If you had asked me five years ago if I was interested in finding out about my ancestors, or my husband's ancestors, and if I might be willing to spend between 2 and 6 hours every day on my computer trying to find those ancestors, I would have looked at you cross-eyed. At that time, my dad was still searching for our Brennan ancestors, and I let him be the family genealogist. I had more important things to do, or so I thought.
Now I'm eagerly anticipating April 2, when the 1940 census will be released to the public. Actually, it will be released to places like ancestry.com which will have to digitize the records and catalog them. I have no idea how long it will take to actually be able to access the records, but I am so excited about it, just like all the other amateur and professional genealogists out there.
I guess this makes me an official nerd - a genealogy geek, if you will. The best way to describe it is like this: You like to put jigsaw puzzles together and you've been missing several pieces for months. You've left the puzzle out on the table, hoping that someday those pieces will turn up. And suddenly you find them and can put that puzzle together.
Or you're a detective, working on a murder case. If you only had access to some restricted DNA or arrest records, or a piece of evidence that has gone missing, you might be able to solve it. Then, you finally gain access to that one missing piece and you know you will be able to figure out whodunnit.
These 1940 records will answer a lot of questions for me, not so much for my husband's family, as I have interviewed so many of his relatives, most of whom live near us, that I don't really need the census.
But my relatives in Ohio - the Brennans, Shaws, Muellers and Schuliens - relatives that I don't even know, from families I lost track of when I was 10 years old and moved to California - are hiding in the 1940 census and I'm looking forward to finding them.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Immigrant Stories
Over the past ten days, my husband and I have met with three groups of his cousins (mostly second cousins) to discuss family history for the book we are writing. We know some of the cousins, but met others for the first time. It was fascinating to learn more about these branches of my husband's Croatian family.
Some of the cousins are 100% Croatian (except for a sliver of Czech) and, unllike my husband, who is only half Croatian, they have maintained many of their cultural traditions until today. Many still attend St. Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles. I learned that this Church was built 100 years ago and that Mass was said there in their native language long before Vatican II did away with Latin for the Mass everywhere else.
I learned that one of my husband's great uncles chose his bride from two pictures presented to him. He chose the one he thought more attractive, and she was notified in Croatia and then she emigrated to America. I also learned that the husband of one of his great aunts died in Chile where he had gone to make money. Of course, the cousins repeated a number of "family secrets" which were probably scandalous at the time but would bore people today- and laughed over the name the Croatian women called American women - "Chuhas." According to one cousin, this was because they had noticed how many American women chewed gum. Don't know if that's true or not, but it made for a good story.
I learned how a number of men tried their hand at farming, while others opened restaurants or worked for the railroad. I learned that two brothers had a fight with each other in the street one day that left them estranged. I learned how some of the women called their sisters-in-law "vixens." I learned of some who died in the flu epidemic of 1918, and how others had died young for unknown reasons. I learned how they helped each other when they first arrived in America - finding places for new immigrants to live, often offering rooms in their own homes, helping them find jobs, learn English, enroll their chldren in school.
I learned that they came because there was no way for them to survive on the island of their birth, where an insect infestation had destroyed the vineyards, their main source of income. One by one, they left their mothers and fathers behind, knowing they might never see them again. And the parents encouraged them to go, knowing it was the only way for them to survive.
It is an amazing set of stories, stories that are repeated in Irish, German, Italian, Mexican, Indian, and Chinese familes - the stories of immigrants who risked everything for a better life, and left everything behind. It is the story of incredibly courageous people.
Some of the cousins are 100% Croatian (except for a sliver of Czech) and, unllike my husband, who is only half Croatian, they have maintained many of their cultural traditions until today. Many still attend St. Anthony's Croatian Catholic Church in Los Angeles. I learned that this Church was built 100 years ago and that Mass was said there in their native language long before Vatican II did away with Latin for the Mass everywhere else.
I learned that one of my husband's great uncles chose his bride from two pictures presented to him. He chose the one he thought more attractive, and she was notified in Croatia and then she emigrated to America. I also learned that the husband of one of his great aunts died in Chile where he had gone to make money. Of course, the cousins repeated a number of "family secrets" which were probably scandalous at the time but would bore people today- and laughed over the name the Croatian women called American women - "Chuhas." According to one cousin, this was because they had noticed how many American women chewed gum. Don't know if that's true or not, but it made for a good story.
I learned how a number of men tried their hand at farming, while others opened restaurants or worked for the railroad. I learned that two brothers had a fight with each other in the street one day that left them estranged. I learned how some of the women called their sisters-in-law "vixens." I learned of some who died in the flu epidemic of 1918, and how others had died young for unknown reasons. I learned how they helped each other when they first arrived in America - finding places for new immigrants to live, often offering rooms in their own homes, helping them find jobs, learn English, enroll their chldren in school.
I learned that they came because there was no way for them to survive on the island of their birth, where an insect infestation had destroyed the vineyards, their main source of income. One by one, they left their mothers and fathers behind, knowing they might never see them again. And the parents encouraged them to go, knowing it was the only way for them to survive.
It is an amazing set of stories, stories that are repeated in Irish, German, Italian, Mexican, Indian, and Chinese familes - the stories of immigrants who risked everything for a better life, and left everything behind. It is the story of incredibly courageous people.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Plans to Visit Ireland
Just completed plans for an August trip to Ireland. My husband and I will stay in Dublin for 3 days, possibly do some genealogy research, then head to the Rock of Cashel, Cork, Macroom Castle, and Killarney. The next day we're off to the Dingle Peninsula and the 12th century bee-hive style huts built by monks, then to the Ring of Kerry. Then we'll head to Adare and the Cliffs of Moher, spending the night in a 16th century castle. The next day we head to Connemara and Galway and check into another 500 year old castle for the next two nights. While there, we may visit the Aran Islands or just stay on the castle grounds and do some falconry or simply walk through the woods or to the nearest small town.
Then we're off to County Laois to visit my 3rd cousin, Canice. He lives on a farm, just a mile from the 12th century ruin of Aghaboe Abbey where some distant cousins are buried.
We'll arrive just in time for Aghaboe Day, the day when the family gathers to honor their dead with a Mass at the Abbey and a celebration at Canice's house - drinking, eating, singing, dancing. After a couple of days searching for Brennans in nearby County Kilkenny, we'll return home.
Can't wait!
We'll arrive just in time for Aghaboe Day, the day when the family gathers to honor their dead with a Mass at the Abbey and a celebration at Canice's house - drinking, eating, singing, dancing. After a couple of days searching for Brennans in nearby County Kilkenny, we'll return home.
Can't wait!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Sadness in the Family
My husband's younger sister died last week. She was a lovely woman, only 57 years old, a wife and mother of three young men. She had struggled for 18 years against cancer, and her funeral yesterday was a beautiful tribute to a loving, humble, talented and courageous woman.
Sometimes when I am discovering new ancestors as part of my genealogy work, I write down birth and death dates and quickly move on to the next discovery. But other times I stop and reflect for a minute or two on what each life meant and how each family felt as they buried their loved one. I note how old or young a person was when they died, and if possible, try to discover what ended their life.
For many of my relatives who lived in Ohio, I have been able to find obituaries or newspaper articles that tell me what caused the death. I have a newspaper article, for instance, telling about the death of my maternal grandfather, A.J. Mueller, who was struck by a train and killed in 1930. Strangely, my paternal great great grandfather, Ned Brennan, was also struck by a train and killed. I have the newspaper story regarding his death in 1889.
I have other newspaper articles on cousins who died in automobile accidents, in childbirth, and from heart disease or cancer. It is easy to treat each of these as a statistic when you are doing genealogy work, but I try to remember that each of these men and women had a family who loved them, and friends who mourned with the family. I try to see what a tragedy each death was, especially the deaths of those who died young, or in childbirth when many small children were left motherless. I also try to see how much each person contributed to their own family and to the larger human family.
Yesterday was a time to mourn, but also a time to celebrate a life. My sister-in-law, Karen Sherer, contributed so much to her family, not just to her sons, but to her sisters and brothers, her nieces and nephews. She was the heart of the family, and there will be a gaping hole in the family without her. That is what death does to a family. And that is why I am trying so hard, through my genealogy work, to pay tribute to all who have died, and in some small way, keep them and their legacies alive in our minds and hearts.
Sometimes when I am discovering new ancestors as part of my genealogy work, I write down birth and death dates and quickly move on to the next discovery. But other times I stop and reflect for a minute or two on what each life meant and how each family felt as they buried their loved one. I note how old or young a person was when they died, and if possible, try to discover what ended their life.
For many of my relatives who lived in Ohio, I have been able to find obituaries or newspaper articles that tell me what caused the death. I have a newspaper article, for instance, telling about the death of my maternal grandfather, A.J. Mueller, who was struck by a train and killed in 1930. Strangely, my paternal great great grandfather, Ned Brennan, was also struck by a train and killed. I have the newspaper story regarding his death in 1889.
I have other newspaper articles on cousins who died in automobile accidents, in childbirth, and from heart disease or cancer. It is easy to treat each of these as a statistic when you are doing genealogy work, but I try to remember that each of these men and women had a family who loved them, and friends who mourned with the family. I try to see what a tragedy each death was, especially the deaths of those who died young, or in childbirth when many small children were left motherless. I also try to see how much each person contributed to their own family and to the larger human family.
Yesterday was a time to mourn, but also a time to celebrate a life. My sister-in-law, Karen Sherer, contributed so much to her family, not just to her sons, but to her sisters and brothers, her nieces and nephews. She was the heart of the family, and there will be a gaping hole in the family without her. That is what death does to a family. And that is why I am trying so hard, through my genealogy work, to pay tribute to all who have died, and in some small way, keep them and their legacies alive in our minds and hearts.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Nothing beats first-hand interviews
My husband and I, along with his cousin, visited two members of his extended family last Saturday. These are 2nd cousins, the grandchildren of his grandfather's brother. I had several questions I hoped they could answer regarding their grandparents.
First, I had been told their grandfather, Nickolas Eterovic, had been married twice. I knew his first wife Dora died sometime before the 1920 census, when Nickolas reports he is a widower. She and Nickolas had married in Croatia some years earlier and they had two daughters. Then Nickolas came to America by himself and she and the girls followed in 1913 and Dora had a son later that year. The two cousins thought she may have died in childbirth, but since she died long before they were born, they weren't sure. Unless I can find a death record for her, which I have been unbable to do so far, the circumstances and date of her death may remain a mystery. However, they did know the name of his second wife, and I have found records on her. She died before Nickolas as well, leaving him a widower for a second time.
I also wanted to know about their uncle, the child who had been born 10 months after their grandmother arrived here. They were able to fill me in on him and his children. So I was able to add a few more people to the family tree.
I also learned a bit more about their immediate family. They were the oldest and youngest of five children born to the daughter of Nickolas and his first wife. Two of the girls became nuns. One even began her own congregation that served the poor in Guatemala. The other belonged to a cloistered congregation of Carmelites. Only the youngest daughter married, and I was fortunate to see pictures of her grandchildren.
I'm planning a visit with another branch of my husband's extended family in two weeks. This will help fill in some more blanks.
The visit taught me a valuable lesson. While I can learn a great deal on my computer, at ancestry.com, familysearch.org, and many other genealogy sites, there is nothing quite as exciting as hearing firsthand from members of the family. Sometimes, it is the only way to have mysteries solved.
First, I had been told their grandfather, Nickolas Eterovic, had been married twice. I knew his first wife Dora died sometime before the 1920 census, when Nickolas reports he is a widower. She and Nickolas had married in Croatia some years earlier and they had two daughters. Then Nickolas came to America by himself and she and the girls followed in 1913 and Dora had a son later that year. The two cousins thought she may have died in childbirth, but since she died long before they were born, they weren't sure. Unless I can find a death record for her, which I have been unbable to do so far, the circumstances and date of her death may remain a mystery. However, they did know the name of his second wife, and I have found records on her. She died before Nickolas as well, leaving him a widower for a second time.
I also wanted to know about their uncle, the child who had been born 10 months after their grandmother arrived here. They were able to fill me in on him and his children. So I was able to add a few more people to the family tree.
I also learned a bit more about their immediate family. They were the oldest and youngest of five children born to the daughter of Nickolas and his first wife. Two of the girls became nuns. One even began her own congregation that served the poor in Guatemala. The other belonged to a cloistered congregation of Carmelites. Only the youngest daughter married, and I was fortunate to see pictures of her grandchildren.
I'm planning a visit with another branch of my husband's extended family in two weeks. This will help fill in some more blanks.
The visit taught me a valuable lesson. While I can learn a great deal on my computer, at ancestry.com, familysearch.org, and many other genealogy sites, there is nothing quite as exciting as hearing firsthand from members of the family. Sometimes, it is the only way to have mysteries solved.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Irene Killoran Schulien
I have written before about how fortunate I am, in my genealogical pursuits, to have come from the town of Lima, Ohio, where nearly every issue of the Lima News prior to 1977 is online. Since both of my parents were born there, and their families lived there for several generations, the database is a goldmine. When I am trying to solve a genealogical mystery regarding a family member, after I go to census records, birth records, and death indexes, I head straight for the Lima News database. It's amazing how much I can piece together from newspaper articles. There are marriage announcements, which generally list family members. There are graduations, births, obituaries (which sometimes give you whole family trees), and other interesting tidbits, like who visited whom, who played baseball for the local teams, who attended what churches, who ran off to get married, who was hospitalized, who got arrested etc.
Yesterday, I was trying to find the birth and death dates of one woman who was not actually a biological relative, but who married my mom's favorite uncle, my Great Uncle Rod. Her name was Irene Killoran and, while I had actually met her and Rod a couple of times when I was a child, what interested me most were the stories my mother told me about Uncle Rod. Since then, I've heard more stories from my cousin Tim, and I really wanted to see what I could find out about Irene who must have been a saint, from what I've heard about the antics of her husband Rod.
I knew Irene had been born before the year 1900 and I also knew she lived to be about 100, so I couldn't find her obituary in the Lima News, but I suspected I could find other clues about her. As I searched through the database I began to piece together a picture of her family, and soon I was headed down a rabbit hole, determined to reconstruct this family that wasn't even related to me. (That's how addictive genealogy can be.)
First, I found a story about the death of a sister, Esther Killoran, at the age of 22 from pneumonia, which seemed incredibly tragic. In that story, I discovered the names of all the siblings: Helen, William, John, Ralph, Esther, and of course, Irene. From census records, I was able to confirm the names of the brothers and sisters. Then I found a story about Irene's older brother William, who was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1922, and who performed Irene and Rod's marriage ceremony in 1942. Sadly, another story informed me that William died of a heart attack in 1948, at the age of 53, just a few months after he conducted the funeral service for his mother, Mary. She and her husband, James, who had died years earlier, were children of Irish immigrants.
So as sad as it seemed that two of these children had died young, Esther at 22 and now William at 53, there was more tragedy to be discovered. Irene's older brother John was a physician and in the course of being summoned to treat patients at the scene of an automobile accident, he stepped on a live electrical wire and was electrocuted in 1946. With this much tragedy in one family, I couldn't stop looking. I wanted a happy ending: grandchildren who would carry on the family name and keep the memories alive, but there were few grandchildren. As a priest, William had no children, and John had but one daughter. I knew Rod and Irene didn't have children as they were in their forties when they married. And Esther had died unmarried at the age of 22. So I had to continue searching. Two more siblings of Irene remained – her older sister Helen, and her younger brother Ralph. I discovered that Helen married in 1923, just a year after her sister died, and had two children, one named after her deceased sister. I found the marriage announcements for the two sisters and in both, their mother Helen is missing. One girl is listed as being the daughter of Joseph E. Morris, the other is listed as the daughter of the late Joseph E. Morris and Helen Killoran Morris, but at the time of the wedding, there is also a stepmother named. I searched for hours for a hint of what had happened to Helen. Did she die? Were they divorced? But I found nothing. I know at least one of the girls had children, but I lost the trail after I discovered that fact. I don't know if the other daughter had children.
So I turned to Ralph, who apparently moved out of town and married. However, once someone moved out of Lima, it was hit or miss on finding a story about them. Sometimes the paper printed stories about former Lima residents, but usually only when a relative who still resided there gave the paper the information. So I have lost the trail on Ralph Killoran.
It may seem odd that I wanted to discover more about a family that was not related to me, but genealogy buffs will understand. Once you start reading stories about people, you feel you know them in some small way, and you want to find out, almost as if you were reading a novel, how it all turns out. Sadly, I don't know how it all turned out. I know that two children of Irish immigrants married and had at least 6 children. (Another story in the Lima News reported on the severe burning of a one year old son, so there may have been at least one child who did not live to adulthood.) I know that three of those children died as young or middle-aged adults. But I don't know what happened to Ralph and Helen and I don't know if there were grandchildren other than the three girls I mentioned.
But, aside from all the tragedy I discovered, I learned another thing. I learned that Irene Killoran Schulien was a rarity in her family. Born in 1898, she died in 1999, at the ripe old age of 101.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Busy, Busy, Busy
After several months of finishing up my book The Waiting Room, then working on my husband's family history book, I've returned to play with all my family trees. I've lost count of how many I have - maybe 10.
What sent me back was the desire to have all the data accurate in a couple of trees. One is the Eterovic side of my husband's family. This weekend, we are going to visit with an elder of the family, an 87 year old woman who can give us some information we've been unable to get anywhere else. Her younger 78 year old sister should be there, too, so hopefully between the two of them, a few family mysteries will be solved.
I've also recently been in touch with another in-law of the family who's been doing genealogy on the Yeseta side of the family. We plan to meet with him and his family soon, so maybe I'll be able to fill in a few other gaps on the tree.
What I've been doing for the past few days is taking all the data from the ancestry trees and making sure everything is correct on the Family Tree Maker trees. The first are on the ancestry website, the second are on my computer and don't require me to be online. So if I ever stop using ancestry, I'll still have my trees (at least I think I will.) The Family Tree maker trees are also the only ones that will allow me to create genealogy reports (those crazy documents where everyone is assigned a number), so I began creating some today. Actuallly, the software creates them and I just check to make sure there are no mistakes. (There are always mistakes.)
I started with my husband's grandfather's ancestors (Eterovic) and the report was 3 pages long and included 5 generations. Then on to my husband's grandmother's ancestors (Yeseta). Again, three pages and 4 generations. Then, just for fun - since I am not yet ready to create a family history book for my family - I created a report for my maternal grandmother's German ancestors. It was 12 pages and 10 generations. So I decided to go for broke and do a report on my paternal grandmother's ancestors. Her family is English, Scottish and German, and goes back to before the time of the Mayflower. The report was 59 pages long, so I didn't print it. But one of these days I'll have to get back to it and check it for errors. That could take a month.
All of this is keeping me very busy, all while I'm supposed to be planning my trip to Ireland. At least life isn't boring!
What sent me back was the desire to have all the data accurate in a couple of trees. One is the Eterovic side of my husband's family. This weekend, we are going to visit with an elder of the family, an 87 year old woman who can give us some information we've been unable to get anywhere else. Her younger 78 year old sister should be there, too, so hopefully between the two of them, a few family mysteries will be solved.
I've also recently been in touch with another in-law of the family who's been doing genealogy on the Yeseta side of the family. We plan to meet with him and his family soon, so maybe I'll be able to fill in a few other gaps on the tree.
What I've been doing for the past few days is taking all the data from the ancestry trees and making sure everything is correct on the Family Tree Maker trees. The first are on the ancestry website, the second are on my computer and don't require me to be online. So if I ever stop using ancestry, I'll still have my trees (at least I think I will.) The Family Tree maker trees are also the only ones that will allow me to create genealogy reports (those crazy documents where everyone is assigned a number), so I began creating some today. Actuallly, the software creates them and I just check to make sure there are no mistakes. (There are always mistakes.)
I started with my husband's grandfather's ancestors (Eterovic) and the report was 3 pages long and included 5 generations. Then on to my husband's grandmother's ancestors (Yeseta). Again, three pages and 4 generations. Then, just for fun - since I am not yet ready to create a family history book for my family - I created a report for my maternal grandmother's German ancestors. It was 12 pages and 10 generations. So I decided to go for broke and do a report on my paternal grandmother's ancestors. Her family is English, Scottish and German, and goes back to before the time of the Mayflower. The report was 59 pages long, so I didn't print it. But one of these days I'll have to get back to it and check it for errors. That could take a month.
All of this is keeping me very busy, all while I'm supposed to be planning my trip to Ireland. At least life isn't boring!
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