52 Ancestors Challenge Week 3: "Favorite Photo" - 3rd great grandpa John Losee Sr.

I love this photo.



The little boy is my Grandpa Earle's brother, Allen Preston Earle (17 March 1916 - 8 November 1956). The older man is his great grandfather, my 3rd great grandfather, John M. Losee Sr. (17 August 1841 - 10 February 1918).

Aside from the fact that not too many people have an image of their 3rd great grandparent, I know almost exactly where and when this photo was taken. That is part of why is it one of my favorite photos.

It was taken at either present-day 56 or 60 Stevens Street in Freeport, Long Island, New York. If I thought the owners would let me wander around their properties to line up a recreation of the photo, I bet I could find the exact spot.

The Losee family owned that property for a long time and that house is still standing. John Sr.'s father, Leonard Losee, owned that property as far back as 1873 according to a historic map of the area. That block is very close to a dividing line between the towns of Roosevelt and Freeport, but at one time the area was called Greenwich Point. I suspect they may have owned it even longer than that but that is the oldest map I have seen.

The Losees sold the property to a developer, Albin Johnson, in about 1912 but family resided on the land well into the 1930s. That is where John Sr.'s daughter, Georgianna Losee, was living at the time of her death on November 29, 1935 at the age of 69.

As for the date on which this photo was taken, there is a very small window as to when it could have been taken. Allen was born on March 17, 1916 and John died on February 10, 1918. Only 696 days have lapsed between those 2 dates. It looks to me as though Allen is over a year old. He's not in summer clothes, in fact, they are kind of bundled up; John has gloves on. So I am guessing it was taken in the Fall of 1917 or a nice warm winter day shortly before John's death.

What I really love about it is the fact that its a casual, candid photo of a smiling little one hanging out on a log with his great grandpa and a dog. Just chillin'.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 2: "Favorite Find" - 3rd great grandpa, Damas Desjardins

I have a hard time with the word favorite. I can't ever seem to choose just one of anything out of all the things I love. My favorite book? Can't do it. Favorite movie? Too many good ones to choose from. Favorite food? Yes. Favorite color? Oh that one is easy - green. But ask me to chose a specific shade of green, forget it. So my favorite genealogical find - - can't do it. I can't just pick one.

In all honesty, my favorite finds are cousins. Living breathing people who not only share some DNA with me but who also have a common interest, like family history perhaps. Even better though is if I enjoy their company and if they have a nice comfy spot I can crash on for a few days. I've met so many in the course of my family history research; I can't just pick one.

Trying to focus this on an ancestor of mine though. I have to say I really, really LOVE when a piece of documentation solidifies an answer without doubt. For example... (I've blogged about this one before)

One of my favorite finds is the obituary of my 3rd great grandfather, Damas Desjardins. He was the grandfather of my maternal grandfather, Clarence Gardner.

Grandpa Gardner was pretty quiet about family history. I only really started researching his family tree after his death in December 2004. There is a whole lot of estrangement in his tree.

The one time I was able to get family information out of Grandpa, he mentioned that his family name had changed "from something really French." Eventually I found the name Gardner had been Anglicized from Desjardins which in French means from the garden. 

I found tons of documentation about my great grandfather, Albert Gardner listing him as Almond Desjardins, as well as Albert Desjardins and Almond Gardner with a variety of spellings. I knew it was him for sure though because of other corroborating facts like known addresses, his date of birth, parents names, etc. 

However, I can not tell you how many people have him misattributed as their relative as my great grandpa in their family trees on Ancestry. I often message them say, "Um, no. I'm sorry that can't be your Albert Gardner. My Albert Gardner was Almond Desjardins." They have all ignored me so I don't bother trying to correct them anymore.

I did not have one definitive document, though, that stated the family name had been changed formally or informally. I just had my grandfather's statement, until I found this obituary for Damas Desjardins in the Patchogue Advance from October 13, 1911. Transcription below image.

 

Damas Desjardins died at his home on Avery avenue early Monday morning in his sixtieth year of his age, after suffering for eight months with a complication from diseases. The funeral was held on Wednesday, with service in St. Francis de Sales' Roman Catholic church at 9:30 a. m. The Rev. Fr. Cronin officiating and internment was made in St. Francis cemetery. Mr. Desjardins was born in Montreal, Canada. He was a carpenter by trade and was employed for a long time in New York. He had lived with his family in Patchogue for nearly five years. Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, and Anglicization of his French family name. He leaves a widow and ten children some of whom live in the city. 

You see that sentence? 

Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, and Anglicization of his French family name.

What a gem. Satisfied with that, I don't need any more evidence of the family surname change.  

I did, however, want to find his burial location. This here is the Desjardins family plot in St. Francis de Sales Cemetery in Patchogue, NY.

 Above: The Desjardins Family plot

 

Above: This footstone indicates Damas Desjardins's dates of birth and death. The date of death is absolutely incorrect though. He died in 1911 for sure. I think it would have been Monday, October 2, 1911. I'm not sure how much stock to put in the correctness of the other dates engraved here.

 

 

 Above: This is the headstone for Damas

 

Above: This is the headstone for the baby Anna who also died in 1911.

 

 Above: I believe this is the headstone for Damas and Malvina Desjardins's son, Hector Desjardins, whose date of death I do not know but I know he was an epileptic who resided at the Craig Colony for Epileptics in Sonyea, New York.

I also believe Damas's wife, Malvina Ethier-Desjardins, my 3rd great grandmother, is interred in this plot but I have no confirmation of that. There is an obvious space next to Damas where Malvina's remains may be but no "M.D." for her headstone. I was unsuccessful in obtaining records from this cemetery which is located in the middle of an apartment complex. Weird.

But if I have to pick just one favorite find, that obituary will be...for today at least. If you ask me tomorrow, it might be a different find.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 1: "Foundations" - Aunt Jeannette

I try to set a genealogy research goal for myself every year. Some years are more successful than others. This year I am already failing in that I can't even come up with a goal. I blame it on COVID-fatigue. Oh, that's a real thing for sure!! I surely have had enough of it. Haven't you? I can't really focus on anything. The "plan" is constantly changing. I feel scattered and confined all at once. Anyway...

In my search for a genealogy goal for 2022, I came across the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge" set forth by professional genealogist, Amy Crow Johnson. Each week she present a theme which the participants can interpret anyway they chose to. This week's theme is "Foundations."

The first recollection I have of having any interest in my family history was when I was about 10. I was a Girl Scout and I had a workbook full of badges to pursue and one of them was for genealogy. 

I loved making a tree. Something about the organization of the information and the collection of data just gave me strength. I don't know how to explain it better than that. It made me confident in myself that I could ask the right questions to get all these names and birthdays and death dates and visually lay it out in a consistent format on a sheet of paper for everyone to see and understand. It is really no surprise to me that I am a cataloging librarian today. I like to keep shit in order. Librarian was not a childhood career goal, though. I was well into my 30s by the time I chose this career. Like many, I just sort of stumbled on to it my career path. All modesty aside, I am really good at it. I am also pretty fabulous at puzzles. Give me an impossible jigsaw and I can get that done in a few days, no sweat. I do love a good mystery too, although I often figure them out long before the final chapter. Only really good writers can surprise me. I think I am more a genealogist than a librarian.

I blame the foundation of my genealogy addiction on a family reunion I attended in my teens. I think I was about 15 the first time I attended a Losee Family reunion with my paternal grandparents, Ed and Clare Earle. Losee was Grandpa Earle's mother's maiden name; my great grandma was Ethel Mae Losee-Earle. 

I could say Ethel was the foundation or root of my interest in genealogy but nope, sorry Ethel, it wasn't really her. For that honor, I point to my great aunt, Jeannette Alice Losee-Henry. Jeannette wasn't especially interested in genealogy, nor was she a central figure in my life. I never even really spent much time with Aunt Jeannette but it was at that reunion that I learned I was related to Aunt Jeannette in 2 ways. Yes, 2 ways. Blew my mind. 

I knew Aunt Jeannette was married to Grandma Earle's brother, Richard Henry, making her my great-aunt by marriage. But it was at that Losee reunion that I learned she was related to me biologically as well. She was my grandfather's cousin.  Mind blown. Jeannette was born a Losee. 

I couldn't get my head around it and it is what really started my research. I needed to understand how she was related to both my Grandma Earle AND my Grandpa Earle. I needed to visually see it on a tree. And neither Jeannette or my grandfather could draw it out for me. Grandma tried but I had to do it myself.

The revelation sparked me to inquire how the couples met. "So did grandpa introduce his cousin to grandma's brother or the other way around?"

The response I received was confounding. It wasn't until Richie brought Jeannette home to meet his parents, Great Grandpa Charles & Great Grandma Anna Henry,  that Jeannette's connection to my grandfather was brought to light. My grandparents were already married at the time. At Richie & Jeannette's engagement party, grandpa, who we all called Poppy, simple asked Jeannette what her last name was. To which he reacted with, "That's my mother's maiden name too."

The family sorted out the connection then, again, I had to figure it out on my own to really get it. So this confusing little diagram totally makes sense to me.

To achieve this goal of mapping out how Grandpa Earle was related to Aunt Jeannette Losee-Henry, I made several trips to the Freeport Memorial Library. I was told the Losee Family were early settlers of Freeport. Little did I know how early, but I digress. I thought the Freeport Memorial Library might have some more information for me. 

On my first research visit to that library, I was taken into what they called the History Room. While I waited for the librarian to pull some books for me from their closed stack, I wandered around the room with my Grandma Earle reading the plaques on the walls. 

I learned the room I was standing in was the original library building and that it was built as a Civil War Memorial. Up on a plaque, honoring the town's residents who died  in the Civil War, was the name Benjamin F. Losee. And so my first lesson in genealogy research was learned; that every answer leads to more questions. Now I had to figure out how Aunt Jeannette was related to Poppy AND how I must be related to Benjamin F. Losee. 

30+ years later, I am still at this genealogy game and I still have more questions before me.

Thanks, Aunt Jeannette.

#52ancestors

Year In Review

With the end drawing near, it is a time to reflect on what has been accomplished in the last year, genealogically speaking.

If you follow my blog you know that this year I set a goal to locate and visit the burial locations of all my direct ancestors back to, and including, my 3rd great grandparents. When I started my mission I had determined that included 23 individuals, 10 of which I had little hope of finding. Well, I have 9 that I did not get to, most of which are buried in Canada. Although I tried to find burial locations for them, I couldn't find them and even if I had, traveling to Canada during this global health crisis wasn't a good idea. At points, international travel wasn't even permitted.

In addition to visiting 14 graves, reaching 60% of my goal, I also replaced a headstone. It is the stone for my third great grandfather, Victor Henry, and two of his sons, Joseph and Louis. I did so with the help of many many relatives. 

I gave a presentation about that project through the Allen County Public Library (Indiana). In fact I spoke several times this year about genealogy research. I gave 7 formal presentations to be exact.

I also spent a great deal of time unraveling DNA cases of adoption and unknown parentage. All with great success really.

I guess it is now time to start thinking about a goal for '22. I am open to suggestions. 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and wonderful 2022.

Victor Henry's New Headstone

I am pleased to announce that the headstone of my 3rd great grandfather, Victor Henry, has been replaced. It was set on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, New York on the 125th anniversary of Victor's death. It was a long expensive process that began on Saturday, April 24, 2021 and ended with a bill for $6,100.50 between cemetery fees and the cost of the stone, much of which was contributed by family members. I think it is worth every cent to see them all clearly marked.

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!

Ethel's Citizenship

There was a period in U.S. history that if a natural born U.S. woman married a foreign man, she lost her U.S. citizenship. 

It's true!

Starting on March 2, 1907, an American woman, by birth or naturalization, lost her citizenship when she married an alien. She thereby took on his nationality. She could regain her U.S. citizenship if and when her husband naturalized. His naturalization required a total of 5 years residency in the U.S. including 1 year of residency in the state of application and 2 years between his declaration of intent to naturalize and the submission of his naturalization petition.

On September 22, 1922 the Cable Act was passed. This Act made it so that women could no longer be naturalized through derivative citizenship; meaning that she herself had to apply for her own citizenship. She didn't just get it automatically when her alien husband naturalized. 

It also made it so women no longer lost their U.S. citizenship just because she married an alien. However, the women who had previously lost their citizenship due to marrying an alien were only made eligible to naturalized. They didn't just get it back. They had to go through the process of applying for citizenship.

On June 25, 1936, it changed again so that women who were native born U.S. citizens that lost their citizenship due to marriage an foreign man prior to September 22, 1922 could be considered a citizen again if she took the oath of allegiance AND her marriage was terminated by either death or divorce of her spouse. So in other words, she could be come a citizen on her own as long as that guy wasn't her husband anymore.

It wasn't until July 2, 1940 that those women who lost their citizenship through marriage between 1907 and 1922 could be considered a citizen again. She still had to take the oath of allegiance, but it didn't matter if her husband was dead or alive anymore, she could do it on her own. The one caveat being that she had to resided in U.S. for the duration of the marriage.

So that brings me to my great grandmother, Ethel Mae Losee-Earle. Ethel was born on St. Valentine's Day, 1896 in Freeport, Long Island, New York, where 8 previous generations had all been born after her 7th great grandfather, Edward Raynor settled the area in the mid 1600s.

By all accounts, Ethel never left Long Island. Maybe she ventured into Manhattan or up to New England for some excursion but she never traveled abroad. 

On June 5, 1915, she married Abram Thomas Earle in Freeport. Abram was born in Twillingate, Newfoundland which at the time of his birth was a British colony. Newfoundland only became a province of Canada on March 31, 1949. So when Ethel married Abe, she too became a British citizen. She had never been there. Never planned to even visit. Yet, she was no longer an American.

Now maybe in 1915 that didn't seem like a big deal but I wonder how she felt in 1920 when American women were finally able to vote and she couldn't.

Until very recently I had no reason to believe Abe had ever naturalized. I believed wholeheartedly that he had died a British citizen. Although, I don't know what becomes of your citizenship status when your place of birth changes its status like Newfoundland did by joining Canada in 1949. When Abe died in 1973 would he have been considered British or Canadian?

Ugh, well I don't have to answer that because, lookie here:

Abe naturalized on January 10, 1925, before my grandfather Ed was born in August of that year.

And guess what - - So did Ethel.

I was so happy to see her Certificate of Naturalization. I find the whole business of one loosing her citizenship so shameful. As if marrying someone outside of your national origin is a sign of disloyalty to your nation.

Love is love, people.