Halloween Through the Years

Dressed as my version of a gypsy - circa 1960

Costumes were pulled together from what you could find around the house. 

Creativity reigned supreme.

Halloween with my children and friends - circa 1985

The scarecrow, bat, and witch are my children.

A bit more planned, but still all the costumes were sewn by their mothers, and there is no blood or gore.

A Mix-Up in Muscatine

As most family historians say over and over again when trying to explain to others, "It's not about names and dates. It is finding out about the lives of our ancestors that holds a grip on us.  Long after we have the names and dates, we continue to search for scraps of information about the lives and personalities of family members who lived long ago.  So as I was browsing in the Newspaper Archive database available through my local library, I found the accompanying news article about Uncle Ernie (Ernest Thomas Allen) who I wrote about previously here, and here. This is why genealogy never ends. 

Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune

Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune

Wednesday, July 14, 1920

Page 4

   It is hard luck, indeed, when you happen to have the same name as an alleged thief, especially when you have some heartless friends to ask foolish questions.  This is the little pet peeve of E.T. Allen, city street commissioner, who poured his tale of woe into the ears of Officer Cal Schrieber.  It seems that Mr. Allen's front name is Ernest, and a man by the name of Ernest Allen, who works at the Zoahringer garage on Front street, was arrested Monday for the theft of an automobile tire from a man in Columbus Junction.

   Friends of the street commissioner called him up on the telephone when they read of the arrest and offered to bail him out, it is said.  He wants it distinctly understood that he did not steal any tire, or at least that he was not arrested for any such theft.  He couldn't use a Ford tire on "Dobbin" he declares.

So Uncle Ernie still had a horse for transportation in 1920, and there is another man by the same name in the town.  That is good information for a researcher  . . . I wouldn't want there to be another mix-up in Muscatine.

Ernest T. Has Been Located

Here at last is a photo identified as Ernest T. Allen, the oldest and only son of James Bush Allen and Elanor Gilshannon Allen.  Ernest Thomas Allen was born 02 Dec 1872 in Clinton, Iowa.  He married Nora Tyler, 24 Nov 1896.  They had no children.   Ernest T. was my gg uncle and the brother of my gr. grandmother, Mae Allen.  Poor Uncle Ernie, the only boy with five younger sisters.  In an earlier post, I had a photograph of the entire Allen family with spouses and children circa 1910.  The problem was that Ernest T. and his wife Nora had their faces scratched out.  I had no other identified photos of him or his wife, Nora Tyler.  I imagined every unidentified young man in my boxes of photos could be him.  I analyzed each photo trying to narrow them down to the appropriate age and time period, then scoured the faces in each one looking for a family resemblance.  I asked every relative I knew if they had a photo of him to no avail.







There was one such unidentified photo of a handsome young man  taken at a studio in Muscatine, Iowa in the collection of my dear cousin Mary Margaret.The young man in the photo had blue eyes like James Allen, and I knew that Ernest T. had been the street commissioner in Muscatine for many years.  I even thought he looked like James B. So, hoping to find someone to identify him, a year ago I sent the photo and wrote to my cousin who is also named Margel (but goes by Jill) and she responded:

Obituary of Ernest T. Allen

Margel,

I remember Uncle Ernie, but he was old, small man, and DaDa Mae took Jeanne and I down to visit him. He lived in Muscatine Iowa. He always had a small veg garden in the yard and the mosquitoes were bothering him. He took a bandana and sprayed it with some bug killer and tied it on his head, and when he took it off, his hair fell out too...I don't know how true that was but that is what us kids were told. That very well could be him. I forget what his wife's name was, but after she died, Uncle Ernie was going to go live in a MOOSE HOME in Florida. I don't know if that ever happened.

Love, Jill

 

 His obituary at left must have been in a Muscatine newspaper.  Without a photo, I was still hopeful that my unidentified young man from Muscatine was him.  Truth be told, I was totally convinced, but something nagged at me. I wanted to be sure. . .   

Through Ancestry.com I tried to make connections with descendants of the Allen sisters hoping to share information to give the family personality. When I found Susan, the granddaughter of Augusta Allen, I was thrilled.  It was because of Susan that I met cousin John on my last whirlwind trip to Clinton . . . and she thought she had a picture of Ernest T.  Would she please email me a copy??  Well, she didn't really have a scanner, but she would be glad to send me a copy.  Several days later a brown oversize envelope arrived, and out fluttered copies of family photographs.  The one identified as Ernest T. is so pale and soft with foxing that he feels a little like a ghost still, but, I have to admit, he does look like his sisters.  As you know, when you solve one mystery, you create another.  So. . .  why he was in Peoria where this photo was taken?  Now that I have a photo of Ernest T,  who is the blue eyed guy in the photo above with the conservative version of a handle bar mustache?  The clothing and mustache appear to be turn of the century? Since Ernest T. was born in 1872 and worked in Muscatine, it seemed like a good fit, and he still looks like James B. to me . . . 

An Opera in Clinton. . . Really?

Before my recent family history trip to Clinton I was corresponding with the granddaughter of Augusta Allen Brown.  Augusta, known as Gussie, was the sister of my gr. grandmother, Mae Allen Moldt. Her granddaughter is my second cousin once removed.  It seems like I am "removed" from everyone.  I guess that comes from being the oldest child, of the oldest child, of the oldest child! Susan was the one who made the connections for me to see John Brown for which I am very grateful.  She had mentioned in an earlier conversation that she thought she had some family photos. She assured me that she would try and locate and send copies  to me. She explained that she wasn't quite adept at scanning and attaching a file.  While, I felt like a pest, I had not heard anything so asked her again if she had found any of her family photos.  It turns out that she was just ready to send them to me.  I was overjoyed when a few days later a large envelope arrived.  John told me during our conversation that his mother and her sisters had such a great time when they got together . . . lots of joking and laughing with a bit of craziness mixed in.  One of the photos showed that side of Gussie.  The  information on the side of the print said that Gussie also sang opera.  She really looks like a fun gal.  I wonder where she had the opportunity to sing opera in Clinton, Iowa?



I am so very grateful to cousin Susan for sharing these photos of her grandmother.  They have infused Gussie with a personality and as a family historian, that is what I long for - a glimpse into the past.  The photo at left, also courtesy of Susan, shows Katherine Augusta Allen in a more formal moment . . . without her bowler hat.  Gussie married Bernard Brown in 191,1 and they raised their family in Montana. I am still piecing together how many children they had.

If you know anything more about the singing group above or can identify any other members of the group, please contact me as I would love to know more about it.

Or. . . if you have stories, photos, or memories of any of the other sisters (or one brother), please share.

School Genealogy Club Possibility

 A couple of years ago, I had a Genealogy Club at the Intermediate Center (gr. 5-8)  where I teach.  At first there were lots of students getting information, but when we actually started meeting, there were only about 5 that attended.  We met in the computer lab and I would log into my Ancestry.com account so that they could use it during this time.  We could not get onto Family Search due to the firewall in place.  I don't know if that has changed.  We met every two weeks, but all of the children involved came with lots of family history information usually all organized.  They obviously had a family genealogist in their family.  Last year, I let it drop when two of the five left our school.  Then last week one of our new students stopped while I was at my door on hall duty and asked if I was the teacher who did the Genealogy Club.  I was surprised and asked if he liked genealogy.  "Yes, very much. Are you having the club this year?"  I am a sucker for anyone who likes family history so I told him that I would try to get it organized in the next few weeks.  Now I need your help.

Do you have any suggestions for structure or order?  I really don't want to spend hours getting ready for this club.  What would be some good topics?  How can I handle the students who just want to impress me with all of the information they already have?  I would love to take them to the local library and show they the local resources, but a field trip will not be allowed.  I know there have been several podcasts on getting children interested in genealogy, but they seem to be more on a family level rather than organized at school. 

Free is the perfect price for a public school.

I am waiting for you to point me in the right direction . . .

After the Archives - FGS Conference 2011

Nametag and my geneablogger beads

After leaving the State Archives, I headed for the Prairie Capitol Convention Center and there I registered for Friday so I would be all set and wouldn't have to worry about a line.  Even though the registration lady had just packed everything away for the day, she allowed me to register and handed me a zippered  tote filled with the schedule of classes and assorted other papers.  I would have to pick up my nametag tomorrow.  Next I sent a text to Susan of Nolichucky Roots because I missed lunch and we planned to meet for dinner.  She was in class, and I wanted to check out the vendor mall. I was hoping for a demo of the Flip-Pal scanner and wanted to see if the Newberry Library had any genealogy programs that would entice me to make a trip to Chicago.  Because many attendees were in classes, it was easy to get up to the booths and talk to the vendors.  Three of us paused at the Flip-Pal booth and saw the samples and a brief demo.  While it was very appealing, I just couldn't bring myself to spend $150 yet. After circling most of the vendor area, I was standing in front of the Family Search booth when I received a text from Susan.  We went back and forth a  few times, and then I turned around and looked at the back of the person behind me.  "Susan?"  She turned, and we both started laughing.  The evening ended with dinner and a Geneablogger get together.

Back at my hotel, I planned to look over the conference guide and decide which classes I would attend the next day.  This was my ONE day so I wanted to fill it . . .and I did.

Class #1 - Irish Emigration to North America: Before, During, and After the Famine. Paul Milner   Being a newcomer to the land of conferences, I had never heard any of the speakers before.  Paul Milner is an outstanding speaker who filled his lecture with humor as he explained the migration patterns as well the events that influenced them.  Highly recommended. Since I arrived just as it was beginning, the room was already full and so I took a seat on the floor leaning against the wall.

Class#2 -  Pioneer Genealogy:  Tracing Your Ancestors on the Midwestern Frontier. James Hansen.  This was in the same room but I didn't notice that until I left the room and then had to get in line to get back in.  This time I had a seat and the room was packed. Without any slides, he kept everyone's interest.  Great speaker.

Class #3 - Using Records in the National Archives: A Researcher's View. Marie Varrelman.  Oh my, the level for this was listed as "All" but I was WAY over my head.  The National Archive has always beckoned to me, but after this class, I am more than a little overwhelmed.

 I had lunch with Susan and, of course, our conversation was all about our classes. The one person she recommended and told me that I had to hear if I ever had the chance was Thomas Jones.  So I pulled out the Conference Guide to check the afternoon classes.  What luck, Thomas Jones was one of the choices for the first session after lunch.  "Get there early. It will be packed" she warned.  She was right.

Class #4  Using 'Correlation' to Reveal Facts That No Record States. Thomas Jones.  This was fabulous and his examples were in order of increasing complexity.  I loved this lecture.  Mr. Jones told us that this was a new presentation for him and that we were his first audience for this lecture.  Wow.  The following day, a person demonstrating  in the Family Search booth told me that Mr. Jones would be in Salt Lake this Fall and they intended to tape this lecture and make it available for free online.  Look for it by December.  Don't miss this one.

Class #5 - Gateway to the West: Researching in Ohio. Diane VanSkiver Gagel  My brain was beginning to turn to mush by this point but enjoyed the information in this lecture.  A number of my ancestors lived in Ohio and several brick walls reside in this state.

Class #6 -  Using City Directories:  Following a Family's Migration From Ohio to Illinois. Deborah Abbott  I am a  fan of City Directories and hoped to get some new information.  Mostly it was a review of what I already knew, but for anyone who hadn't used them, it should have inspired them to search out city directories for their ancestors.

By the end of this day, I was exhausted.  When Susan asked if I wanted to join them at the banquet for dinner, I chose to drive back to my hotel.  I was asleep by 8:30.

Saturday was my last day and I with a five hour drive home, I wanted to leave by early afternoon.  My one and only class was by Paul Milner, Irish Maps and Tools for Finding the Right Place. It was just as fantastic as the first one. Ireland can be very confusing and Mr. Milner had numerous resources for maps many newly online. I decided to order a copy of the lecture because I knew there was just too much information for my skimpy notes to do justice.

It will take a while for me to sift through all of the new information and resources but it was a wonderful experience and well worth the time and cost.  If you have ever thought about a national conference, take a chance. You don't have to go for the whole time, you too can just dip your toe in.  This may have been my first conference, but it won't be my last.

Home from FGS Conference

Well. . .  I had an absolutely wonderful time at the recently concluded FGS conference.  The sessions were challenging, informative, and available later as a CD or MP3 download in case you couldn't decide between  the options or your notes were too sketchy.  I ordered several.

My first day as I planned was spent at the State Archives. After an initial misstep when I went to the  archives at the Univ. of Illinois, Springfield.  There I discovered that this location contained predominantly local records and that I needed to be at the IRAD located only a few blocks from the convention center.  Trusting my GPS, I headed downtown and navigated the one way streets, even finding a parking spot without circling the block. The problem was that I only had enough change to park for a little over an hour.  My plan was to get change and re-feed the meter.

After walking around the Museum once, a helpful lady noticed the perplexed look on my face and steered me to the Archives in a separate building at the back and to the side. Finally!  I entered, went through security and put my bag in the locker provided.  They allowed me to take my camera in as long as I removed it from the camera bag.

When I told the archivist that I was interested in the Spanish American War records, she let out a big sigh and warned that they were a bit problematic.  She retrieved two rolls - the Muster In and Muster Out.  I started with the Muster Out and she took me to the microfilm reader.  They were organized by regiment and unit - so I thought - and after a bit of going back and forth, I found the first records.  I was looking for my great grandfather, Edward P. Kennelly and his cousin, John W. O'Connor who, conveniently, were both in the 7th Infantry, Company K.  The dilemma was that the regiments and companies were listed on the beginning pages of each section and then not identified on each succeeding page.

When I started on the Muster In film, this problem began to be apparent. I found John W. O'Connor as he was a sergeant and listed at the beginning of the unit, but Edward was nowhere to be found.  The names were arranged alphabetically so I was confused.  I went out to ask for assistance, and it was suggested that I might have the wrong company, but I explained that I found the information in three separate resources including The Adjutant General's Muster Out book that I had accessed through Google Books.  Why, it turned out they had that book, so they pulled it from the shelf, and we verified that Edward was indeed in the 7th Infantry, Company K and they then suggested that maybe the book could guide me to my record.  By this point I had four archivists who were making suggestions and trying to help me. This is when I discovered the problem. The film followed the book exactly then suddenly, the soldiers were completely different.  These soldiers were not listed anywhere in Company K. The pages had become mixed up when placing them on the film and since the regiment and unit are not identified at the top of each page, you might not realize that they are transposed unless you follow the book as I did.  I now realized that I would have to pick through page by page, but at least is was alphabetical so I could skip to the K's. Somewhere in the middle of all this I ran out to move my car to the free parking lot another block over before my time on the parking meter expired.

While I was picking my way through the film, one of the archivists came in to tell me that they had retrieved the original book for me to look through.  At first, I didn't comprehend this, then when I saw him with the book, my mouth dropped open.  It was a VERY long book.  I couldn't believe it when they put it on the table and told me that I could look through and find my records.  As I carefully paged through, I realized what a privilege this was.  It did not take long to find my great grandfather.

On May 8, 1898 Ed P. Kennelly was 5'71/2" - let's not forget the half - with ruddy complexion,  blue eyes, light hair and earned his living as a butcher.

 

He lived at 439 Carroll Ave. with his mother Mrs. Margaret Logan and mercifully had no physical defects to be listed for posterity to read.  I found it interesting that his signature looks so similar to his son, my grandfather's signature.  Could handwriting be an inherited trait?

I was allowed to take these photos, and when I hesitantly asked if it was possible to get a copy, they told me it was.  It would just take two of them to hold the book.  Each page took three copies to get it all in. I am so grateful to the archivists for all of their help.  Seeing the original record was a wonderful experience.

With my primary objective met, I decided I still had enough time to look up two death certificates before they closed at 4:00.  Once I had those, I headed for the convention center.  The vendor mall was open until 8:00 and Susan from Nolichucky Roots  and I had made tentative plans to meet for dinner then go to the Geneabloggers meet-up together.

One Thing Leads to Another

  In my previous lengthy blog post, I mentioned that my new to me cousin John told how his basement had flooded about four years ago, and most of his old family photos were ruined.  Can you hear me sobbing?  My mind instantly pictured my overflowing basement that I had promised to clean several years ago knee deep with water.  John's story was just the incentive I needed.  When I returned home I started throwing out and organizing the basement since I still had a few days before I returned to work. There were a couple of boxes that had an open top and my name in marker on the side.  I recognized some of my old high school memorabilia junk, but one box held undiscovered treasures.  After lifting a 1965 copy of the Tiger's Tale school paper from the top, I saw the photo above.  I have never seen this photo before. The young girl on the right is my grandmother Berenice Moldt Kennelly at about age 10.  The boy is her younger brother Edward T. Moldt who was always known as "Doc".  I have no idea who the other two girls are.  If any family members read this and recognize either girl, please let me know.  With those hats, maybe it was Sunday and they were on their way to church.  As I went through more of this particular box, I realized that it must have been one that my mother kept.  There were newspaper clippings of anything and everything I ever did as well as most of my old report cards.  Funny . . . because I remember myself as a much better student than my report cards show.  In first grade at Holy Saviour in Wichita, Kansas I had a consistent "C" in religious studies, and the card was full of checks for areas that needed improvement.   Mom had saved every letter I ever wrote home from college and after reading one four page letter of how distraught I was over breaking up with my boyfriend, I left the others.  Yuck!





Stuck in with my high school odds and ends were these photos, possibly circa 1945, of my grandparents, Berenice (the little girl with the hair bow above) and Ed Kennelly. It is perfect that I should share them on a "Wordless Wednesday" because really what can you say? 

I love old photos!

The Research Trip

Well, I am still wrestling with computer issues.  I picked up my new one yesterday, but with only four icons on the desktop, it looks very bar. . . almost undressed.  I was told that they were able to copy the data from my old failing hard drive, but  have not found my old emails and address book yet.  My copy of Microsoft Office seems to have evaporated from my well organized filing drawer (stop laughing Dahl) because I cannot find it anywhere. How can I function without Word? Buying another is not in my budget.  There is still so much to do before it feels comfortable.  To be continued. . .


 Saturday morning Days later:   My computer is beginning to feel a bit  more comfortable and I have found my old email thanks to a remote operation by the person who built the computer.  That was really interesting.  Now for a real blog post.

I have thought quite a bit recently about the term "research trip".  It sounds so cerebral and organized and . . . and . . . boring! It conjures a vision of a lonely academic with her glasses perched on the end of her nose sitting in some dusty dimly lit corner surrounded by ancient texts. (For those who know - picture the stacks at the Purdue Library) Well . . . maybe this is partially correct but I cannot imagine her shouting out loud, "Aha, I found you!!!" like a family historian would.  And after all we don't spend all of our time looking through books.  We enjoy the outdoors, walking through manicured lawns or knee deep in weeds looking for headstones, we follow maps and drive unknown roads looking for ancestral property, we knock on the doors of strangers to ask if we can take a picture of their house and tell them all about our ancestor who lived there long ago, and the best part is when we meet relatives who reminisce about other family members who have passed away, and the times we only read about.   I think we need a new name for these exciting, emotional, family journeys we take through time. 

My brief visit to Clinton recently was a good example.  I was by myself, I wasn't prepared, I wasn't organized, and yet to me it was a wonderful experience. For a year I had intended to return to Clinton, but you know how time can slip away from us.  Then, through an online connection with a second cousin once removed, I found out that I had a 90 year old first cousin twice removed who still lived in Clinton.  Do you suppose he would let me visit, I asked?  Bless her, she made inquiries and voila! I had his phone number and address.  Now there was nothing that would keep me from this trip.

With my GPS plugged in I navigated the construction around Chicago and endured the "recalculating" admonishment that I received multiple times as I ignored the suggested route.  Arriving a bit after noon, I decided that the library would be a good choice for my afternoon and allow me to relax from the drive.  Since I did not bring along a list of death dates to look for  obituaries, I decided to concentrate on city directories.  That kept me busy and allowed me to feel successful as I printed off one after another.  Taking a break from city directories, I pulled out a film reel of wills.  Whoopee, I found the original will of Zelphia Guilfoil.  Zelphia was the wife of Michael Guilfoil  who was the brother of my g-g-g grandmother, Ellen Guilfoil Gilshannon.  It was Zelphia's will that had connected the three siblings, Michael, James, and Ellen.  I had a transcription but I do so love an original. I continued scrolling through reels for several more hours until my no line bifocals made me dizzy, and I decided to find a motel, check in, and have some dinner.  I returned to the library after dinner until closing.

The motel had issues and as I looked at the cost, I reasoned that if I went home a day early, I could use that money toward the FGS conference.  Decision made.  I checked out and planned to go home late afternoon.

Now I had to decide how I would use my one remaining day.  Mary, my angel in Clinton, had given me so much information before I left.  I printed out the addresses, phone numbers,  and contacts . . . but one stood out.  The Catholic Historical Center at St. Boniface church which was only open on Tues morning from 9-12.  This was new to me, and so I thought I should check it out since much of the information I was seeking was sure to be in church records and, conveniently, today was Tuesday!  Churches had records of baptisms before birth certificates were required.  Following my GPS, I easily found St. Boniface, but the front door was locked. I called the number Mary had sent me for the consolidated Prince of Peace church, but the woman on the other end of the line didn't know how I could get in to the Center. She was sure that was where I needed to go because "they didn't do genealogy" at the Prince of Peace location.

I drove around the church, and suddenly I saw a sign by a door at the top of a flight of outside stairs.  Pulling into the parking lot, I quickly jumped out, grabbed my stuff and climbed the stairs squeezing around the fan that was in the doorway surprising the men inside. Later I learned that this was the back door. I explained my connection to Clinton and asked if they could help me.  It turns out that they had just received an index with the consolidated church information on it but hadn't received any training yet.  I was their first "customer" and they would give it a try.  Bill Foley stepped up and offered to help me. He fired up the computer and opened the program containing the records index.  There were folders for each closed church and inside those there were folders for baptisms, marriages, etc. Within those folders the information was listed in a file similar to an excel file, with columns for child's name, parent names, date of birth, date of baptism, and sponsors. "Okay," Bill said, "What church?" There were several churches but I decided to start with St. Irenaeus. As Bill scrolled through the information for the St. Irenaeus records, I was frantically writing.  Every record we located at first had errors, due I am sure to the difficulty of reading old handwriting.  After several records I looked at the screen and saw the last name McDonald instead of McDonnell for a record that was definitely my g-g grandparents.  It was the 1865 baptism record for Mary Winifred McDonnell daughter of Owen William and Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell.  All of the records had the mother's maiden name making identification easier.  This record listed  Bartholomew McDonnell as one of her sponsors.  Wow! I have been searching for Bartholomew and suspected that he might have died in the Civil War, but here he was still in Clinton in 1865.  We continued and now I looked for alternate spellings (McDonald, McDonogh, McDonough, McDonnell) as Bill scrolled through the information.  Finally, near closing time, he clicked on a different column and the information was suddenly listed alphabetically by sponsor. At this point I realized that this would allow a cross reference of family names, but it was too late to do much more. I was elated with the information I had and knew the Catholic Historical Center would need a return visit. But wait, I asked, "Where are the originals since there are so many mistakes on the transcriptions?  Could I get a copy of the original documents?" "You'll have to call Prince of Peace because they have the original documents."

Rev. J.A. Murray married my g-grandparents

At the beginning, while I was waiting for Bill to load the program, another man brought over a stack of pamphlets dated 1908 and beyond for St. Patrick's church.  As I flipped through the pages, I paused when my eyes spotted the name Ed Moldt, my gr. grandfather. It shows that he paid $10 pew rent and $2.50 for the union (???)  This was news to me.  I didn't know my gr. grandfather had converted to Catholicism, who knew you had to pay pew rent and what did Union refer to.  Looks like he didn't support the rosary though.  Another page near the back of the booklet listed the baptism of my favorite uncle Harold Leonard Moldt, fondly know as Uncle High.  Neither the scanner or printer was connected yet at the Catholic Historical Center so Bill generously  offered to scan it at home and email it to me.  I didn't discover my uncle's name in the back till I looked at the scans he sent.

I thanked Bill for everything, slung my purse over my shoulder and went to my car.  As I sat in the church parking lot, I called John Brown, my first cousin twice removed.  His mother, Augusta Allen Brown, and my great grandmother, Mae Allen Moldt were sisters. A photo of the family is here.  I reasoned that I had time for a visit before I had to head for home.  John was a dear and told me that his son had told him about a relative who might get in touch with him.  "No problem at all, come on over."  he told me.

John lived outside of town.  He had been a farmer all of his life so I am sure his current few acres seemed small by comparison.  Even though he was 90 there was nothing old about John.  He could easily have been mistaken for a man twenty years younger.  I love the photo of him above because on the counter beside him is a photo of John and his wife when they were young.  We had a lovely visit, and he told me how he had a flood in his basement about four years ago and had lost a lot of family photos.  It broke my heart, and I thought of those boxes in my basement at home. We talked about the family bible, and he thought he knew who might have it.  He would investigate!!  From my computer, I shared with him some of the photos I had, and he talked about his mother and her sisters. I think we both enjoyed the visit.  So with a hug and a kiss, I left my newly discovered cousin and headed home.

It was only a little over 36 hours from when I left to when I arrived home.  A short time by most standards for a research trip, but it felt longer.  I had lots of new information as well as a new resource in the Catholic Historical Center, but best of all was my visit with John.

Post Note: I called Prince of Peace when I returned home, and the flustered lady on the other end of the phone said that she couldn't make a copy because she would have to cut off the other people on the page for privacy.  Really . . . I asked for a copy of an 1865 baptism record!! "Besides", she said "We don't do genealogy."  My question is, then why do you keep the records?  Later I received a letter attesting to my gr. grandmother's baptism, with an ending statement of "We don't do genealogy at Prince of Peace."  My hope is that someone will digitize these records before they are lost.

Oh My, I'm Feeling Lazy

  Well it has been almost over two three weeks since I have posted.  What has kept me so busy?  Absolutely nothing major, just bits and pieces of life that I am trying to "accomplish" before I go back to my job as a teacher.  For the record, school starts on Wednesday, but I will drop in for a couple of hours on Monday to start dragging out my boxes of resources and try to get the opening day papers copied before there is a two hour wait for the copier.  We have been told that we should not stand on chairs to put up anything in our rooms due to two new workman's compensation claims already.  Now how can I decorate the top of the six kitchen cupboards in my room without standing on a chair?  I really don't see one of our overworked custodians artistically arranging my stuff while I stand on the floor and direct.

  I also just returned from a quick trip to Clinton, Iowa.  I hesitate to call it a research trip because it was not that organized, and I only spent about 24+ hours in Clinton, but I did find some new resources, new information and had a lovely 2 hour visit with my  first cousin twice removed who just celebrated his 90th birthday. I had never met him before but his mother and my great grandmother were sisters.  I'd say that was pretty good for only one day. Actually, the opportunity to meet him was the primary motivator for the trip.  I will write more detail in a later post as I am was so intent on my mission that I only took one photo.  Clinton is about a four and a half hour trip from my house, but the road goes through the southern part of Chicago so planning your trip to avoid rush hour is a definite consideration.  I promised myself that I would get back to Clinton this summer and once school starts, my summer is over.  I hoped that my brother and I could go together since our first and only time was such a great experience.  And, let's face it, it is much cheaper when you can split the gas and the hotel room. I am a very practical person, but our schedules didn't mesh.

  The other issue plaguing me is the fact that my desktop computer bit the dust due to a power outage/surge during a storm three weeks ago.  I have everything backed up in three other places so my research is safe but my email and addresses from newly acquired relatives is still residing in that black blue hole sitting on my desk.  With that computer gone I have also lost access to my printer and my scanner.  I know what you are thinking . . . why didn't you just go out and get another one?  Welllllllll . . . I hate pre-fab computers.  I am annoyed by all of the trial versions of programs I don't want that seem to worm there way into every crevice.  I don't like the cheapo keyboards that come with them, and I am worried that my perfectly good all-in-one HP Officejet and Epson scanner will not work with Windows 7 along with a few software programs like EQ5. Additionally, I wanted to see if anything could be salvaged from my old computer - like the email! Then  I remembered an amazing computer-technology-programming teacher I had in a summer school class two years ago.  He told us that he occasionally moonlights and builds computers.  I contacted him, didn't hear anything, contacted using another email and hear the great news that he does still build computers on the side, and he asked a few questions which I instantly answered in a return email.  That was over a week ago and despite several additional emails, I have heard nothing.  I am puzzled.  So yesterday, I stopped in to Best Buy (yuck!) to see what my choices were. They assured me that all of my old hardware would work with Windows 7 . . . I'm not sure I believe them.  What is a girl to do? 

  Here it is a week and a half later . . . . I still don't have a computer which means I still don't have a scanner or printer.  Somehow I don't feel like it is a real blog post without photos and so I have stalled and stalled hoping that I would have a working computer.  Every time I think of all the work to get it all up and running as well as reinstalling all of my software and downloading new drivers, my stomach starts churning.  It turns out that it was my hardrive that failed from the power outage but the good news is that it can most likely be salvaged. Yes, I did have it backed up elsewhere.

  While I was dealing with frustration over the computer situation at home and getting my classroom ready for a new school year, I made a decision about the FGS conference . . . I'm going!!  So I filled out the personal leave forms at school, and turned them in on Friday.  If I leave after school on Wednesday, I can make it to Springfield by 9:00 p.m., and I have a reservation at a non-FGS motel. Since I will be footing the whole bill, I have to trim costs where I can.  I have some concerns because in general I do not like traveling by myself.  I am too much of a chatty Cathy and talking to strangers is not the same as exchanging opinions, observations, and laughter with a friend.  Wish me luck!

Solved . . . or at Least Partially Solved

Many thanks to another double cousin for a partial solution to the lady in my last post, "Oh, Those Beautiful Eyes".  Cousin June has temporary custody of the original photo, and so I asked her to look at it for me to see if she could read anything more than I could from my digital copy.  Yippee!  My reasoning was correct . . .  it says, the sister of great Grandma Mac.  Of course it doesn't give her name, but this means that the entire family must not have emigrated from Ireland.   June also saw a very faint date which looked like 1781, but would more likely have been 1881 or 1891 from my research into the photographer.

Many years ago my mother wrote to her cousin on behalf of my brother (the original family historian) and asked about family information.  A couple of years ago we reconnected, and when we went to visit her she generously allowed us to scan every photo and document,  as well as scribbled notes she had saved concerning the family.  One of those notes listed the names of great Grandma Mac's  (Bridget O'Callahan) sisters.  Sadly, she passed away before we could ask who gave her that information, but it had to be from the McDonnell side of the family, and the most likely person claims it wasn't her.  So we have this completely unsourced lead . . .  but leads are always welcome.  I have not yet found another family member who knew this information so that makes it especially precious to me.

Click to enlarge and read more details than those listed below.

 

Edited transcription:

Great Grandma Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell had 3 sisters and 3 brothers

1.) Abigail - Pat Kennedy

Mary  m.William Green

Bridget

Simon

Patrick

Joseph

Abigail

Margaret 

James

Catherine m. Oscar Smedly

2.) Catherine O'Callahan - Pat Curtin

Catherine

Patrick

Nell

Albie

John m. Mary Gary

Simon

3.) Mary O'Callahan - Michael Reagan

Mollie m. Thomas McCarty

Albie m. Thomas Ayan

Bridget m. John Donovan

4.) John O'Callahan - Winnie Maloney

Winnie m. Frank McDonnell

Mary m.

Simon

5.) Dennis O'Callahan ?

6.)  John Daniel O'Callahan ?

The only issue is that it looks like all of these individuals lived in the U.S. based upon the listing of subsequent generations - except for the two possible brothers at the end.  That, of course, makes me wonder if the sister in the photo passed away since she was still in Ireland in the late 1800's. She obviously kept in touch with Bridget for a long time given the date of the photo and the fact that Bridget immigrated to the U.S around 1854.

From the 1925 Iowa census (a genealogist's dream census), I find that great Grandma Mac (Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell) lists her parents names as Simon O'Callaghan and Mary Galvan.  Now I need to find an Irish record with these names in combination.  The information I have says that Bridget lived in Cobh/Queenstown. So far, I have not found any records of her family or her immigration to the U.S.

Genealogy is an endless series of mysteries and oh, how I love the chase!

Well, if that photo is Bridget McDonnell's sister, could this unidentified tintype/ambrotype (I don't know the difference) photo, found in the same album, be her father, Simon O'Callahan?  His clothing with the wide labels, vest, and turned down collar along with his lack of facial hair and the photograph medium seem to tell me this is mid 19th century.  However, this is completely am impression on my part so if anyone who reads this has some expertise in this matter, please share.

But also . . . he has those eyes!

Oh, Those Beautiful Eyes!

Subtitle:  Can Physical Traits Lead Us to Photo Identification?
Well, now that you have seen my uncle Owen Kennelly in this week's Tombstone Tuesday post, it is obvious that he has very distinctive eyes.  On more than one occasion, I have been sitting with family members sorting through unidentified photos and the comment is made, "Oh, that's Owen just look at the eyes."  It was his eyes that I thought of when my late wonderful double cousin, Mary Margaret and I were going through an album of CDV and tintype/ambrotype photos.  The photos had been pulled out long before she received it but were still stuck between the pages.  Some of the photos have names on the back, some just have clues as to the identity on the back, and others are maddeningly blank.  We assumed they must be from either the family of Owen McDonnell or Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell because the identified photos pointed to an origination with that generation.  But are they from both Owen and Bridget or just one of them?

I need to do more research on clothing and hairstyles - something I would find fascinating anyway - to see if I can at least afix the photos in a time period.  Last winter I investigated submitting a few to Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective but the cost was going to be prohibitive and could not choose just one.  Indecision is a fatal flaw of mine. 

So today, I will share one with you.  It is the lady with Owen's eyes.   It is a definite physical trait and this would be an indication that he inherited it through his mother, Mary McDonnell Kennelly, the child of Owen  and Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell.

The best part though is that this photo is definitely connected to Ireland!! As you can see the photographer is listed as Hunter in the lower left and the location as Cork in the right.  Both Owen and Bridget were from County Cork with Owen from Grenagh and Bridget from Cobh also known as Queenstown. Having a rock for a prop seems like an unusual choice, but it might have some significance that I am unaware of.  I have also tried to look up clothing styles for the 1880's (which is the time period my intuition tells me this is) and it looks similar.  I cannot tell if there is a bustle on the back but all that gathered material sort of points to that.  Now both Owen and and Bridget immigrated in the 1850's so this has to be someone they left at home and continued to correspond with if I have the correct decade.  According to the information on Photo Tree, dark card backgrounds became popular in the late 1880's to 1890's.  But was that the same in Ireland?

Click to enlarge.

Let's turn the photo over.

This gives us a bit more information about the photographer.

H. Hunter

28 Patrick Street,

Cork.

Copies can be had

Enlargements any size on paper or canvas artistically finished in oil, water colors, or crayon, can at any time be produced without another sitting.

And since I am a fly by the seat of your pants, impatient, family historian who tries many options, I Googled the photographer's name as well as posting a query on the Ireland message board of Ancestry.com.  While the internet is great, the kindness and generosity of other family historians is the fuel that keeps us moving. As expected, I received a reply that linked to interesting information.  Using the Ask About Ireland website can be exceedingly confusing so I appreciated a link to the section that would be most helpful.  Combining this with my Google information, I have discovered that,  according to Aldwell's City of Cork Directory, in 1844-45 there was a Henry J. Hunter working as a post office secretary at 27 Patrick Street in Cork but by the 1867 Henry and Coughlan's City Directory there is a listing for an H. Hunter, photographer at 102 Patrick Street.  Then there is a photo on Flickr that lists the date of a photo at about 1890 and the back of the photo is identical to the one above except it is lighter in color.  Am I boring you yet?  I am trying to set down my research findings and methods.  However, the term methods may be a bit too organized sounding for my research. 

Now, have you noticed anything else on the back of the photo?  I encouraged you to click on the photo to enlarge it.  In VERY faint script at the top it has the words "(too faint to read then . . .)Great Grandma and possibly Mc".  This would mean it could not be a sister left in Ireland, but the woman is too young in this photo to be the mother of Owen McDonnell, born 1833 or 1837.    I have strained my eyes on this writing innumerable times trying to make out the full notation and used my photo editing software to try and enlarge and enhance it to no avail.  

The mystery of her identity remains.

Tombstone Tuesday - Owen Kennelly

Owen Kennelly 

July 19, 1902- October 1970 

Queen of Heaven Mausoleum - Chicago, Illinois

My mother's favorite Uncle

Obituary in the Chicago Tribune, October 29, 1970

Owen D. Kennelly, retired CPD, beloved husband of the late Hazel and Ellen (Nell); fond father of Joseph F, (Tina and Gerald E.(Phyllis); grandfather of six; gr. grandfather of two; brother of Margaret Coughlin, John and the late Anna Farley, Mary Murray and Edward.  Funeral Saturday, 10:30 a.m. from William C. Smith and Sons Inc., 2500 N. Cicero to St. Bartholomew Church.  Entombment Queen of Heaven Mausoleum.  Member of B.P.A. and Fraternal Order of Police. Visitation after 3 p.m. Thursday.

What makes this Tombstone Tuesday unique is the full picture below of the vault above in the mausoleum.

You will notice his first wife, Hazel, mentioned in his obituary, is in the vault above he and his second wife, Nell.   But . . . Hazel was not originally buried in this vault.  In an earlier Tombstone Tuesday, I posted about Auntie, the maiden aunt who shared the home at 2338 W. Washington Blvd with her sister, my gr. grandmother, her entire life. I mentioned in that post that I couldn't understand why she was buried alone with no family next to her. After all, she was a legend in the family.   

This is why.  Hazel,Owen and Auntie originally purchased plots together, Hazel was originally buried there as planned, then Owen became reacquainted Nell and married her not long after. Rumor is Nell, who had long had a crush on Owen, came to Hazel's funeral offering comfort to Owen and the rest is history.  No one has a bad word to say about Nell.  She loved Owen and was generous with her considerable money.  So rather than separate Owen from his first wife, she had Hazel moved to the vault above theirs.  It is notable that Owen, who died last, could have spent eternity with either wife, but he chose Nell.

Opinions Solicited on FGS Conference

I have been weighing the pros and cons of attending the FGS convention in Springfield, IL, Sept 7-10 and would appreciate your wisdom in this regard.

Even if I get no opinions, I am hoping that by writing it down, I will be better able to decide what would be best for me.

Here are the facts:
 * I have asked my local genealogy group if anyone was interested in attending and sharing expenses.  No one has replied.
* Springfield is a five hour drive, and I would be driving by myself most probably.  Cost of gas will be about $80.
* I investigated taking the train just because it sounded like a great adventure, but the train was very full and the time would be several hours longer. It still sounds like fun!
* I am only willing to take 1-2 days off work (I am a teacher) so that means I would be there Friday and Saturday if I leave right after school on Thurs.
* I have missed the deadline to get a better rate and also to get a discount for volunteering which as a single attendee was very appealing.
* Unless you attend the entire convention, single days are $99 each so $198 ( the entire convention is $235).  I have considered attending the lectures for only one day and then going to the vendor mall on the other reducing my cost by $99.  Can you attend a luncheon on a day you are not registered ( such as my vendor mall day) because that really appeals to me, but not if I only have one day?
* Hotel rooms for two nights are approx. $116 each night, and I assume tax on top of that. I wrote to the designated person who is working with individuals who want a roommate, but have not heard anything yet.  Maybe the fact that I told her I snore (so I am told) has something to do with that.  Besides, I only will need Thursday and Friday nights.
*  Food - I have no idea how to estimate this but I am sure it won't come cheap.  How in the world did our ancestors pack food to take on a 4-6 week journey to the United States?

As you can see, the costs have mounted and nothing yet adds to my family history research.  Why then do I want to go?

*  I have many ancestors from Illinois, but predominantly from the Chicago area.  Will this still be a benefit?
* I have attended local genealogy days at the library and enjoyed it tremendously.  This should be that experience on steroids.  I have found a number of  lectures that sound interesting.
*  Are the military records for Spanish American War veterans here or at NARA? Records at the Illinois State Archives would be available.  I think the muster in and out records are there. 
*  There are many vendors that I want to see and talk to - Newberry Library, Illinois State Genealogical Society, Roots Magic, NARA, Flip Pal, etc.  Spending a day in the vendor mall will be easy.
*  If I like this shortened experience, then I would feel more comfortable planning to attend a full conference such as NGS in Cincinnati next May which is also about five hours from my home.
* I am sure that there are more but this will have to do for now.

If you are going, I would like to know how you decided.  Do you attend conferences often?  What am I missing in my considerations????

I Married a Swede

If I told you that I married a man who is 100% Swedish, it wouldn't seem unusual.  But, his ancestors on both his mother's and father's side immigrated in the 1880's.   For four generations here in the United States they married Swedes.  As a girl who is a bit of this, a bit of that and a whole lot of Irish, it seems so improbable that he can still have 100% Swedish ancestry.

For the past year I have been trying to interest him in researching the family history for his side of the family.  Then, this past week we took a short road trip to visit his cousin. In conversations with Mary she told us about some family documents and photos that she had relating to the family so we decided to travel 8 hours to visit with her and hopefully she would interest him in his family history.  At any rate, we would have some information to pass on to our children before we lost contact with the relatives.

From our visit, I would like to share the photos of my husband's great grandparents, Gustof Erickson and the girl he married, Elida Person.  Gust and Elida were the parents of seven children,  Selma, Alex, Ida, John, Beulah, Hilma, and Gladys.

 

Gust was electrocuted at the Pullman car Factory in 1914 and Elida had to go court to get compensation.  After it was all over, and the attorney was paid, she had $3500.

Mary also shared the naturalization papers for Gust.

Click to enlarge and see detail.

My husband is still only marginally interested, but my daughter has been reading over my shoulder as I write, asking questions and my nephew responded with interest  when I wrote to ask if he wanted to see what we found.  His response:  Awesome!

So even if it isn't through my children, I love the thought that the family history will go down another generation.

A Gift From My Ancestors

 During the process of trying to decide how I wanted to approach this post, I changed the title several times, typed a few sentences, erased them, wrote a few more, paused, and closed blogger coming back again a few more times. What was it that I truly wanted to write?  Then, as usually happens, a idea just arrived in my brain unannounced while I was thinking about a completely different subject. And as often happens, I was not able to write down my thoughts at the time (driving) so I am now trying to reconstruct those thoughts.

Every genealogist or family historian that I know or whose blog I ever read has mentioned with deep emotion this gift they received from their ancestors. It is commonly mentioned in blog posts and conversations.  It is the gift of appreciation and gratitude for the world we now live in because we know the difficulties many of our ancestors endured.  I think of the many times they lost everything and started over.  I think of their long days of endless back breaking work when the word vacation or weekend wasn't in their dictionary.  I think of them gathering their families and stepping into unknown lands.  I think of the women who had few options but many children. And as a mother it is those children that bring me to the thing that I appreciate the most and do not take for granted. . . modern medical care.  They had large families but expected they would lose several children.  Many men outlived their first wives, sometimes their second . . . and even their third.  Childbirth was often the culprit.

But the deaths of so many children seems so oppressively unbearable to me.  And while the epidemics, illness  and accidents that took so many of them might have been expected to pass their way, the loss must have been just as unbearable for their families when it did happen.  Every family historian can list pages of children who died. Often from illness or diseases that rarely bother us today.  My great grandfather was one of seven children but only two made it adulthood.

Baby  June was one of those beloved children. Agnes June McDonnell was the youngest child of Owen Jerome and Nettie (Elizabeth Burnett) McDonnell.  As the youngest, I am sure she was pampered and indulged by her older sisters and teased by her brothers. The emotion of her death could still be hear in the voice of her older sister, Georgia, when I had a brief conversation with her less than a year ago . . . and Georgia is now 92.  She was remembering family members and smiling as she told me that my mother was a "biter". "Of course," her voice became low and soft, and her head tilted down toward her lap, "there was Baby June. She. . . she died when she was quite young." Georgia was only two years older than June so she has a child's memory of it, but the emotion of it still remained. The newspaper article says it all.

DIPHTHERIA OF
MALIGNAT TYPE
IS DISCOVERED

Definite warning is issued to parents and physicians of the city by the health officer who within the past 24 hours has found two cases of diphtheria in a type so malignant as to cause death quickly.  The state is threatened with and an epidemic of the same virulent disease, is the word from other localities and it behooves every one in the vicinity to carefully safeguard the child life over which they have surveillance.
  The official notice follows:
"To the Physicians and General Public:
  "Last evening I saw a child at 407 Commercial street, Lyons, who had died during the afternoon under circumstances which made the attending physician suspect that the child might have had diphtheria.  I cultured the nose and throat of the dead child and the nose and throat of all the other member of the family.  The laboratory reports show diphtheria bacilli present in the culture from the dead child and from others in the family. This case was reported as not having had any membrane in the throat.  The child was ill about two days but seriously ill only a few hours before death."
  "This morning I saw a case at 417 Commercial street, child aged five who was dying at the time I first saw it and had membrane on both tonsils.  This child died within and hour after it was reported.
  "The strain of infection these cases is evidently of unusual virulence and I feel that both the physicians and the parents should be extra cautious in determining the nature of illness in children, sick.
  "In this connection I wish also to call your attention to the fact that scarlet fever is present in Lyons in a form more severe that usual.  Some of these scarlet fever cases present a very extensive tonsilar membrane which in the absence of a scarlet fever rash might be mistaken for diphtheria.  Cultures show, diphtheria bacilli uniformly negative.  In the more severe type I am using the recently perfected scarlet fever antitoxine and have had the Campbell Drug Co. stock a supply of it for general use. Some of the scarlet fever cases with membrane resemble diphtheria and some of the diphtheria cases have a toxic rash and resemble scarlet fever.  I feel on account of the care and skill manifested by the physicians in past epidemics that we will be able to put down this infection promptly, but I also feel that extra precautions should be taken in arriving at a diagnosis.
                             H.R. SUGG
                             Health Officer
   No criticism is attached to the attending physicians in either case above mentioned.  Both cases were seen by regular practitioners who found that they were called too late to do any good in their efforts to save the lives of the children.

Agnes June McDonnell obituary. Died 15 Sept 1925

Did any other children in the town or area die from this virulent strain of diphtheria or did this health officer's warning prevent it?  What three other members of the family tested positive?  Was Georgia one of them?  Did they also become ill, and what was the treatment that enabled them to survive?  Did they survive because Baby June's death allowed them to receive treatment in time? One thing is sure, that as the family was dealing with the sudden death of one child they were also trying to save others.

According to Wikepedia -  In the 1920s there were an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 cases of diphtheria per year in the United States, causing 13,000 to 15,000 deaths per year.



Baby June died  just as a vaccine for diphtheria was being developed.

We all have our moments and complain when life is not as perfect as we would like it to be, but genealogists and family historians have received a gift from their ancestors - appreciation for the lives we have and the medical advances that allow more of us to live those lives.