But Where in Ireland? Answer Buried in Records

In 2018 I traveled to Belgium to attend a friend's wedding. Afterwards, my cousin Peter and I spend 10 days driving around Ireland and Northern Ireland. Peter and I share Irish ancestors but we also have Irish ancestors on other branches of our separate family trees.

I loved Ireland. I especially loved the natural beauty of Northern Ireland. Being there did somehow make me feel closer to my Irish ancestors even though, like many Americans with Irish ancestry, I don't know exactly where most of my Irish ancestors were from. Once most immigrants arrived in the U.S. they didn't identify themselves by the town they came from, just the country.

On my paternal grandmother's side I know my great-great grandmother, Annette Hinch-Henry came from Barnamelia and Hackettstown, in County Wicklow. Also on dad's side, I know my Hughes came from Liscolman, Clonmore, again, in County Wicklow and my Grays came from County Cavan. 

My mom's side is more elusive and they suffer from very common Irish surnames; Joyce, Kelley, O'Neill, and Fay. Their U.S. records just record their place of birth as Ireland. No towns, no counties, just Ireland. Even if I may not have been in my ancestors' exact footsteps, I felt very at home in Ireland.

Years later, in 2021, suffering from the wanderlust caused by the Covid-19 world health crisis, I set about visiting the graves of my direct ancestors in this sort of cemetery marathon on which I dragged my cousin Peter. Actually for one cemetery visit I dragged both Cousin Peter and Cousin Ashlee all the way to Dayton, Ohio. I wrote about that adventure in this blog post: https://diggingupthedirtonmydeadpeople.blogspot.com/2021/06/third-great-grandpa-john-joyce-dayton.html 

Prior to that visit to the grave of my third great grandfather, John A. Joyce, I ordered his military pension file from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington D.C. In fact, I ordered the file on April 22, 2021. I made that trip to Dayton in June 2021. In November 2021 I finally received John's file; a 89 page pdf related to his military service as a First Class Boy in the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American War. It took more than 6 months to obtain the file.

Now if you are like me, you don't know much about the Mexican-American War; but you see that word Navy and you feel all queasy - sea sickness sets in, right? It does for me. I have so many seafaring souls in my gene pool but any body of water makes me a little green. Ugh, I can't with the boats, people!

Anyway, John was in the Navy. He enlisted January 19, 1846. 1846!! His whole military service was a surprise to me really but I did not expect him to be in the U.S. before the potato famine.

Ireland suffered the famine between 1845 and 1852. It was a period of starvation, disease, death, and immense emigration. The poor were leaving Ireland in droves for America where they had the hope of not starving to death. Often Americans refer to their Irish immigrants who came during that period as Famine Irish. John enlisting in U.S. Navy in January 1846, that was pretty early on in the Great Famine, so it's likely my Joyces were pre-Famine Irish immigrants; that they arrived in the U.S. before 1845. 

Another great surprise is that John enlisted in the Navy in Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia! My people are all New Yorkers. Philadelphia? Really? So this has put me on the path of searching for John, and perhaps his parents, yet unknown to me, immigrating through Philadelphia rather than New York. We'll see if I can find anything now that I have that lead.

The most amazing discovery in John's pension file, though, was the name of the county in Ireland where he was born. Yup! On page 24 of the 89 page pdf, at the bottom of the page it states "...born at ___, in the County of Armath, and State of Ireland..." Now Armath has to be County Armagh because there is no Armath. 

County Armagh is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. I don't think Peter and I drove through Armagh though. The closest we would have gotten would probably have been Banbridge on route between Belfast and Dublin. Guess I gotta go back!

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 42: "Lost" - Research Stymied by Disasters, Part 1

This topic brought to mind the considerable number of records lost to genealogists due to fires and natural disasters. Loss of life is of the highest concern, of course, but these disasters can go beyond the destruction of buildings and landscapes to damage invaluable records and images of our cultural heritage. So many events like these have impacted and hindered my personal genealogy research that I am going to do this in 2 parts. Here is part 1:

1. The Destruction of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census

Who amongst us genealogists doesn't wish this record set had survived?? Any American genealogist quickly comes to learn about the destruction of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census. Often it as brushed off as the result of a fire but the truth is the 1890 census records sustain two fires; one on March 22, 1896 and another on January 10, 1921. Ultimately, though, it wasn't destroyed by a fire; it was destroyed by Congress in 1935.

The first fire, on March 22, 1896, was in the Department of the Interior's storage space in Marini's Hall on E street in Washington, D.C. That fire destroyed and/or damaged most of the special schedules; the ones related to mortality, agriculture, etc. The second fire occurred on January 10, 1921 in the Commerce Building in D.C. That destroyed about 25% of the population schedules and cause smoke and water damage to another 50%. The damaged records then sat in a warehouse until Congress authorized its destruction on February 21, 1933. The actual destruction didn’t take place until 1935.

Based on the existing aggregate data it represented a population increase of about 25% since the 1880 Census. That increase was in part the result of a tremendous amount of immigration that took place between 1880 and 1890. It also would have reflected a great amount of westward migration. Not to mention that it was the first census to be tabulated by a machine known as Hollerith’s Machine. Technology! In it, respondents answered questions about immigration, naturalization, military service, and the maternity questions regarding the number of children born and living.

Less than 1% of it did survives. Perhaps you are lucky enough to find your ancestors in the fragments that exist from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Give it a shot. Take a look. My family isn’t in there but maybe yours is. About 6,000 names are listed.

There have been far too many instances in my own research when making the jump from the 1900 census back to the 1880 census has proven to be impossible. 20 years is a lot of time for lives to change drastically; marriages, name changes, deaths, loss of infants, relocations, etc. I can attest that is is possible to miss something you never ever had. 

2. U.S. Military Personnel Records, NPRC Fire of 1973

Ever try to get your ancestor's records of service from WWI or WWII from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)? No luck, right? Yeah, me too. 

That is because on July 12, 1973, a devastating fire ripped through the 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. Of the 22 million individual files that were stored on that floor alone, approximately 16–18 million Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) were destroyed. This vague number is due to the fact that the records had never been indexed, microfilmed, or duplicated. There is no database or registry to check on what was lost. Each file was as specific and unique to the individual as was their military service from basic training and burial.

In 1956, the Department of Defense constructed its six-story, state-of-the-art archives building outside of St. Louis to serve as the NPRC, which was formed in an effort to streamline federal agencies archival processes and house service records of all federal civil and military service personnel.  By the time of the fire in 1973, the NPRC had amassed a collection of about 52 million individual personnel records. The building's major flaw was that it lacked a sprinkler system. Yeah, for real. That seems ridiculous to us now but at the time of its construction there was a strong fear that such a system's potential to cause water damage was more likely than the occurrence of a fire.

That fire, though, burned for over 22 hours. Forty-two fire districts worked together to contain the fire to the 6th floor. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured, but the fire caused the roof to collapse and the heat was so  prolonged and intense that metal shelves and filing cabinets melted. Water and debris were everywhere. Records were reduced to ashes. It is estimated that 80% of the Army personnel records for those discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960 were destroyed as well as 75% of the Air Force's personnel records for those discharged between September 25, 1947 and January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.). To this day the cause of the fire is unknown.

Once extinguished, though, the painstaking effort of restoration began. The July heat and humidity in St. Louis created circumstances ideal for mold growth and thus approximately 90,000 cubic feet of documents needed drying immediately. Ultimately, vacuum chambers in the nearby McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation plant were used to squeeze literally tons of the water out of the salvaged records. 

The NPRC’s work to restore and reconstruct these records continues to this day. The Center’s treatment labs use the latest technology to make remaining damaged files legible again. However, the sad reality is that the vast majority of records were reduced to ash. No technology can make ashes legible. Typically NARA can prove a veterans eligibility for benefits or next of kin entitlements from auxiliary records not originally stored with the rest of the files. Unfortunately, auxiliary records only tell part of the story the. The fuller history of an individual's military service is often just lost forever.

3. The New York State Library Fire of 1911

On March 29, 1911, a fire in New York's State capitol city of Albany, destroyed an enormous amount of historical and genealogical records. The New York State Capitol building is currently the seat of New York's state government, but in 1911 it also housed the State Library. The fire started in the Assembly Library. Fueled by the abundance of paper, some dating back to colonial New Netherland, the fire quickly spread down the hall to the nearby State Library.

Unfortunately, the Library and all its materials were scheduled to move to a new building on January 1, 1911 but due to construction delays all materials were still in the Capitol building when the fire occurred. The more famous, horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory fire happened in Manhattan just 4 days before the Capital fire. The conflagration of these events led to the a strengthen of building codes and safety laws in New York State and eventually nationwide.

Nearly half a million books, stacked floor to ceiling on pine shelves, were destroyed as well as over 300,000 manuscripts and the entire card catalog consisting of nearly 1 million records. In fact, only about 7,000 books and 80,000 manuscripts were saved through the heroic efforts of several librarians.  Present day researchers of New York history owe a great debt to the librarians who risk their lives running around the burning corridors to save books and documents.

Like with the aforementioned fires, as soon as the building was safe to enter, the recovery effort began. And again, even the many volumes that escaped the flames were severely damaged from smoke and/or the water from the firefighters efforts to extinguish the fire.  Researchers and librarians often come across tangible evidence of the fire in the form of documents charred around the edges or shriveled from water damage. Among some of the important documents saved was the original Emancipation Proclamation, written in Abraham Lincoln’s own hand.

With my deep New York roots, it is hard to estimate what more I might be able to learn about my family history if those resources had they survived. By the way, according to Capitol lore, the ghost of sole victim of the fire, 78-year-old night watchman, Samuel Abbott, is said to haunt the Capitol’s fourth floor where his body was found. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 39: "Road Trip" - My top 3 favorite family finds while road tripping

I live for road trips. I love them. Anyone who knows me knows that. However, I did wait quite awhile to get my license. Most of my peers rushed out to get their learner's permits as soon as they could, which here in New York is 16. I don't know if I was scared to drive really but I simply was not eager to drive; which now is not at all true. I waited until I was 20 to get my license but now I can't wait to drive. I live to road trip. I find real comfort in driving.

I am not underplaying my road trip experiences either. I have driven to 49 states. You can't drive to Hawaii. For any of you who may be familiar with the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" by Mo Willems, while in Hawaii, I was that pigeon. I was with a tour group but I begged and begged and begged that tour bus driver to just let me drive the bus if only so I could say that I have driven in all 50 states. Guess I'll have to go back. Oh well! 

I have also been to all of the Canadian provinces and 2 of the 3 Canadian territories. I am missing Nunavut but so are most Canadians I bet.

My most challenging travel experience has to have been driving around Ireland. Although I can drive a 5-speed transmission, I was fortunate to get an automatic because that driving on the other side of the road business while on the other side of the car was brutal.

My most frequent travel companions are, of course, my cousins! Most frequently Cousin Pete. Cousin Kelly takes a close second. But there have been many others: Jenny, Meghan, Andrew, Rachel, Ashlee, Zach, Adam, Vanessa, Elizabeth...  And they will attest to the fact that nearly every trip includes a little family history whether it be a stomp around a cemetery or a little bit of research time. I mean, you're headed out there, you might as well walk in your ancestors' foot steps if you have the chance.

My top 3 favorite family finds while road tripping have to be the following. All of which I have blogged about before but are worth revisiting and which you can read more about at the links below to old posts:

#3. Running from cicadas in Dayton National Cemetery: Third Great Grandpa, John Joyce, Dayton National Cemetery

The giant cicadas are only part of what makes this most memorable. Imagine bugs the size of half a Twinkie, flying at you. And not just one but dozens of them surrounding you at every step. Yeah, traumatizing.

This cemetery stop was part of my goal last year, 2021, to locate and visit the burial locations of all my direct ancestors back to and including all my 3rd great grandparents. I did pretty well. At the start of that project I had 30 graves to visit out of the potential 59. You have the maximum potential of 62 direct ancestors back to your 3rd greats. With living parents and a nonagenarian grandma, I had 59. I mean, I'm a genealogist, I visit cemeteries. But still there were many graves I had never been to. 30 is a lot. At present I have only 9 I have not visited; 1 great-great grandparent, and 8 3rd great grandparents, many of which are somewhere in Quebec. When I figure out where they are, I'll visit.

Another project that came out of my 2021 cemetery adventure that I am very proud of is the replacement of my great-great-great grandfather, Victor Henry's headstone which you can watch a presentation about on YouTube called, simply, Victor Henry's Headstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw53oHpcfgA

#2. Stumbling upon the Morleys in a random cemetery abroad: Tombstones in Templenoe

I tell my students and researchers I work with that sometimes there are some relatives that just do not want to be found. And then there are others screaming to be remembered - that would be my cousins', Jenny & Kelly's maternal line.

The Morleys are not my relatives and I wasn't in Ireland doing genealogy research. I wasn't even with Kelly or Jen. I just happened to stop into a random cemetery with Cousin Pete while driving the Ring of Kerry and - BOOM - there they were; Cousin Jen & Kelly's great-great grandparents, Daniel Morley (abt. 1839 - March 17, 1914) and Abigail Meara-Morley (March 1844 - July 7, 1885) of Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland.

Photo by John (Paul) Hallissey taken from https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2551046/templenoe-burial-ground-(old)

#1. Meeting a Desjardins cousin - my mom's side from Montreal - on Earle family property in Newfoundland: Cousins in Unlikely Places, Part 1 & Cousins in Unlikely Places, Part 2

Not all discoveries take place in cemeteries or even archives and libraries. Some discoveries happen right where you stand.

Again, on this trip I was not actively conducting genealogy research at this location. However, I think I have come to realize I'm always kind of conducting genealogy research. Anyway, I had just traveled back to where my great grandfather was born with my paternal uncle, Thomas. I most certainly did not plan or even consider finding living connections to my mother's side of my family while there. Both lines have Canadian ancestry but Newfoundland is really quite far from Montreal, 2,258 kilometers or 1,403 miles for my imperial system friends.

All parts of these favorite family discoveries made while on road trips had an obvious element of surprise but when you are planning to take a road trip, whether to do genealogy research or not, you have to do a lot of planning, almost to avoid surprises. You want your car at top condition, your hotels all booked, your route surveyed for stops at attractions, gas, and grub. You'll have lists of things to pack; clothes, food, emergency equipment, etc. Add to that a desire to research while on the road and you will want to make sure you have research location addresses, hours of operation noted, and a detailed list of what you are looking for - not only your questions but also a review of the resources the research facility has that you want to see. For cemetery stops, I recommend you call ahead to whomever manages the property to ask for a location. Even with a section, range, row, plot, and grave number, it can take quite a bit of roaming around to find the spot you are looking for. 

Most of all, though, leave lots of time to just marvel at the happenings. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 33: "Service" - Three Henrys In Service

I have many ancestors and relatives who have served in the U.S. military - many. They extend back to the American Revolution and served as recently as the war in Afghanistan. 

You may have heard of gold star families. Those are families that have lost immediate family members in service during a time of conflict. Then there are blue star families. Those are families that have an immediate family member on active duty during a time of military conflict. These families often possess and display banners on or in their homes with the appropriate number of stars on them. That's right, sometimes the family has more than one immediate member on active duty, or God-forbid, who have died in service. You may see banners with multiple stars of mixed designations. Maybe they lost a child in the war and have another still actively serving.

My grandparents' generation was dramatically affected by World War II but thankfully none of them lost siblings. Both of my grandfathers served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Grandma Earle had more than one sibling serving in WWII.

I truly love this article about my Grandma Earle's siblings and their service during WWII. All of them are now passed; Charles Aloysius Henry Jr. (April 24, 1922 - March 22, 1994), Regina Dorothy Henry-Drew (February 6, 1924 - March 7, 2010), Robert Victor Henry (October 21, 1925 - April 30, 2011). The article appeared on page 13 of the Nassau Daily Review-Star on Friday, March 2, 1945.

It reads:

The Three Henrys In Service

Charles A. Henry, Jr.    Regina D. Henry    Robert V. Henry

The Henrys are sons and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Henry of 15 Fenimore avenue, Hempstead. Miss Henry was not content to sit at home while her brothers were doing their part overseas to win the war. A senior nurse at St. Mary's hospital, Brooklyn, she will graduate in May. Private First Class Robert Henry is with the infantry in France. He trained at Camp Shelby, Miss., and was with the Grumman Aircraft Engineering corporation prior to entering the army. Second Lieutenant Charles Henry is with an antiaircraft artillery unit on Saipan. He was attending Hofstra college when he entered the service. All three are graduates of Hempstead High school. 

The photo of my great uncle Bobby, is much too dark and thus I have included a similar image of him taken during the same time period, if not on the actual same day, so you can check out that handsome Henry face.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 26: "Identity" - Great Grandpa Almond Desjardins or Albert Gardner

In general my family lines possess rather short surnames, easily pronounceable by those of English extraction. Hell, most of them are English in origin. I don't see a lot of Anglicizing in my family tree. 

Looking at my great-great grandparents and their surnames, most of them don't even have more than 6 letters to them. There is Earle, Samms, Losee, Henry, Hinch, Sauer, Gray, Smith, Sharp, McLean, Fay, Joyce, Prince. Oh, ok, there is Krantzel! 8 letters in that one. Through generations Krantzel was cut down from Krantzlein. I guess that is Anglicized but then there is Desjardins. 

Desjardins became Gardner. Yeah, not even close in spelling but rather its Anglicization was based on its meaning. If you have taken high school French you can probably tell Desjardins means "from the gardens." Likely that means that somewhere back in time I descend from some Frenchman with a green thumb. 

Any of you reading this who are Canadian will probably associate the name Desjardins with different green stuff - - money! Although, Canadian money comes in an array of colors really. The Desjardins Group is a Canadian federation of financial services and credit unions, the largest in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Quebec by a man named Alphonse Desjardins. I have Alphonse Desjardins in my family tree. That was my great grandfather's brother's name. Likely no relation to bank founder though. I mean not close enough a relation to think they are just going to give me money without expecting it to be paid back with interest.

My great-great grandfather, Damas Desjardins, came to the United States from Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the early 1880s. I don't have any information about his immigration but according to my great-great grandmother's naturalization papers, the couple married on May 14, 1884 in New York City, so Damas was in New York before then.

In Damas's obituary from the Patchogue Advance in October of 1911 it states that "Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, an Anglicization of his French family name."

His son, my great grandfather, also used Gardner as his surname. However, I do believe my great grandfather used his names to play with his identity. 

Great grandpa was born Almond Desjardins in Long Island City, Queens County, New York on September 21, 1891. He died on February 11, 1946 in the same county but known as Albert Gardner. 

There seems to be no official documentation of a legal name change for him which, based on the time period is not surprising. Names could be pretty fluid back then before Social Security. Lack of official documentation of the name change has also resulted in lots of confusion including a fellow genealogist who handing me a photocopy stating, "This article is about you great grandfather." Well sure the subject of the article, dragged into court for abandonment of his wife and children, had the same name as my great grandfather but my great grandfather died 2 years before that newspaper article was printed.  She whipped that paper out of my hand and tore it up with a besmirched look on her face. Sorry, not my Al.

The first record I have for great grandpa is the 1900 U.S. Federal Census in which he is recorded as Almod Desjirdins living at 332 Hopkins Avenue in Queens, NY. The street no longer exists by that name but I believe it was in the Astoria section of Queens.

I discovered several newspaper articles from 1906 & 1907 in which great-grandpa's early brushes with the law are described in detail. Here he is identified as A. Gardner, Almond Gardener, and Almond Gardner.

December 19, 1906

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Astoria Pastor Robbed

Sneak Thieves Raided the Parsonage and Stole All the Children's Christmas Gifts

With the rounding up of gangs of hoodlums in the Astoria section of Long Island City comes the news of the robbery on Sunday night of the home of the Rev. W. L. Darby, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, in that place. It was while Pastor Darby was conducting services in his church, a short distance from his home, at Franklin street and the Boulevard, that the culprits got into the house through a kitchen window. All the family were at church and the intruders were free to ransack the house.

Among the articles carried off was a bundle of Christmas presents which the pastor and his wife had purchased for their children, relatives and friends. In their search, however, they overlooked $20 in cash which was in a bureau drawer which they rifled.

More than a dozen robberies have occurred throughout that section within the past month, and they all bear the impress of the sneak thief. In consequence sundry gangs that loiter around the village with no visible means of support are gradually being placed out of the way of temptation for the winter, and five more suspects were added to the bunch yesterday when police rounded up and captured A. Gardner, 16 years old, of 92 Sanford street; James Kidney, 16 years old, of 50 Mills street; Frank Donnelly, 15 years old, of 140 Broadway; James Sullivan, 20 years old, of 137 Ridge street, and Nicholas Donato, 15 year old, of Ridge street. This crowd had quit their homes and were living in an old building owned by the Joseph Wild Rug Company. They were charged with trespassing ad were held until their recent prowlings can be investigated.

November 8, 1907

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Patchogue Lad in Trouble

He is Charged with Stealing Brass from Vacant Houses in L.I. City

Almond Gardener, 16 years old of Patchogue L.I. was arrested by the Long Island City police last night, and back of his arrest is an interesting story.

Young Gardener comes of a good family. He has an industrious brother living in Long Island City, and when he left Patchogue several days ago, he took up his residence with that brother. On Wednesday night two unoccupied frame houses, 86 and 88 Main street, Long Island City were broken into and damage done to the extent of $200. The damage was due to the desire of the marauders to get possession of certain pieces of brass in the plumbing work.

Unfortunately for the guilty parties, their first visit to the buildings resulted so successfully that they returned last night, and one of them was caught. The prisoner described himself as Almond Gardener of Patchogue. As Detectives Hufman and Ebbers of the Astoria Precinct have discovered where the brass pieces were sold for 55 cents, they expect to arrest Gardener's companion.

The police say that about a year ago Gardener and another boy names James Kidney were found sleeping in buildings near the rug works in Astoria. They were arrested and committed to the Catholic Protectory. Mrs. Gardener finally got her boy out of the institution and also succeeded in having his companion released. The Gardener family had resided in Astoria but moved to Patchogue before the boys were let out. They were taken to Patchogue from the Protectory, but after behaving themselves for about four months, the pair cut loose. Kidney was the first one to incur the displeasure of Mrs. Gardener and he was sent away. In three weeks young Gardener packed up his grip and started out to find a place with more life and go in it, and now he awaits the action of the courts.

November 8, 1907

Brooklyn Daily Star

Gardner Fell From Grace

Patchogue was too Slow so he came back to L.I. City

And got into trouble again - charged with burglary in Astoria

Tale of a big-Hearted Mother who tried to reform two bad boys and what came of her efforts

 

About thirty cents in cash and the prospect of a term in some penal institution is the reward Almond Gardner gets for taking the leading part in a burglary in Astoria on Wednesday night that resulted in theft of over $35 worth of lead pipe and plumbing fixtures and damage to the building which $100 will not pay for.

 

Gardner is the lad who was sent away to the Catholic Protectory in Manhattan about a year ago because he and another boy, James Kidney, persisted in sleeping out night in the stables and outhouses, rather than stay in the soft, warm beds that their homes provided

 

Gardner comes ...illegible... the good influence of a comfortable home, and seems to prefer the excitement of the under-world to obeying his parents.

After he had been in the Protectory for a few months, his folks moved from Astoria to Patchogue, and his mother, thinking that life in a country village would offer fewer temptations to evil doing, managed to ensure his release from the institution.

 

Took Both Boys Home

 

When she went over to Manhattan to get her boy, her attention was attracted to young Kidney, who looked pale and emaciated as the result of his confinement. Her mother heart was touched and she begged to be allowed to take Kidney home with her too. Kidney has no mother having been living with an aunt.

 

She took both boys with her to Patchogue and set to work to reform them. Kidney lasted about four months before he fell from grace. He could not stain the strain any longer, so he stole from his benefactor and fled out into the alluring world.

 

Gardner Lasted Longer

 

Gardner clung to the paths of rectitude with commendable tenacity up to about three weeks ago. Then he begged to be allowed to come to Long Island City to visit his brother who lives on Eighth street. Once here he became fascinated with the old life again, and began to consort with evil companions.

 

The climax came when he and another boy, wo has not yet been arrested, tore boards off one of the rear windows of the houses at 86 and 88 Main street and forced an entrance. They tipped out all the lead pipe they could carry and took away six sewer traps. This stuff they sold to a junk dealer for fifty-five cents, It cost new about $25. A plumber will probably charge over $100 to repair the damage.

 

Not content with this escapade, the boys came back later on to get more loot but they were frightened away. Detectives Hufman and Ebers were put on their trail with the result that Gardner was caught Thursday evening.

 

He readily confessed to the part he played in the burglary and said that it was no use for him to try to be good, anyway. He was arraigned in the Fifth street police court this Friday and held for the Grand Jury at $1000 bail.

 

December 21, 1907
Brooklyn Daily Star

 

Sing Sing for John Miller
Long Island City Man who Swindled Magnus Larsen sent up on Suspended Sentence - Five Other Given a Chance to Reform

 

County Judge Burt Jay Humphrey was very lenient with all but one of the six men who were brought before him this Saturday for sentence. Suspended sentences were handed out as Christmas presents to Henry Purse, Frank Schowsky, Almond Gardner, Joseph Daley and Joseph Casenza, and it may be safely said that few Christmas remembrances found in stockings of Santa Claus' large array of friends will be appreciated more than these tokens of judicial leniency.

...

Almond Gardner, a former Astoria boy whose folks now live at Patchogue took a quantity of lead pipe and brass sewer traps from a house belonging to George B. Ruthman on Main street last November. He is only seventeen years old and promised to behave.

... 

 

As mentioned in the above articles, by the 1910 census, the family has moved out of the city to Patchogue, Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. Here with the household, great grandpa is listed as Elman DesGardin.

On June 5, 1917, great grandpa registered for the WWI draft out in Kansas City, Missouri where he is registered as Albert Gardner. I know it is him because the birthdate matches, it states he was born in New York, and he was known to be a painter. Also by 1917, his father, Damas, was deceased and thus he would have likely been financially supporting just his mother.

After finding his WWI Draft Registration, I went looking for other military documents and I came across one that is out of sync with this timeline I am building but perhaps significant to understanding of his character and development of identity.

This record is from the U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 on Ancestry.com. It shows an Albert Gardner who enlisted in the U.S. Army on November 19, 1910 who was from New York and was 21 years and 1 month old at the time of his enlistment. My Albert would have been 19 years and 1 month on November 19, 1910 but I still think it may be him in this record because it indicates he was in the 3rd Calvary which is what I think it says on his WWI Draft Registration Card above. However, this record shows he was dishonorably discharged from Ft. Sam Houston in Texas on July 17, 1911. I don't know what all the notations below mean but maybe someone reading this does.

During the enumeration of the1920 census, I think he may have been residing in Oklahoma City, OK as I have found an Albert Gardner of the appropriate age listed as a printer at an office. The penmanship is rough and perhaps he was still actually working as a painter.

By September 1922 he is back in New York where he marries my great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp on September 5.

If you examine the above image closely, great grandpa reports his name to be Albert Gardner. His father was recorded as Thomas, not Damas Desjardins. Damas sounds like Thomas. Albert's mother is listed as Mary Desjardine although her real first name was Malvina and her maiden name was Ethier. I wonder if these errors are a result of the clerk's confusion or was it that Albert/Almond was reporting what he thought would be easiest for the clerk to record. I mean really, what did the clerk need to know. The couple did not have to produce documentation to verify these details. So it says Mary. Whateve...

From that point forward, including the 1925 New York State Census, and 1930 & 1940 U.S. Federal Census records, I only see him recorded as Albert Gardner. In all those records he is, married with children, living in Queens County, New York.

I discovered that at the time of his death on February 11, 1946 he was a resident of Creedmore Hospital, an institution for the mentally ill, in Queens, New York. He died of a heart attack but according to his New York City Death Certificate he was a resident of the hospital due to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia is a very serious disease that involves far more than just hallucinations and talking to people that aren't there, which is so often how it is depicted on television and in movies. However, I wonder if the fluidity of his name throughout his lifetime was really just a result of the family's interest in Anglicizing their names to sound more American or if the name changes had something to do with his brush with the law or his general mental well-being. 

Often with the fluidity of name comes the question of how to record someone, by their birth name or by the name they went by. Personally, I believe a person should be recorded by the name they chose to go by with the researcher's awareness that their subject may appear with different names in their records.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 22: "Conflict" - 3rd great grandpa, Daniel Krantzel's elusive date of death.

For this theme of "Conflict" I'm writing about unresolved conflicting information for in records.

A lot of my genealogy students and clients get all bent about "misspelled" names. I try to explain spelling is a modern convention and that there are many reasons a name might not be spelled the way you expect it to be. You kind of have to let it go already and accept that spelling never counted.

Frequently I am then asked, "Well, how do you know it is the right person then if the name is not spelled correctly?" The answer to which is you corroborate the record with other details.

And then there are times when the records just leave you stumped. Welcome 3rd great grandpa, Heinrich Daniel Krantzel...or Daniel Heinrich...or is it just Daniel..oh, wait, occasionally you went by Henry. Oh but your birth registration says Johann Heinrich Daniel Kraenzel. Ah, were you a secret agent? Forget the spelling of the last name, when did you died exactly? I don't know. I'm not sure anyone knew. And burial location? Forget that. Look at this mess...

This is his German birth registration:

What? Can't read it? Yeah, me neither. Thus I am relying upon the index which states:

Name: Johann Daniel Heinrich Kraenzel
Event Type: Geburt (Birth)
Birth Date: 21. Mai 1825 (21 May 1825)
Birth Place: Worms, Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), Deutschland (Germany)
Father: Heinrich Kraenzel
Mother: Anna Catharina Kraenzel

How do I know this is my guy? Well, I have multiple other documents that state he was born in Worms, Germany in 1825 including his U.S. Civil War Muster Roll Abstract which corroborates his place of birth and, with a little math, places his birth in 1825.

Other records, such as the one below, the U.S. Civil War Pension Index, led me to request his Civil War pension file.

Filed beginning in October 1889 by his widow, Elizabeth Goetz-Krantzel (February 12, 1833 - August 25, 1896), it tells me Ole Danny Boy - or whatever you want to call him - had died before October 1889. Can't have a widow without a dead husband, right? Maybe.

The pension file is thick. I see pages stamped by the government ranging in date from 1889 to 1897. Among them I see two potential dates of death for Daniel. On the Application for Widow's Pension form Elizabeth reports that she is "the widow of  Daniel Krantzel, who belonged to Company B, 8th Regiment, N.Y. Volunteers...died at Cincinnati, Ohio on the 8th day of April A.D. 1877..." "...of disease..."

Also among the documents is a death certificate from the City of New York prefaced by a letter written by E. Krantzel, son of Henry D. Krantzel. E. would have to be Ernest Krantzel (October 12, 1863 - October 7, 1921), the youngest son, #4 of the couple's 5 children.

Ernest writes:

Health Department,

Sanitary Bureau

No. 301 Mott Street

Division of Vital Statistics,

New York, ________189_

To the Hon. Board of Health:

I respectfully request that the accompanying "Corrected Certificate" of the death of Henry D. Krantzel, 59 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, be filed with the original Certificate of the death of an "Unknown Man", about 55 years old, who died opposite 168 Front St., on Nov 2, 1884, said unknown man being since identified as Henry D. Krantzel.

Yours respectfully,

E. Krantzel,

Son of Henry D. Krantzel

7 St. Mark's Place

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 20: "Textile" - Grandpa Earle sends his mom a gift to me

Among the heirlooms given to my by my Grandma Earle there is a small box. 

The box is pretty beat up but it contained 2 handkerchiefs. One of the handkerchief is now missing. Well, not really missing; my sister took it sown inside her wedding gown as her "something old."

This box was sent by my grandfather, Edwin M. Earle (August 20, 1925 - June 21, 2000), to his mother, Ethel Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960) in April 1944. 

At the time my grandfather was stationed in San Francisco as part of the U.S. Navy in a special CB detachment. CB is the abbreviation for Construction Battalion. 

Until my sister sowed one of the handkerchiefs inside her wedding gown, it appears as though they had never been used. Now the unused one remains in the box, in a bag, in a drawer, safe and sound.

I'm sure they are not worth much. I doubt my grandfather paid very much for them. But I suspect they meant an awful lot to Ethel, and they mean an awful lot to me and my sister. One memory I have of my grandfather is that he always carried a handkerchief.

In another box given to me, there is an Easter card, again sent by my grandpa sent to his mom, Ethel. 

On the inside is is simply signed by my grandpa, "Your Sailor Son."

On the back of the card my great grandmother, Ethel, recorded a bit of family history in her very legible, pretty penmanship. She provided me with dates of events that for many years I could not confirm with military documentation of any kind. These kinds of "journals" or "notes" about family history are incredibly valuable to a genealogy researcher and I thank her sincerely in my heart and my records.

Third Great Grandpa, John Joyce, Dayton National Cemetery

THWACK.

On Saturday, June 12, 2021, I went to the Dayton National Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio with my cousins Peter and Ashlee. The three of us were on a one-way road trip from New York to New Orleans and I insisted we stop to see the burial location of my third great grandfather, John A. Joyce, bringing me one location closer to reaching my 2021 goal of seeing the graves of each of my great grandparents, great-great grandparents, and great-great-great grandparents.

It blew my mind when I discovered that John Joyce was buried in a National Cemetery in, of all places, Dayton, Ohio. My people are New Yorkers, they didn't live in Ohio. And really John didn't live there either, not really. John was born somewhere in Ireland. Don't know where but all the records I find for him, he is residing in New York, New York. Yeah, right over there in Manhattan. So I did not expect to find him buried in Ohio. For years I poked at New York City death records thinking he just had to be in there. He wasn't.

He purchased a great big plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY when he had to bury his son, also named John, in February of 1896. The elder John though, was not in that plot; no matter how much money I paid Calvary. Nope. He is in Ohio.

I have written about the discovery of his death location before but in brief I received an Ancestry.com hint for military records for John. I thought, "No that can't be him." But there on the military hospital records was an address for his wife, Mary Ann Joyce. Now John and Mary Joyce are pretty common names but to have an address confirmed that this was indeed my John. The address matched that of their residence in the 1910 census.

I had no idea he was in the military but apparently he was. He served in the U.S. Navy in the Mexican-American war as a first class boy. He enlisted at about the age of 17 in Philadelphia, PA on January 24, 1846. He was discharged on August 6, 1847 in Norfolk, VA. He served on the U.S.S. Potomac. Now I have to look for records in Philly and Virginia.

John was shuffled from Soldiers' Home to Soldiers' Home; what we could call VA hospitals today. I count at least 11 hospital stays from September 29, 1892 until his death on September 30, 1910, when he died. He had all sorts of ailments and was in so many military hospital locations. His last stay was obviously at the Soldiers' Home in Dayton, Ohio. 

I'm puzzled why his body was not sent home to New York. They certainly had the space in the huge plot he owned. Why are you in Ohio, John? 

I also wonder if I am the first of his descendants to visit his grave. 

It's a large cemetery with a very active Veterans' Administration service still operating on the property.

I could see the image of John's headstone on FindAGrave.com but that just isn't the same as being there.

It took awhile to find the stone in section Q. Not every stone was numbered. 

I would not have minded wandering around the neatly ordered rows of nearly identical stones out in the warm clear day there in Ohio except for the thousands of giant cicadas swarming the cemetery. My God they were everywhere. Huge! One hit me in the head with a thud so loud both my cousins heard. THWACK. I bet people for miles around heard it. Another bugger chased Cousin Ashlee in a whirling rhythmic dance around the parking lot. Quite the seen.

They are not pretty little things at all. Check this sucker out:

I am that black figure in the distance getting the hell out of Dodge, or Dayton as it were.

But here is John's spot - - great great great grandpa, John A. Joyce (February 1829, Ireland - 30 September 1910, Dayton, Ohio).

I know very little about the Mexican-American War and thus I have ordered John's his pension file from the National Archives to learn more about his service but have yet to receive any documentation. I'm hoping the file might reveal where in Ireland he was born and when he immigrated to the U.S. We'll see. I'll keep you posted!

Home on the Road and Great Grandpa Albert's WWI Draft Registration

Every June I take a road trip. Well, if you aren't home for your birthday it doesn't count. This is how I get to stay perpetually 28. :)

This summer Cousin Peter and Godmother Joanne and I traipsed from Salt Lake City, Utah to Kansas City. Missouri and then turned south towards Austin, Texas, Our stop in Kansas City required a visit to the Kansas City Public Library where they were having an exhibit of the first Shakespeare folio; basically a very old rare book contained in a glass case opened to one page of the play Hamlet. Well.....

Okay....

We were there for me to look through city directories but its nice they had something out for Cousin Peter and Godmother Joanne to look at.

Despite my long seeded New York roots, I apparently had a few relatives on my mother's side who resided in Kansas City in the early 1900s. One of which was my great grandfather, Albert Gardner.

Great Grandpa Albert is intriguing to me. Born on September 21, 1891 in Queens, New York he was christened Almond Desjardins. His very French name is pronounced AL-mon-d Day-shar-dan but everyone says it like the nut, Almond and pronounces the last name Des-Jar-Dins. I'm sure he Anglicized the name not because of the course American pronunciation though but rather for employment opportunities. Desjardins means from the garden and Gardner is a very historic family name on Long Island where his family settled after coming from Montreal. The choice of Gardner for a surname makes sense.

Several years ago I came cross his World War I draft registration card. Curiously, though, he was living in Kansas City. That surprised me. Even though "Albert Gardner" is a rather common name, I am sure it is his draft registration card. The birthday matches other records I have, He was born in New York. I was told by his son that he was a painter. In 1917 when this registration was created his mother would have been a widow and it is likely he was helping to financially support her. He wasn't married yet.

But what is that bit there about having already served in the Cavalry for 3 years? And why is it stamped "Delinquent or Deserter"?

Has anyone else seen that on a draft registration card?

And what do you think it says between "Private" and "Cavalry"?

That aside, while in KC, MO, I did try to find Great Grandpa Albert's residence. Sad to say that 619 Troost Ave. no longer exists. Troost is still a street but 619 is now where the U.S. Interstate 70 and I-35 come together. In some sense that feels right. His home is now on the road and personally, I feel quite at home on that road.

Joseph Sauer's WWII Dog Tag

This is a follow-up to this past Wednesday's semi-wordless post. Many bloggers have a Wordless Wednesday post in which they just put up a picture. That is what I did except the picture actually had words in it so it was only kind of a Wordless Wednesday.

This is the image I posted. It is the WWII dog tag of my great grandmother's brother, Joseph A. Sauer.

This year marks the 100th anniversary, or centenary, of the start of WWI, or what at the time was called The Great War. WWI began on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. You will see that there will be many events and programs this year reflecting on WWI. 

Joseph served in WWII though which started on September 1, 1939 and lasted until September 2, 1945. Joseph was kind of old to be a soldier at that time. He was born on May 6, 1902 in Manhattan. He enlisted on September 9, 1942 at the age of 40. He died on December 23, 1968, long after WWII. He is interred in Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn, NY. 

Joseph's brother-in-law, my great-grandpa Charles A. Henry, who was just a few years older than Joseph, served in WWI. Charles was born March 26, 1896. He enlisted on September 9, 1918. Joseph at that time would have only been 16; narrowly escaped the age requirement for enlisting in WWI.

Here is a photo of Charles A. Henry in his WWI uniform.

Although I love that WWI photo of my great-grandpa, I find something so poignant about Joseph's WWII dog tag. The purpose of the dog tag was to identify the dead. And although Joseph survived WWII, he knew when he was issued that item what its purpose was. It must have served as a constant reminder of the risk he was taking. 

Although the item does not reveal much genealogical information it does tell an important family story about service to ones country. It does list the name and address of the individual's next of kin, though. That much is genealogical. In this case, the unmarried Joseph's next of kin was his widowed mother. If his father was alive at the time, it would have listed him.

I don't know if you can see it but in the lower right hand corner there is a small stamped "O." This was Joseph's blood type. It was placed there to inform medic should the soldier need a blood transfusion. At this time they did not know about the Rh factor; the + or - that now accompanies a letter when you are told your blood type. I am also "O"; "O+" like my father.

In my opinion, the dog tag is the most personal of all items ever issued by the government. These items were there throughout all the battles and service the soldier endured. I am not sure what Joseph did in the war. I have never been able to find his WWII Enlistment Record. And I am not entirely sure how my father came to own this tag that belonged to his great uncle but it shakes me to my core to think about what this tag might have "seen" regardless of what war it was issued for or what service Joseph gave his country.

Wordless Wednesday, Kind Of...