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.