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!

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.

Still Searching for Ernest T.

During my recent vacation in Florida I casually opened my morning email, coffee cup in hand, so that I was scrolling, deleting, and typing hunt and peck style with my free hand.  Moments into my morning routine, my eyes scrolling through the email  ads updates from places like Coldwater Creek, Knitpicks, Office Depot, and Eddie Bauer, stopped when I noticed a familiar address.  It was from another double cousin on the McDonnell & Allen side of my family AND there was a file attached.  When I opened it, I was thrilled stunned shocked . . . well, let's just say that I was very excited.  I was staring at the entire Allen Family including spouses and children . . . at least their bodies were all there.  I wish I could say the same for their faces.  June found the photo when she helped Mary Margaret's  daughter pack up her house after her death.  I thought Mary Margaret and I had sifted through, sorted, and analyzed every box of old family photos she had so this was like an unexpected gift.

There is only one problem . . . two of the faces are scratched out completely!  James Allen has pencil scribbled over his mouth, and Flossie has one eye scribbled over.  Normally, scribbling or scratching on photos is done by a young child, but these scratches were not random and the intense anger can still be felt. In my mind's eye I see a woman  (Really, this does sound like a female type of thing) muttering angrily to herself  as she scratches out each face. She even kept scratching through two layers on Ernest's face.  What did Ernest and Nora do, and who was so angry that she obliterated their faces?  Was it someone in the photo?  Since James Allen's mouth is scribbled over, I assume that is her way of saying she didn't like his opinions? attitudes? decisions? rules? Family gossip is that he was rather strict, and then there is the fact that no one ever put a headstone on his grave.  Ouch!  But what is up with Flossie's one eye?  This is anger that has endured for over a hundred years.

  *****************************************************************************

I believe the photo was taken around 1910 based on the age of the youngest child that I know - my Uncle High (Harold Moldt) - who is being kept in place with his mother's arm.  After identifying the individuals I knew, I realized it showed a pattern with the husband standing behind his wife and their children, more or less, on the ground in front of them.

MY FAMILY:
Back row from left to right - Owen Jerome McDonnell, Edward Thomas Moldt, Augusta (Gussie) Allen, Laura Allen, Herman Holdgrafer, and I am positive Ernest Thomas Allen even if he doesn't look very good in this photo.
Middle row from left to right - Elizabeth Burnett Allen McDonnell, baby Florence McDonnell based on her birth date, baby Harold Moldt, Anna Mae Allen Moldt (my great grandmother), Elanor Gilshannon Allen, James Bush Allen, Florence (Flossie) Allen Holdgrafer looking downright angry, and I am positive the next woman is Nora Tyler Allen even if she looks as bad as her husband in this photo.
Front Row from left to right - Ambrose McDonnell, Berenice Moldt (my grandmother) but I have no idea who the baby is except Florence Holdgrafer was born in March 1910 so this is a possibility, Edward Thomas Moldt Jr. (known as Doc for most of his life), Vivian McDonnell, possibly Vivian Holdgrafter, possibly Eleanor McDonnell (I could have the girls wrong), Owen James McDonnell, and probably Vincent Holdgrafer.

Some of the individuals I have identified only by their date of birth such as the Holdgrafer children.  If the photo is about 1910 then their ages would fill in the unknown children appropriately.  

Is this Ernest Thomas Allen before he lost his hair?

Ernest Thomas was the oldest child and the only son.  Ernest and Nora had no children. I have never seen a photo of him. A while back I tried to match the unknown photo on the right to him and wrote to some family members who might remember him or hoping they had an old photo.  Time and again, I got the same story.  All they remembered was that he was bald, and they all told me the same story.   Uncle Ernie was working in the yard when he was swarmed by insects, so he rubbed his head with insect repellent and then his hair fell out, and it never grew back.  The question is . . . is this the truth or just some Irish blarney?  I can tell that he still has his hair in the family photo above, but is the photo on the right also him?  Ernest T. was the street commissioner in Muscatine, Iowa from 1915-1929 and this photo is from a Muscatine studio. I think he looks like James B. Allen, but this might be wishful thinking.  So close but . . .I'm  still searching for the image of Ernest T. 

On the Trail of Owen McDonnell . . . a.k.a. Anatomy of a Search

My g-g-grandfather's name was Owen McDonnell, Owen  William McDonnell to be exact.  And that is important because in our family there are plenty of Owen McDonnell's.  He was the father of Mary McDonnell Kennelly ,my gr.grandmother, who lived at 2338 W. Washington Blvd. The photo at left is titled "The Three Owens".  It is Owen William, his son, Owen Jerome, and his grandson, Owen James.

May 16, 1921 - Clinton Advertiser

 According to his obituary he was born in Grenagh, Ireland in 1837 and immigrated when he was 18 years of age.  The problem is that his headstone has 1833 chiseled into it.  Which to believe??  Family lore says that he was born a "stone's throw" from Blarney Castle. Hmmmmmm. . . . . . Grenagh is close but not that close to Blarney Castle.  Census records give a mixture of years for his immigration as census records often do.















When did he immigrate to the U.S.?  The Federal census images below show an immigration year of 1852 in 1910 & 1920, but 1849 in the earlier 1900 census.

1900 Federal Census

1910 Federal Census

1920 Federal Census

My dream is to find a record of Owen William's family in Ireland.  I want to know when he came to the United States and on what ship.  I want to know if he came alone or with his three brothers who also lived in Iowa - John, Michael, and Bartholomew. I want, I want, I want. . . . . . . .I know, I know, family historians are never satisfied.

Recently this digital chase has become an obsession.  Some of my answers and more of my questions have come from my research at the Irish Family History Foundation. They only have an index so the information you can access is minimal and to see the full record costs 5 euros (that is $6.97 including a .23 foreign transaction fee for those readers in the U.S.). This means I REALLY need to narrow down the many pages of result to find MY family. The search options at the Irish Family History Foundation are: county, surname, first name, year (with a range), and if you are looking for births there is a place for mother's name and parish.  All of this sounds wonderful, however most of this is information is what I am hoping to find in the record!!  But, move over Sherlock, I'll give it a go.

The 1860 Federal Census for Elk River, Iowa shows Michael, age 34 (b.1826), his wife Ellen, along with John, age 30 (b. 1826) and Bartholomew, age 26 (b. 1834) residing together.  If I presume (I know that isn't a good thing to do, but I have to start somewhere!) that the birth date for my Owen is 1837, then he would be 23 in 1860.  I have not yet found a census record that I am certain is him.  I will use this birth order as a guide in my record checking.

1860 Federal Census for Elk River, Iowa

At the Irish Family History Foundation website, the first thing I do is login and go to the search box.  I select the Birth and Baptism record, check the box for county Cork and enter the date range typing Owen"s first and last name.  Hmmm. . . four hits - not too bad but still expensive.  Then I try Bartholomew since I am hoping that this is a less common name than Michael or John (Warning! Don't use the Irish Sean as it won't work).  I still put in a date range because it seems that exact dates weren't of great importance to my ancestors.  I used 3 years.  Two hits, but the date is 1831.  I put in the father's name of  John as the family claims it is.  One hit.  This is great.  Now, let's see if we can identify the parish.  Grenagh is listed in Owen's obituary so let's start there. I choose the Advanced option but  no luck.  There are 90+ parishes and so I begin to try and locate the parish that the one Bartholomew is registered in.  An eternity later - it shows up as Mourne Abbey rather than Grenagh.  I wonder how far apart these are?  Is this a "stone's throw" from Blarney Castle?

View Larger Map

When I check on Google Maps it shows the distance from Mourne Abbey (B) and Grenagh (A) as 8 km. which is very doable.  If I search for Owen in Mourne Abbey will I find him also?  I need to confirm that it is my family.  Did you hear me scream??  There is an Owen born in Mourne Abbey with a father named John between  1829-1839.  But I need to confirm the birth date so I keep changing the birth date with no range and discover that this Owen (I am not yet ready to claim him as mine) was born in 1830.  I feel deflated.  This is so far outside my presumed range that it cannot be correct.  I decide to take a chance that the birth record for Bartholomew will help, so I buy this one record.  

 

So his mother's name was Jula . . . back to the Advanced Search, and I put in Jula for the record for Owen.  Yes!! This is the same family, but is is my family. Both Michael and my Owen William named daughters Julia so this could be confirmation of a family member named Julia - perhaps a mother?   I wish I could see the original records to tell if the dates could be wrong. Now I check to see if this John and Julia had a Michael and John.  Nope!

This is where it gets messy.  What about John and Michael, the two eldest sons? I cannot find records for any parish with a John McDonnell father and a Julia mother for a John and Michael McDonnell. I can find all kinds of variations of this information by mixing and matching, but nothing really lines up.  Did they move?  Family information claims that the father, Sean (John) McDonnell came from County Tipperary.  One interesting bit of information is that in researching the name Julia Cunningham, I found a Julia Cunningham born to a Bartholomew Cunningham . . . . . ahhhhhh!, so plausible, but . . . the search continues.

Tombstone Tuesday - Michael McDonnell Falls From Bridge

Davenport Leader - Oct. 27, 1896

 

Michael McDonnell - St. Irenaeus Cemetery - Clinton, IA

Born October 26, 1869

Died October 22, 1896

Michael was a brother of my great grandmother, Mary Winifred McDonnell Kennelly of 2338 W. Washington Blvd.

The Wild, Wild West. . . near Deadwood, South Dakota



Owen Jerome McDonnell -standing center

This post is courtesy of my wonderful double cousin, Mary Margaret mentioned in this blog before here, here, and here.  I think her passion for family history exceeds my own, and she has many wonderful stories passed on to her by her father.

Crook City Tale

My Uncle Ambrose McDonnell was born in Iowa in 1900. As a baby he was taken to the Black Hills in South Dakota by his mother and father.

Owen Jerome McDonnell knew there was gold in the Hills and with four other partners, he had purchased land in the old Cook City site. After my uncle was born, he brought his wife, Elizabeth Burnette Allen and baby to a land where he was sure to make his fortune.

Owen Jerome McDonnell and wife
 Elizabeth Burnett Allen
with their childrem

One day, he had business in Deadwood and he left his young wife at home alone. Nettie heard a knock at the front door and when she opened the door she was dismayed to see a scraggly old women standing there. Nettie was frightened and did not invite her in. The old women looked sick, dirty and Nettie feared she had something Ambrose could catch. Then the old lady spoke, “ May I have a glass of water? I would never harm a hair on the head of Sunny Boy’s child.” Nettie knew that was a nickname used for her husband. She gave the old woman a glass to get water from the well. While she stood in the door way, the old woman said she was walking to catch the train to Lead. Nettie knew there was a hospital there. The old lady smiled her thanks, turned and left down the street.


Crook City home






When Owen returned home and heard the story he told his wife that he thought it was an old friend, Jane. Later that week, they learned that Calamity Jane had gone to Lead and died. This story was told to me by my father, Ambrose’s younger brother, Owen James, many times and is a family legend




The photo at the beginning of this post is presumed to be Owen Jerome and his four partners.  I would love to be able to identify the other men in this photo.  If you can help identify them,  please contact me.

Follow the GPS

Leaving the Chicago area, I set the GPS for my next destination - the home of my double second cousin once removed!  She is also the first relative that my brother and I met through  our genealogy research and then visited. I refer you to my post about my first family research trip.  While the first trip was short and definitely all about our shared family history, this trip felt more like a family visit in which we happened to discuss our common family lineage.  She generously invited me to spend the night, and I stopped at a Whole Foods on the way to pick up a salad for our lunch.  We certainly didn't want to spend our precious time with the mundane chores of life like making and cleaning up meals.

Now, to explain how we are double cousins once removed. My grandmother's aunt married my grandfather's uncle so I am related to both her grandparents.  Because we do not have an equal number of descended generations and are off one, we are once removed!  However, I claim that the double connection must make us "closer" relatives!

Left page in the Clinton County Marriage Record -Edward Moldt

Right page in the Clinton County Marriage Record - Mae Allen

We quickly ate lunch, said goodbye to her company and plopped ourselves next to each other on her sofa with our laptops open on our laps.  I showed her the Clinton County Marriage Register files that I had downloaded from a  Family History film I ordered earlier in the summer. While most of the records had all of the information filled, we lamented the blank lines in the records for our ancestors.  Why would they both have so many blanks?  Then Mary noticed a pattern. All of the marriages performed by Father Murray at St. Patrick's had the bare minimum of information. That was the explanation . . .It was the priest's fault!  I am hoping that the church will have the records/information that they did not give to the county.  Mae Allen, above record, is my gr. grandmother.  Bernette Allen, in the record below, is my gr. grandmother's sister.

Left page in the Clinton County Marriage Record - Owen J. McDonnell

Right page in the Clinton County Marriage Record - Bernette Allen

Possible young Owen William

Owen William McDonnell

Then as we were going through my computer files, we stopped at a scan of notes made by another relative.  It was a list of names and relationships for Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell's sisters and brothers. Now, Bridget was my g-gr.grandmother and Mary's gr.grandmother.  She immigrated from Cobh, Ireland about 1854 when she was 18 years old as a bond servant.  Mary let out a gasp and said that she had never seen this information before and quickly pulled out a very old photo album. Now our detective work really began. . . .  The photos were identified on the album pages, but the photos had all been removed from their slots.  We carefully listed all of the names, and hoped that we would be able to match them up. Included were four tintypes, and, at first, I thought those were from an earlier time period, but when I did a little research on the internet after returning home, I learned that they existed during the same time period as the parlor cards.  HELP! I need Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, to sort this out.  There were a few photos with some information, name, or relationship.  Not a one had a complete name.  We had a photo listing the person as Bridget's sister - which one?  We had two girls named Regan, no first name.  We have Leon McCarthy's father - but how is he related to us?  The one tintype of the very handsome fellow on the right above, we determined had to be Owen William McDonnell, Bridget's husband. Do you think he is a younger version of the known photo of Owen on the left above?  Our excitement began to give way to frustration, but we wouldn't give up. We sorted, resorted, speculated, and compared the photos the rest of the day. I loved that Mary was as enthusiastic as I was.  We are kindred spirits.

An interesting  possible connection that, do to my current political beliefs,  I hesitate to mention is the Regan girls.  It seems that quite a few years ago, Ronald Reagan's mother came to the Clinton area to try and find a Reagan connection that she had followed there. She even had a yellowed copy of  a newspaper article covering the story.  According to Mary, Mrs. Reagan thought the connection was with  Owen William McDonnell's family.  BUT, using the scanned notes of Bridget's sisters and brothers with the two photos labeled Reagan, the connection might be through Bridget O'Callahan's sister, Mary who married a Michael Reagan.  Do you think these girls look like our former president?  The back of the photos identify the photography studio as Kelly's in Cinncinnati for the young lady on the right and Brownell's (formerly Kelly's) for the one on the left.

We had a fast food dinner with the paper wrappers for a plate and easy clean up.  The ice in our glasses of pop melted before we finished it as we  went through albums, scanned photos and documents, and continually tried to compare the unknown photos with ones that were labeled.  We discussed, analyzed, sorted and stacked.  It was soooooo much fun!  As I noticed that my derriere was feeling numb, and I was beginning to yawn, I asked what time it was.  The answer: 11:30!  Oh my gosh, that was 12:30 my time.  We couldn't believe it.  We needed to go to bed . . . . but let's look at just one more box.

The next day, we took up where we left off.  It was so much fun listening to the stories from our family.  A great aunt stopped by for a visit, and I had the chance to ask a few questions of my own.  She reminisced about playing with my mother when they were both young.  It is so nice to get a different perspective on a person, but her memory of  my mother was that she always wanted her own way, and in that respect, she didn't change much as she grew up.

What a delightful time we had.  There was still so much to talk about, that I boldly invited myself to come back in a few weeks.  Guess what?  She agreed.  Now I need to do a little research in the meantime to see if we can solve a mystery or two.

Note to Mary:  You'll notice that I didn't mention the whole scanner fiasco.
Note to everyone else:  You don't want to know!

Won't This Saga Ever End?

Well, today is my report on the end of our trip.

Our original plans were to go to the library and possibly the historical society if we found out that they were open and had records that are available for us to look at.  I left a message on an answering machine the day before asking about their hours and leaving my phone number.  We weren't sure if they were open one day a week or once a month.  That morning as we started for the library when my phone rang, and it was the historical society and museum.  Yes, they were open from 9-11 so we quickly changed our plans to accommodate their hours.  We could go to the library afterward.

I wish I had a photo of the Clinton Historical Society and Museum, but I was so excited that I often forgot to take photos on this trip.  I even scoured the internet for an image to "steal" with no luck.  The all volunteer staff was so friendly and helpful, but it was almost overwhelming.  This is my fault because I didn't really have a prioritized list of  information we were seeking. As they showed and described the records and information located on each wall, my eyes started to glaze a bit.   I gave my brother the task of looking through the city directories since I love the year by year picture they can give.  He brought his scanner in and began to look through them.  I should have given him a list of individuals to look up, but he made do with the surnames, Allen, McDonnell and Moldt.  I was trying to find where our grandmother graduated from high school and a couple of marriage records.  My sister-in-law with her halo still affixed to her head agreed to look through the card files for family members.  I was the only one who came up almost empty handed as the time raced by. I found a death record for Ellen Allen, my gr. grandmother's sister, who died of consumption in 1888 at age eleven - I think it is her sister.  Of course, it could be a random stranger with the same surname.  Shortly before they closed, one volunteer worker suggested that we needed to visit the records office since Clinton was one of the few places left where you can still go in and actually put your hands on the original records.  We added that to our list of "to do" jobs.

The Historical Society and Museum was closing and we gathered up the few modest records that we had found.  Off to the library - NOT QUITE YET!  Man cannot live by knowledge alone.  We needed food so  Dahl circled around the downtown, and we settled on a local sandwich shop and bakery.

Clinton library - image copied from their website

Now that we had nourishment, we were ready to tackle the microfilm machine in The Root Cellar of the Clinton library.  I had corresponded with Fran before and found the library staff so extremely helpful.  Fran even remembered me when I introduced myself.  You can't beat small town friendliness.  She showed us where the microfilm was and set us up at a machine.  I thought we should concentrate on obituaries and since I am the designated supervisor, that is what we did. . . . . . . until 5:30.  It was tedious and my back had a permanent knot in it.  When I suggested stopping for dinner, I heard no objections.  Before we left the downtown area we wanted to see St. Irenaeus.  A church built in the early 1870's that was scheduled for demolition before it was rescued by the Historical Society and Museum.  Family members told us that Owen William McDonnell and James B. Allen helped with the construction of the church and that several family members were married there.  James B was listed as a stonemason in several census records so it sounds plausible. But now that the church has closed, where are the records stored??  I am still working on that.

At dinner, we all felt a little overwhelmed, and we hadn't yet made a hotel reservation for that night.  After  2-3 minutes much discussion we decided to head for home that night and stop when we were out of town a couple of hours.  That way we could get home the next day by noon since I still had to drive 2 1/2 hours from my brother's house back to my own home.  I refer you to my original post in this Saga series.  We never got to the records office, but that just means that it is at the top of my list when we return.

Since we had gone through every small  town on the way to Clinton, we decided to take the major highways home to shorten the trip.  Silly, silly, silly.  We didn't find a place to stop for the night until 10:30 and gas until the tank said zero miles left.  I was digging out my AAA card since I was sure they would need to bring us gas.  Don't ask how I know they do this.  We tried to stop earlier, but an exit that listed hotels sent us over 2 miles into a sketchy part of town with a crumbling high rise style hotel and one that had closed long ago as the sign was very rusted.  Farther down the road we tried again, but couldn't get through the parking lot for all of the semis parked at various angles and the group of men hanging out at the door smoking put us off - imagine that!  Finally we found a choice of hotels at an exit for Peoria.

The next day was uneventful, and I arrived back at my house before dinner.  We definitely need to return.  What did I learn from this trip . . . . and I learn something from each trip?

Wisdom from the Trip

1. Appreciate the kindness of strangers. The cemetery caretaker, the volunteers at the history museum, the directions from the ice cream merchant, and the generous and helpful librarians, made our trip a success.

2. Don't measure success in quantity. This speaks for itself.  


3. Don't have a rigid schedule.  Be prepared to adjust when opportunities present themselves. The historical society wasn't part of our original schedule, but since it was open we adjusted.

4.  Take a cemetery kit with extra water in a jug. Some cemeteries have no water source. 

5.  Take more photos!  Not just the headstones, but the people and places on your journey.

 6.  It's good to be organized but don't allow this issue to stop you from making a family research trip. We can never get it ALL done anyway.  Just plan that you will return!

7.  Smile, laugh, and keep an upbeat attitude.

Edited addition: 8. Take snacks for the road.  I suggest something salty and something sweet.

What Did Grandpa Kennelly Really Know?

The wedding certificate for Edward P. Kennelly and Mary Winifred McDonald makes me wonder how much he really knew about her when they married. I don't know how they met. Maybe they met at church?? She moved from her home in Clinton, Iowa to Chicago to work for Mrs. Potter Palmer as a seamstress. My passion for sewing must be in my genes! I do know that she was sensitive about her age. This is not to be confused with telling a lie. On her wedding certificate,11 Dec 1898, she lists her age as the same as his - 24 years old. By the 1900 census, she was two years older and born in 1871. In 1910 she is three years older and born in 1870. In 1920 she is two years older again. In 1930 she is listed as 80 and that would make her born in 1870. The only problem is that in the 1870 census her parents claim that she is four and her death certificate says she was born 30 Oct 1865. That would make her 33 when she married. She was a dear sweet person, and she outlived her much younger husband by 31 years!
Note: McDonald and McDonnell were used interchangeably at that time but the family finally settled on McDonnell the most used option. I wish I had know this fact when I first started my research.