New Year! 2018!

A lot of genealogy went on last year even though I didn't post about it. So here's a wrap-up just so we're all caught up.

Met a new to me cousin. Actually, met a bunch! I just love it when someone emails and says that they think we're related. That happens a lot, at least once a month. Then it's off to the races, exchanging info back and forth. It never takes but a couple of messages before we have our connection nailed down. Mom's cousin on her Whetstone side turned out to live in the same town so we met and exchanged documents an old photos too. That was terrific. Kelly cousins popped up too and we remembered that we played together as children. How about that? Eckhart and House cousins appeared out of no where! The House cousins even had a House Family Reunion and after receiving my invite I made sure that they knew about their new cousin who was adopted. He went to the reunion! A woman who held him as a baby sat and chatted with him!

So maybe Delilah wasn't a Porter after all? After an extensive DNA project handled beautifully by a guy who matches me, presumably on the Porter line, Delilah's parentage is even more in doubt. He and I were confident that she was a Porter and that perhaps her father was Samuel Porter. But then once the spreadsheet was filled in, I don't seem to match anyone else in the Porter group. Still scratching my head because Delilah's son's death certificate states that his mother's name was Porter. And, her son was names John Samuel, John being his father's name and leaving Samuel as presumably Delilah's father's name.

 

They say quite commonly that DNA doesn't lie but getting it to tell the full truth can be difficult. There's a truth to the DNA the Porter descendant and I share but it might be a while before we get at it.

 

X DNA won't lead me to Delilah's parents. In this blog post, you can see how the X chromosome is inherited. The Porter cousin (whom I match when I don't match any other Porters) tried to prove Delilah's parents by using the X chromosome but if you take a look at the charts at the link you'll notice that the father's fathers ancestors don't hand off the X in such a way that the 3rd great grandmother on the fathers father's side would give that X to the main person. Yeah, too bad. I don't have Delilah's X. Now if this were on Mom's side, no problem! Lot's of X chromosomes there.

 

Our Book of Life. I set out at the beginning of last year, no make that 2016 because 2017 is gone, to write up what I know about each of the ancestral lines. For Christmas 2016 both my brother and sister got Dad's side in about 250 pages. And then this year another 250 pages on Mom's side. Honestly, I could have written more but realizing the reader can only handle so much, I trimmed. The next step, should there be one, will be to add what was left out. That should be fun, actually!

 

Frostburg Mining Journal Indexing Project. The geographic center of my genealogical work on my own family is the Western Maryland mountain town of Frostburg. It's a coal mining town where the big coal boom was during the years that the Journal was published, 1871 to 1913. It's available online at the Maryland State Archive. It's great that it's finally online but there's no search feature, and not even an index. About a year ago I got so frustrated that I got the idea that I should make up an index. Yeah, so that's what's going on. I've index quite a bit for FamilySearch so I have a good idea of how this should go. I've done 2 and a half years so far and love doing it. Oh, sure, it's taking me longer than it might take others because I read it too!

 

Dad's father -John Lee Kelly- is standing center top, and his mother is center front.

Her grandmother was Delilah Porter.

 

 

The search continues! Good luck to you this coming year breaking down all of the brick walls!

 

 



 

Treasure Chest Thursday: The C&O Canal Workers

 

 

Was thinking about my Irish ancestors who came to America, all before the Great Famine. It's interesting because all of the families -- the Kellys, the O'Farrells, and the Corcorans -- came around the 1830s and landed first in Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland, of all places. Why?

 

There were three things of note going on in Western Maryland about that time that might draw these hard-workers in search of a new life: coal mining, the railroad, and the C&O Canal. I know something about the coal mines and miners as well as the railroad, because my Kelly people worked on both of those. But I was lacking in information about the C&O Canal. I went to one of my fav web sites for Western Maryland history, Western Maryland's Historical Library, or WHILBR, and you can see their page about the canal here and find a collection of maps and old photos too.

 

That was good for the facts of it but I sought more insight into the daily lives of those, especially the Irish, who worked on the canal. So I posted a question about where to turn on the Allegany County, Maryland, RootsWeb list. In a flash someone suggested these two books by James Rada Jr.: Canawlers, and Between Rail and River. And I'm glad they did.

 

Here's what the listing on Amazon.com has to say about the first book in the series, Canawlers:

 

Hugh Fitzgerald proudly calls himself a "canawler." He works on the C&O Canal transporting coal nearly 185 miles between Cumberland, Maryland and Georgetown. For nine months a year, he and his family live on their canal boat, working hard to get them through the lean winter months.

The year 1862 was a hard year to live on the canal, though. The Civil War was in full swing and the canal, which runs long the Potomac River, marked the border between the Union and Confederacy. To this point, the Confederacy has stayed south of the canal, but now the Confederate Army intends to go on the offensive and take the war into the north. Not only are the Fitzgeralds' lives endangered by the increased activity of warring army and raiders on the canal, but the Fitzgeralds' secret activity as a stop along the Underground Railroad only endanger their lives all the more.

Now you know this has got to be good! Both books are historical fiction so the history lesson goes down easy as the pages all but turn by themselves. I got what I was looking for on just about every page as a new detail of the hard life of those running canal boats were made all the more impossible by the Civil War. And this is a nice family whose story unwinds and I came to like them fast.

So what were my take away points from these two books that might guide further searching for my own wandering and mysterious Irish ancestors? And now that I have a deeper understanding of the canallers' life, what are the research questions based on these books?

1.) The dates are right for my Irish people coming in search for work on the C&O Canal. Now the question that pops to mind is, were they working on the Erie Canal before they came to Western Maryland? And if so, did they come in through Canada?

2.) Where are the records? Canal records are sparse. Good luck with that but sometimes records are hidden in plain sight so I'll keep looking. I did find some Kelly/Kelley people working in 1850s, and here's a link to the canal worker's document also on WHLBR. Look to the right of this image, below, to find the PDF files.


3.) Double-check the 1850 census for work records. That's late for canal builders but not those who made a living on the canal once it opened just about 1850 all the way to Cumberland. My John Kelly who came from Shannonbridge, Offlay (was Kings), Ireland, was listed simply as "laborer" in that census. Not much to go on. In the 1860 census John Kelly is listed as a carpenter while others on the page are listed specifically as miners or laborers. What can I make of that? Could he have been a carpenter in Cumberland building canal boats?

4.) Noticed a newspaper article on WHLBR dated 1846 that mentions that the work building the canal was halted due to lack of funds. My Irish ancestors, if they did come for work on building the canal, would have moved on to other work about this time. I'll be alert to that 1846 date in my tracking them down. Thanks, WHLBR.



Well, it's a start and now I know more about the lives of those who worked on the C&O Canal.

And then there's this: our Irish family has always been anti-slavery and for equal right in the extreme, as if it were personal or something. Now I think I have a clue as to why. The Irish who came here before the Civil War were escaping the type of "soft slavery" enforced by the British landholders who inflicted pain and punishment on the very people who once owned that same land. The family in both of Rada's books expresses this opinion and are a link on the Underground Railroad! There's my own ah-ha moment:)

Were my Irish ancestors canal workers after the canal opened?

 

All canal photos in public domain and come from WHLBR.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/06/treasure-chest-thursday-c-canal-workers.html

Remembering Summer Picnics

Ah, the summer picnic! Oh I know, it's early... not even Memorial Day... and here I am thinking about Summer picnics. Hey, it was a warm winter:)

All the food stuffs would be packed in coolers and boxes and off we'd go to a previously decided on location! The cousins would be there and we'd have fun at games or just sitting in the grass. Ever try to use a blade of grass between thumbs to make a whistle? Bet you could still do that!

Mothers and grandmothers busied themselves around food. Then they'd sit and "chat a spell". The men would get going right away at horseshoes or baseball. But eventually the cold drinks would come out and then they'd sit talking.

The food was greatly similar at every event. You could probably count on hot dogs for kids and burgers for adults. Baked beans or chili could go on the dogs if you wanted. Aunt Dot's pineapple upside-down cake. Someone always made "ambrosia" which was cherry jello cubes, whipped cream, coconut, and pineapple chunks. Mom often made coleslaw or potato salad or both. Some auntie was sure to make a devils food cake. Mom also made a really good German chocolate cake too. Mom always was and still is a great cook!

Lazy afternoons turned into evening when the lightning bug or fire flies came out. If you were gentle you could catch them and put them in a jar with holes punched in the lid. They'd stay like that until you got home and then you could open the jar and see them fly out into your own yard.

Sometimes I'd fall asleep on the way home. Life was good. Did we even know it?

Today's photo from my archive:

Kelly family picnic in a backyard. Date unknown.

Congregational Church, Ladie's Aid Society picnic, about 1930s.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/remembering-summer-picnics.html

FOUND: Second Cousin Debby!

A while back I posted about small genealogy groups and how they work to make connections between lost relatives. Here's a link to that post:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/09/thank-goodness-for-small-genealogy.html

Finally I just took a note card and used snail mail to see if I could make contact with the people mentioned in the Genealogical Society of Allegheny County's newsletter Old Pike Post. Well guess what? Received an email back! As best I can figure using the Steve Mores One Step web site's Relationship Calculator (and I need to say that figuring relationships is a mystery yet to be unraveled to this newbie so I'm happy to have Steve's widgit) Debby is my second cousin and a blood relative! WOW!

This is the very first time that I'm had the great pleasure of using genealogy work to find an actual living relative... most are of the other kind with a tombstone and all;) And this is very cool!!!

By the way, my Dad's Uncle Gene is Debby's Grandfather. Am hoping that we'll spend lots of time comparing charts and family stories.  Oooh, maybe she has pictures to share... my favorite thing!!!

First Stop: Cousin Cynthia and a Suprise Guest!

This is the story, in parts, of my recent visit back east to see Mom and the family. It's personal but I do want to share it with you because it's really special and time spent with family is precious. I hope that you have such good times too sharing family and family history.

The first stop was to see Cousin Cynthia in Hagerstown, Maryland. It was raining but the rolling hills and farm land made a beautiful fall picture as we drove along. When we arrived, gracious hostess that she is, much to our surprise waiting for us was a beautiful repast... but even more surprising... her brother Cousin Mike and his wife were there!!

Cousin Mike and I hadn't seen each other in a boatload of years, so there was plenty of catching up to do. It was really good to see his wife too, who is also working on genealogy. When we were kids, maybe 4 or 5 years old, Mike went to the hospital and upon his return I said, "Oh, Mickey, my Mickey" and threw my arms around him. We were close to the same age but the years passed and we had separate lives. You know how it goes. Now he has two children and four grands. Lucky guy!

Cousin Mike and I on the left... and some neighbor kid there on the right.

The visit ran late because we talked up a storm and then got to watch a video of Cynthia and her husband's trip to Ireland just last summer. It was wonderful and covered the section of their trip to Clonmacnoise, our Kelly clan Irish home place, which is story in itself for another post.

Now here's a side note: Mom made a pot roast for us the day I arrived - and you haven't LIVED until you've tasted my Mom's pot roast and all the trimmings - but we got delayed at Cousin Cynthias. There was some confusion in communications and, well there you have it. Long story short, we got to Mom's late but had the pot roast the next day. And if pot roast can be even better the next day, it sure was!! Well worth the 5 hour flight and 3 hour drive in the rain just for that pot roast:) You shoulda been there!!

The next morning Mom and I got to work on genealogy and steam was coming out the door of her work room:) We got ourselves organized over coffee and then to work. I made copies of the last four family photo albums while she surfed the internet looking at details on the Kobel Indian Massacre. That will be the subject of my next post. Warning: it's gross!

"Officially Irish"... I love it!

Was checking out the genealogy blogs that I follow this morning and found a post to "Help: The Faerie Folk Hid My Ancestors" that mentions an official Irish Heritage Certificate to be issued starting later this month to those who can prove Irish ancestry... and that otta be, what, about 9 out of 10 people on planet Earth?! I immediately thought, oh so cool. I want one!

It seems to be a flat out money making scheme - at 40 Euros a pop, just think of the profit - but it's all good fun too because you don't really get anything but a piece of paper to trot out on Saint Patrick's Day and spill some green beer on. But hey, sign me up: I'm Irish!

Here's the link to Deborah Large Fox's blog and links to the official stuff.

http://irishfamilyresearch.blogspot.com/2011/09/buzz-this-week-irish-heritage.html

Thank Goodness for Small Genealogy Groups!

At Mom's urging, I joined the Genealogical Society of Allegheny County Maryland and now - for my $12 a year membership - receive their newsletter, by snail mail mind you, The Old Pike Post. It's a labor of love, you can tell right away, and I'm so glad to have it. The Post usually starts off with a longish story from a member about their search for ancestors. Even though mine haven't been included just yet, it's a fascinating read! How the mystery of tangled family names gets solved in each issue is a whirlwind story:)

Mom received her issue before I did and commented that the listing at the back of the latest issue included a couple looking for a group of my ancestors: Eckhart, Gormer, Kelly, and Natolly. I grabbed up my issue and the highlighter, noting their email address. Mom tried it and it bounced. DRAT! So she's off to mail them a note. She's good at stuff like that from back in the days when everything was done by snail mail. When she mentioned sending them a note I was, like, du'h....

So me, being an internet-based person you might say, got on the web browser trying to find the afore mentioned couple. No luck on that with google searches but then got the idea to try family trees on Ancestry. No luck with that ... ah, truth be told, didn't even get very far. And here's where FOCUS comes into play... I drifted off chasing Moses Porter instead. How did that happen??!! No focus.

But never mind and look at that... I lost focus just then writing this post. Started off saying thank goodness for small, labor-of-love, genealogy groups. And bringing it back that's where I'll leave it:)