Saturday, December 28, 2013

A Case for Syphilis? ...I hope not!

Syphilis - the bacteria, venereal disease you do not want to get if: a) you were born before penicillin; b) wanted or building a family; or c) do not have access to a sanitary environment or hygiene.  (Then again, even if you have penicillin, you still do not want this.)  Unfortunately for Eben William Osterndorff, he lived in a time with such conditions and may have had syphilis.  Since we do not have access to his remains nor a time machine, let us review the evidence.

The Father
The cause of death listed for Eben W. Osterndorff is paralysis with the date of death being 19 November 1891, aged 49 years, 10 months and 23 days.  Before the 20th (or even the 21st) Century, syphilis was rarely listed as a cause of death, usually due to the negative connotation associated with the disease and stigma to the family, but cannot be ruled out as a possible cause.  No other contributing causes are noted on the certificate of death.  Paralysis could have also resulted from botulism, multiple sclerosis, vitamin B12 deficiency, cervical spondylosis or motor neuron disease.  Without further historical medical records, oral or written family history, it is not possible to rule these others causes leading to paralysis either.  But what else do we know about the family?

For the majority of his adult life Eben was a coal dealer, a liquor dealer during the Civil War, a grocer and possibly a post master.  There have been no indications of poor health as would be noted on the US Federal Census (USFC): no blindness, deaf and dumbness, idiocy nor insanity.  There is also no notice of time being spent in a sanitarium or hospital but there is also no indication that he did not have a problem with alcohol, at least not one that was on public display.  Indeed, his life seems to be quite the opposite, being a member of a number of charity organizations and Episcopalian church groups.  His occupation allowed him to marry in his mid-twenties and almost immediately have two daughters, spaced two years apart.  In fact the coal and liquor businesses seem to do well enough to support three generations under one roof in a nice area of Manhattan just a stone's throw from Central Park. 

The Known Children
Unfortunately for us, Eben and his wife Margaret have their children in the early 1870s and the 1875 New York State Census for New York county is missing.  This means that when we catch up with Eben and his family in 1880, it is not possibly to ascertain whether they had more children who died young or were unable to have more children.  The only other option is to check if the baptismal records for the Episcopalian St. Michael's church still exist for the 1870s and whether they are accessible to the public, as this was the church in which Eben and Margaret married and where Eben had his funeral services.  Currently no record has been found, as of yet.  What we do know is that another daughter appears as a young adult with her unmarried sister in the 1900 USFC; the 1890 USFC being destroyed in a fire.  No New York State Census was taken in 1885, nor is there a microfilm copy of the 1892 OR the 1905 New York State Census for New York county, though there were taken originally.  The estimated year of birth for this third daughter is 1883, nearly 12 years after the second daughter!  If this third daughter is indeed a daughter of Eben and Margaret, why did they have more than a decade of hiatus between the daughters?  If we can rule out bad finances (see previous post on Eben W. Osterndorff), perhaps we can rule in a medical/biological cause.

The Mother
Let us consider Margaret Blohm Osterndorff, the mother, and her death.  Margaret's certificate of death reports that she died on 30 Jan 1898, at the age of 47 years, 11 months and 4 days, the chief cause being "asthenia - remittent malarial fever", with contributing cause being "malnutrition - extreme emaciation as result".  The fever is reported to have lasted 3-4 days and the asthenia to have lasted several weeks.  If Margaret had caught syphilis during her childbearing years, perhaps she passed it on through some of her pregnancies and survived when the infection went into its latent phase.  The latent phase may last up to decades and beyond the first years of this stage the illness is no longer transmissible, which means that healthy, non-infected children can be born.  Catching malaria may have prevented Margaret from progressing to the tertiary phase and possibly death, or maybe she was already in the final stage but the symptoms were not recorded when she contracted malaria.

Final resting place of Eben William Osterndorff,
Lot 14949, Green-Wood Cemetery.
Photo by Bob Collins,
published 31 Oct 2010 on FindAGrave.com
Possible Children
So here is an interesting bit!  Both certificates of death for Eben and Margaret list their final resting place as Green-Wood Cemetary, Brooklyn, NY.  This cemetery is large enough that one can perform an online burial search using variations of the surname: Ostendorff, Osterndorf, Osten, etc.  What we find with such a search is that Eben and his family are listed under Ostendorff, with family including Eben, Margaret, Emma, May/Mary, Eben's step-motherVeronica, his sister Dora and mother Maria (probably).  Thanks to the wonder of the internet and volunteer's with quirky interests, FindAGrave.com reports there are no headstones for the Osterndorffs buried in lot 14949, section 157.  What is important to note is that there are two unaccounted for Osterndorff women in this section: Maggie, buried 04 November 1875, and Henrietta, buried 26 July 1878.  Without headstones, it is not possible to immediately know how old any of these individuals were when they past; it remains to find the death certificates and/or orbituaries to determine more.  Could Maggie and Henrietta be syphilitic children born to Eben and Margaret?  Is the Dora listed in the burial list (buried 30 July 1883) actually Eben's sister or could she be a daughter with the same name?  Eben has been the only individual found with an obituary.

Conclusion

Given the evidence thus available, no resolution about the presence or absence of syphilis in Eben William Osterndorff's family can be made.  What has been found are more avenues of research to pursue and travel down.  A genealogical road map!  Then again, if The Doctor was available, we wouldn't have this or any other genealogical problems, brick walls, quandaries, concerns, etc.

But what is your take?  Did Eben contract syphilis and pass it on to his family?  Are there avenues (or even back streets/alleys) of research I have not considered?  Ones that a person with limited monetary resources could get to?  Feel free to leave a comment or questions below!


Happy Hunting!

Sources:
The Doctor, Time Lord, version 10

Green-Wood Cemetery Services.

Hall LA. ‘The Great Scourge’: Syphilis as a medical problem and moral metaphor, 1880-1916. Paper presented at the Courtaud Institute Symposium, 23 May 1998.


Mandal A. Syphilis Symptoms.


Osterndorff EW. State of New York Certificate of Death. 1891.


Osterndorff MB. State of New York Certificate of Death. 1898.


Paralysis Cause Possibilities


Rudy's List of Archaic Medical Terms

US Federal Census 1870-1880, 1900, All Manhattan

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Eben W. Osterndorff

'Building the American Dream' might be an apt subtitle for Eben William Osterndorff.

...But we should really begin at the beginning.  Eben began his life on 27 January 1842 in Hanover, Niedersachsen, Germany as the son of a peasant.  Little is known about Eben's early life in Germany except that he was originally called Eibehenni and was last living in Dorum when he left his home land at the age of 10 with his family in the late summer of 1853.  The sea voyage would carry his father H.W., 42, his mother Maria, 37, sister Friderica, 15, and sister Maria Dorthea, 6, across the Atlantic for six weeks on the 'Itzstein and Welker', departing from Bremen on ~17 July 1853 and arriving in New York's first immigration area - Castle Garden - on 30 August 1853.  If there were more individuals in the family, they either did not survive the journey or stayed behind; neither case has any substantial support/evidence.


Photo from CastleGarden.org
Roughly the next ten years are a bit obscured but it is enough time for Eben to grow into a young man, learn some English and a bit of business in the area of 110th St and Broadway.  Eben will remain in a ten block area surrounding this location for the majority of his life in New York.  The amount of formal education Eben or any of his siblings receive is unknown, as is whether the Osterndorff family met with any close relations upon their arrival.

Here is a view of Broadway just as Eben was probably getting his feet wet in the business world.
Stereoscopic view of Broadway, New York City, c 1860. Photographer: E H Anthony
(c) National Media Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
By 1862 Eibehenni has changed his name to Eben William, usually abbreviating it E.W., and appears in the tax records from 1862-1866 as a retail liquor dealer in Manhattan, New York.  By the end of 1866 Eben's business income equals $500.00 with a $25.00 tax and he had entered his application for citizenship to the Common Pleas Court of New York county.  There is some question as to whether this extra money was enough to temporarily establish himself elsewhere as the Post Master General of the new Bloomingdale (Essex county, New York) post office the following year.  What is strange about this is that the subsequent year, 1868, a 26 year old Eben marries an 18 year old Margaret Blohm on 02 June in St. Michael's Church (99th St and Amsterdam Ave, Manhattan, New York), an Episcopal Church that has been in continual service since 1807 and is located near his same place of residence he has maintained since 1862.  (Broadway being one street west of Amsterdam Ave and 99th - 110th St in the area currently referred to as the Upper West Side!)  But the question as to why he was in Bloomingdale, if indeed it is Eben Osterndorff, remains a mystery.

Their first daughter, Ida Margaret, is born in February 1869 and surrounded by extended family in her first year of life.  Indeed the 1870 US Federal Census (USFC) shows that Eben resides with his burgeoning family in Manhattan with his parents Henry and Mary, and much younger brother Harry.  Given that Harry is nearly 20 years Eben's junior, it is quite possible that Eben's mother Maria died young (possibly at 48 years old in 1864) and his father remarried a woman named Veronica Mary Schmults, as noted in Eben's marriage (and death) certificate.  Puzzling out this bit of history will have to remain until another post.

The Americanized Osterndorff family follow up this first daughter with a second in September 1871 to the name of Emma Mary.  Due to unavailability of state census records for New York county, the last time the Osterndorff family is found together in the records is the 1880 USFC.  At this time the patriarch of the family, Henry, has passed away and there are no more recorded children for Eben and Margaret.  Perhaps they did have other children who died young or were temporarily unable to have children.  Again due to lack of preserved records for the county of New York, the Osterndorff children are not encountered again until the 1900 USFC, when a new child enters the picture.  A one May E Osterndorff was said to have been born in Aug 1883, making for a 12 year gap between her and her sister Emma.  There is a small hint that there may have been two more daughters, if not perhaps more pregnancies.  Speculations as to possible cause(s) for the possible lack children in the intervening decade will be expounded upon in the ensuing post.  Having a majority of female children may not have come as a surprise to Eben's wife Margaret, though, as she was one of five daughters!


The church as it would have appeared in Eben's life.
In the decade leading up to Eben's death, 1880-1891, the city directories indicate that Eben hardly moved, remained in the coal business and even got his brother Henry into the deal for a while.  His life seemed also to be filled with at least four charity service works, not limited to the Charity Council No. 878, A.L. of H., Banner Council No. 48 and O.C.F. all of which seem to deal with social reform and support of poor families.

Sadly Eben William Osterndorff's ends at the rather young age of 49 years, 10 months and 23 days, with the primary cause of death being paralysis on the 19 November 1891 at 5 PM.  Funeral services were held at St. Michael's Church, with members of his charities groups invited to attend.  His burial was then received in Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, New York) on 22 November 1891, in the same lot and section number as some of his relations.

Note: Any comments, questions or points of error are welcome in the space provided below.

Sources:
Green-Wood Cemetery Services

Osterndorff EW. Certificate of Death. State of New York. 20 November 1891.

Osterndorff EW. Obituary. New York Herald. Sunday, 22 November 1891. Issue 326, pp. 24.

Osterndorff EW. Post Master. New York Herald-Tribune. 23 July 1867.

St.Michael's Church photos and building information at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com

Trow's New York City Directory. 1883-1903.

US Federal Census 1870-1880, 1900. All Manhattan.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Coming Soon!

Most genealogical research rarely progresses linearly.  Often times one has to work on side branches and a few known generations up the tree in order to better understand the generations closest to one's self.  And then some times you just can't wait to share some stories.  So if the next set of biographies/family history sketches seem a little out of place or think you have missed a generation's story, it's not you, I just have not written them yet.  I will try to link the posts with the corresponding family tabs and mini-profile.

Oh and if anyone has a preference on the font being used, one more readable online than the other, please let me know.  This type face is called "Georgia", the other is "Arial".  And to those that might be grammar nerds, putting the punctuation outside the quotes is a force of habit from studying Russian and I doubt it is going to change now.

In the mean time, enjoy this pretty picture of my favorite yarn: Patons Bamboo Silk in "Sapphire"


Monday, December 23, 2013

Moved to the Sunny Side!

The delay in posting has been the result of moving apartments and out of storage, not from lack of interest.  It has been the third apartment this YEAR and fourth movement of my stuff, as I finally got everything out of storage.  (I am exhausted just thinking about it.)  So my holiday will consist of doing nothing which requires extensive physical excursion.

This holiday season don't forget to date your photographs or ask those who might know before they pass.  Here is one holiday dinner party from the archives.

Holahan siblings, spouses and friends.


Monday, October 28, 2013

Irish Place Names

Okay, so for those who were a bit confused by the various descriptions of Irish land boundaries, here is my brief write up and referrals for extending information on the topic, should you have an interest to learn more.

Provinces
Ireland has four provincial boundaries: Ulster to the north, Leinster to the east, Munster to the southwest and Connaught to the west.  The provinces date back to before the 11th century, before the Normans invaded Ireland, when the land was governed by kingship, clans and wars (Duffy 1999; Ouimette 2005).  The four major clans that correspond to the provinces are O'Niell (Ulster), MacMurrough (Leinster), O'Brien (Munster) and O'Connor (Connaught) (Ouimette 2005: 23).

Counties
Irish counties can be thought of as equivalent to a state in the United States (Ouimette 2005: 23), though they took nearly twice as long to create them all and are based upon prominent family lines.  The counties within each province are as follows:
Ulster - Donegal, Derry (Londonderry), Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Armagh, Cavan.
Leinster - Longford, Westmeath, Meath, Louth, Dublin, Kildare, Offaly (Kings), Leix (Queens), Wicklow, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny.
Munster - Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Kerry, Cork, Waterford.
Connaught - Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Galway.

For a better view of Irish maps and more, check out this website.
Note: Northern Ireland consists of Ulster province minus county Donegal.

Ireland is also divided up into Dioceses, Parishes (civil, Church of Ireland, Catholic), Baronies, Poor Law Union areas, Electoral Division and Townland (Ouilette 2005).  These will become more important when the research can continue in Ireland.  Rather than bore you (and to get back to my other projects), I shall leave these further descriptions until I encounter them in the records.

References
Duffy, Sean. Part I: Origins in Atlas of Irish History, ed. Sean Duffy. 1999. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.
Gardener, David; Harland, Derek and Frank Smith. Genealogical Atlas of Ireland. 1964. Desert Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. Ouimette, David S. Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide. 2005. Ancestry, Provo, Utah.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

What's In a Name? ...McCue Tree Edition

Surnames
McCue
Variations found in the records: None at present but could include McHugh
As one might suspect, Mc is a diminutive of Mac, Gaelic for "son of" with Hugh being derived from Aodha or Aoidhe, from the very popular personal name Aodh, meaning 'fire'. Both variations of the name can be seen in Irish and Scottish genealogies, with the Irish side believed to have originated in Ulster province.  Since the McCue family tree of the deceased only extend back three generations and has yet to cross the pond, it is not possible to comment on variations of the spelling but let's see what we can find out about the distribution.  According to Ancestry.com surname statistics, the majority of McCues came from Ireland, settled in New York and Pennsylvania and were laborers.   According to the Irish Times, McCues were primarily found in counties Leitrim, Galway and Donegal based on Primary Valuation property survey of 1847-1864.
McEvoy
Variations found in the records: None at present but could include MacAvoy
"MacEvoy (or MacAvoy) is the phonetic anglicisation of Mac Fhiodhbhuidhe, possibly from the Irish fiodhbhadhach, 'man of the woods'.  In the north of the country, MacEvoy was used as an erroneous equivalent of MacGiolla Bhuidhe, 'son of the fair-haired youth'." (Site reference) Unfortunately this researcher is unsure if the McEvoys in this line were Irish, Scots-Irish or Scots.  It has been suggested that the McEvoys settled in county Kerry, located on the southwest coast of Ireland just north of county Cork. 
Holahan
Variations found in the records: Hollowan, Hollihan, Hollahan
According to the Dictionary of American Family Names (Oxford University Press, 2003), Houlihan is the "anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUallacháin ‘descendant of Uallachán’, a personal name from a diminutive of úallach ‘proud’, ‘arrogant’."  The Houlihan name originates from the Munster province, just west of Leinster province, the latter of which contains county Kilkenny.  The Holahans (or Hoolahans) of Kilkenny have been traced "back to James Holahan, who was born in 1694, and died in 1759" (O'Hart 1892: 486).  Sadly, I have yet to link the American Holahans to the individuals listed in this pedigree; need more US documentation before crossing the pond.  The Irish Times notes that the spelling of Holahan as such is quite rare and is primarily seen in counties Dublin and Cavan; the most common spellings are Holohan and Hoolahan.
O'Donnell
Variations found in the records: None at present
"O'Donnell comes from the Irish O Domhnaill, 'descendant of Domhnall', the name Donald meaning 'world-mighty', who came to reside in county Donegal in the northwest and counties Clare and Galway on the west coast, south of county Mayo. (Site reference)  Like the McEvoys, the specific origin of the O'Donnells in this line is unknown at this time.  As of 1847-1864 Primary Valuation property survey (Irish Times), the name O'Donnell was quite numerous in the counties Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Tipperary.
Osterndorff
Variations found in the records: Osterndorm, Osborn, Ostendorf
If you have not guessed already, Osterndorff is the combination of two German words, ostern meaning Easter and dorf meaning village, whilst osten would be 'east'.  So the surname is either 'Easter village' or 'east village', and if some of the family history notes are to be believed, the surname had a "von" in front of it, thereby making the meaning "from the Easter village" or "from the east village."  Osterndorf is also a city in the district of Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony, Germany.  Lower Saxony is a state in the northwest of Germany, with its northern border the North Sea and whose capital is Hanover, a location associated with this line of the Osterndorffs.  It should be noted that this is the Germany of the early and mid-1800s and not the Germany of the 20th Century.
Blohm
Variations found in the records: Bluhm, Bloom
The Dictionary of American Family Names (Oxford University Press, 2003) notes that the German meaning for Blohm (also Blöhm) comes from Middle Low German blome ‘flower’ but that there is also a Swedish variant Blom and a Jewish (Ashkenazic/Yiddish) version Blum, both with the same meaning as the German.  At the current moment of this research, the Blohms can be traced back to Hanover, Germany of the early 1800s and are of the Lutheran faith. No link has been found (yet?) to either the Swedish or Jewish versions.

The two surnames not described here are Schmults and Tonns; this is due to the lack of information confirming these matrilineal surnames.  When more information becomes available, the names will be included.

References
Dictionary of American Family Names. 2003. Oxford University Press.
Gardener, David; Harland, Derek and Frank Smith. Genealogical Atlas of Ireland. 1964. Desert Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. 
O'Hart, John. Irish Pedigrees. 1892. Vol 1
O Se, Diarmuid and Joseph Shelis. Teach Yourself Irish. 2003. Contemporary Books, Chicago.
Robertson, Boyd and Iain Taylor. Teach Yourself Gaelic. 1993. NTC Publishing Group, Chicago.


Monday, October 21, 2013

If you haven't noticed, the McCues have take up nearly all the posts. This is due to the fact that there are 159 people I can report on, compared to the 1055 people in the Campbell tree.  But for those of you who cannot wait and don't have the money to pay for a subscription, I have added the gedcom for both family trees to FamilySearch.org.  These trees have the resources I added on Ancestry but you cannot access those records without a subscription.  One of the great parts about FamilySearch is the fact that this website has more local/state level records that are not available on Ancestry.  With any luck, I should have some interesting tidbits to share soon.

Want to know something specific?  Wish I would get to a particular person already?  Shoot me an email or leave a comment, and I will try to address it as soon as possible.

Until next time...happy hunting!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

New Thoughts on Teaghlagh Holahan Part II Photos

In organizing my ancestry notebooks, I noticed that John Aloysius McCue's WWI draft registration was dated for 1918.  Looking into MapQuest indicated that the address listed for John -  301 Central Ave, Leonia, Bergen, New Jersey - no longer exists.  Perhaps the street has been renamed if the city is correct or the boundaries of the city have been redrawn within the last 95 years, either way, finding a modern location for this house is difficult.


Another interesting point about these pictures is the fact that only Marguerite Holahan is pictured with her McCue cousins and yet she had two older sisters close in age, amongst seven living siblings at the time.  If more of the Holahan children visited with the McCue children, why were they not all photographed together?  It could be the lack of financial resources, health of the children, connection between eldest and youngest sibling, or any other number of reasons.
If you look closely, it would appear that
Helen's toy is a plush toy dog.






Also, where was Eleanor Holahan McCue, who took the photos and what kind of camera was used since these are not portrait studio photos?
...Some of these questions may never be answerable.

These images will be contrasted in the next post on the paternal McCue cousins, the Hayes.

In this photograph, is the middle individual really Marguerite Holahan or is it Estelle Holahan? Their age difference is only two years, making Marguerite two years older and Estelle four years older than William McCue, seen on the right.  So the question then becomes, how much older does the tallest female in this photograph appear in comparison to the male?

I leave it to the viewer. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

John A. McCue

For this post I consider the curious case of John Aloysius McCue.
Or perhaps the correct adjective would be erratic, as John McCue is a difficult man to pin down in the historical records outside of his marriage.  So let us start with what is known.

John A. McCue and Eleanor M. Holahan
As a man, he was described as being 5'9.5" (169.5 cm), of medium build (~138 lbs in 1942), with blue eyes, brown hair and of white ethnicity.  From the few remaining photographs, it would appear that John's hair was a dark brown with a bit of a wave, and his appearance was always well dressed in public.  John McCue's occupation was generally an electrician with employment as a telephone inspector.  The influences leading John McCue to the field of electrical engineering are as veiled as his life before marriage.

From his World War I and II draft registration records, it is fairly certain that John Aloysius McCue was born on 08 November 1884 in New York City.  If we can believe his marriage certificate, John's parents were Bernard McCue and Mary McEvoy; the difficulty in accepting these names has been this researcher's inability to find this family unit in the current (2013) searchable online records.  (Money always being tight, it is not possible to track down every possible record or to travel to those locations were records are not available online, at this time.)  Searching online for a John McCue with the afore mentioned birth date lead to a different family.  The 1900 US Federal Census (USFC) listed a John as being the son of John McCue and Ellen Sheridan with one brother and three sisters.  There is a possibility that John Aloysius McCue was sent to live with a relative and whomever provided the information did not know or say that John A. McCue was anything other than a direct relation to John and Ellen.  Given the near complete destruction of the 1890 USFC, it has not possible to trace the questionable family unit further with John A. McCue present in it.

Thus the first conclusive evidence of John Aloysius McCue appearing in official records is his marriage certificate.  Having just turned the tender age of 29, John A. McCue married a 21 year old Eleanor M. Holahan in the Irish Catholic Church St. Columba on 09 November 1913.  Their first child, William Robert McCue was born 6 months later, probably at Eleanor Holahan family's residence at 111 Morningside Ave, Manhattan!  Since William's birth certificate has not been located, it is unknown whether he was born premature or more likely the end result of a necessary marriage.  Two years later a second child, Helen E., would be born to the couple; again, somewhere in NYC.
John and Eleanor McCue on roof at
111 Morningside Ave

The burgeoning family could be found yet another two years later in September 1918 now residing in Leonia, Bergen, New Jersey.  From John's WWI draft registration card, it would appear that the move was for financial reasons as his place of work is in NYC with the Western Electrical Company as a telephone inspector.  Within two years after that, the McCue family was back living in Manhattan at 403 W 123rd St, an area very familiar to the Holahan family.  The McCues remained on this block for another five years, until 1925.  The last we see of this family together in the historical records is in 1930, where they have moved to 979 Summit Ave, Bronx, NY.

The last known record for John Aloysius McCue is his WWII draft registration card for 1942.  At this time John was residing at 49 West 39th St whilst working on Madison Ave.  What is most interesting about this record is the point of contact listed is not his wife Eleanor but Mrs. Joseph P. Hayes, whom I believe to be his sister.  The current theory for this separation is that Eleanor was away helping to raise their grandchildren in upstate New York, as she can be found living two doors down from their son William in the Batavia city directory.  The 1940 USFC has a John A. McCue rooming on Greenwich St and working as a maintenance man but it is not certain this is the correct person.

The years leading up to his presumed death in 1949 are obscure as John A. McCue's life before his marriage.  The exact date of his death, as well as his burial location, is unknown at the time of this writing.  It is not believed John A. McCue served in either World War I or II.

Sources:
United States Federal Census 1920 - 1940
New York State Census 1925
US World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942
US World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
Trow's General Directory of New York City

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Edmund P. Holahan

Perhaps the most interesting individual in the McCue family tree to date is Edmund Patrick Holahan.  Whilst no family history about this Holahan has been passed down, published sources indicate that his adult life and career would place him in positions of influence in the burgeoning gang rule in New York City in the first three decades of the 20th century.

The second child of John Holahan and Mary O'Donnell born in September 1859, in an area then known as Manhattanville, would be known for the first two decades of his life as Patrick.  As the son of an Irish Catholic immigrant laborer, Edmund Patrick probably received an education no better than 8th grade, which was more than his parents ever received.  Little else is known about his early life, indeed, even Edmund's obituary reveals nothing new.

Edmund's earliest recorded occupation of bookkeeper (age 20) would be the path that lead him through a number of New York City offices, beginning with City Marshal in 1892.  The duties of a NYC Marshal mostly involve enforcing civil court decisions and evictions.  Though they are not employed by the city, a marshal is appointed by the Mayor.  Rise to this position for Edmund may have been assisted by his election as president of the Massasoit Club (West 126th St) from 1890 - 1896, a known Tammany Club in Harlem.  By the late 1800s, some of the Tammany Club members have been well established as corrupt officials within the highest court positions to the lowliest rungs of postmaster, most of the corruption having to do with money laundering and political influence.  Mr. Holahan was no exception.  He is noted as aiding in the launch of political careers of William Copeland Dodge and George W. Simpson, known corrupt court officials ousted in the Seabury Inquiry.

Perhaps the most striking part about Edmund P. Holahan was the differing reports about his usefulness.  In his obituary, "Controller Charles W. Berry said of Mr. Holahan: 'He was one of the city's most capable and loyal employees.  His loss will be keenly felt in the department.'"  A more truthful account can be seen in this description:

"Henri W. Shields, a Negro lawyer who was a member both of the Board of Aldermen and the State Assembly and who acted as the lieutenant of Edmund P. Holahan, Democratic leader of the 21st A.D. in Upper Harlem, wrote of the latter job, 'I did most of Mr. Holahan's work.  If a constituent would get in trouble, Mr. Holahan would send me to see the Police Commissioner, the Commissioner of Docks, judges, etc., to plead for leniency.  He sent me to court to fight hundreds of rent cases, for which I was never paid a cent, and I was even sent to Syracuse to represent Mr. Holahan at a Democratic State Committee meeting.'" (Lewis: 64)

These actions are not surprising given Holahan's connections, though that does not make them forgivable.  Edmund's other civil services included deputy controller in charge of pensions for three years starting in 1923, followed by actuary auditor of the division of pensions of the finance department for NYC for four years beginning in 1926.  One can only imagine whether or not he actually did any of the work in these positions!

Edmund P. Holahan passed away at the age of 70 in 1930, leaving behind a wife, Carrie Hewlett, and 3 step children.  There is no evidence of any biological descendants for Edmund.

Sources:
Holahan EP. Obituary. New York Evening Post. 02 May 1930. pp. 7

Lewis ER. 1974. Black Politics in New York City. Twayne Publishers, Inc, New York. pp.64

Murtin F and M Viarengo. 2009. American Education in the Age of Mass Migration 1870-1930. IZA Discussion Paper No. 3964, Bonn, Germany. pp. 11-12

Thompson C and A Raymond. 1940. Gang Rule in New York: The Story of a Lawless Era. The Dial Press, New York. pp. 183-199

US Federal Census 1860 - 1880, 1910 - 1920 All Manhattan

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Why this will take FOREVER!!!

I have the "players" of the family tree only going back to the great-grandparents as this accounts for 30 direct ancestors and a slew of children, siblings and distant cousins.  Some of the branches will go back further than this and will be discussed at some point but for the mean time the better records are with the individuals born after the 18th century.

The number of individuals in a generation can be expressed by the formula:  2^n = x  where n is the generation number and x is the number of individuals in that generation.  The 2 is raised to the n power.  For example, the eighth generation has 128 individual which is 2^8 = 128.  For those that don't wish to hunt and dust off their calculator, here is a list of the size of generations 1-14:

Generation 1    :  2 Individuals
Generation 2    :  4 Individuals
Generation 3    :  8 Individuals
Generation 4    :  16 Individuals
Generation 5    :  32 Individuals
Generation 6    :  64 Individuals
Generation 7    :  128 Individuals
Generation 8    :  256 Individuals
Generation 9    :  512 Individuals
Generation 10  :  1024 Individuals
Generation 11  :  2048 Individuals
Generation 12  :  4096 Individuals
Generation 13  :  8152 Individuals
Generation 14  :  16384 Individuals

These generations obviously do not start with the self as the first generation.  The 15 generation pedigree charts do start with the self and can be come quite confusing if not properly labeled.  These folded paper charts can be obtained online or from a Latter Day Saints (aka LDS Mormon) store for about a dollar.  Fair warning though, the creases/folds will wear down over constant use but the charts are designed to fit into a three-ring binder.

16,000 people will indeed be too many to look after, let alone write a post about each one!  Thankfully, I won't have to.  For one, families in isolated and frontier areas tend to marry one other, creating duplicates in the genealogical record.  This is indeed what you are thinking: first and second cousins marrying one another, and this family tree is no exception.  Also on my side is the lack of historical records for poor farmers and immigrant labors, as well as common names making it difficult to pin down the correct individual in question.  The latter will become particularly true for the Irish ancestors on both sides of the trees though it does make for stunted branches.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Teaghlagh Holahan Part II Photos

Early 1920s; (left to right) Helen McCue, Marguerite Holahan, William McCue

(Left to right) John McCue with children William McCue and Helen McCue,
and their aunt Marguerite Holahan in 1918

(Left to right) John Aloysius McCue, William Robert McCue,
Helen McCue and Marguerite Holahan in 1918

Friday, September 13, 2013

Teaghlach Holahan Part II

Thomas Austin Holahan
Unlike his elder brothers Edmund and John, Thomas Austin Holahan did not take an office job, rather working as a laborer until he settled on the lifelong profession of plumber. His prospects were not all bad as he was married at age 25 to Ida Margaret Osterndorff (~22 years old) in 1890 and had had 4 living children by 1900, though this US Federal Census would have us believe that there had been six children born to the family. Within the first five years of their marriage, Thomas Holahan had well established himself as a plumber, enough so to set up shop as “Holahan and Clark”. By 1898, however, there is no more reference to this shop in Trowe’s (NY) City Directory.

Much like his father John Holahan, Thomas Holahan and family do not venture far from their dwellings about W 123rd to W 127th Street from 1890 to 1910. The seemingly constant labor as plumber pays off for Thomas as he was able to move the family to 111 Morningside Ave, Manhattan, NY by 1915 and remain there for the subsequent decade.  The paper trail for Thomas Holahan becomes scarce after 1930 and as with all stories, his ends in 1944 at the age of 79; no cause of death was given. His wife Ida would only survive another five years before her death in 1949. Both Thomas and Ida passed away in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY and were buried in St. Charles Cemetery. St. Charles is a Catholic cemetery and would suggest that the Holahans kept close to the Irish Catholic roots.

Stereotypical Irish Catholic in NYC
There were probably 12 children born to this Catholic family, two being missed between censuses, with the 10 known children being: Eleanor Margaret, John William, Ida, Thomas, Marie, William James, Edmund Thomas, Theresa Marie, Estelle May and Marguerite (as described by Estelle’s genealogy notes). Little Thomas did not survive beyond two years (d. 1901), whilst Marie died at the age of 8 in 1908. The causes for their deaths are not specifically known, though the Census Bureau notes that tuberculosis was the leading cause of death for the first decade of 1900, followed by cancer, diphtheria/croup, other forms of TB, Scarlet fever and typhoid. Whilst in 1908, the Center for Disease Control gives the ten leading causes of death as: typhoid fever, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and croup, tuberculosis, cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, and diarrhea and enteritis.

All of the eight surviving children received an 8th grade education with most pursuing a career working from the bottom up and doing so successfully. John William Holahan started as a messenger for a drug store after completing school, eventually becoming a licensed druggist and owning his own pharmacy, albeit working long hours (84 hours during the week of 21-24 March 1940). He married Margaret Creed and had 4 children: Mary Jane, John, Edwin and Carole. William James Holahan married a woman named Elizabeth Bailey, had at least three sons (Richard, Charles and William) and worked as an electrician in Chicago. Unfortunately William Holahan and family disappear from the written record after 1940, though it is believed that they emigrated to Australia.

Edmund Thomas is known to have a variety of occupations over the course of his life but seems to have settled as a bank clerk. He married Catherine Loughlin and had a daughter Mary later into their marriage. Theresa Marie Holahan’s occupation before her marriage to Frederick Barrett is unknown but it would appear that she became a housewife after the birth of Jean M. The second youngest child to Thomas and Ida Holahan, Estelle May, remained the great communicator to all the extended Holahan clan perhaps because she never married. Her occupation is unknown. Lastly, the youngest child, Marguerite, worked as a mail clerk for a magazine before her marriage to a man named Stanley Snyder.  They are known to have one child, a son named Robert.

Eleanor Margaret Holahan
The age difference between the eldest and youngest recorded children of Thomas and Ida Holahan, Eleanor and Marguerite, is 18 years. If Thomas was indeed married in 1890 and the census record is to be believed, then there was probably a child before Eleanor, making for 20 years of child birth and rearing by Ida Holahan! …Eleanor Margaret Holahan was a stenographer before she married John McCue in 1913 and had her first child, William Robert McCue in the following year and daughter Helen E McCue in 1916. By this timeline, aunt Marguerite was only 3 years older than nephew William and 5 years older than niece Helen. In the surviving McCue snapshots, Marguerite, William and Helen were often photographed together in their early years; images to appear in subsequent posts.


Here ends the rough overview of the Holahan family from Ireland to New York City, where four generations of Holahans would reside for over a hundred years, beginning in 1850, as it is currently known in 2013.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Teaghlach Holahan Part I

Background
Currently, the extent of the Holahan family can be traced back to the small village of Radestown, county Kilkenny, Leinster province, Ireland, from whence John Holahan left in 1840. Born approximately in 1830, John Holahan was raised in the era leading to the Great Potato Famine in 1854, a time when many subsequent seasons yielded small harvests of potatoes not already destroyed by a rampant fungus. Potatoes being a stable crop of Ireland, the poor were left to beg for food or starve, as the majority of the crops being produced in Ireland at this time, including wheat, were exported by the landlords in order to generate income for these lords. As of this writing, it is not known why John Holahan left Ireland or how many of his family traveled with him but he is believed to have arrived in New York City by 1840.

Being Irish in New York City during the mid-1800s was not something to be advertised outside of the Irish community, not unlike the stigmatization surrounding Chicano and Latin Americans at the end of the late-1900s. Both ethnicities have been stereotyped at one point in time as being of low class and low intellect, who plagued the country taking all the jobs. With unskilled Irish laborers increasing in numbers every day, and many more so after 1860, it made finding regular work - or any work - difficult. At this time, it was not uncommon for young men to travel around for work outside the family unit and perhaps this is what happened to John Holahan. A 20 year old Irish immigrant with a common name of John Holahan in New York City is difficult to distinguish in the 1850 US Federal Census from others with the same basic information, since it is not known if he was on his own or what his family in America looked like in the mid-1800s.

Setting Down Roots
John Holahan and family truly do not start making a documented appearance until the 1860 US Federal Census, at which time John is now 30 and has a family of his own: wife Mary O’Donnell and children Katherine (Kate/Katie), 3, and Patrick, 10 months. His profession has now been set in stone, literally; for the next 20+ years, John Holahan makes a living as a mason. The family would grow to a total of 7 children, one nearly every two years from 1857 to 1869, all born in New York City: K/Catherine A, Edmund Patrick, Mary, John J, Thomas Austin, Theresa/Teresa A and Martha. The girls were employed as seamstresses by late adolescences, whilst the boys had more ‘white-collar’ jobs, one working as a clerk in a law office (John J), the other a bookkeeper (Edmund) in June of 1880. These professions suggest that the American Holahan children had at least an elementary education but where and what type remains a mystery. The 1940 US Federal Census for Thomas Holahan notes the highest education level attained of eight grade; this could not be confirmed for the remaining children.

Although the 1890 US Federal Census was destroyed in a fire, it can be reasonable surmised from the remaining censuses that the Holahan family moved very little from 1870-1900, usually residing on or within a couple of blocks of West 129th St, New York City, with one or more small families of similar status.

Next Generation
The life of John Holahan ends in November 1890 as a result of unknown causes and without a known resting place, but it is known that he lived long enough to see his son Thomas marry that year before he died. Whether John was in attendance or even sober for the wedding is not known, as there are hints that John suffered from alcoholism (ref. Theresa’s passport application). Sadly, two of his children would also not live to see the year 1900: they have been narrowed down to Mary and John J. It is not known if illness, pestilence, brawl, childbirth or other unmentioned factors resulted in the death of two adult children nor where their final resting place may be.

The known surviving daughters (Catherine, Theresa and Martha) remained with their mother after their father’s death, supporting their mother as dressmakers. Theresa did well enough to become a purchaser for a department store by June of 1900 and would support her eldest and youngest sisters, Katherine/Catherine and Martha respectively, for the remainder of her life. All three sisters had moved to Youngstown City, Ohio by 1920 for Theresa’s job and remained there for another 10 years until their death.

Perhaps the most intriguing individual is Edmund Patrick, who deserves his own post. In sum, Edmund makes his mark in the world as a City Marshal of New York for nearly 25 years and may have been involved with gangsters in the earliest decades of the 20th century. What is known is that Edmund housed his mother Mary O’Donnell Holahan from 1895 – 1899; unfortunately Mary Holahan disappears from the digitized, free records after 1900.

To be continued...

Welcome!

I have started a new blog to let my family into my research over the past six years and to share the family history with the youngest members of the growing family who cannot wait 40 years for me to get my act together to publish something in book form!

Genealogy blogging is new for me, so please be kind but if you see any errors feel free to alert me.