As explained in the previous blog (MRCA), for the top matches with a score of just under 4, the common ancestor should be a great, great grandparent. The top match (MRCA=3.81) has a comprehensive tree containing a lot of information. There are a number of ancestors with roots in Ireland. Much of this information comes…
All posts tagged Missouri
We have a problem
“Houston, we’ve had a problem.” The words of Jim Lovell, Mission Commander on Apollo 13 in April 1970. A masterful understatement! Similar words are used frequently in documentaries in an effort to introduce tension into the narrative. On an almost trivial level, I too have a problem. For some years, I have been struggling to…
Obituaries: a good source of information
It seems that name-checking a lot of people helps to sell newspapers. As mentioned in “Benefits of sharing” the article in the Marshall Daily News reporting the death of Susan (Kelly) Cronin in 1907 contained information on her place of birth. The article on her funeral has a list of some of the mourners. They…
Still seeking John Kelly
There is a wonderful piece of dialogue from a radio programme broadcast on the BBC in 1972. Neddie: [on discovering Eccles in the coal cellar] What are you doing here? Eccles: Everybody’s gotta be somewhere… Quite so, Eccles. Everybody does have to be somewhere. But where? I am still trying to discover more information about…
Crossing the aisle
In the post “real people not just names”, I considered matters such as the education, diet, clothing and entertainment of my ancestors. I need to go further. I am also interested in what they believed. Not just about religion. Did they think that the earth was flat? Did they hold with folk tales about the…
Benefits of sharing
A distant relative shared some information about the early days of the Kelly and McHugh ancestors in America. This took place a few years ago. I learnt that members of the family ended up in Marshall, Michigan. Some stayed there, whilst others (e.g. Patrick McHugh and his wife Catherine Kelly) moved south to Missouri. Susan…
Thank you, Thomas Cromwell
I have become well used to the absence of records in Ireland. Only fragments of 19th century census returns have survived. Practicing Catholicism was illegal for many years. This is a powerful disincentive to the keeping of records. Even in the subsequent period, there are many gaps in parish records, and a knowledge of Latin…
Jessie – early days
On the 1880 census for Marshall, Calhoun County, Michigan, Jessie Kelly appears as a ten year old child. She is living with her Aunt Susan (born around 1840, in Ireland), Uncle Jeremiah Cronin (born around 1831 in New York) and their six children. Also in the household is Anna McHugh, the eldest daughter of John…
Jessie and Jesse
According to a correspondent in America, John McHugh and his wife Catherine (nee Kelly) moved from Michigan to Missouri in March 1873. Initially, they stayed with Catherine’s brother John on his farm. In the 1960s this farm was owned by John’s grandson Jesse East. I found an obituary for Jesse Clarence East who died in…
Sue Alice McHugh and her father, John
The 1986 obituary for Sue says that her parents were John William McHugh and Ella Price Foster. Her father is also reported as John Edward McHugh. Is there any possibility that there are two people with very similar names? It is possible, but highly unlikely. I have already come across people who are commonly referred…