FINDING A TOWNLAND IN IRELAND FOR THE O'CALLAHAN FAMILY

Thomas L. Murphy

Father               Thomas N. Murphy                                                                                    

Grandparents                           Thomas J. Murphy          &             Florence McDonald                      

Great Grandparents     John Murphy & Honora Quinlan   Owen McDonald & MARY O’CALLAHAN

I have researched for a long time trying to find where in Ireland this side of the family originated. The O’CALLAHAN family is the family of my husband’s paternal Great Grandmother Mary O’CALLAHAN. Mary O’CALLAHAN was the youngest daughter of Callahan O’CALLAHAN and Julia O’BRIEN.  She had two brothers, Patrick and John and three sisters Joanne, Margaret and Ellen who were all born in Ireland. Mary was born in New York. I have not found her birth record but she probably was born between 1839 and 1853.  Her mother Julia O’BRIEN O’ CALLAHAN died in 1853 in New York.

Mary married Owen MCDONALD about 1866 in New York and I have her in census records and death records.  Owen MCDONALD and Mary O’CALLAHAN had 7 children, George, Oscar, Blanche, Ida, Ellen, Gertrude and Florence.  In some of the census records I have found Ellen O’CALLAHAN living with the MCDONALD family as sister-in-law to Owen MCDONALD.  This was how I found the maiden name of Mary MCDONALD.  The break through to finding the town the O’CALLAHAN family originated from in Ireland was from the obituary of Ellen O’CALLAHAN in 1921 in New York.

Brooklyn Eagle Page 22,  April 22, 1921 (Bklyn.newspapers.com)

I searched the parish records for the town of Castletownroche, County Cork, Ireland on the web site for the National Library in Ireland (NIL.ie) and found the birth records for the 5 children born to Callahan O’CALLAHAN and Julia O’BRIEN and their marriage record.

Callahan O’CALLAHAN and Julia O’BRIEN were married 26 April 1826 in Castletownroche

All the brothers and sisters of Mary were born in Castletownroche

Joanne was born 4 June 1829

Patrick was born 25 April 1831

Ellen was born 24 August 1833

John was born 4 November 1835

Margaret was born 25 July 1838

More and more records are becoming available on-line that will help in the research of family histories.

Many of the Irish parish registers are now on-line and can be viewed for free.  You must have the parish that the family came from not just the county. Many newspapers are being put on-line now, some like the Brooklyn Eagle are free but there are fee paying web sites that have newspapers also such as GenealogyBank.com, Archive.com, Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com.

HONORA QUINLAN MURPHY - KEEP CHECKING NEW DATABASES - SURPRISES AWAIT YOU

When you are doing genealogy research the hardest person to find is a female.  It was only in the early 20^th century that women had a legal say in anything.  Before that time when a woman took a husband she lost what limited freedom she might have had as a single adult. Those few married women who worked for pay could not control their own earnings. Most could neither buy nor sell property or sign contracts; none could vote, sue when wronged, defend themselves in court, or serve on juries. In the rare case of divorce, women lost custody of their children and any family possessions.

On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With it, 17 million women won for themselves that most basic promise of democracy: the right to vote, but were still not equal to the men in legal documents.  The only time a women might have land or money is if her husband was incapacitated or she is a widow.  There were some women who had their own companies but mostly through the death of a family member.

All this has always given me a hard time finding information about the Great Grandmother of my husband.  She was Honora Quinlan Murphy born in Ireland and died in New York in 1908.  I have her in the 1870 census to 1905 census but do not know where she was born or married.  She married John Murphy and had their first child, Mary in 1873 in New York.

When I am researching using Ancestry.com there are always hints for the people in my family tree I have on the web site.  I usually check the hints, but some are just not worth considering.  Well the other day as I was checking the hints one came up for a will for Honora Murphy.  I figured I would check it out, not that I thought it was my Honora Murphy, there are thousands of Honora/Nora Murphy on Ancestry.com.  It was my Honora Murphy, what a surprise.

The information on this Petition for Probate tells me that this is our Honora Quinlan Murphy.

·        She lived in Brooklyn, New York in all the census that I found with her and her family.

·        She died 19 February 1908 NY Death Cert. #3801

·        Her husband had died before her.  John Murphy died 14 April 1891 NY Death Cert #6073

·        Her three children listed are correct.  Thomas is my husband’s Grandfather. Mary who married Edward McEvoy and Margaret who married James Coyne.

The most surprising part of this petition was the amount of money Honora Quinlan Murphy left to her children.

The $3,000.00 was a considerable amount of money in 1908.  Some on-line money converters indicate that amount in this day would be between $60,000 and $80,000. The average wage earner in 1908 made about $400 a year.  My question was how did she get that much money.  Her husband was a plasterer, not a very high paying job and he died 20 plus years before.

That got me thinking maybe John Murphy left a will.  I did not find one although there might be one.  There are just too many John Murphy’s in the index to figure which one is his even going by the year 1891.  So I looked for more Quinlan’s and I found Honora’s sister Margaret.  Margaret never married and left $1,000.00 to Honora Murphy and Alexander Quinlan her sister and brother.  It also indicates she had bank accounts but doesn’t say how much is in them.  Margaret Quinlan died in 1904 so that is where Honora got some of her money.

This is such a wonderful find considering most women didn’t own anything and didn’t have a career.  Finding 2 women, sisters too, that have left wills with substantial amounts of money is a gold mine in genealogy.

I did get another surprise in Margaret’s will, the brother Alexander, I had never heard and seen any indication that there was a brother named Alexander.

More to research!

ELIZABETH AGNES MOORE - SISTER OF MY GRANDFATHER, JOHN N. MOORE

In my May 9, 2016 Blog “Crashed Through One of My Brick Wall” I indicated that my Grandfather’s sister Elizabeth Agnes Moore had never married.

Thanks to my cousin Jill, I was told that Elizabeth, or Bessie as was known, was married.  After finding that out I researched on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org and found several documents to confirm the information.  I also remembered Jill’s father, John Cosgrove telling me he had a cousin with the name Lemuel.  That cousin was the child of Bessie and her husband Lemuel A. Holley.

I find Bessie with her family, father Tristram and mother, Jennie in the 1900 census. Then in the 1910 census she is with just her mother, brother, John and sister Annie.  I have not found her marriage certificate but her son, Lemuel Jr. is born June 17, 1915 and the Savannah city directory of 1916 has her living with her husband Lemuel at Price St.

In the 1920 census they are living in Atlanta, Georgia with their 4-year-old son Lemuel Jr.  It indicates Bessie’s husband Lemuel is a commercial traveler (I think that means salesman) for a cigar company. In the 1930 census they have moved again to Shreveport, Louisiana, probably because of his continued employment with the Cigar company. I cannot find either Bessie or her husband in the 1940 census.  My cousin also thought she met Bessie Moore Holley and that would have to be late 1940’s or early 1950’s.  I will keep searching for their death certificates.

MORE DISCOVERIES IN THE MATHEWS FAMILY - WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS #12 AND JAMES J. MATHEWS

I am including my 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks # 12 so you know who I am so excited to tell about.

WILLIAM MATHERS  “The Actor and Dancer”  #12  52 ANCESTORS 52 WEEKS

WILLIAM MATHERS/MATHEWS/MATTHEWS was born in May of 1890 in New York City.  His parents were James Mathers and Cecelia O’Brien.

This person is a mystery.  I found him in the census from 1890 to 1940.  William was first living with his parents in Manhattan and then after 1910 he lives with his grandmother, until she dies in 1933. He continued to live in that same house in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York in the 1940’s with his Aunt Katie Morris and cousin Bunny Morris.

William’s parents, James and Cecelia, are a mystery also.  I can’t find death records, census records after 1910, directories or cemetery listings for either parent.

William Mathers worked in the theater on Broadway, sometimes as a prop man but most times as an actor as indicated in the census.

My father remembers him practicing tap dancing in his room on a piece of plywood. 

Everyone in the family I have asked would say “Oh yes Willie was an actor” but no one really knew anything about him.  I have checked for death records and cemetery listings and have not found him.I looked at some “Variety” magazines for any mention of him in the theater but never found him. 

At the time of this blog in 2014 that was all I knew about WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS.  This past week I searched again on Ancestry.com for several people that I have very few documents for their files.  When I searched for WILLIAM MATHEWS a WW11 Draft Registration card was indicated to belong to him.  I almost passed it by, it was from Saranac Lake, in upstate New York.  All I ever knew was he lived in Manhattan and Queens most of his life.  He was a Broadway, dancer, actor and prop man.  But I took a look just because Ancestry hinted it might be him.

WOW!  It was definitely him.  He gave his occupation as actor and his closest relative Catherine Morris in Queens.  That was certainly his Aunt Katie Morris with whom he had lived with since the 1910 NY Census.  The only new thing about this Draft Registration document was that he was living at the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake, New York.

WW11 Draft Registration

Ancestry.com

WW11 Draft Registration Pg 2

Ancestry.com

I did some research on the hospital and found that it was for people in the entertainment industry who had contracted Tuberculosis (TB).  According to several books and articles I have read on the subject, the clean fresh air was supposed to help cure the body of TB.  They had special porches on all the houses (which they called cottages) all screened in with long deck chairs where the patients would lay all day. They were given very healthy food and when they were feeling up to it they would walk about the town for exercise.

Will Rogers Memorial Hospital – Saranac Lake

Originally National Vaudeville Artists Home 

 Gallos, Philip L., Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake, Historic Saranac Lake, 1985. ISBN 0-9615159-0-2

Some people might remember being asked at movie theaters to donate money to the Will Rogers Memorial Foundation to help the people in the movie and theater occupations.  After the hospital in Saranac Lake closed because of the vaccine for TB, they open another hospital in Los Angeles for the sick in the entertainment industry.

I called the Town of Saranac Lake Clerk’s office to see if WILLIAM MATHEWS died up there, but no he didn’t so I thought great he got cured.  The Clerk told me to call the Public Library because they might have some other documents about the hospital or WILLIAM MATHEWS.  The woman at the library was very helpful and looked through a lot of documents on the history of the hospital and the cottages.  She also didn’t find any indication he died in Saranac Lake.  She did find a patient card from the hospital indicating that WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS did indeed have TB in 1946.  The Draft Registration was in 1942, so he was in the hospital for 4 years that I know of.

REPORT OF A CASE OF

TUBERCULOSIS

FULL NAME

William Mathews

PRESENT ADDRESS Will Rogers Memo.

Former Address

94-39 111^th St.

Richmand Hill, L.I.

Age—55 occupation _stage__hand__

Incipient? Advanced? Far Advanced?

T.B Pos. Present  P-3 Plus Absent

Has patient been instructed as to disposal of

sputum and all other means of prevention ?

yes

Saranac Lake, N.Y.___6/24/1946

Geo Wilson

M.D.

Attending Physician

I found all this information within a couple of days (after looking for him for 30 years) but still didn’t know when or where he died.

JAMES J. MATHEWS

Father of William Joseph Mathews

In the meantime, I have been working on WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS’ father, JAMES J. MATHEWS.  JAMES was my Grandfathers brother. My Grandfather was WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS born in 1883.    I finally found JAMES J. MATHEWS death certificate.  He died in 1931.

Death Certificate#520 17 January 1931

 James J. Mathews

Family History Library Film #2169985

I noticed on the document that he is buried in ST. JOHN’S CEMETERY.  I was very happy because the cemetery has a web site and database to find exactly where the person is buried in the cemetery.  I searched on web site and he didn’t show up.  I called the cemetery and after several tries the women finally found him under MATTEWS instead of MATHEWS.  So I asked her if there was anyone else buried with him.  I always ask but most cemeteries want you to pay for the internment list.  This woman was wonderful.  She said a WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS was buried with him and he was buried April 27, 1953.  What luck!  The father and son are buried together in St. John’s Cemetery. They are buried in Section 25 Row M Grave 99. The plot was paid for by JAMES J. MATHEWS’S second wife ANNIE.

I then searched for JAMES J. MATHEWS marriage certificate to ANNIE.  They were married in 1920.  The very important information on the certificate to me was the line that indicted JAMES was widowed.  I have never been able to find his first wife, mother of his son, WILLIAM JOSEPH.  I found them in the 1900 census and then she isn’t in any after that.  I was wondering did she die or did they get divorced and she remarried.  This death certificate gives me information so that I can, I hope, find her death certificate. 

Marriage Certificate#4285 1 October 1920

James J. Mathews & Annie Keehn

Family History Library Film#1644063

I am very excited about these documents and information.  The only thing left to get is the Death Certificate for William Joseph Mathews.  It will take a while I have to send to the New York City Health Department for the document.  I wonder if he did get cured of TB and died of something else or was it the TB.  When I do receive the document I will blog about the information on the certificate.