Tag Archives: Family stories

July 4 and my family

American History, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, , , ,
Ward Township in Hocking County, Ohio. (David Eggleston’s land can be seen at the lower right.) Courtesy Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library

In casting around for a July 4 post, I thought it might be interesting to see which (if any) of my ancestors were born on – or married, or died on – the fourth of July. It turns out that there were several!

The closest, a woman likely known to my mother (and certainly to my maternal grandparents), was my great-great-grandmother, Rebecca Jane Eggleston,[1] who was born in Ward Township, Hocking County, Ohio, on 4 July 1856 – just eighty years after the date on which the Declaration of Independence was approved for publication in Philadelphia. Continue reading July 4 and my family →

The fate of William Moroney Jr.

Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, Technology, , , ,

Joe Smaldone’s recent three-part Finding Irish relatives provided some great information about using Irish Catholic church registers and civil vital records. That got me to thinking about one of my husband’s Irish family lines. I realized I could use the civil vital records transcribed on RootsIreland.ie to learn more about that family.

The family in question, William Moroney and Honora O’Grady, were married in 1871 in the Catholic parish of Glenroe and Ballyorgan in County Limerick. Continue reading The fate of William Moroney Jr. →

Forever in our hearts

Family Stories, Research Methods, , , , , ,

One of my brick walls for many years has been trying to determine when my maternal great-grandmother Tessie Freundlich died and where she was buried. She is the mother of my maternal grandfather, Alfred Schild. I never met my grandfather, as he died a few years before I was born. His lineage was always a bit of a mystery as we were not in touch with relatives over the years. I have made some great progress on identifying their immigrant lines back to Eastern Europe. The family emigrated to America during the 1880s, when many of the pogroms were occurring. Continue reading Forever in our hearts →

Pesky middle initials

American History, Family Stories, Research Methods, , , ,

My recent post on “Retroactive surnames” prompted a few comments on the topic of “retroactive middle names,” something that has happened in my own matrilineal ancestry and that of my father’s, as well as with a great-great-grandmother being given a second middle name after her death. Most often these are guesses that balloon on online trees that copy from one another. Continue reading Pesky middle initials →

Divided loyalties

American History, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, , , ,
Destruction of the American Fleet at Penobscot Bay, 1779. Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London

As the branches on my paternal grandmother’s family tree grew, they filled in with names like Hierlihy, Urquhart, and Milliken, and I was quite intrigued to discover that I had a Loyalist ancestor, a gentleman named Benjamin Milliken. He was born in Boston in 1728 to Justice Edward Milliken and Abigail Norman; settled in Hancock County, Maine (then still Massachusetts) during the Revolutionary War; and then went to St. Andrews in Charlotte County, New Brunswick. He married three times and fathered eighteen children over thirty-five years. Continue reading Divided loyalties →

‘Christopher Christophers in the library’

American History, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, Mayflower, , ,

Jeff Record’s recent post on his relative Evan Evans reminded me of similarly named persons in colonial Connecticut aptly named Christopher Christophers. While I am not related to these individuals, the fact that these men shared my first name twice is surely a reason I was interested in them. For seventeenth-century New England, Christopher was a rare first name, as it tended to be a name amongst Catholics, with Pilgrims and Puritans rarely using it at the time. Within my own direct ancestry for sixteen generations, I have only found three ancestors named Christopher – two being Germans in eighteenth-century Virginia (Christopher Blankenbecker and Christopher Shake) – and one in colonial New England – Christopher Peake (ca. 1612-1666) of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Continue reading ‘Christopher Christophers in the library’ →

Finding Irish relatives: Part Three

American History, Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, , , , , ,

[Editor’s note: This series began with Part 1 and Part 2.]

Until recently, unless you were lucky enough to know the names of your immigrant Irish ancestors’ parents and/or the place(s) where they were born or resided in the Emerald Isle, such information was often difficult if not impossible to find in American records. That imposing brick wall remained unassailable for many seeking to pursue their ancestral connections in Ireland … until now. During 2015-2016 digitized troves of the two most significant sources for Irish family history – Catholic church registers and civil vital records – were released online, freely accessible on any internet-enabled device. Like the notorious Berlin Wall, that longstanding, insurmountable impediment to discovering Irish ancestry crumbled almost overnight. Continue reading Finding Irish relatives: Part Three →

Barbara’s story

American History, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, , , ,

When I began researching my paternal ancestors as a high school student, I had many questions about Barbara Shakshober, the oldest sister of my great-great-grandfather, Jacob Shakshober. Because the 1860 and 1870 censuses report her birthplace as New York,[1] I concluded she must have been born in or near New York City, her parents’ port of arrival to the United States. Finding Barbara’s birthplace might lead to the discovery of her parents’ neighborhood, and perhaps other ancestors with their elusive, often corrupted surname. Continue reading Barbara’s story →

Civil War memories

American History, Family Stories, ,

Following on my previous post on Paines of northeastern Connecticut, this post relates to the most recent relative of mine with the Paine surname, Lieut. John Merrick8 Paine (John7-6, Daniel5-4, Samuel3, Stephen2-1), a Civil War veteran, who has a more immediate and tragic memory in our family. His second wife, Florence Augusta Child (1858-1950), was the younger sister of my great-great-grandfather.

My great-aunt, Florence Augusta (Child) Young (1910-2003), whom I remember fondly from my youth, was named for her own great-aunt Florence Child Paine. Continue reading Civil War memories →

‘Not a very tall man’

American History, Family Stories, Lineage Societies, News,
The Battle of Plattsburg. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

“He was not a very tall man”: words I read in a message associated with my great-great-great-grandfather Henry Poor of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Henry was born in Newbury on 20 June 1769, a son of Captain Jonathan and Sarah (Dole) Poor. His father led a company of the 2nd Essex Regiment on the Alarm of 19 April 1775 and served at various times during the war. I often wondered what young Henry knew about his father’s service that was lost in our family traditions. Continue reading ‘Not a very tall man’ →