Cousins: The Genealogy Bonus

As 2023 comes to a close, so does my year of #12Ancestors, the monthly version of #52Ancestors.  This month, I was compelled to choose the theme of “Cousins”, and in that vein I am dedicating this particular post to the memory of my third cousin, Ronald Scott Colomy, who just passed away this month.

Ron was special to me for several reasons.  First of all, he and his wife (who, like other still-living cousins,  I’m not naming for privacy reasons) were online friends with my aunt who passed away in 2010; yes, the same aunt whose death launched my genealogical journey.  When they learned of her death, Ron and his wife reached out to me to extend their condolences, and very quickly a friendship of my own was formed.  Both of us were passionate about researching our ancestors!

After a few years of corresponding, I finally got to meet Ron and his wife as they passed through my town as part of a genealogical road trip.  The connection was unmistakable, as these descendants of Bertha and Edwin Colomy met for the first time!  Since then, we’ve been sharing our finds, our theories, and our mutual frustration in trying to figure out George W. Colomy!  My friendship with Ron and his wife also led to “meeting” more of the cousins online in our cousin Facebook group and forming a few more friendships.  

“The Cousins” by Anders Zorn. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And speaking of Facebook, I’ve been fortunate to connect there with other cousins I’ve come across through this blog, #genchat and even FindaGrave!  The FindaGrave connection was a rare one:  a second cousin on my mother’s Polish side, who just happened to live in New York City at the time, just an hour away from me.  Prior to her moving away, we’d met up a few times, including trips to the Family History Center in New York City and to Ellis Island!  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention another special cousin who I actually met through SmartMatches on MyHeritage.  This was my New Zealand cousin who was descended from Edgar Douglas White and the keeper of some White correspondence.  He was the one who alerted me to the fact that Jennie and Edgar had a brother named Joseph, who I wrote about here.  I was actually able to meet him and his wife in 2015 as they passed through New York City on their own genealogical road trip.  It was another magical meeting of connection against the setting of New York at Christmas time!

I could go on and on about the distant cousins I’ve met in-person and on-line, but I think you get the drift.  I’m calling them a genealogy bonus, because they’re what you get as you’re searching for your ancestors.  I’m so fortunate to call so many of my cousins friends as well!

Adversity: Elsie (Burns) McNichol’s Divorce

Just when I thought that the story of my third great-aunt Fanny (White) (Burns) Ives and her daughter Elsie (Burns) (McNichol) Younie couldn’t get any sadder, I found yet another tragedy in Elsie’s life.

When I found the newspaper article describing the granting of divorce to my great-grandmother Bertha from Frederick French, I set it aside until I received the court paperwork from the judicial archivist.  I reviewed that paperwork, as well as the original article, dated June 30, 1910.  

Bertha’s divorce was the second of two listed in that article; the first read as follows:

“In the jury waived session of the Superior Civil court, before Judge Bell this morning, the following uncontested divorces were heard:  Elsie McNichol vs. James L. McNichol, married in 1903 at Lynn and lived in Lynn and Swampscott.  He struck her and choked her.  He has been arrested for drunkenness and assault.  Decree for cruel and abusive treatment, with right to resume her maiden name.”

Clipping from the Daily Evening Item, courtesy Lynn Community History Archive.

Elsie McNichol…that name sounded familiar!  Then I realized that this was Bertha’s first cousin Elsie!  Poor Elsie, no wonder why she and James were divorced and why I’d found her alone in the 1910 Census with her mother and stepfather.  

I looked back at the timeline of Elsie’s life and found that her divorce from James occurred just under four months from her subsequent marriage to William Younie and just under nine months (yes, you read that right) from the seeming stillbirth of their unnamed baby girl.  Of course Elsie went on to have two more living children, only to have her own life cut short under seven years later.

Perseverance: Answers in 2022

At the beginning of the year, I posed a bunch of research questions I wanted answers to.  Through a little perseverance and skill, I’ve found some of those answers, as well as answers to other questions!

One of my hopes was to find the passenger lists of Adam Valek and the remainder of his family.  Thanks to some insight on name variations and some broad searches, mission accomplished!  Adam arrived May 26, 1893 on the SS Darmstadt under the surname Welikes (thanks, FindaGrave, for helping with that!).  Elisabeth and the rest of the family were harder to find; I had to search under her son Anton and using a wildcard for the surname.  There they were under the spelling Welikova (probably because they were coming from Russia) on the SS Weimar, arriving April 7, 1899.  Like my mom always told me, they arrived in Ellis Island!

Also thanks to FindaGrave, I found out how William Gorton Atwell died and where he is buried.  He died of lobar pneumonia on July 9, 1923 and is buried at St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket, Providence County, RI.  Sad, but fortunately not scandalous.

Another question FindaGrave answered this year was where my third great-grandfather John Wesley Williams is buried:  Pocasset Cemetery, Cranston, Providence County, RI.

Earlier this year, I posted about my great-grandparents John and Anna Biliunas’ wedding certificate and my discovery of where they got married.  This summer, thanks to my aunt giving me free reign in digging into boxes in her basement, I found their actual wedding picture! Here it is:

Anna (Valek) (Urnezis) & John Biliunas. Author’s collection.

Another mystery that is partially solved is where Job and Elizabeth White’s mysterious son Joseph ended up.  Last I wrote, they knew he “went West”, but I had no idea where.  This year, I found a somewhat detailed obituary for Elizabeth, who died in 1901.  It named each of her daughters, but only mentioned her two sons by location: “one of the sons is in New Zealand and the other is in Washington territory”.  Since I know Edgar ended up in New Zealand, that leaves Joseph.  However, I haven’t found him in any Washington-based records yet.

Of course there was the release of the 1950 Census, where I was able to find all my living direct ancestors, from my parents all the way back to my great-great grandmother, Altie May (Williams) (Atwell) Woodlock.  Yes, she had re-married, though I can’t tell when exactly, and ended up in New Rochelle, Westchester County, NY!

I wrote about how I searched for my numerous French-Canadian ancestors.  By doing this, I found even more ancestors!  (I love when that happens!)

And finally, I recently connected with a second cousin on my Markoski side through a DNA match.  I love finding new cousins!

I’m looking forward to new discoveries in 2023! 

New Horizons: What Made Them Immigrate?

I have to admit, when I saw that this week’s #52Ancestors theme was “New Horizons”, my first thought was the 1972 Moody Blues song!  But from a genealogy context, I think of my ancestors gazing toward the horizon, about to embark on their immigration journey.  

Over at #genchat this coming Friday, we’re going to be discussing migration patterns influenced by history.  This got me to thinking about what may have influenced my ancestors to come to this country.  Although I personally don’t know for sure, I want to examine the possible “why’s”.

1600s  Since just about all of my ancestors settled in New England, history tells me that those people had some serious religious differences with the Church of England.  I know that a lot of my ancestors ended up being Congregationalists, as many from the Great Migration were.  At least one of my ancestors (Nicholas Wallington) seems to have been an indentured servant, so he was basically along for the ride.

On the French-Canadian side, I know that I have a number of Filles a Marier and Filles du Roi that came to Quebec, motivated to find a good husband and start a family to help populate the new land.

1700s  A good number of my ancestors from this time period were arriving in Nova Scotia directly as a result of the American Revolution.  I’ve written about my Loyalist ancestors (the Whites and Hurlburts) who just could no longer live in the United States, and some received land grants as a result of their military service for England (such as James Bruce).  And of course there was Catherine (Quinn) O’Brien who inherited land through her dead husband’s family in Nova Scotia and took advantage of the opportunity to give her children a better life.

1800s  Both my Quebec (Pleau) and a branch of my Nova Scotia ancestors (White) arrived in the US about 1869, just two years after the provinces of Canada confederated into a single country.  I have to wonder if there was some dissatisfaction with that.

Later in the century, my Polish (Markoski and Gazda) and Lithuanian (Valek) ancestors arrived along with thousands of others immigrating to America, escaping depressed conditions and unrest in their homelands. With the Industrial Revolution, America was becoming the land of opportunity, and they took advantage of that.  The Valeks were a classic example of chain migration, where one person (Adam) went ahead of the family, bringing them over at a later time.

What we often think about when we think of immigrants. Courtesy Library of Congress.

1900s  There were just two more immigrant journeys to be had before 1920:  that of my great-grandfather John Peter Biliunas from Lithuania, and of my great-grandmother Eva Christina Lipsett of Nova Scotia.  Both may be cases of chain migration also.  In John’s case, his passenger states that he was connecting with a brother-in-law (who I know nothing about).  In Eva’s case, she had many cousins already living in Essex County, Massachusetts.  Perhaps they had good stories of opportunity where they were living, I can’t be sure.

Overlooked: Elsie Burns and Her Children

Remember all the terrible losses suffered by my third great-aunt, Frances “Fanny” (White) (Burns) Ives?  It seemed like it was one thing after another with her.  Well, her story was just the tip of the iceberg as far as family tragedy goes.  For some reason I hadn’t pursued descendancy research on her line until recently, and I have uncovered even more sadness.  Here goes.

As I wrote before, Elsie was Fanny’s last surviving child and lived to adulthood.  I only grazed her adult life last time; I’ve since discovered more.  On January 3, 1903, she married James Lewis McNichol in Lynn, Essex County, MA.  This marriage seemed not to last very long; in the 1910 Census, Elsie is listed with her maiden name and as “single”.  In later censuses, James is listed as a widower.  I’ve seen these statuses quite a bit for divorced people in that time frame.

On October 26, 1910, Elsie married William Younie in Boston, Suffolk County, MA.  What I recently learned is that on March 21, 1911 (just five months later), they lost an unnamed baby girl.  I assume this was a stillbirth.  However, William and Elsie were blessed with two more children in Boston:  Bernice Elsie on June 28, 1913 and William Jr. on February 15, 1916.

A blissful motherhood was not to be for Elsie; she died on February 25, 1917 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her children were only three and one year old.  Apparently William Sr. eventually was able to get some help raising their children:  his mother Margaret was living with them in Boston in the 1920 Census.  She is listed as being widowed, but I’ve found that his father died much later, so they may have divorced.  Of course the children’s maternal grandmother (Fanny) would not have been able to help; at this time, she was committed to Westborough State Hospital which treated mental issues.  Five years later, Fanny would pass away.

By 1926 the Younie family was living in Quincy, Norfolk County, MA.  Bernice is shown to be a graduate of Atherton Hough School, an elementary school in Quincy.  The following year, William Sr. died.  I found Margaret and grandson William living at 82 Center Road in Quincy in the 1930 Census, but where was Bernice?  This is where I had a most interesting find.

On the Internet Archive, I found Bernice’s name among the June 18, 1937 graduates of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Watertown, Middlesex County, MA.  (Yes, the same Perkins that Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan attended years earlier!)  I did not find Bernice among Perkins’ “inmates” in the 1930 Census; I can only assume she may have been at some other institution.  However, the answer to the question on the 1940 Census about where she lived in 1935 was “Watertown”, so she did spend some years there.

Howe Building Tower, Perkins School for the Blind. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

I have to wonder if Bernice started attending Perkins in 1933 when her grandmother Margaret died.  After all, her seventeen-year-old brother was probably in no position to take care of her.  I unfortunately could not find William in the 1940 Census but I did find Bernice.  She was at Monson State Hospital in Monson, Hampden County, MA.  From what I could see, Monson was especially known for treating epileptics.  One year later, Bernice had passed away at Monson.

William ended up in the military; I assume during World War II.  In the 1950 Census, he was a patient at the Vets Administration Mental Hospital in Bedford, Middlesex County, MA.  At that point, he is listed as “never married”.  Could he have been suffering from PTSD from the war?  William seems to have lived until 1989, so there is much recent history to find out about him.  I am hoping so much that he ended up with a better life!

Tombstones: Some of My Favorites

This week’s #52Ancestors theme is “Tombstones”, and what genealogist doesn’t love a good cemetery?  (Actually, I’ll even take a bad one!)  For me what comes to mind are the graves I’ve visited that have moved me the most.  Here are a few:

Visiting the grave of my great-great grandparents, George and Emma Pleau at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, NY, was so fulfilling for a few reasons.  One, it was just an hour away from my in-laws, who my family visited often. And two, it really brought me full circle to the research that my aunt started so many years ago.  I had to wonder when the last time a descendant visited this gravesite.

George & Emma Pleau graves at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, NY. Author’s collection.

I was excited to find my direct ancestor Caleb Seward in Old Durham Cemetery in Durham, CT.  So many of the stones in that cemetery were badly weathered, but his was still in great condition!  The Sewards are tucked away toward the top of the steep hill that the cemetery is on; I only found them because I sat down to rest for a bit.  His stone notes that he was the first inhabitant of Durham.

Caleb Seward’s grave, Old Durham Cemetery, Durham, CT. Author’s collection.

I found my great-grandparents Stanislaw and Joanna Markoski in Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in South Hadley, MA only by taking an educated guess based off the Find-a-Grave photo.  Fortunately it was not far from where my grandparents were buried.  

Stanislaw and Joanna Markoski graves, Mater Dolorosa Cemetery, South Hadley, MA. Author’s collection.

When I made my 2013 pilgrimage to Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn, MA, I have to say I was happy to find the graves that I saw; their map was so helpful!  But the one that moved me in particular was my second cousin twice removed Hazel Faustina (White) Hill.  I remembered her from when I was just a little toddler; whenever we’d visit she’d always have a little treat for me.  And later when my grandfather George Pleau died, she was sure to ask me, “Do you remember me?”  I sure did, I said.  Her kindness stayed with me, and visiting her final resting place was just a little way to pay that back.

Hazel Faustina (White) Hill’s grave, Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn, MA. Author’s collection.

Identity: Scottish Tartans

I only have a sliver of Scottish in me; in fact, it doesn’t even show up on the MyHeritage DNA test!  But thanks to my paternal grandmother’s stories and some research, I know that it’s in there.

Nothing says Scottish identity like the tartan.  If you’ve ever gone to a Highland Games event, you’ll see tents for the various clans, decked out in their respective tartans.  One of the highlights of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games is the Parade of Tartans, where anyone wearing any part of a tartan can march with their clan around the main field.  

Of course I just had to find out what tartans were associated with my Scottish ancestors.  Here are my earliest-known Scottish ancestors and the tartans for their name:

James (sometimes referred to as George) Bruce

Fought in the American Revolution on the British side as part of the Duke of Cumberland’s Regiment.  He was granted land in Manchester, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia in 1788.  He died in 1805 after a tree fell on him.

Bruce tartan. Courtesy Wikipedia

Catherine Cadel

Married James Bruce in 1798.  Cadel or Cadell is a variant of Campbell.

Campbell tartan. By Celtus – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3993202

John MacMasters (later MacMaster or McMaster)

John arrived in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia by 1790.  I wrote about him in the later part of this blog post.  I found out that MacMaster is a “sept” (part of a clan) of Buchanan.

Buchanan tartan. Courtesy Wikipedia.

Barbara Stewart

Barbara married John White, and they were the parents of David White, the first of my White family to immigrate to America.  He has quite a story, which I have not yet written about.  Long story short, he was a Loyalist and ended up in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia.

Stewart tartan. By Celtus – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2451180

William Patterson

The ancestor of Margaret Patterson, who married into my Atwell family.  Patterson, or Paterson, is a sept of the MacLaren clan.

MacLaren tartan. By User:SGT141 – self-made by User:SGT141 from information in the Scottish Tartans World Registry, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9760154

Social: Bertha’s Church Life

For many years here in the USA, church life has taken center stage in people’s lives.  In colonial times, church basically was the governing institution, especially in New England.  As time went on and church and state became separate, church was the touchstone for not only religion, but a strong part of everyday life.  

This was no exception for my great-grandmother Bertha Colomy and her family.  I knew from reading the newspaper articles about her running off with Percy St. Clair that the family did attend church.  Since learning about this, I’ve found so many more articles that point to her involvement in the Christian Church at 38 Silsbee Street in Lynn (yes, that was the name of the church).  I also saw her cousin Augusta (“Gussie”) Goodwin and aunt Fannie (White) Burns mentioned!

“Christian Church, Silsbee Street,” NOBLE Digital Heritage, accessed May 6, 2022, https://digitalheritage.noblenet.org/noble/items/show/1438.

Not surprisingly, Bertha was mostly involved in various music programs at the church, whether playing piano, singing or both from about 1889 to 1897.  She even trained the children’s Sunday School for their Christmas Concert in 1896 and did a fine job.  Bertha was involved in other ways:  she was a member of the S.O.L.O. Club, the Sewing Circle and was even the secretary of the church’s Young People’s Society Christian Endeavor.

The most fascinating story, however, took place on May 26, 1892.  Bertha threw a party for her mother Jennie, inviting about thirty people over and having cake and ice cream and extensive entertainment.  The pastor of the Christian Church, A.A. Williams, made a speech on Bertha’s behalf and a presentation of a gift of money from Bertha to Jennie.  No, it wasn’t Jennie’s birthday or other special occasion.  What wasn’t mentioned in this article, but in another later article, was that Jennie was having problems paying the mortgage since Frank was out of town at this time.  This money was probably the result of Bertha’s piano lessons.

As of this date, however, Bertha was going to have a new source of income:  she was just hired by Percy St. Clair to be a bookkeeper in his piano shop.  Perhaps Percy was even at the party, since I know he had been to the Colomy home prior to the trouble he would be dragging Bertha into just two weeks later.  

Curious: Some of My Questions

Growing up, I always pestered my mom with endless questions about everything.  But I’ve found that this is a good quality for genealogists to have!  You never get an answer if you don’t ask the question.  So for this week’s #52Ancestors prompt of “Curious”, I decided to post some of my most burning questions, in no particular order:

• Who were George W. Colomy’s parents? FamilySearch says Daniel Colomy and Rebecca Pinkman, but the tick marks on the 1840 Census don’t seem to match up, and there are no solid sources to support this.
• After George W. Colomy changed his surname to Chesley, I’m sure he ended up marrying either Mary Jane Coleman or Sarah Van Wie and lived in Albany, NY.  Which George W. Chesley in Albany was he? And where did he actually end up?
• Why did Frederick French and Bertha Colomy divorce?  I found that they separated by 1903 and were divorced by the 1910 Census.  The local paper (the Lynn Item) is not online after 1899.
• How did Job R. White die, and where is he buried?  I know from family stories that he died in Florida.

Genealogy research is like a maze!
Courtesy Library of Congress.

• What town did Stanislaus Markoski come from? I haven’t even been able to find a passenger list for him.
• I want to find the passenger lists for Adam Valek and the rest of his family!  His Declaration of Intention states he doesn’t remember the name of the ship he came over on.
• What are the personal stories behind my Filles du Roi ancestors?  Since my post on Louise Gargottin, I have found several more Filles!
• Who are Levi Taunt’s parents?  I’ve found some candidates, but nothing definitive.
• Who are Anna Capernaum’s parents?  Online trees give some unsourced parents; again, nothing definitive.

• Where was Altie May (Williams) (Atwell) Woodlock between 1900 and 1943? And how did she come to move to New Rochelle, NY?  
• I want to find Frank L. Colomy’s birth record.  I’m still not sure whether he was born in Maine or New Hampshire, and the birth records there are sparse.
• How did William Gordon Atwell die?  All I know is when he died, not how.

So Far Away: “We have mourned for you as dead”

In 2015, I wrote about my furthest-flung relative, Edgar Douglas White, who immigrated to New Zealand from Nova Scotia.  Since this week’s #52Ancestors prompt is “So Far Away”, I thought I’d share something that one of Edgar’s descendants shared with me a few years ago:  a letter from my third great-grandfather Job R. White to Edgar.

Here are the images and transcription (spelling and punctuation errors not corrected):

Page 1 of Job’s letter. Author’s collection.

Page 2 of Job’s letter. Author’s Collection.

Lynn January 3 1869

Dier Edgar  I do not know whether I am writing to the living or the dead.  but you knowes – my dier son we are all well.  We have had no letter from you in nerely two years – and we have mourned for you as dead but still their is a ray of hope still sometimes in my mind so you are spared, so I thought I would make one more effort.  The last letter that I wrote came back to me.  I have been in Lynn about sick months  I am doing pretty well  I board with Fannie  She is married here well off.  Your mother and the famely will be here in the spring
Joseph lives in Glossester 30 miles from here – if you get this plese not fail to write
Direct your letters thus
Lynn, Mass United States of America
O Could it be possable for us all to met again before death parts us how happy we would be, but we are all in gods hands  he knowes best what to do.  I got letters from home last week stating that they were all well.
So you by Dier Edgar
Jobe R White to
Edgar D White his son
in piggen bay Canterbury
New Zeland
January 3 1869
Lynn

How hard it was back then to try to communicate with people on the other side of the world!  I really felt the desperation in Job’s writing.  The happy ending is the fact that this letter exists, showing that Edgar finally did receive it.  Who knows – perhaps he’d tried to write in the time that Job was writing for an answer and perhaps his correspondence got lost.  He obviously wrote back eventually, which is evident in the fact that the descendants continued (and still continue!) to communicate.