Honoring his service: James O'Farrell 1842-1914

 

 

The name of James O'Farrell inscribed on the War Memorial
across from the Morgan County (West Virginia) Court House.
Notice that it's spelled "O'Ferrall."

While working on the Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA project I wrote about their son James a couple of times which you can see here and here. Must admit that I was so impressed by his life and the way he survived the Civil War that I had to blog about it a couple of times, and probably spent a bit too much time on him. But there is a moment when it's past time to move on, and so I did. However on my recent trip to see Mom (who is an avid genealogist and just turned 96) we swung by Berkeley Springs and checked out the War Memorial to see if we could find his name inscribed on the Civil War side of it.

Guess I should mention that James' parents were Thomas and Judah Farrell who came to the United States from Ireland about 1840. Most likely fleeing unfortunate economic times in their native land, the couple left with their two oldest daughters, Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House 1835 - 1919, and Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell 1838-1910. Once here, they had two sons and four more daughters and the line up for their children born here looks like this:

    James O'Farrell (1842-1914), who used the O' convention for the rest of his life
    Thomas Farrell (1843 - ?), who just disappears from the records
    Ann Farrell (1845 - ?), she also has disappeared as far as we can tell
    Ellen Farrell (1846 - ), she disappears as well
    Bridget Farrell (1849 - ?), and she disappears from view too,
    Sarah "Sallie" (Farrell) Wageley, who married John W.

Strangely, just before I set off on my trip, I heard from one of Mom's DNA matches who mentioned the War Memorial! I found out what I could and tried to google a good photo of it to see if it was worth the trip but the images weren't what I needed. Well, it was located right on the way after lunch, so Mom, Brother and sis-in-law all went in search of the memorial and hopefully to find Thomas' name.

We pulled up and all piled out when we saw it. It's an large imposing affair with a big bronze spread eagle atop. Mom waited in the car as it was on a small incline and surrounded by a couple of steps. "Not on this side. It's for WWII." "Not over here either. Wrong war." Then: I found it! Just happened to be on the right side for me. Everyone swarmed the good side and looked for names. James Snider and his brother William Hutchison Snider were found under those who returned and survived the war, which we found very curious as James died early on in the war.

So there's his name in the image up top. It was a thrill to see it there. He earned the right to be included on this war memorial roll over 150 years ago. And here we stood looking and paying respects.

Worth the trip? Oh, yes!

The War Memorial in front of the Court House in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

 

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/08/honoring-his-service-james-ofarrell.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: A sidetrack I had to take and a timeline for James O'Farrell

Focus, focus, focus! That's what I say to myself often. Human behavior is fascinating and if I'm going to wander off track it will be because some shiny object connected to that fascinating stuff my ancestors and relatives did. In working with the Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project, both Cousin Rich and I have wandered from time to time. To his credit, he has wandered less - if at all - and his so-called wandering has had wonderful results that are relevant. But me, I'm a bad girl when it comes to wandering. And here's how I found myself so far afield of our primary objective just this week.

Our primary objective is, using DNA test results, establish which DNA chromosomal segments come from which of four prime families who were occupants of the area around the town of Magnolia, Morgan County, Virginia then West Virginia in the time period around 1850. The connected surnames are: Farrell, House, Hartley and Biggerstaff.

To be candid, Rich and I don't even know if this is possible. But we're trying. As we go, we take time to fill our genealogical baskets with even more records and enjoy interesting side trips filling out the picture we have of our ancestor's time and place. For example, Rich just went to the National Archive to dig up a Civil War Pension file for James Farrell/ O'Farrell. It was positively scrumptious!

I won't go into lots of detail about the pension file here because I'm seriously making an effort to stay on task (who me?) But I do want to take a moment to revisit the life of James O'Farrell, as he called himself as an adult. (See previous post about him here.) Timelines are often very helpful in getting a feeling for the arc of a subject's life. I use them, not for every ancestor, but whenever there's a lot of twists and turns in a life, when the subject and family moved and maybe disappeared, or to aid thinking and inspiration when facing a problem. So I thought to do one for James O'Farrell for a different reason. It simply looked interesting.

In it I saw that his story of time in the Civil War is the stuff of Hollywood, and not because it's extraordinary but because it was probably typical of many who served in that war. So now I'll post part of it here and I think that you'll see what I mean. Let's pick up the timeline at the point when James' father, Thomas Farrell dies. As you might remember, both Thomas and Judah Farrell were born in Ireland, had two daughters there, and immigrated to the US.

1851: Thomas Farrell (father) died in Morgan County, Virginia

1855, 20 AUG: Mary Elizabeth (sister) marriage to Samuel Albert House, Morgan County, Virginia

1856, 16 SEP: Catherine Farrell (sister) marriage to James Edward Boxwell, Morgan County, Virginia

1857: Judah Farrell (mother) died in Morgan County, West Virginia

1857, 12 NOV: Sale of Judah Farrell’s estate

1861: Civil War began

1861, 17 APR: West Virginia seceded from Virginia

1861, 24 NOV: James Farrell enlisted in the Union 1st Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company B, Capt. Zeller's Co., in Williamsport, Virginia.  

1861, DEC: contracted mumps, "affecting his testicles", Williamsport, Maryland

1862, JAN: James Farrell’s unit is absorbed into Union Company H of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry

1862, JUL & AUG: company took leave

1862, SEP: back with company

1862, DEC: contracted rheumatism from exposure

(The Company Description Book gives us a picture of him. He was, at age 20, five feet seven and a half inches tall. His hair was light as was his complexion, and his eyes were blue. He was a farmer.)

1863, MAR: contracted small pox affecting his head and hearing, Arlington Heights, Virginia

1863, end: enlistment time up, reenlists and received $100 bonus, becomes a Union Veteran Volunteer

1864, JAN: contracted diseases of the eyes from exposure, Brandy Station, Virginia

No Date: Near Brandy Station in the state of Virginia: contracted scurvy in the mouth from use of Army food

1864, 29 SEP: disappeared from line of fire at Chapin Falls, Virginia, near Dutch Gap

1864, 30 SEP: deemed "missing" by company

1864, 1 OCT: at a prison camp at Richmond, Virginia

1864, 2 OCT: company records show "Missing from picket lines near Newmarket Road - Oct 2nd

1864, OCT: company records, "Nothing heard of him since."

1864, OCT: moved to POW camp at Salisbury, North Carolina

1864, OCT - DEC: population at Salisbury increased from 5,000 to 10,000 crisis level overcrowding, inmates begin die in great numbers

1864, Fall: fearing starvation, James enlisted in the 8th Confederate Infantry

Date unknown: while in service of Confederacy, captured by Union General Stoneman’s troops.

1865, 5 JUL: “Confined at Nashville Tenn. And was released on taking the oath of allegiance July 5 / 65”. ( Source: MEMORANDUM FROM PRISONER OF WAR RECORDS)

1865, 23 JUL: returned to his original Union unit

1865, 8 AUG: mustered out. Owed $290 for back pay and bonus

1867, 14 MAR: marriage to Henrietta Michael, Hattie, Morgan County, West Virginia

1880: US Census, Flat Creek, Pettis County, Missouri.


See, right away I spot that we haven't found James in the 1870 US Census. He was married to Hattie in March of 1867 and they had their first child, William Clem in December of that year still in West Virginia. They had their second child, Margaret or Maggie in 1872 and they lived in Pettis County Missouri then. Arthur came along in 1874 and Elmer in 1981. So where were they in 1870? Wherever they were, they are still to be found by us.

I'm chuckling just a bit as I look at the names of James and Hattie's kids. William Clem, Margaret, Arthur, and Elmer. Whatever the inspiration for those names, it was not the father's Irish family... or Hattie's brother, Isaac Newton! Do you ever wonder about the ancestors and how they named the offspring?

James O'Farrell's land in Missouri.

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_17.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell Project: DNA connections using AncestryDNA, Part 2

I need to emphasize again that I do really like AncestryDNA and it's key feature: using the Ancestry Member Trees to find matches and make cousin connections.  The interface is super user friendly and it's easy to navigate when seeking and finding DNA matches. I like that. Of course, I wish I'd find even more matches... don't we all?)

In the last post I wrote about our recent Biggerstaff side project and my longing for a chromosome browser built in to AncestryDNA. Now I want to turn the spotlight on a search mystery that's got Cousin Rich and me scratching our heads. The mystery has to do with the AncestryDNA search function especially as it relates to surname matching. You need to know right here that I have a very limited grasp of the mechanics behind how search apps work and that extends to the AncestryDNA search app as well. I just know what happens when I do this or that.

If you remember from the last post, Mom matches Cousin Joseph because they are both descended from Isaac Biggerstaff (1798-18440). Uncle Sonny is also a descendant of this Biggerstaff line, but not from Isaac Biggerstaff. But Uncle Sonny doesn't match Cousin Joseph. Why?

The answer could be as obvious as Mom and Cousin Joseph sharing Bigerstaff DNA that came right from Isaac Biggerstaff. The DNA shared between Mom and Uncle Sonny could actually be Farrell or House DNA. It remains to be seen and more will be known once Cousin Joseph uploads his raw file to GEDmatch so we can play around with the chromosome matcher utility.

When I found Cousin Joseph's match for Mom I emailed Cousin Rich and he went to see if Uncle Sonny or Aunt Mary also matched him. Joseph wasn't to be found amongst the regular list of matching people so Rich did a surname search on Biggerstaff. Still no Cousin Joseph.

Rich has a good sense of these things and it was Rich who first questioned if the AncestryDNA search function might have something off-kilter going on.

To double check I searched on Whetstone. Used that surname because I'd recently been in touch with a high confidence match who shared our Whetstone ancestors. When I did the surname search, whatta ya know, she didn't show up!

I have no idea why this should be. Is AncestryDNA looking at the same main match list and just searching for surname matches?

Now do you see why I really, really want AncestryDNA to tweek their search function and hopefully making it as good as the search function on the geanealogy side of the house?

 

 

Click here to get to this next search box, below, and enter your desired surname.

 

Late breaking update: tried the Whetstone surname search just now and it worked! But why didn't it before? Now I'm more confused than ever.


The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-project_15.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell Project: DNA connections using AncestryDNA, Part I

Let me say right off the bat that I do enjoy and appreciate AncestryDNA. But people, for Pete's sake, get yourselves a chromosome browser! And maybe take a second look at your search function especially as it relates to surname matching. Otherwise you're fine... but I really need these two things, ASAP. Now here's why I need this, and I'm going to talk about the chromosome browser thing first and in another post address the issues we're having when we use the search function for surnames.

Let's chat about the usefulness of a chromosome browser. What's a chromosome browser, you say? In a nutshell, it's the ability to run a search or matching app to see exactly where in their DNA two people share the same chromosomes. When we're lucky, some segments of those chromosomes  come down through the generations from the shared common ancestor relatively in tact in each person's DNA. A chromosome browser will find the matching segments for you.

How important is this? I've read a genealogy blog recently (wish I could remember which one, dang it) that compared the chromosome browser to the idea of "original source" in standard genealogy. I can use a chromosome browser to find out which chromosomes exactly match Mom and Uncle Sonny's DNA.

Here's a look at the GEDmatch comparison of Mom and Uncle Sonny's matching chromosomes. Mom first tested with 23andMe and Uncle Sonny and Aunt Mary tested with AncestryDNA.  In order to see exactly how and on which chromosomes they match we needed the help of a 3rd party service like GEDmatch. Here are the results for Mom and Uncle Sonny.

 

In order to get this report both parties must upload their raw data file to GEDmatch, and that's no trouble really, but if the other party is reluctant for no particular reason, then you're out of luck. If you have a chromosome browser built-in to the DNA service you are using, you can just go on ahead and see where you match with the other person's DNA, without the fuss.

Here's a link to Ce Ce Moore's blog where she talks about all this and Ancestry's plans to add their own chromosome browser. I can't wait... but there's no release date at of yet. And I really have a personal problem with waiting because I WANT IT NOW!

And now about our situation which is, I'm willing to bet, typical. Mom and Uncle Sonny are each descended from the oldest daughters of Thomas and Judah Farrell. You can read about them and the Farrell Project here. Mom descends from Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919) and Uncle Sonny descends from her sister Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell (1838-1910). I'll show you both trees on down.

As we work through Mom's and Uncles Sonny's DNA matches we're always looking for people who match someone in this cluster of people and surnames that fan out around the Farrells. The main surnames are: Farrell, House, Hartley, and Biggerstaff.

Now the Biggerstaff surname is interesting and there's a distinct way that it's important to Mom and I. Samuel Albert House (1832-1917), the husband of Mary Elizabeth Farrell, was the illegitimate son of Isaac Biggerstaff (1798-1844). Proving this paternity is one the top items on my wish list of what I'm looking to find using DNA for genealogy. In order to accomplish that task I would have to find an undeniable DNA match to Mom who has a solid tree tracing back to an offspring of Isaac Biggerstaff through his marriage with Elizabeth Longstreath.

But there's another big problem: Samuel Albert could have also received Biggerstaff DNA from his mother. Keep reading to see how.

Now this next part is a bit sticky and complicated and I hope that the two trees below will help. Back to Uncle Sonny. The top tree for Uncle Sonny's ancestors shows the line back from James E. Boxwell, husband of Catherine Farrell. You'll notice that his mother is Dinah House, and her parents are James House and Margaret Hartley. Now look at Margaret Hartley's mother! Rebecca Biggerstaff! Which means that any of the descendants of James Boxwell and Dinah House could have Biggerstaff DNA... and in theory Uncle Sonny should too.

Uncle Sonny is a descendant of Aaron Boxwell and Dinah House.

Dinah House's grandmother was a Biggerstaff.

Now look at the this tree segment below from Mom's tree. There's Isaac Biggerstaff, presumed father of Samuel Albert House. (Are you wondering about the surname and why Samuel Albert took his mother's surname? He didn't at first and you can find him in the 1850 census listed as Samuel Biggerstaff and living in the home of his mother and step-father, Patrick Caton.)

In this tree below you'll see the biggest problem for me, and that is that Samuel Albert's father was a Biggerstaff and on his mother's side, his grandmother was a Biggerstaff. As a matter of fact, Samuel Albert's great grandmother on his mother's side was sister to his grandfather on his father's side. That's a whole big mess of Biggerstaff DNA! Is there any chance at all for me to sort it out and make a case for Isaac Biggerstaff being Samuel Albert's father using DNA?

I know, I know, I could do some Y-DNA testing with direct males descendants of SA House and Isaac Biggerstaff. I'm trying!

Here, I should mention that we've found a Biggerstaff match with Mom on AncestryDNA and he's a descendant of Isaac and Elizabeth. Nice, huh? He's Cousin Joseph and he came up with a 95% confidence rating. He's great to work with and has already shared some very useful info about local records:)

So, if Uncle Sonny has Biggerstaff  DNA he should in theory show up as a match with others who have this Biggerstaff DNA. Except that Cousin Joseph matched Mom but not Uncle Sonny. Hmmm. See, I wish Ancestry had a chromosome browser because I could use it to see right away how Cousin Joseph and Mom match and on which chromosomes.

Cousin Rich and I are scratching our heads and wondering why. Why new-to-us Cousin Joseph, the direct descendant of Isaac Biggerstaff and his wife Elizabeth Longstreth, should match Mom and not Uncle Sonny. Two answers come to mind immediately. First is that Joseph and Mom both have DNA that comes down through Isaac and no one else in our Farrell group, and I'll need a chromosome browser to answer that question. The other answer is that there is a problem with AncestryDNA's matching function. Or maybe it's both. Next time I'll talk about an issue we might have uncovered with AncestryDNA's search function.

Now do you see why I really, really want AncestryDNA to get a chromosome browser? Soon.



The URL for this post is:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-project.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: Oh, Thomas Farrell, where are you?

  

Cherry Orchard Cemetery in Old Magnolia, West Virginia.

 

Thomas Farrell, where are you hiding?

Is there no record of your life to be found except the 1850 census? There you are, all of seven years old, with your family in District 42, Morgan County, Virginia (now West Virginia). If we didn't have that census we wouldn't know about you at all. But then you disappear from all the records that many Farrell / O'Farrell searchers have hungrily looked through. Where are you??

It's sort of a sad story, and has that Irish melancholy about it, I think. The missing Thomas' parents, left Ireland before 1841 and immigrated most likely under similar circumstances to those of the many other families leaving Ireland and seeking a safe life. There was Thomas Sr. and his wife Judah with their two daughters, Mary Elizabeth born in 1835 and her sister Catherine born in 1838, coming to America about 1841 and looking for land to farm. On 22 Feb 1845 at age 45, Thomas Sr. signed an indenture, a land lease, for the term of six years with Aaron Harlan and started farming on his own piece of heaven called the Widmeyer Tract. It sounds lovely, hard work but lovely, for this Irish family was finally able to work it's very own farm in peace, and two sons at the ready to work it.

But it wasn't all milk and honey for long. Thomas Sr. died in 1851 - just about the time the land lease expired - and his wife Judah died in 1857. Judah's estate settlement includes one black mare and a colt, a cow and calf, along with six hogs and household and farming items. A modest holding as compared to others I've seen. The return for the auction to settle the estate reports that Aaron Harlan, the land lessor, was there picking up quite a few items. So was Samuel Albert House who had married Mary Eliz the oldest daughter in 1855, just two years prior to Judah's death. There he was purchasing a few items from his wife's mother property: a skillet and a churn for Mary Eliz, and then useful items like potatoes, beets, and beans to plant, and 25 bushels of corn and a box of apples. He also got three of the best hogs, first choice.

Our big unanswered question is, where did the children go? Eliza and Catherine were married by then and we guessed that they took on some of the girls at least for a while. Here's a recap of what we find in the 1860 census, from a recent post.

* Sarah is 9 years old and serving in her sister Catherine Farrell Boxwell's house in the Magnolia area. We guess she married someone close by and find a Sally (common for Sarah) Farrell marrying in 1860 in Berkeley County, West Virginia to a man named John W. Wageley, working as a railroader, whose parents were William and Susan Wageley.

And now here are the three girls who remain a mystery:
* Ellen is 12 and serving in the household of John Coulhan (?), a merchant, and living in Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland. He too was born in Ireland. Then we lose her.
* Bridget is 13 and serving in the household of Patrick Connor in Clarysville, Allegany, Maryland. He was born in Ireland and is working in the coal mines near there. And then we lose her.
* Ann is 16 and serving in the household of a Mr. Cosgrove in Morgan County, West Virginia, who is a railroad watchman and was born in Ireland. Then we lose her.

But where did the boys go? James the older of the two brothers served in the Civil War and married at the end of the war when he came home to Magnolia and then went west to Missouri. You can read about him in the previous post. And now we're left with the younger son, Thomas Jr.

Mom has looked for Thomas, Cousin Rich has looked for him, and now I've looked and not found him. When I look at Mom's Big Tree on Ancestry and check out his page, the only hint (green shaky leaf) I see is two other public trees with about as much information as we all have, and that's not much, so no one is doing well finding him.

I also see one tree with a Thomas Patrick Farrell who died 15 December 1915 in Glenelg, South Australia, Australia. That's not him. I understand that some other trees on Ancestry have that death date and location plugged in for our Thomas, but really, that's not him.

Where all have I looked? All over the place in the 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 census. And - enough to make me nuts - there are a pair of brothers with the same names and also about the same ages living in West Virginia in Sheridan, Calhoun County. But the family structure is all wrong for our guys. I got nuthin'.

So Mom and I were talking about the possibilities for the boys after mother Judah died, assuming that Thomas was still living then and hadn't succumbed to some illness or accident which is a real possibility. For the short term immediately after Judah died, they too might have stayed with the married sisters just as the young sisters did. But they aren't living with the married sisters for the 1860 census. James would have been 18 years old and Thomas 17 then. They were old enough to be out on their own and it sure looks like they were at that point.

James was off to the Civil War by 1861 so we have him on our radar. But what of Thomas? If he was still living and had been close to his older brother he might have followed on and joined the war effort. But we find no record in the usual places such that it is obviously him. He's not in the 1890 Veteran's Schedule. He's not to be found, at least by me, using Fold3 or Ancestry's Civil War files, either as a search or a browse. And I don't find a Thomas Farrell or O'Farrell (as his brother adapted his own surname) in the 1870 census that makes any sense. No where, no how. He's just gone.

So there you have it. Maybe he died. But we find no record of his death in West Virginia records.

Sometimes it's just like that. You try and try and come up empty. Despite your best thinking and the help of others also looking for your missing relative, you just can't find him. And the further back you go in places that are rough like West Virginia was back then, the fewer records are available for you to look through. I have to be honest, these searches that return nothing useful wear me out.

The road to Magnolia as it is now.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_25.html

The Thomas and Judah Farrell DNA Project: James O'Farrell and the Civil War

Let's take a break from the DNA aspect of this project and talk about the people involved starting with James. For me, it always comes back to the people, my people: who they were in life. I want to know them as best I can. After all I do have some of their DNA.

Thomas and Judah Farrell's oldest son was James Farrell (or O'Farrell as he used his surname in daily adult life, 1842-1914) and the third born child falling in line after two sisters, Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919) and Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell (1838-1910). The girls were born in Ireland and James was the first Farrell child born in Virginia, now West Virginia. His father Thomas died in 1851 and his mother in 1857 leaving the children to fend for themselves. They were of very modest means.

James' nineteenth birthday was on January 9th of 1861 and the American Civil War began three months later when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter on April 12th. James heard the clarion call that young men through the ages hear, now sounded by his newly embraced county. He marched to war on behalf of the Union in a time and place where some of his neighbors joined the Confederacy. Even his two older sisters were at odds: Catherine's husband, James Edward Boxwell (1831-1910) served with the Union while Mary Elizabeth's husband, Samuel Albert House, enlisted in the Confederate army and that cause tremendous trouble in the family. It was in fact brother-in-law fighting brother-in-law. If Ireland had been a place of turmoil for the Farrells, this new county was quickly becoming another one. Was there to be no peace for the Farrell family?

It was pretty easy to find James O'Farrell in the 1890 Veteran's Schedule which was the starting point and gave information about his service record. With his unit designations in hand, it was off to Fold3.

1890 Veteran's Schedule.

I have to admit, I love looking at the service records on Fold3. Luckily, both the Maryland and West Virginia Union company records are 100% complete so I wasn't missing anything. Even though I had the company info from the 1890 Veteran's Schedule it was set aside and the search began fresh. I searched and then I browsed, first in Maryland and then in Virginia and West Virginia making certain to look for all the variations of Farrell and O'Farrell. As a safeguard, I did the same without a state preference, and finally without a preference for Union or Confederate just to cover all the bases. It took a while. By process of careful review and then elimination, all of the files but one were deemed not to be our James O'Farrell. He was found in the same unit listed in the 1890 schedule.

Let me tell you about the guy described by those service records, and both Cousin Rich and I are pretty sure he is our James O'Farrell. This is the kind of dramatic story you hope you'll find and when you do, you're really scared for him. He served in the Maryland Cavalry and was captured, imprisoned as a POW at Salisbury where conditions were a nightmare, and then... well let's get to the whole story and begin at the start of the war.

James enlisted in the 1st Virginia Volunteer Infantry on November 24, 1861 and joined Company B, Capt. Zeller's Co., in Williamsport, Virginia.  The unit had formed during the period when pro-Union citizens got together in April of 1861 right after the state had voted for secession and West Virginia became a state. By January of 1862 after serving three months active duty, his unit seems to have been incorporated somehow into a Maryland unit, but as of yet I'm not entirely certain how that came about. He was now a private in Company H of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry. In July and August of 1862 his unit took leave and presumably he went home for a rest. In September he was back with his unit which spent a lot of time guarding a very important asset of the North, the railroad.

The Company Description Book gives us a picture of him. He was, at age 20, five feet seven and a half inches tall. His hair was light as was his complexion, and his eyes were blue. Just like Mom! He was a farmer.

By the end of 1863, James O'Farrell's term of service was up. He re-enlisted and received a $100 bonus and was now a Veteran Volunteer. He fought with his unit until September 29th, 1864 when, while out on maneuvers with his company, he just disappeared at Chapin Farms, Virginia, near Dutch Gap while a battle was raging. By the next day, October 30, he was deemed missing for sure and the records indicate that he was "Missing from picket lines near Newmarket Road - Oct 2nd 1864." "Nothing heard of him since."

It's only natural they'd have to entertain the thought he might have gone AWOL - he had just received his reenlistment bonus of $100 - but it turns out he was captured. He did not fare well at the hands of "the Rebels," as the reports call the enemy. He was initially at a prison camp at Richmond, Virginia on October 1st, but soon moved to the horrors that were the POW Camp at Salisbury, North Carolina.

The Salisbury facility, opened in October 1861, was originally intended as a place of incarceration for Confederate men who committed infractions. By December of the same year it's purpose was changed to holding captured Union troops. In the early years there were enough rations, shelter, water and sanitation for the imprisoned. But the captured kept on coming in increasing numbers such that by the fall of 1864, specifically on October 5th when my relative was likely moved in and 5,000 soldiers arrived from other facilities such as Richmond, things took a nasty turn. All shelters were full and over capacity and by the end of October the numbers of incarcerated had shockingly skyrocketed to about 10,000 in a facility designed to house about 2,000. As winter came, the men who were without shelter dug burrows to try and keep warm. Disease and starvation were everywhere. They were termed by the hospital staff as "outdoor patients."

Many died that winter and were buried in trenches without formal registration of their identities. Those poor souls just disappeared, unnamed. But James O'Farrell was not to be one of them. Fearing starvation he chose to enlist in the Confederate Army, particularly the 8th Confederate Infantry.

How did that work? I really don't understand. You fight for the Union, get captured, get treated brutally in prison, then are offered enlistment in the enemy's army as a way to save your life. Are you expected to then take up arms against the very men you fought along side of. I must be missing something or maybe my imagination is too limited by a life lived safe.

James was recaptured by the Union under the direction of General Stoneman. Maybe it was during Stoneman's raid on North Carolina in March of 1865. And here's where it gets confusing. The image below is of the MEMORANDUM FROM PRISONER OF WAR RECORDS. Maybe you can read some of it. In part it reads:
Enlisted in 8” CS. Inf. At Salisbury N.C. was recaptured by Genl Stoneman while
in arms against the U.S. Govt. at Salisbury N. C. he voluntarily made
known that he formerly belonged to the US. Army and claimed that
he deserted from Camp of Pris. of
war to escape starvation. Confined at Nashville Tenn. And was released
on taking the oath of allegiance July 5 / 65

The war was almost over for our James O'Farrell and on July 5, 1865 he took the Oat of Allegiance in a POW camp in Nashville. He returned to his original Union unit from Maryland on July 23, 1865 and mustered out on August 8. He was owed $290 for back pay and a bounty.

Where he went immediately from there is not known to us and it's not from lack of trying. He probably went back home because on 14 March 1867 he married a local girl in his home county of Morgan County, West Virginia. Her name was Miss Henrietta L. Michaels, called Hattie. Doesn't she sound sweet? I so wish we had a photo of the lovely couple.

For the 1880 census they are living in Flat Creek, Pettis County, Missouri and he's farming. They stay there, have four children, and farm until he dies on 12 March 1914 and is buried two days later in the Point Pleasant Cemetery, Green Ridge, Pettis County, Missouri. (Find A Grave Memorial # 19014002.) Hattie joined him on 29 May, 1927. (Find A Grave Memorial # 22158470.) He was 72 when he passed and she was 82 when she passed. I hope they had a good life together.


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-thomas-and-judah-farrell-dna_20.html

Stories Mom Told me: St Patrick and where the Farrells came from in Ireland

St Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland.

From Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

We hear time and time again the warning that we should not listen too hard to family stories and that our pursuit of authentic family history is best served by solid research based on documentable facts. What to do when all leads and avenues run dry while that family story lives on? The answer: follow the only lead you have and fully investigate that family story.

 

Mom's own mother, Emma Susan (Whetstone) Williams (1896-1956) told Mom that her own grandmother, Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919), said that they came from the place in Ireland where St. Patrick drove out the snakes. She was very clear about that. The place where St. Patrick drove out the snakes. Hmm. What to make of that?

 

Much has been written about St. Patrick and his life and times. Some could be fact and some could be fiction. The legend of the snakes might possibly fall under the fiction category... maybe. (Don't want to anger the saints!)

 

Of course the place to start is with the facts about the family. Thomas and Judah/Judith/Judy, his wife, were both born in Ireland, he about 1795 and she about 1815. They married about 1831 and their first child was born in Ireland in 1835, that being Mary Elizabeth, Mom's mother Emma's grandmother who told her where they came from.

 

They had a second child, Catherine (Farrell) Boxwell (1838-1910) in Ireland as well. By 1842 when they had their first sons, James and Thomas, they were in America and residing in Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland. Records seem to indicate that they immigrated in 1841 and that Thomas stated this on a naturalization record. I have not been lucky enough to see the original of this as it eludes me no matter where I turn. All I have is an index. Darn.

 

By the time of the 1850 US Census, the family is living in Morgan County, West Virginia (then Virginia), and Thomas is working as a farmer. Thomas died in 1851 leaving his wife with seven children.

 

But wait, let's get back to St. Patrick and the location of those snakes driven out. Where exactly did they all come from in Ireland? Mom thought that maybe one time she heard from a fellow Farrell researcher that they came from County Clare. I tracked this lady down and she doesn't remember that, but it's been many years ago she said, and she doesn't keep up with it all anymore. Maybe it was County Clare, but maybe not.

 

Now I have to say right here that I don't know where they came from in Ireland, not with proof certain, so I don't want you to be reading along thinking that this is one of those stories in which a lot of hard work paid off and the family story is proven or disproven. It's not like that at all. I'll probably be working on this for years and years, and I don't mind. I like the work.

 

I'm taking what I can from Grandma Emma's repeating of the story she heard from her own grandmother, that she came from the place in Ireland where St. Patrick drove out the snakes. I had searched a little around that topic a long time ago and come up empty. It was quite a while back and the internet wasn't what it is now. But the best recent clue came from TV and a Smithsonian Channel show, Sky View: The Emerald Isle. In it Croagh Patrick is identified as the very place that St. Patrick is said to have driven the snakes from Ireland. It's a beautiful spot overlooking Clew Bay in County Mayo. When watching the Sky View program I was reminded of the family story and ran to the computer to start searching all over again.

 

Were there any Farrells at all in County Mayo? Because family stories aside, if no Farrells lived there, it's no good at all. I figured that there should be some in Griffith's Valuation of 1856-57, that is if (big if) the family had ever resided there. Yes, there are Farrells all over the place. And the names Thomas and James appear often. That's encouraging.

 

What does this all mean now? Not a lot to go on. Just an interesting family story and a possible connection. I've just started looking. They were Catholics and that will help. If I'm lucky, I might find their marriage record and a baptism record for Mary and Catherine. It's going to be a long hard search with no guarantee of any results. And I don't mind a bit.

 

 

Mary Elizabeth (Farrell) House (1835-1919) who said they came from the place in Ireland where St. Patrick drove out the snakes, and her husband Samuel Albert House (1832-1917).

Her daughter, Catherine Elizabeth (House) Whetstone (1865-1946).

Mom and her mother, Emma, and grand daughter of Mary Elizabeth Farrell.

Photo from Aunt Betty's archive.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/01/stories-mom-told-me-st-patrick-and.html