Sunday, April 28, 2019

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks – At Worship




Blogger Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us with writing about an Ancestor once a week for the year 2019.  She will give us prompts to get us started.  This week's prompt is At Worship.



When I think of worshiping, I think of the priests who serve and help the parishioners.  I have had several priests in my family.  This priest, Father Ronan Callahan was born Jerome Callahan to Walter and Rosalie (Tierney) Callahan on 22 May 1923.  He was my Mother, Ruth Moore Mathews’, first cousin.  I only met him a couple of times because he was a Passionist Priest and served around the world.  His obituary follows giving the particulars of his life.













WEST HARTFORD – Father Ronan Callahan, a Passionist priest, seminary professor and overseas missionary, died at St. Mary Home on Sept. 9, 2015. He was 92.

He was born and named Jerome F. Callahan in 1923, the second son of the late Walter S. and Rose (Tierney) Callahan. He was the brother of Robert Callahan of Farmingdale, N.Y., and the late Walter Callahan.

Father Ronan grew up in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. He attended St. Augustine High School in Brooklyn and graduated from Farmingdale High School in 1941. He studied at Manhattan College in the Bronx, N.Y., and graduated from Cathedral College of Immaculate Conception Preparatory Seminary in Brooklyn in 1944.

He then entered the Passionist community. After completing the novitiate at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1945, Father Ronan studied theology at St. Michael Monastery in Union City, N.J. He received a Master of Arts degree in theology and was ordained a priest in 1951. He then studied philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome from 1952-54; the University of Ottawa, Canada; Laval University in Quebec, Canada; and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He received a Carnegie Fellowship at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in 1968.

Father Callahan taught philosophy at the Passionist Monastic Seminary in Jamaica, N.Y., from 1954-70. He also taught at St. Joseph College in West Hartford from 1964-68 and held membership in the American Catholic Philosophical Association. In 1970, he embarked on a missionary career with the Passionists in the southern Philippines. He taught philosophy at Notre Dame of Marbel University in Cotabato, served as consultor to the bishop, was chancellor of the Diocese of Marbel from 1975-90 and ministered as a prison and hospital chaplain. He was president of the Philosophy Association of the Visayas and Mindanao in the southern Philippines and received numerous awards for public service.

After returning to the United States, Father Ronan taught at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell from 1993 until his death. Several years ago, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Holy Apostles Seminary. He also served in local leadership at Holy Family Monastery in West Hartford during that time period.

For more than a dozen years, Father Callahan helped out with Saturday and Sunday ministry at St. Catherine Parish in Broad Brook, where he quickly became a beloved pastoral servant and popular preacher.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Sept. 14 at the Holy Family Monastery chapel. Burial followed at Holy Family Cemetery.
(The Hartford Courant - Saturday September 12, 2015, GenealogyBank.com)


Thursday, April 18, 2019

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks – Out of Place




Blogger Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us with writing about an Ancestor once a week for the year 2019.  She will give us prompts to get us started.  This week's prompt is Out of Place.





I have written about this William Mathews the actor on my blog before but thought it fit perfectly with this week’s challenge.

My grandfather’s family Mathers/Mathews all could be found in the New York City area.  Mostly Manhattan and Queens.  I was looking for William Mathers/Mathews born in May of 1890.  He was the son of James Mathers/Mathews and Cecelia O’Brien. 

This person was a mystery I couldn't find anything about him after 1940 or when and where he died.  I had found him in all the Census records available, I had a picture of him, and knew that he was a dancer on Broadway. 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 with his Aunt Katie Morris and cousin Bunny.


William Mathers/Mathews about 1935

I had decided to search for him after many years. I searched on Ancestry.com.  When I searched for William Mathews a WW11 Draft Registration card was indicated to belong to him.  I almost passed it by because it was from Saranac Lake, in upstate New York.  All I ever knew was he lived in Manhattan and Queens most of his life.  I looked anyway in this Out of Place area.  It was definitely him.  He gave his  closest relative as Catherine Morris in Queens.  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

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.

I contacted the public library in Saranac Lake and the librarian found this patient card from the hospital.  It indicates he was in the hospital in 1946.





REPORT OF A CASE OF

TUBERCULOSIS

FULL NAME

William Mathews

PRESENT ADDRESS Will Rogers Memo.

Former Address

94-39 111th 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



It is very important to check every clue and hint even if you think they never would have been in that Out of Place area.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

52Ancestors 52Weeks – Brick Wall




Blogger Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us with writing about an Ancestor once a week for the year 2019.  She will give us prompts to get us started.  This week's prompt is Brick Wall.




I have several Brick Walls.  They are people I have not been able to find where they were born, married, or died.  Many of the Brick Walls also include finding where they immigrated from in Europe. Some I will find the information when the records come on line because I can’t travel to the country where the records where registered.

The one Brick Wall that is particularly frustrating is my Great Grandfather, Tristram Anderson Moore.  He was born in Canada in 1851 and travelled with his family to Alabama as a young boy.  The family moved to Alabama to be near his father’s sister Emily Moore Williams.  As Tristram grew older he worked for Emily’s son, Frank Williams.  Frank had the largest Cypress Lumber Company in Louisiana.  Tristram worked on one of his boats delivering wood.





This picture is of Tristram (2nd from left in back) about 20 years old working in the Southern Music Company store in Savannah, Georgia.  The family moved there when Tristram’s father, Horatio, got a job with the Chickering Piano Company in Savannah. In 1885 Tristram married another employee of the Southern Music Company, Genevieve Counts.  They seemed to have a happy life with 6 children, Mary, John, Bessie, Wilhelmina, Tristram (called James) and Francis.  They lived in several different places in Savannah during this time which was very typical of people who rent rather than bought homes.  Sometime between 1900 and 1910, Tristram leaves the family.  He is in the 1900 Census but not in the 1910.  The story that has been passed down through the years is he died at sea.

Apparently, he deserted the family and went in search of adventure on the high seas!  Several thoughts come to my mind when I hear that.  First, it is true.  Second, they divorced, and it was quite a big deal if someone divorced.  Third, he just left and never came home so she made up the story of him going to sea and dying.

I have looked at the records available in Alabama and Georgia of deaths for Tristram A. Moore and have found none.  I have checked for him in the census records in several southern states, nothing.  I have looked for records of seaman dying at sea but haven’t found any.  I have looked with all the possible name variations that he used: Tristram Moore, Tristram A. Moore, Tristram Anderson Moore, T. A Moore and Tris Moore.

I have checked many records for the Williams family in Louisiana in case he was living with them but didn’t find him. 

One day I hope to find an answer to my Brick Wall question, what happened to Tristram Anderson Moore?