A New Family Found

During my researching of my family's genealogy, I have always been on the look out for a priest in the Tierney/Delaney branch of the family.  I remember my grandmother, Isabel Tierney Moore mentioning a priest but I never asked his name.  I found this priest, Thomas A. Sharkey with his family from the time he was born until his death.  I am very surprised we never met him or that he wasn't ask to be at any of our family gatherings.  It was probably because my mother died early. A lot of family gatherings just didn't include her side of the family.

I had been searching the Delaney family on Ancestry.com looking for a nephew that had appeared in the 1880 Census living with Michael Delaney and his family.  There was a document dated 1914 for the son, also named Michael.  It is a Record of Inmates at the N.Y.C. Farm Colony, Staten Island, NY. It lists his parents names, Michael and Mary Malloy Delaney and his last address  He gave a family reference as Joseph Sharkey his brother-in-law.   I had never come across that family name before.

The earliest census I had for the Delaney family was the 1880 census. In that census the children were Maggie, Kate, Alice and Michael.  I knew that Maggie married John Tierney, and Kate never married.  I never found anything about Alice, could she be the wife of Joseph Sharkey?

I looked at the 1900 census for the Delaney family and found that Alice was missing and figured she must have gotten married between 1880 and 1900.  I did look for marriage records during that time frame but could not find anything in Brooklyn where the Delaney family lived during that time.  I looked for a Joseph and Alice Sharkey in Brooklyn in the 1900 census and didn't find them.  I did find a Patrick J. Sharkey with a daughter Alice at 10 years old, with brothers Thomas, Joseph, and Frank.  They also were living with cousins Albert and Mary Ann Summer.  In the same household were other cousins Catherine and Mary Ryan and an Uncle Thomas Sharkey.  I began to think that Alice Delaney Sharkey died and the family was living with relatives.  I wasn't sure this family was connected though.

I then checked the 1892 census to see if I could find Joseph and Alice Sharkey with a family.  I found a Patrick J. Sharkey, wife Alice with daughter Alice 3 year old and Thomas age 1 with father of Patrick, Thomas aged 64.  Could this Patrick J. also be Joseph?  I think so.

I couldn't find a marriage record so I got the birth record of the child Thomas.  He was born 16 February 1891 of Alice F. Delaney and Patrick Sharkey.  They lived at 142 16th St., Brooklyn, NY.  The youngest child in this family was Frank and he was born 14 May 1894 at the same address.  Unfortunately the 1892 census doesn't give addresses so I couldn't verify that this is the same family but I couldn't find another family in Brooklyn with the same family members.

I then searched for a death record for Alice Sharkey.  I found she died 21 April 1896 of heart failure at 142 16th St., Brooklyn, NY.

I am sure that the family in 1900 living with the Summer's family is the family of Alice Delaney.  I will keep looking for the marriage record for her and Patrick J. Sharkey to confirm her parents names.

I have followed the Patrick J. Sharkey family through the years with census records, birth and marriage records and newspaper articles.  Thomas A. Sharkey entered the priesthood in 1915 and became Rite Rev. Monsignor Sharkey by the time he died in 1965.  He was the pastor of several parishes in Brooklyn and was the first pastor of the Seminary in Huntington, LI, NY.

There came about several family connections in all the researching I did following this Sharkey family.  I will continue with that story in the next post on this blog.

Inventions

I have been researching the Moore family in Savannah, Georgia.  Horatio Nelson Moore is my 2nd great Grandfather.  I have followed his path in life from his 1825 birth in Moores Mills, New Brunswick, Canada, marriage in 1850, the births of his children, and his move to the south of the United States.

I believe he relocated in the South because of work opportunities.  His sister Emily and her husband Charles Williams moved down first and started a business.  I don't believe Horatio was much for any kind of hard labor but he was always involved  with music.  He first worked with a brother in his piano making business in Canada mostly in the tuning of the pianos.  He was also teaching singing in choirs.

Horatio lived in Mobile, Alabama at the start of the Civil War and was part of the Alabama Volunteers guarding the Mobile docks.  After the war the opportunity to move to Savannah arrived and he took it.  He began to work for the Chickering Piano Company of Boston, Massachusetts.  It is in this capacity that I found several inventions he had patented.  He patented 3 different inventions starting in 1890 and ending in 1894. Two were all in his name and the other one with another gentleman named John W. Brackett of Boston.

The patent numbers are #444,041 dated 6 January 1, 1891, #493,172 dated 7 March 1893 and #512,206 dated 2 January 1894.  Below is the first page of the Patent of January 1894.

 

 

Several census records indicate that his occupation was piano tuner.  I have some letters his sister wrote to folks back in Canada where she mentions Horatio's love of music and that he was working for the Chickering Company.  His brother John Warren Moore of St. Stephen, Canada became quite a famous furniture and piano maker.  Many of his furniture pieces are displayed in Fredericton, New Brunswick at the Kings Landing Historical Settlement. I believe Horatio learned his love of the piano and its making from his brother in Canada.

 

My grandchildren must have received their love of music and their gifts of playing instruments from the Moore family of Canada.

Cremation Records

I recently learned that the German Genealogy Group helped the Fresh Pond Crematory index all their records.

I didn't think I would have any relatives that were cremated years ago with most of them being Irish Catholic.  On my husband's line there was an Uncle of German heritage.  I found the Uncle's father in the index and requested the record.

Each record requested costs $36.00 and the Crematory couldn't tell me exactly what would be included.  I sent in my check and request on April 22 and received the record on May 10.  I received 6 pages of information.  The first page was a cover letter with the identifying information of Adolf Wipf.  It gave his age and occupation and where he was born.  It also gave me his birth date and death date.  His last residence was given and the place where he died.

The next 2 documents are letters from the funeral director to the Crematory indicating that they are authorized to handle the remains.

The last 3 documents are the Official Burial (or Removal) Permits. This document indicates where he died and what caused his death. On the last 3 documents there is a copy of the death notice from the newspaper.  Unfortunately, the name of the paper is not indicated.

I had looked for his death certificate in the New York City area but couldn't find it.  He lived most of his life in Ridgewood and Glendale.  He died in Central Islip State Hospital.  I am thinking he was put in that hospital because, as the records indicate, he was on welfare.

The only relative mentioned in the record was his son who paid for the service.

App of Icelanders

I am always looking to find old relatives and new.  I research on-line, and in books.  If I only came from Iceland it would be done already.  The following is an article found in Newsday April 19, 2013 from Reykjavik, Iceland.

You meet someone, there's chemistry, and then the introductory questions: What's your name?  Come here often? Are you my cousin?  In Iceland, a country with a population of 320,000 where most everyone is distantly related, inadvertently kissing cousins is a real risk.

A new smartphone app is helping Icelanders avoid accidental incest.  The app lets users "bump" phones, and emits a warning alarm if they are closely related.  "Bump the app before you bump in bed." says the catchy slogan.

Some are hailing it as a welcome solution to a very Icelandic form of social embarrassment.

"Everyone has heard the story of going to a family event and running into a girl you hooked up with some time ago," said Einar Magnusson, a graphic designer to the capital, Reykjavik.

It's not a good feeling when you realize that girl is a second cousin.  People may think it's funny, but [the app] is a necessity."

The Islendiga-App, or "App of Icelanders," is an idea that may be possible only in Iceland, where most of the population shares descent from a group of 9th century Viking settlers, and where an online database holds genealogical details of almost the entire population.

The app was created by three University of Iceland software engineering students for a contest calling for "new creative uses" of the Islandingabok, or Book of Icelanders, an online database of family trees stretching back 1,200 years.

"A small but much talked about feature is the loosely translated "Incest Prevention Alarm" that users can enable through the options menu which notifies the user if the person he's bumping with is too closely related."

The Saga of My Search for Great Grandpa Mathers

This was published in "The Irish Family History Forum's" newsletter dated March-April 2003

During the many years I have researched my Mathers/Mathews family line, I found only a few things about my Great Grandfather William Mathers.  He was born in Ireland in Tyrone.  He married in Castlefin, Donegal.  He immigrated to New York and raised a large family while working as a shoemaker in New York City.

I have been researching many years and have asked every family member if they knew anything about William Mathers.  No one remembered any mention of him in any family stories except that he was a shoemaker.

I searched all the documents I could find, birth, marriage, census, naturalization and found his marriage and naturalization records.  I found him with his family in the 1870 through 1900 census.  I then found his wife alone in the 1910 census.  I also traced him in the New York City directories up until 1902.

So I finally narrowed it down to circa 1902 that he died.  I then searched the Death Index for New York City.  I found several Mathers/Mathews/Matthews in 1902-1920 indexes and sent for the certificates through the Family History Center.  No luck!

I thought I would never find when he died and where he was buried.  I wrote letters to all my relatives asking them to check any burial plots they might own to see if he was buried with some of his children's families.  He wasn't found in any cemetery plots.

Years passed and no information was found.  One day while at the library with not much to do, I looked again at the Death Index for New York City for 1902.  There mixed in with the Mathers, Mathews, and Matthews was a MATTHERS.  Well that is odd I thought, no one would spell it that way and how come I never noticed that before?  So I sent for the certificate.

Joy!  It was my William Mathers buried in Calvary Cemetery in 1902.  I immediately called the cemetery to find out how much it would cost to get the internment list for the cemetery plot.  I received another wonderful gift.  The woman had me hold on for a minute while she looked it up and proceeded to give me all the information on the two people buried in the plot with William Mathers.  The correct spelling was used in the Cemetery records. She didn't charge me and told me to have a great day!!!!

I have learned much from this experience.  Look over all your notes and check back on records you looked at before, you might have missed something.  You also might have more clues than the last time you looked at the records.

Searching for the Michael Delaney Family

 

I have been wondering how I can further my search on my Delaney ancestors.  My great grandmother was Margaret/Maggie Delaney.  Her father was Michael Delaney and her mother was Mary A. Malloy.  I have found the family in the 1880 census in Brooklyn, New York.

I have also found the family in the 1870 census in Brooklyn, New York.  But could not find them in earlier census records in Brooklyn.

One of the family stories that I have heard is that Maggie was born in Newburgh, NY.  I never could find anything to suggest that except her death certificate.  So I started looking in the census in Newburgh, Orange County, New York.  It will take some time because the 1865 state census is not indexed. I believe Maggie was born about 1858 so she should be in that census.  I do have an 1860 census for Michael Delaney, wife Mary and daughter Maggie 7/12 mo. in Newburgh, NY that I believe is the family.

I have two other documents that might be Michael Delaney.  The first is the 1855 New York State Census of Newburgh.  It is a family with mother Catherine, Alie age 20, Michael aged 18, Patrick aged 17, and John aged 14.  It is the only family in Newburgh with a Michael and mother Catherine.  On Michael's death certificate it says his mother is Catherine, so I'm hoping it is right.  His wife gave the information so I think she would know but it is still questionable.

Another item I found is an index for Naturalization records.  It is for Orange County, New York stating Michael Delaney applied 26 February 1866 and finalized 18 March 1868.  I am trying to get that document and hope there is other information that will help confirm that it is the right Michael Delaney.

In all the census records he had all different occupations mostly involving labor work so that has not been any help.  In the 1900 census it indicates the family consisted of 6 children all together but only 2 living Catherine and Michael.  Maggie died in early 1900 so there are 3 others.  In one census I find a John in another I see an Alice so I will see if I can find any birth records going back into the 1860's and 1870's.  I haven't so far but new records are being put on-line all the time so I keep checking.