Two Uncles, Same Homeroom

The title of the post reveals a lot really, no surprise coming. When I discovered it though, my mind was blown.

I received an Ancestry hint for a "V. Prastaro", my uncle. He was married and subsequently divorced from my maternal aunt. Sadly, both are passed but Uncle Vinny remains in my family tree of course. His wedding to my aunt was the first I ever remember attending. I was little. I think it was the summer before I  started kindergarten, so maybe I was 5.

I followed the Ancestry hint to a yearbook photo and sure enough, there he was - Uncle Vinny in 1975 before he was my uncle. 

While examining the photo though I saw the name "J. Puppelo". Wait a second. That is my step-mother's brother! Another uncle by marriage pictured long before he was my uncle. Uncle Joe has also passed.

It was such a surprise to see them there together in the same yearbook. I had never really given it a thought but they were about the same age and lived in the same town. And yet there they are!!

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!

Lots of Family Happenings

As much as use this blog to share my family history, research methods, and genealogical resources, I also use it as a kind of journal for myself, a journal of family happenings. I just haven't felt up to writing lately.

In November we lost my paternal grandmother to Alzheimer's Disease. She was 94. Her birthday is approaching which is probably what is prompting me to catch up with writing. 

The day after we buried my grandma, my sister gave birth to my first nephew. He was born early and still now at 3 months is so little. Healthy, but tiny. You forget how little those newborn bodies are.

Last month, in January, I traveled to the Philippines with Cousin Kelly and Cousin Pete to celebrate the wedding of Kelly's nephew. It was the first opportunity for Kelly to meet her half-sister in person that we only just discovered existed about 2 1/2 years ago.

So today I share some photos: