after her husband Richard died. The undertaker was "Mrs. T. Murphy," who is likely Mary Cullen Toner's other daughter, Mary Toner Murphy. This Mary Toner died of a cerebral hemorrhage and pulmonary edema.

Now here's where things get tricky. According to her death certificate, she was widowed, 63 years old, Irish-born, had been in the US 35 years, and was the daughter of parents named John and Mary. Mary Cullen Toner should be widowed and Irish-born. She should have been well older than 63, though it's difficult to say just how old. Her age was given as 40 in the 1860 census, 40 in the 1870 census, and 69 in the 1892 census. If any one of those is correct, 63 is far too young. The fact that her age was never given consistently, though, means this isn't really a strike against her. 35 years in the U.S. is clearly wrong for Mary Cullen Toner, although maybe by "only" 15 years or so. The Toners' oldest known child, Julia, was born in the US around 1851, so her mother couldn't possibly not have immigrated until 1864 - not to mention that Mary was enumerated on the 1860 census.

Further, there's the matter of of the baptismal dates that were looked up for me. If you'll recall, someone looked up some names in the parish registers of St. Mary's Church in Maynooth, Co. Kildare for me, and gave me this information:

(Baptisms)
24 Sept 1818 Mary, (of) Patrick Cullen and Mary Carr godparents John Carney and Judith Scully.

3 Nov 1821 Richard (of) William Toner and Margareth Walsh godparents Charles Kearns and Mary Cushion.

(Marriage)
15 Jan 1850 Richard Toner to Mary Cullen witnesses Edward Hackett and Mary Boland

I was already skeptical because Richard's mother's name didn't match what I knew. Her name was either Judith or Julia, but it certainly wasn't Margareth. And now Mary's father's name doesn't match, either. Does that mean that the baptismal information refers to the wrong people, that the death certificate doesn't belong to Mary Cullen Toner, or that the information on the death certificate is wrong? If the baptismal information is correct, Mary Cullen Toner should have been way older than 63 in 1899; she would have been in her early 80s.

Which piece of conflicting information should I doubt? All of them, probably. Can they be reconciled? It's possible that, say, Richard's mother and Mary's father both died soon after their children were born, and their parents remarried. Might Judith have been the step-mother who raised Richard, and John been the step-father who raised Mary? I contacted the church in Maynooth to try to verify the information I was given and to see if there were records of such later marriages, but got no response.

Not sure what my next step is going to be.

United Fruit Company/Chiquita: Lack of access to institutional records

2010-03-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

My great-great-grandfather, Michael Mulcahy, owned bars in Brooklyn at the turn of the century. When he died in 1917, though, his death certificate listed his occupation as watchman for the United Fruit Co. The United Fruit Company, after a century and several mergers, eventually became Chiquita Brands. So I e-mailed Chiquita to see if they maintained institutional archives for their constituent companies, whether those archives would contain information about individual employees, and if so, how to access those records.

Something about the response I got seemed a little . . . off.

As a company with a history than spans more than 100 years, we receive numerous requests for the use of past materials, including photography, film and written documents. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to employ a librarian or archivist on staff for these purposes. As a result, I regret to inform you that we do not make our archives to available to the general public.

Chiquita Brands is, for lack of a better word, ginormous, with an estimated 10,000 employees. They "lack the resources" to hire one measly archivist? You and I both know archivists aren't exactly raking in the big bucks. So they "do not make [their] archives to [sic] available to the general public"? Which means, yes they do have archives. And if they have archives, they likely maintain their archives, which means they probably have an archivist. It's just not his job to deal with the public. Maybe it's my cynical nature, or my penchant for conspiracy theories, but something about that seems suspicious, given the history of United Fruit Co. and Chiquita Brands. Both were accused of such things as payments to paramilitary groups, human rights violations, bribery, massacres, and coups. It seems possible that the archives are closed less because of resources than because of concern about what might be contained in the records.

Do I come across as a paranoid conspiracy theorist?

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Grandpa Lanzillotto, soldier

2010-03-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

My mom recently called me and said she'd found this image of Grandpa Lanzillotto in his Army uniform on her computer. Did I know where it came from? I did not, I'd never seen it before. But I wanted it, so she e-mailed me a copy. It appears to be a pencil drawing, as best I can tell, but since all we have is a digital file, this picture is really a mystery. No clue where the original is, where it came from, who the artist was, or why it was created.

Lanzillotto relatives, does anyone know anything about this picture? Let me know in the comments, or e-mail me at kathleen.scarlett.ohara AT gmail.com.

Creating Our Descendants' Genealogy

2010-03-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

Whew! Sorry for the extremely long break in posting! I was extremely busy, having numerous assignments due while also trying to study for comprehensive exams, which went off fairly well (I hope) on Friday.

I have lots of posts to write, about death certificates I've received, cousin connections I've made, cousin marriages I've discovered (first one!), Brooklyn Catholic church resources, etc.

But first, my non-genealogical big news. Or rather, news that won't really be considered genealogical for a few generations yet: I'm engaged! In the midst of all my academic craziness was my two-year anniversary with Ben, and after we went out to dinner to celebrate, he asked me to marry him. We're incredibly happy and excited, and though I can't even begin to imagine how to plan a wedding, I can completely imagine spending the rest of my life with him.

And guess what?! (My fellow genealogy nerds will appreciate this like no one else.) My engagement ring is a family heirloom! It was originally his great-grandmother's ring, the ring William G. Harber II proposed to his wife Esther Murphy with, and it's also the ring that their son, William G. Harber III used to propose to his wife, Theresa Gleasure. Ben's mother has worn it, too, though not as an engagement ring. I have asked and asked whether he's sure his mother and his sister and his nieces and his cousins are actually all okay with me - outside the bloodline - wearing this ring. (He assures me they are.)

All of my friends and cousins had the same reaction when I told them about the ring: "Oh, that's perfect for you!" "Oh, you must love that!"

I'm thinking about starting a wedding blog. I'll let you know.

Carnival of Irish History and Culture: Medieval Irish Hagiography

2010-03-12T15:55:00.003-05:00

For the St. Patrick's Day Parade of Irish Heritage and Culture, I'm sharing a paper I wrote in Fall 2006 examining the native and Christian motifs in medieval Irish hagiography, based on readings of The Life of Senan, Son of Gerrgenn and The Life of Ciaran of Clonmacnois. It was 11 pages double spaced, so it's quite a bit longer than the average blog post, but I hope there's some interest!

Native and Christian Motifs in Medieval Irish-Language Hagiography

Michael Mulcahy's Bar

2010-02-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

The 1906 Brooklyn City Directory (Upington's General Directory) may be on Ancestry, but I've never seen it; I don't think Ancestry has Upington's. I found it on Internet Archive. When I found Michael Mulcahy listed, there was a bit of a surprise. His home address is 85 Luquer, and his business address ("liquors") is 227 Hamilton - but also 291 Van Brunt! Michael Mulcahy owned 2 bars? I never knew!

The building at 291 Van Brunt is now a convenience store/deli.

View Larger Map

Then I went to Google Books and the Report of the State Commissioner of Excise. In the volume for 1910, 291 Van Brunt is listed under Michael Mulcahey. (Earlier volumes don't appear to list certificate holders.)

But in the volume for 1912, 291 Van Brunt was listed with James Mulcahy as the certificate holder.

Now, Michael had both a brother and a son named James. I don't know anything about his brother, but I know that his son James A. was born around 1892, which means that by 1912, he was about 20. Had he taken over his father's bar by that age?

I've heard a couple of stories about how the family stopped running the bar. A cousin I met doing genealogy says she was told that the bar on Hamilton Ave. was torn down to make way for the Midtown Tunnel. I don't know about that, but I know that 227 Hamilton is positioned to have very easily been in the way of either the Gowanus Expressway or the BQE. I'll have to look into the history of those roads, but I wonder if maybe the family moved the bar to 291 Van Brunt when the building at 227 Hamilton was destroyed.

View Larger Map

A brief, unsourced family history I was given included the assertion that the family lost the bar after they changed the beer. And, in news that's perhaps related to James taking over the bar, I was once told that the family lost the bar when the kids took over, because they, unlike their father, didn't have the personality necessary for tending bar.

By 1913, a Frank Mulvihill held the certificate for the bar at 291 Van Brunt.

Mail Watch

2010-02-24T06:00:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, I found, in the NY Times archives, that in August of 1899, a Mary Toner died at 270 Van Brunt Street in Brooklyn. By 1900 Julia and Patrick Mulvaney were living at 270 Van Brunt Stree. Julia's mother was Mary Cullen Toner. I am so hoping that this is her. Using the Italiangen.org NYC Death Index, I found the death certificate number, and filled out a request for the certificate from the NYC Department of Municipal Records.

I put it in the mail on Monday. Monday was Presidents' Day. The mail doesn't get picked up on Monday. The first day the mail could have gone out was Tuesday. When I got home Tuesday night, I checked the mail. No death certificate. Wednesday night, I checked the mail. Thursday night, I checked the mail. Friday night, I checked the mail. Saturday, for the first time, I thought there was a chance that my request had actually gotten to New York. I checked the mail.

Sunday, I didn't check the mail, even though it was no less likely that it had shown up on Sunday than on any day in the week prior.

This could be a long 4-6 weeks.

(To be fair, the NYC Municipal Archives often has a quicker turn-around time than they claim; I've generally gotten a reply in 3-ish weeks. That's probably why I'm so prone to expect it any second!)

25 February 2010 Update: They cashed my check! Can't be long now!

Happy Birthday, Nan!

2010-02-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today would have been my grandmother, Marilyn Mulcahy O'Hara's 79th birthday. She was born on 21 February, 1931, to Joseph Eugene Mulcahy and Veronica Mulvaney, the oldest of their three children. Nan was born at the Bensonhurst Maternity Hospital in Brooklyn.

She was baptized at St. Anselm's Church on 11 March 1931. Her god-parents were Gerard Mulcahy, her father's brother, and Mary Mulvaney Daniels, aka Auntie Mae, her mother's sister.

Commenting

2010-02-20T11:01:00.004-05:00

I've had to add a word verification to comments to stop spam, which was picking up in recent weeks. It started with vaguely spammy comments by anonymous authors saying nondescript things, almost as if they were testing me for the offers of prescription drugs and nude photographs that started showing up in the past 24 hours. Let me know if you encounter any problems!

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Google Maps - Brooklyn Draft Board Locations

2010-02-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

I'd been having some trouble locating my great-grandfather, Joseph Mulcahy, and his brothers in Ancestry.com's WWI Draft Registration Card database, so I figured I should try browsing the records. They're alphabetical, so it should be easy, right? Not so fast. To browse the collection, you have to first choose a Draft Board. These draft boards have incredibly helpful (not!) names like "23," "24," and "25." Names that tell me nothing about them and offer no clues as to which I should be browsing. Luckily, the Italian Genealogical Group at italiangen.org has an archives newsletter that lists the addresses of all the the WWI Draft Boards in New York City. I used the information there to map the locations of the Brooklyn Draft Boards so that I could better approximate which one Papa and the Mulcahy brothers would have registered with. Unfortunately, I was still unable to find them. I know they served. Perhaps they enlisted before they had to register with the draft board? I imagine - though I'm not sure - that do so would have prevented their appearing in these records.

Though it didn't help me find records of the Mulcahy brothers, I'm hopeful that it will be useful for other researchers trying to find military records of Brooklyn families. Please distribute the map - found on Google maps here - to other researchers who might be helped by it!

View WWI Draft Board Locations, Brooklyn in a larger map

This post is part of the 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge at Geneabloggers by Amy Coffin of We Tree.

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Google Maps - Brooklyn Catholic Churches

2010-02-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

In trying to find sacramental records - baptisms, marriages - for my ancestors, I ran into a roadblock that must be common for people researching families who were from big cities: too many churches. Way too many churches. From what I've been able to find, upwards of 70 Catholic Churches had been founded in Brooklyn by the end of the 19th century. It's easy to know where to look in the early days; in the 1840s and '50s, there are only a handful of churches to choose from. But then, as the Catholic population expanded hugely in the second half of the century, due in large part to immigration, so too did the number of Catholic churches. Sometimes, these churches are mere blocks from one another; it's not as if each neighborhood had only one church.

In order to facilitate my own search for sacramental records, I realized I needed to know not only where my relatives had lived, but also what churches were in their neighborhoods, and how long those churches had been there. So, using information from sites like this and this, I created a Google map of all of the churches in Brooklyn that had been founded through 1900. I aim to try to add younger parishes, too, but I haven't gotten there yet. I figured 1900 was a good-enough stopping point that the map had become something I could share, and that others researching families in Brooklyn would be able to find it useful as well. The information included is fairly basic; I haven't been able to add details such as the historic ethnicity of a parish, or its mailing or web address, though I know that these would have been helpful. (A shocking number of churches still don't have websites, actually!) I hope that in its current form, though, it's nonetheless useful. Please share the map - available here - with other researchers!

View Brooklyn Catholic Churces in a larger map

This post is part of the 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge at Geneabloggers by Amy Coffin of We Tree.

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Google Maps - Brooklyn Family Homes

2010-02-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

I had had these addresses plotted on other Google Maps before, but as I thought about the best way to share them, I realized it would be best to have them on their very own map. Because of the way you can look at multiple Google Maps at once, this works best for comparing them to the places on other maps I've created. I'll be sharing those maps this week, too, in hopes that they'll be as helpful to other researchers as they've been to me, so stay tuned! Without further ado, though, here is the Google Map I've created of my family's homes in Brooklyn, 1880-1930!

View Where We Lived in a larger map

The primary families mapped are:

Madigan

Mulcahy

Mulvaney

Toner

O'Hara

Quinn

Gatto

This post is part of the 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge at Geneabloggers by Amy Coffin of We Tree.

Google Books

2010-02-15T06:00:00.001-05:00

I found Michael Mulcahy in Trow's Business Directory for 1899, listed under "Wines, Liquors, and Lager Beer."

It inspired me to keep searching Google Books, and guess what I found next! In the Report of the Tenement House Department of the City of New York, Vol. 5:

Yes, that's right. No. 275. The Mulcahys' house at 85 Luqueer St. was cited for unsanitary conditions. Uh oh! (I hope it wasn't their apartment!)

Wedding of Gerard Mulcahy and Ann Danaher

2010-02-12T06:00:00.001-05:00

I hope that whoever got here by searching for the genealogy of Gerard Mulcahy and Ann Danaher comes back to find their wedding announcement! I just came across it in the Brooklyn Eagle this weekend. It was published 15 June 1937.

Their wedding picture, from the reception at the Hotel St. George was sent to me by Betty and John several months ago.

Nana and Papa (Veronica Mulvaney Mulcahy and Joseph Mulcahy) are seated at the "head" of the table, center and center-left as you look at the photograph. To the right of them: Margaret (Mulcahy) and Hugh Hennessy; Mary (Mulcahy) and Tony Boles; Loretta (Kelly) and John Mulcahy; the bride and groom, Ann (Danaher) and Gerard Mulcahy; one of Ann's sisters. Standing behind the bride and groom are another of Ann's sisters and her husband. Going in the other direction, starting from the Nana's left, are Vincent and Alice (Fox) Mulcahy; Catherine (Foley) and Matthew Mulcahy; Masie (Dardell) and Michael Mulcahy; and then three of Ann's cousins. The only Mulcahy sibling not present is James. I don't know which of the Danaher sisters is the Katherine listed in the announcement as "the bride's only attendant."

Googling

2010-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lots of people get to have funny posts about the search terms that have brought visitors to their blogs, but I don't have any of those. No one gets here by searching for anything particularly unusual. There are a few search terms that have whetted my curiosity somewhat, though, and this post is directed at the people who have made those searches.

--"Thomas M. Murphy, Breezy Point NY"

Do you think that your searched-for Thomas M. Murphy is the son of Thomas Sr and Mary Ann Toner, the brother of John Murphy, Kathryn Murphy Keane, and Annie Murphy Dowd, who lived for a time with his aunt and uncle, Julia and Patrick Mulvaney? Contact me!

--"Thomas Mulvaney 1915"

Would your searched-for Thomas Mulvaney have been 13 in 1915? Were his parents Patrick Mulvaney and Julia Toner? Did he grow up to marry an Elizabeth? Contact me!

--"Harry Kunze 56 years old"

When was your searched-for Harry Kunze 56? In the mid-1980s? Or how about the mid-1950s? Was Helen Quinn Kunze his mother, or possibly his wife? Contact me!

--"Helen Kunze Brooklyn NY"

Was your searched-for Helen's maiden name Quinn? Did she marry Harry? Were her sons Harry and Robert? Was she born c. 1900? Contact me!

--"Charles Lanzillotto"

Were you searching for the Charles Lanzillotto who was born in 1894 outside of Bari, Italy? Who married Anna Cianciotta? Who died in 1969? Or even for one of his grandsons? Contact me!

--"Casserly NYPD 1920"

I can't help you. I do know that the Casserlys who were living at 85 Luqueer St. in 1900 were not in the NYPD, but I can't tell you what their children might have been doing 20 years later. I would, however, recommend that you see this post on Obtaining Genealogical Information on Ancestors who Served in the NYPD to see where to look for extensive information on the service careers of NYC policemen. I have it on good authority that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly himself is glad when their database gets used!

--"Judith Toner"/"Judith Tonner"

Most of you were looking for BBC weather girl Judith Tonner, whether you searched for her or for Judith Toner. And if you were searching for the BBC weather girl, I can't help you. (A Facebook fan page for her is here.) But if you were looking for Judith Toner, originally of Maynooth, County Kildare, and later of Brooklyn, NY, who died 14 August 1874, contact me!

--"Gerard Mulcahy Ann Danaher genealogy Brooklyn"

I'm not even going to ask questions about who you were searching for. You were searching for Uncle Gerard and his wife Ann. Did you see that I have Ann and Gerard's wedding picture? Contact me! No, really. We're related. Contact me!

How? Well, you can leave a comment on any post - I'll see it, I promise - or you can e-mail me at kathleen.scarlett.ohara AT gmail.com. (Replace the AT with an @.) I'd love to hear from you!

Illustrating James Mulvaney's Life

2010-02-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

When my cousin Maureen saw that I'd begun posting the documents she'd sent me from her grandfather's life, she sent along a few pictures of him as a young man.

This first picture, Maureen tells me, is possibly of James in the Army Fire Corps. She thinks he may be on the left, in the middle of the group of three. I agree that that's certainly the person in this photograph who looks most like James in the pictures that follow.

This is a photograph of James Mulvaney from his time in the Army. If you look closely, you can see that the buttons on his uniform bear patriotic American Eagle insignia.

This last photograph is of James Mulvaney as a young firefighter for the NYFD.

*******

Now to see what you think, I'm going to repost a mystery picture that we've thought might be of James as a young boy.

Maureen found this among her aunt's things, so we believe, though we don't know, that the subjects are Mulvaneys, most likely James, since, after all, it was in the possession of the James Mulvaney family. James was the oldest of the Mulvaney siblings, so it makes sense that he may have had to pose with each new sibling, too. If the boy is James, it could even be possible that the baby is Nana (Veronica Mulvaney Mulcahy Hopkins), who was the youngest of his siblings. The swarming children at the margin of this photograph lend credence to that theory, as well: James is the oldest, posing with Veronica the youngest (or maybe Harold, second youngest), while the middle children - Mae, Grace, Tom, Willie, Raymond - run around and play. And I think the boy in this picture looks like the James Mulvaney in the pictures above. What do you think? Of course, even if they do look alike, most of the other candidates for the identification of the older boy in the last picture are relatives of James; they'd look like him anyway! I'm interested to know, though, whether you see the resemblence, too. What do you think?

James Mulvaney's Death Certificate, 24 December 1972

2010-02-05T21:25:00.006-05:00

Having covered many of the milestones of James Mulvaney's life in the past few weeks, from his birth to his marriage, to his military service to his heroics as a fireman, I'm now sharing his death certificate, also sent by his granddaughter Maureen.

James Mulvaney Death Certificate 1972; Queens, NY

James Mulvaney (aka James Joseph Mulvaney), died on Christmas Eve of 1972. His age is given as 78, and he was less than a month shy of 79. His wife Florence Goggin had predeceased him. His birthday is accurately given as 15 January 1894, which matches the date given on his baptismal certificate. His parents are Patrick Mulvaney and Julia Toner Mulvaney. James was Deputy Chief for the NYFD. The informant was his daughter Joan, with whom he shared an address: 66-11 Booth St., Rego Park, NY.

Contest at Genea-Musings!

2010-02-01T22:55:00.003-05:00

Randy at Genea-Musings is hosting a contest to win a free subscription to the websites Genealogy Today, GenWeekly, and Live Roots. The subscriptions were generously offered by Illya D'Addezio.

Head over to Genea-Musings to enter this exciting contest!

James Mulvaney Promoted to Battalion Chief, 1938

2010-01-29T06:00:00.001-05:00

17 years after rescuing fellow firefighter John Flynn from a burning building, James J. Mulvaney was promoted to Battalion Chief in the NYFD.

James J Mulvaney NYFD Battalion Chief Certificate 1938