Lost Uncles

Did you ever lose an uncle? In genealogy research I have encountered at least four "lost" uncles. One of them, Richard Corbett, was the subject of a previous post. (See Lost in the California Gold Rush entry)  But there are others: Andrew Bresnahan, Michael Farrell and brother John Farrell and William Corbett.  I found Richard Corbett through a website that carries an  index of the "Missing Friends" ads that were placed in the Boston Pilot by immigrants seeking their lost relatives. Patrick Corbett brother to Richard, placed two ads looking for him after he had gone to California. (This resource full text is available on Ancestry.com and the index on Missing Friends Ads Index Boston Pilot )

Andrew Bresnahan is a "double uncle". He occurs only in his marriage record in 1854 to my great grand aunt Mary Leary (sister to my great grandfather James Leary)  Perhaps my great grandfather met his future spouse, Andrew's sister Julia, at that wedding. They were married in 1863. Andrew and Mary had only one son Cornelius Andrew born about 1856. After that Andrew disappears - he is not in any US census including the 1860 one. His immigration record has not been found. He doesn't appear in a city directory for either Manchester, NH - where they were married or Fishkill where his son was born or Concord NH where his wife's family lived. Where did he go? The mystery deepens when a search (for entire US) of the 1860 census for a child named Cornelius Andrew Bresnahan with mother Mary and father Andrew does not come up with the family. If Andrew died before 1860 where are his wife and child? Both wife and child are alive in 1860 since they are in subsequent census records. The family only surfaces in the 1870 census when Cornelius is living with his aunt Julia and uncle James Leary in Concord, NH. His mother is working nearby as a maid and is a widow. There is no death record in NH that fits Andrew.

Michael and John Farrell are brothers to my great great grandmother Mary Agnes Farrell Shea. She and her sister Bridget Farrell Flanigan, placed a "Missing Friends" ad in the Boston Pilot in Sept 1855 looking for Michael  It says that their brother left Limerick in July on the ship Clare in 1850 which docked in  New York City. That ship's passenger list has a Michael 22 but also a John 13 accompanied by a Mary, age 40 who might be their oldest sister Margaret (Mary seems to be part of all the girls' names)  It is odd if this is true that the sisters did not name them also in their ad. It says that Michael is from Mungret about 2 miles from Limerick city. They indicate his mother Mary Catherine had received a letter 9 months ago from him from Ohio. (This would indicate she might have also immigrated and a Mary Farrell of right age died in 1854 in Burlington VT. )They thought he was in "Creamwell, Paulding Co Ohio" There is no town of that name but there is a Carryall in Paulding Co. There, however, the trail gets cold - four men named Michael appear in the Ohio marriage records between 1854 and 1864 and some of them can be tracked in the census but which one, if any,  is our Michael? There may be some Farrell cousins in Ohio but where is a question?

William Corbett is youngest child of several listed in the 1860 census living with Anastasia Corbett mother of Patrick, Richard and Dominic Corbett (my great grandfather) I can verify the identity of the girls Johannah and Ellen from baptism records in their hometown in Kilkenny but there is no William baptized in that town born around 1842. It is possible he is not the son of Anastasia. I do not know when the family immigrated but in the Massachusetts state census in 1855 only the two sons Patrick and Dominick are listed with their mother. Johanah, Ellen and William disappear from records after 1865 when these three appear with their mother under an incorrect last name of Champlin rather than Corbett. A number of William Corbett's live in Massachusetts but marriage records show none with a father and mother than match this family. What happened? Did William die in the Civil War? of disease? His sisters are harder to find since they probably married and none in Massachusetts records have parents that match this family. 

Immigrant women: Marguerite Ardion

As a family historian I am jealous of the TV shows that profile ancestors of celebrities and put their research resources to work to find out interesting facts. Recently I came across the YouTube video of "Do you Know Who You Are?" program profiling Tom Bergeron, TV host of Dancing with the Stars, and other shows.  As he and I are both French Canadian it was no surprise that we might have some ancestors in common. The show focused on one of his ancestors Marguerite Ardion who came from La Rochelle France to Quebec in 1663 as one of the first imported brides  known as "Filles du Roi". She arrived a widow with an infant son Laurent Baudet.  She was my 8th great grandmother. Her son Laurent was the grandfather of my 6th great grandmother Marie Baudet who appears in my Raymond family line.

Leaving La Rochelle -  above left looking back at town - exit from harbor through ancient towers last look for many of the Filles du Roi who left from here through this harbor

 The show available on YouTube Who Do You Think You Are? gave me some insight into her family background in the town of La Rochelle which I visited some years ago. The town was home to many of France's Protestant community in the late 16th and early 17th century. Her parents Pierre Ardion, a stone mason and his wife Suzanne Soret were fervent members of the Reformed church.  Perhaps 80% of the inhabitants of the town were Protestants. They married in the local Reformed church in 1623. They were survivors of a devastating military siege of La Rochelle by the Catholic King in 1627-1628. Cut off on all sides the city was starving to death when it surrendered in 1628. Of the 20,000 inhabitants before the siege only 5,000 survived. Marguerite was born in 1636 and baptized August of that year in the only remaining Protestant church in La Rochelle.

Her father Pierre died in 1641 when she was 5 and her mother Suzanne in 1650 when she was 14.  Without any family her choice to marry a Catholic may have been love or survival. She converted to Catholicism on Jan 1 1659 and on the 12th married her first husband Laurent Baudet in St. Nicholas Catholic church. They had one surviving son Laurent born in 1662. Marguerite was left a widow that same year.

In 1663  Louis XIII began recruiting women to immigrate to New France to offset the unequal ratio of men to women (5-10 times more men than women) in what came to be known as the Filles du Roi. From 1663-1673 about 400 women were recruited to come to New France, marry and begin families to populate the colony. About 40 are in my family tree. Who Do You Think You Are?Marguerite and her infant son arrived that year and she made a marriage contract with Jean Rabouin, another immigrant from her home town of La Rochelle. Jean agreed to raise her son and care for him until he was fifteen.

Jean and Marguerite were among the earliest settlers of the Ile d'Orleans across the river from Quebec City. She had 7 more children before her death in 1679 and it is from this line that Tom Bergeron's family descends. I am descended from her son Laurent Baudet from her first husband.

Working Class Men

Occupations often give a clue to what type of life and what talents our ancestors had. My own tree has a lot of laborers and farmers. But a few have interesting labels: scythe  sharpener, scholar, as well as occupations common years ago such as blacksmith and teamster. The immigrants from both sides of my family came from rural areas where farmer or farm hand was the most common occupation but with some exceptions they did not turn to farming in the US. James Leary (right) and his family lived as tenant farmers, as can be seen in the excerpt from tax records. His father worked 133 acres of farm land with two other tenants. They lived in what was a simple cottage based on the amount of tax charged for it. The property still has the remants of a stone cottage with one room, a loft and a couple of windows.

The railroad system in the US was expanding in the mid 19th century when most my Leary family arrived. John may have come over with his two eldest daughters as the Irish potato famine reached its peak in 1848. He is found in the 1850 census on a railroad building crew. His wages enabled him to return for the rest of the family, his wife Abbie, my great grandfather James and children Catherine and John Jr. in 1853. John and his son James, my great grandfather stayed with the railroad. James was a switchman all his life working well into his 70's. As a young immigrant to Concord NH in 1853 he had shaken the hand of President Franklin Pierce and he was on the voting rolls as soon as he was able to be naturalized. Another ancestor, Michael Shea, a tenant farmer in Ireland,  also worked for the railroad and it probably enabled him to buy a farm just outside St. Johnsbury, VT. But he lived on the farm only briefly and became a landlord, renting it for years. Was this the fulfillment of a dream?

Most of my French Canadian side stayed with farming or worked as blacksmiths, farriers (who shod horses) or teamsters (wagon drivers). On my Chicoine side I come from a long line of blacksmiths. My grandfather was a scythe sharpener who traveled from farm to farm making sure a farmer's tools were ready for harvest as well as farming his own land. 

My great grandfather Dominick Corbett was a skilled carpenter and owned his own tools. He may have gotten a start with  a set of ship building brothers, the Duanes, from his hometown of Turkstown, Co. Kilkenny who had a nearby shipyard on the Suir river. In the US he became a ship's carpenter and served in that capacity in the US Navy during the Civil War. After the war he worked on construction projects in his hometown such as the  local Athenaeum. Family tradition was that he worked on installing the frames of the many paintings displayed in this building.

Atheneaum built 1873

He worked at the Fairbanks scale factory where his carpentry skills were probably employed in producing made-to-order cases for some of the smaller and more delicate scales sold by this company. He also made furniture that found its way to the governor's mansion.

Some of my family who lived in Concord NH were employed making the "Concord Coaches" which were the main transportation out west before the advent of the railroad. Wells Fargo used the coaches to deliver passengers, mail and freight.

On the French Canadian side there were voyagers who traveled west in the fur trade. Some did a little exploring such as Nicholas Perrot. He served as an apprentice but quickly became an explorer, trader and interpreter. He was one of the first explorers to study the Potawatomi peoples and served as mediator between them and other tribal nations as well as the French. He wrote a book about his experiences.

The first generation born in the US tried to move up to more skilled occupations and my tree includes a yardmaster for the railroad, a barber, a tailor, cook, machinist and saloon keeper. Some of these owned their own businesses.

When the census makes no sense

Over the course of many years of researching lost ancestors I have found help in the U.S. census. I have also found problems and errors. Names are often not spelled correctly complicating an Internet search.  It would be rare not to find such anomalies - census takers often were dealing with immigrants with heavy accents and who themselves did not know how to read or write. Sometimes the information was given by a child or a neighbor who did not always have the correct information on ages or places of birth.  In the 1860 census my great grandfather Joseph Moreau dit Desrosiers appears as Joseph Morrow. For some reason in 1870 he drops Morrow and goes to his French nickname Desrosiers which leads to even more creative spellings: Derosia, Derusha, Dero and Deso.

Another example is my great-great grandmother Virginia Raymond Chicoine's census in 1880. I had found her in every census in US census from 1860 to her death after 1930 but the 1880 one had eluded me. I knew she lived in Highgate, Vermont and was twice widowed - with two children from her first marriage to Antoine Bouvier and four from her second to Paul Chicoine. She appears as Vergine Reymo with 6 children all with the surname Reymo. As a French woman, if she was the one speaking with the census taker she would have used her maiden name to identify herself - did the census taker assume that all the children shared the same last name? Or was the informant one of the older children who identified her mother this way and just gave the first names of her siblings? I certainly didn't search the indices for Raymond/Reymo. It is obvious that the census taker wrote down what he heard for the last name. This is true of many of both my French and Irish ancestors where Leary becomes Lary and Shea becomes Shay or even Chay.

Other errors may be deliberate. In researching a friend's family I discovered two sisters one older and one 2 years younger with ages correctly noted in all census until 1900 when the elder had gotten married. The newly weds were living with the younger single sister. The married sister had recorded her age as 2 years younger so her sister had to adjust her own birth date as to not give away her sister's fudged birth date. Since the husband would have been 2 years younger than his wife if the real date had been recorded I assume that was why she had adjusted her age.

Birth places can be in error - one granduncle who is listed as born in Vermont and by family tradition was born there was really born in Ireland A baptism record from Limerick proved that. In census where he probably gave the information he is listed as from Ireland but in others where his family probably were the informants it is Vermont. Why?

In a Kansas 1870 census a boarding school with about 1/2 Indian students and 1/2 white has the column denoting race with Ind crossed out. Why did the census taker or a later official do this? A native woman in the same town married to a white man is correctly identified in all the census but her children, originally designated as MB or mixed blood appear to get whiter with the passing decades. In another case the opposite is true. A man named George Washington, born in Virginia in 1841,  one of the few persons listed as "colored" in the census in Swanton, VT in 1870 appears with his white wife and white children. By 1880 his children have all become mulatto.

In the census for the 1860 census in Fall River, MA my Corbett ancestors and all Irish in the town appear in one index as from Idaho. Since that state was not yet in existence in 1860 it appears the census taker got creative and wrote Id for place of birth Ireland instead of the usual abbreviation IR or IRE.

It is very possible the census taker missed some people. Thanks to ancestry.com's census search I have been looking for a family who should be in the 1860 census. My great grandaunt Mary Leary Bresnahan and her child Cornelius Andrew Bresnahan appear in the 1870 and later census without her husband Andrew Bresnahan. They had married in 1854 in Manchester, NH and Cornelius was born in Fishville, near Concord NH in 1856.  I have searched  the US census nationwide for a child of that age and found none that match. Have even tried searching for child by just age and place of birth or first name only. Where was he? Where was his mother? What happened to his father? (disappeared? lost in war? civil war records doesn't turn up an Andrew that matches) He was probably deceased at least by 1872 when his wife remarried but no death record has yet to surface.  A mystery!

Motherlines: documenting the women in our family tree.

Genealogy tends to follow back the paternal lines - father and mother to their grandfathers with the grandmothers sometimes only there as "Mrs." or only with a first name without their maiden names. It is interesting to do a "motherline" on the women in the family and since we are coming up on Mother's day I thought I would do just that.

This "motherline" needs their maiden names (which of course is the last name of their father - not their mother). I don't have any families with hyphenated names or with women who kept their own names. However on my paternal grandmother's side I am blessed by being from a culture (French Canadian) where women were often referred to in records by their maiden names (most Canadian census, baptism, marriage and sometimes death records). On my maternal Irish side I have had to rely on very unreliable marriage, baptism and death records to find the elusive maiden name. Even a missing person newspaper ad provided one name. Occasionally in searching census records a researcher can find a relative living with the family who reveals the woman's maiden name especially if the census notes the relationship to the head of house: in-laws, siblings, nephew or nieces, etc.

Mary Margaret Leary at the Lakes of Killarney near where her paternal grandparents lived.

Here are my "motherlines" beginning with my maternal grandmother Kathryn Grace Corbett mother of my mother Mary Margaret Leary.(1907-1994)

• Kathryn Grace Corbett (1873-1860) daughter of Mary Bridget Shea 
• Mary Bridget Shea   (1844-1924) daughter of Mary Agnes Farrell
• Mary Agnes Farrell (1818-1886) daughter of Catherine Supple 
• Catherine Supple (ca.1790-ca.1850) where the line ends somewhere in Limerick Co. Ireland  Her father's name is of Norman origin and found in Limerick from the 13th century. Her mother's name is unknown. Her name is from baptism records of siblings of her daughter Mary Agnes. 

Mary Agnes Farrell and Mary Bridget Shea came to St. Johnsbury, Vermont from Limerick. Some records indicate that Catherine Supple might have immigrated with her son John Farrell to Ohio.

The maiden names are retreived from baptism, some marriage and death records. A missing persons' ad published in the Boston Pilot identified Mary Agnes Farrell's sister Bridget who lived in the same town and made finding her baptism record in Ireland easier. Her mother's maiden name was on the record.

Here is the "motherline" of my paternal grandmother Ida Emma Desrosiers. (on right)

• Ida Emma Desrosiers (Moreau dite Desrosiers) (1873-1924) daughter of Adelaide Raymond (dite Toulouse) 
• Adelaide Raymond (1852-1915) daughter of Salome Dupuis
• Salome Dupuis (1822-1907)  daughter of Marie Montminy 
• Marie Montminy (Montmesnil) (1788-1827) daughter of Francoise Remillard
• Francoise Remillard (1756-1809) daughter of Clothilde Denis (dite LaPierre)
• Clothilde Denis (1740-about 1760) daughter of Marie Jeanne Clement (dite LaBonte)
• Marie Jeanne Clement (1704-1758) daughter of Marie Jeanne Morisset
• Marie Jeanne Morisset (1683-1756) daughter of Jeanne Choret(te)
• Jeanne Choret (1652-1718) daughter of Sebastiene Veillion
• Sebastiene Veillion (1626-1698) ,  daughter of Bernarde Venet
• Bernarde Venet (1599-1657) in Verdille, France where the line ends and whose mother's name is unknown Her name is from her daughter's marriage record in 1647.

Salome Dupuis immigrated to Highgate Vermont Quebec  around 1850 from St. Valentin, Quebec. 

Sebastiene Veillion born in Verdille, Vienne, France immigrated to Beauport Quebec via LaRochelle France where she married in 1647.

The maiden names of all these women come from marriage records as well as baptism records where they are carefully noted. For an explanation of dit names google my blog on that topic.

Millyard Immigrants

Amoskeag mill workers apartments - mill in distance

Throughout New England, one industry attracted immigrants during the 19th century - the mills. Swift flowing water allowed industrialists to construct textile mills in many small towns. Originally these mills attracted  New England farm girls, most of whom were Anglo-Saxon Protestants. However, the influx of Irish and later French Canadian immigrants provided a steady flow of cheap labor for these towns Often whole families including children would be employed in the mills. Most of those workers were Catholics and some spoke French or Irish.

In Manchester NH, many of the mill buildings still stand and an excellent Millyard Museum showcases the many ethnic groups that worked there before and after the Civil War.  see http://www.manchesterhistoric.org/millyard-museum 

From my own family history on my mother's side, her Bresnahan and Leary families were connected with the Manchester mills. Her great grandmother Margaret Fleming Bresnahan b. in 1798 appears there in mid-century.  Her son Andrew and daughters Julia and Honora immigrated with her but her husband Cornelius may have died in Ireland. She appears in the Manchester city directory in the 1850's but not in the 1850 census.

Whether she worked in the mill is not clear but by 1860 census she is listed with her two daughters: Julia , 20 (my great grandmother) and Honora, 16 both spinners as well as Patrick, 17 and Margaret, 15  possibly cousins and Honora Dillon, 19 relationship unknown. All were working in the mill. Well into the 20th-century children were an important part of mill labor force.

Mill children 1909 In the early 1850's Andrew Bresnahan met Mary Leary. Mary may have immigrated around 1848 with her sister Hannah and their father John. A Mary Leary (Lary) of the right age appears in the 1850 census in Manchester, a millworker. Andrew and Mary married in 1854 in St. Ann's parish. Mary was the elder sister of James Leary, my mother's grandfather, who would later marry Andrew's sister Julia. Did Andrew also work in the mills? Some sources say that before the Civil War the mill employees were all female. However, since the mills were also producing steam engines right before the war and converted some sections to making munitions during the Civil War so it is possible he worked there. What is puzzling is his disappearance - neither he, his wife Mary or their young son Cornelius appear in the 1860 census anywhere in the US. By 1870, when Mary is a widow and she and her son are in the census but not Andrew .   Mill workers about 1900

Bands of Brothers: Civil War Siblings

My paternal  great grandmother Virginia's life was marked by the Civil War. Her future 1st husband, a young blacksmith named Antoine Bouvier   would serve early in the conflict. He enlisted at age 19, May 2 1861 with his two brothers Peter and Joseph, in Company A of the 1st Vermont Infantry. He participated in the battle of Big Bethel Church , Va on June 10 1861. This battle was one of the earliest of the war and received wide press coverage. He was mustered out August 15 of that year and returned home to Vermont and his sweetheart Virginia. 

Did his example or stories of the Battle of Big Bethel church spur one of Virginia's brothers Israel to sign up in September of that year? He joined the 5th Vermont Infantry in nearby St. Albans, VT. in September 1861. They were stationed in and about Washington until the spring of 1862 when Israel would see action in several major battles Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg and was wounded twice in the battle of Petersburg. He saw action in Petersburg, Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania and Wilderness. A full list of all the action he would have seen is found in Page of the descendants of the 5th Infantry

The 2nd Vermont Volunteer Infantry at Camp Griffin near Washington DC(Library of Congress)

Were his brothers Marcel and Tuffield* inspired by his letters, newspaper reports or impelled by patriotism or  the draft to   enlist in the conflict in late 1863 and 1864?  The Civil War was the first in which the US instituted a draft. As the war dragged on the government began to draft able bodied men who had not volunteered. This led to the draft riots in NY but evidently was accepted by the Vermonters. Those drafted could pay a substitute to take their place and I wonder if the bounty would have been attractive especially to Marcel with a growing family. Whatever the reason they both enlisted in Dec 1863 and Feb 1864 participating in action in Virginia until the engagement in the battle of Wilderness that would claim Marcel's life.

Mustered into U.S. service Sept. 16, 1861; mustered out June 29, 1865
5th Vermont Infantry Ensign

Thus three of her brothers: Marcel, Israel and Tuffield all served in the conflict in the same company of the 5th Vermont Infantry. Israel, who signed up in St. Albans in September 1861 when he was about 19. would later boast that he was the youngest soldier. That honor, however, went to his brother Tuffied who was probably about 16 when he enlisted. Israel would see action in several battles and was wounded twice in the battle of Petersburg. He saw action in Petersburg, Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania and lastly Wilderness. Perhaps it was his example, rather than Antoine's that inspired the two other Raymond  brothers to enlist.

Virginia would marry Antoine Bouvier  in Feb 1863 while Israel was on his way to participate in the Chancelorsville campaign. Their son, Antoine Jr.  was born in  December of that year just as his uncle Marcel was heading off to war. Virginia and Antoine would have a daughter Phoebe in 1865 but Antoine would die in a logging accident in 1866. In 1869 she would marry my great grandfather Paul Chicoine.  Paul did not serve in the Civil War. Virginia survived him and married a third time in 1885 to William Cook. He registered for the draft late in the Civil War July 1 1863 but there is no record that he served.

Bouvier grave Highgate Vermont

When his brother Israel enlisted Marcel was already married to married Sarah Dussault  and the couple had two small children. One of those toddlers died the year their third child was born in 1862. So it was not until two weeks before Christmas 1863 that Marcel joined the same company as his brother Israel. In the inconclusive battle of Wilderness in May of the new year Marcel would be wounded and ten days later die of his wounds probably in the field hospital established nearby in Fredericksburg.,

Their younger brother Tuffield would follow his siblings to battle in February 1864. He was only 16. He participated in the battles of Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania and Petersburg and was fighting along side his brother when Marcel was wounded May 5 of that year. The trenches (see picturewhere the 5th Vermont dug in are still visible in the Wilderness battlefied today.

Like many kin of those who fell in the  Civil War Virginia would have no body to bury in their cemetery in Highgate Vermont. She would have the consolation of an account of her brother's death from his two companions in arms.

* (christened Theophile)