Mathew Madigan's Death Certificate - 11 September 1892

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 . . .

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. . .

. . . 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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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?

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. . .

. . . 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!