52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 6 Favorite Name

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 Favorite Name!

We are a family of plain names like Mary, Elizabeth and Catherine.  So, coming up with a favorite name that was special and unusual I had to look back into the 1700’s.

My favorite name is of my 3^rd Great Grandmother, Thankful Foster Moore.  She was born in Machias, Maine in 1783 to Benjamin and Ruth Foster.  She married Tristram Moore in 1802 in Moore’s Mill, Canada and died there in 1868.

The name Thankful was a very popular Puritan name but I don’t believe the family were Puritans.   I don’t know why she was given this name, her sisters were Susan, Sally and Lettie.  I guess that her parents were just very thankful when she was born.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 5 Census.

The theme for this 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is the Census.

There is more to genealogy than hatchem, matchem, and dispatchem[1].  The dates are important but that doesn’t tell you about the person, what they did for a living, how they lived their lives, their spouses and children and when they might have come to the USA.

The tool to use for that information is the federal census records.  The census were taken in the United States every ten years starting in 1790.  The only census that is missing is the 1890, it burned in a fire.  Some states also did a census every ten years starting 1855.

One of my ancestors, Horatio Nelson Moore, born in 1825 in Moore’s Mills, New Brunswick, Canada, came to this country sometime between 1857 and 1860.  When I trace him, I find that he married in 1850 to Mary Rose in St. Stephen, NB, Canada.  Their first child, Tristram, was baptized in 1851 in Canada.  The last child was born in Canada in 1857. Then I find the family in Mobile, Alabama in the 1860 census. This census made me look for further documents to find out why they came to Mobile, Alabama.

I checked back in the 1851 census in Canada for any of Horatio’s sisters and brothers and noted that one of his sisters was missing.  I then searched for her in the census. I found her, Emily Moore Williams with her husband and family living in Mississippi.  I did eventually received copies of letters Emily had written back to her parents confirming that Horatio had followed her family down south for work.

Through the years, in the census, Horatio was a music teacher, piano repairman, and a piano tuner.  In one of Emily’s letters she mentions that Horatio was giving voice lessons to her daughter.  Horatio also worked for the Chickering Piano Company as a piano tuner.  I researched patents and found he had a few concerning the workings of the piano for the Chickering Piano Company.  Horatio had his beginnings working with his brother John Warren Moore building furniture and pianos in St. Stephen, NB, Canada.

Also, Horatio was in Mobile during the Civil War, so I researched and found that he belonged to the British Guard.  It was a company with foreign born men who protected the docks in Mobile, Alabama during the war.

The census records gave me a more complete picture of my Great-Great Grandfather, Horatio Nelson Moore.

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[1] Births, Marriages, and Deaths used by my genealogy mentor, James P. Reilly

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!

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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.

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.