52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 4 Who would you invite for dinner?

There were several of my ancestors who I would love to sit down and talk about their lives.  Today I am going to invite Elizabeth McCrudden to the table.  She is the sister of my Great Grandmother Mary McCrudden Mathers.

Elizabeth McCrudden was born in Ireland somewhere after her sister Mary was born in 1844 and before her youngest sister, Ann in 1852.  I have not gotten the birth records yet!   Elizabeth’s sister Mary came to New York in 1868 (her second child was born in New York in July of 1868) and Elizabeth followed her along with 2 other sisters.

In 1876 Elizabeth McCrudden married George Mulraney in New York City.  I then find them in San Francisco, California where their first child, Catherine Mulraney, is born in February 1879.  George was a shoemaker so probably that was an occupation he could do anywhere.  Why all the way to California is the question I would love to ask of them. It must have been a wonderful and scary trip. I was picturing a horse and wagon kind of trip, but I found an article about the Transcontinental Express train. Apparently, in 1876 it took “a mere” 83 hours from New York City to San Francisco on the train. First-class passengers traveled the railroad line for business or pleasure, but the third-class occupants were often emigrants hoping to make a new start in the West. The third-class (I am pretty sure the Mulraney’s were in this class) cars were fitted with rows of narrow wooden benches, they were congested, noisy and uncomfortable.  The railroad often attached the coach cars to freight cars that were constantly shunted aside to make way for the express lines. Consequently, the third-class traveler’s journey west might take 10 or more days. Even under these trying conditions, few travelers complained. Even 10 days spent sitting on a hard bench seat was preferable to six months walking alongside a Conestoga wagon on the Oregon Trail.

This family was also in San Francisco during the famous 1906 earthquake.  What a harrowing experience that must have been.  The family’s home must have stayed in pretty good condition because they were there in the 1900 census and then still there in the 1910 census.

The other question I would ask Elizabeth and George Mulraney, how did they convince the other two sisters to join them.  Catherine McCrudden married James Callen and Theresa McCrudden married Daniel Boyle.  Both couples were married in New York City and made the long trip to California too.

There is an eyewitness account by Robert Louis Stevenson titled “Traveling on an Emigrant Train, 1879” on the web site eyewitnesstohistory.com. that I found really an eye opener for the way they had to travel in 1879.  I probably would have stayed in New York City.  On second thought I most likely would have stayed in Ireland!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 3 Longevity

Blogger Amy Johnson Crowe started this 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks because family history is better when it’s shared.  This is a series of prompts to help share discoveries I’ve made in my genealogy.
This week’s prompt is Longevity!

Our anniversary is coming up in a few weeks and  I thought I would see if anyone in my family tree was married longer than us.  Of the people I have marriage dates for there were not many that even made it to 50 years.  We will be married 54 years.

My  3rd Great Grandparents, Tristram and Thankful Moore were married from 1802 until 1864 in Moore’s Mills, New Brunswick, Canada for 62 years.  Also, my Grandparents, John and Isabella Moore from 1918 until 1980 for 62 years.  No one in between those dates were married that long or even close on that side of either of my family lines.

My husband’s family has his Grandparents, Thomas and Florence Murphy, married from 1904 until 1958 for 54 years.  Also, his aunt and uncle, Frank and Florence Wipf were married from 1929 until 1987, 58 years.

I was thinking that nowadays things make being married a little easier with better medicines and healthier life styles, but there are my 3rd Great Grandparents in the early 1800’s who made it 62 years married.  I guess they were made of stronger Irish and Scots stock.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2 Favorite Photo

The theme for this week is Favorite Photo.

This picture is of my Grandmother, Mamie McGuigan Mathews and her friends.  This photo was taken sometime between the time she came to America from Ireland in 1897 and the time she got married in 1909.

Mamie worked and lived at a hotel on Broadway in Manhattan, New York until she married and then lived on 73rd Street in New York City.  I have no idea where this was taken.  There are so many parks in the city, it could be anyone of them.  I have tried to see which ones had swing sets like this but haven’t found any photos showing swing sets in parks.  Always checking and hope to come up with an answer.

I was told by a cousin of my father that this is Mamie.  I just love how dressed up they all are but Mamie looks so serious, I wonder if she is having any fun!

#52Ancestors

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2018 - Week 1 Start

I was always interested in family history but didn’t truly start researching until the death of my grandfather.

My grandfather, John Nelson Moore, was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1889.  That was about the extent of my knowledge of his background.  At his funeral I was talking to his nephew, John Nelson Cosgrove, and he told me that the Moore family founded a small town in Canada.  I was flabbergasted how did the family start in Canada and end up in Savannah.

That was the time I started researching for real.  The next month my husband and I took a motorcycle ride up to MOORES MILLS, New Brunswick, Canada.  We found so much information about the family in the town, church, library  and archives.  It took me many years to put it all into a genealogy program and authenticate all the dates with certificates.  In the process, a second cousin of my mother who lives in the area in Canada, contacted me.

The surprises kept coming.  My grandfather’s grandfather, Horatio Nelson Moore was born in Moores Mills and helped his brother in a furniture and piano business.  This cousin had a house full of their furniture and had donated it to a living museum.

As you might have noticed the name Nelson has run through the family since Horatio Nelson Moore was born in 1825.  Of course, we figure he was named for the Admiral of the English Royal Navy of the same name.