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!

Thank you, Officer Heney

The headline of the Brooklyn Daily Times from Monday, December 22, 1924 reads,"16 RESCUED, HERO COP OVERCOME IN SEVENTH AV. FIRE. Patrolman Heney Collapses After Turning in Alarm and Rousing Tenants. 7 CANARIES SMOTHERED. Family of Four Awakened by Fireman, Escape in Night Clothes by Ladder"

Three of the tenants rescued by Patrolman Joseph Heney were my great-great aunts and uncle; Gertrude Joyce-Sheridan (February 7, 1863 - April 21, 1934), George Joyce (November 30, 1854 - March 6, 1931), and Mary Isabelle Joyce (June 1, 1861 - January 24, 1940). They were three of my great-great grandmother, Agnes C. Joyce-Fay's four siblings.

In the image below I have highlighted where my family members' names appear. 

The article reads as follows:

Sixteen persons were rescued during the cold early hours of today when fire in the basement of the three-story brick building at 89-90 seventh avenue sent clouds of heavy smoke billowing through the structure. Fireman Joseph Denato, of Truck 105, standing at the top of a thirty-foot ladder, awakened Gustav Burkhardt, his wife and two children when he smashed a window in their apartment with his axe. In their night clothes, except for coats. Mrs. Burkhardt, her husband and their children, Henry, 20 and Mildred, 16, went down the ladder to the street.

Previous to this, Patrolman Joseph Heney, after discovering the fire and sending an alarm, rushed through the hallways on the second and third floors, awakening occupants of apartments and helping them to the street those he aroused were James Seayth, his wife, and their sons, Kenneth, 17, and Alexander, 15, asleep on the third floor; Charles White, Mrs. White, their daughters, Catherine and Dorothea, and their son Charles, and the occupants of an opposite apartment, Mrs. Gertrude Sheridan, her brother, George Joyce, aged 70, and their sister Mary, 61.

Heney collapsed after every one was out, and was relieved from duty after having been restored by an ambulance surgeon.

Seven canaries were smothered in the Seayth apartment. Mrs. White brought out her pet canary, but when she slipped on the sidewalk, the bottom dropped from the cage and "Pete" fell into the freezing water from hose lines. Mrs. White kept him warm in her hands thereafter.

The women from the burning building were put into the heated taxicab of Louis Kirsch, of 424 Albany avenue, where they remained until arrangements were made to take them into neighbors' homes.

The fire was confined to the basement and the stationary store of Samuel Weiss. A third alarm was sent as a precautionary measure.

The news was picked up in several other newspapers of the day. I have chosen to share this one because it has a photo of the officer who risked his life to save the tenants of that building, including my family.

There are not many descendants of my third great grandparents, John Aloysius Joyce (February 11, 1829 - September 30, 1910) and Mary Ann O'Neill-Joyce (about 1829 - January 11, 1911). They had 5 children, George, John (about 1857 - February 27, 1896), Mary, Gertrude, and Agnes (my great-great grandmother). Three of them were present at this fire. John had passed many years before this event. There are no records of George, John, or Mary ever marrying. Gertrude had no children. It was only my great-great grandmother who had any offspring; eight to be exact. Although George, Mary, and Gertrude were all considered elderly at the time, 70, 63, and 61 respectively, I cannot imagine what it would have been like for Agnes to lose all 3 of her living siblings at one time had Office Heney not saved them from the blaze.

Moved by this patrolman's efforts, I researched him a bit and reached out to a descendant of his that I found researching the family on Ancestry. I haven't heard back from Officer Heney's grandson yet but I hope he'll respond. It is not often one finds a photo of a relative in the newspapers, and certainly not one attached to such a heroic deed.

Another Relative at Creedmoor

I am not shy about admitting to my struggles with depression and anxiety. There was a time when I would have said my depression was far more severe than my anxiety, although, I think I have lived with anxiety far longer. The two conditions often go hand-in-hand. My anxiety, for most of my life, was a daily battle. Nervousness and panic would overcome me in debilitating physical symptoms; nausea and vomiting were the most prevalent of them. This was true on a daily basis for most of my youth and through my mid-20s. Now it only hits me a couple times a year.

I am also not shy about admitting to my family members struggles with mental illnesses either. Now of course that is not fair of me but it is not that I point and call them each out publicly. Your health, your business; but trust me, it's in there and it is certainly among my dead.

I don't really get the persistent stigma about mental health issues. I mean, people have other fucked up organs. "Oh poor asthma people with your f-ed up lungs. Here, take this drug and you'll get better." The brain is just another organ in the body. But in any case...

I just found another relative who died while a patient at Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital in Queens, New York. 

Psychiatric institutions, in my opinion, really did begin as benevolent institutions. Some might argue that they were created to hide away the shamefully mentally ill people in our society, but I really think the medical community did want to understand these peoples' conditions and I think they have made great stride in addressing mental health maladies although we are indeed far from what is needed. It was only much later, after these institutions were establishment, when we started to see their state of disrepair and the medical community's indifference toward patients, if not outright cruelty and neglect.

I am currently reading Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York by Stacy Horn about Blackwell's Island, now known as Roosevelt Island. It was once the City's location for an asylum, a prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. So far it's a great read that sheds a light on the deplorable conditions our mentally ill existed in. Anyway...

Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital was founded in 1912 as a farm colony for the Brooklyn State Hospital. It was thought that patients would benefit from fresh air and clean living in what was the farmland of Queens County, as opposed to disease ridden, urban hospitals of neighboring Brooklyn. To a modern day resident of New York it's kind of hard to imagine Queens as farmland; it is the second highest populated county in New York State, just after Brooklyn. Back at its inception though, patients at Creedmoor tended gardens and raised livestock on the hospital’s grounds. They also had access to the hospital gymnasium, swimming pool, theater, and were put to work in the hospital's laundries and kitchens. By mid-century, though, it housed about 7,000 patients. I found one statistic that by 1948 approximately 95,000 patients lived in 27 mental institutions across New York State; that is close to when my great grandfather was a resident of Creedmoor. He died there of a heart attack in 1946. 

By the 1960s-1980s the state pushed for deinstitutionalization, turning to more out-patient services and focusing on re-integrating the mentally ill into society. Laws governing the commitment of the mentally ill to such institutions became much more strict and therefor it was harder to involuntarily hospitalize people with mental illness. Now Creedmoor has only a few hundred patients. I don't know if we need more or less institutionalization of the mentally ill but we're not getting mentally healthier as a society, that is for sure.

In any case, my great-great grandmother's sister, Gertrude M. Joyce-Sheridan, appears to have been committed to Creedmoor. Her death certificate calls it the Creedmoor Division of Brooklyn State Hospital. Her primary cause of death is listed as chronic myocarditis; inflammation of the heart. It also includes general arteriosclerosis and psychosis. Without access to her medical records, which is rarely if ever possible as they are only ever released to the patient themselves, I speculate that she was a resident there because of dementia. It says psychosis but that is merely a disconnection from reality. It can be associated with a whole array of mental illnesses. Psychosis can develop from anything as benign as a lack of sleep or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar); to a serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression; or from a brain tumor, lupus, multiple sclerosis, syphilis, malaria, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, the list goes on and on. In short many conditions can lead to a break with reality.

The certificate states she was admitted to Creedmoor on May 3, 1932 and died there on April 21, 1934. Thus she was 2 weeks shy of having been a resident there for 2 years. It documents her age as 70 but according to my research she was born on February 7, 1863 making her a little over 71 at the time of her death and 69 at the time of her admittance to the facility. 

Gertrude's remains are interred at Calvary Cemetery in the Woodside/Long Island City area of Queens; in Cemetery #3, Section #17, Range #22, Plot EE, Grave #12.

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 31: "Help" - Meadow Island Life-Saving Station

Just recently I had the opportunity to stay in a lighthouse. Yeah no joke. There is a beautiful AirBnB property called Wings Neck Lighthouse, in Pocasset, Massachusetts where you can stay in the lightkeeper's home of what is now a decommission lighthouse. There is no actual light in the lighthouse but the views of Buzzards Bay from the top of the structure are amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to stay on Cape Cod.

While there I reflected a great deal on the lives of my seafaring ancestors. I am not a boat person. I turn green just thinking about it but I come from a long line of seafaring people. Here is a smattering of my nautically inclined ancestors:

• Both my grandfathers served in the U.S. Navy during WWII.
  

• Great grandpa, Abram Thomas Earle (January 13, 1891 - November 18, 1973) purportedly built his own boat. 

• His father, my great-great grandfather, Abraham Earle (1849 - 1890) died at sea aboard a ship called the Rise and Go.

• Abraham's father-in-law, my 3rd great grandfather, Reuben Samms (1830 - October 7, 1869) also died at sea. As did his father, also named Reuben Samms (1799 - December 11, 1870).

Sad story there with those Samms. It seems that during the 1870s, the Samms family of Gadds Harbour, Newfoundland carried on seal hunts on a small scale. The enterprise was short-lived though because of an accident at the ice. Their ship, The Reddie, was lost with her entire crew of 7 men; one of which was Reuben Samms the elder. That crew left 6 widows and about 14-16 children without fathers. It is said that there was only one man left in Gadds Harbour after the loss of The Reddie. One spring, that gentleman attempted to walk across the ice from Gadds Harbour to Woody Point for food and supplies and never returned. It is assumed he fell through the spring ice and drowned.

• Another of my great grandfathers, Charles Aloysius Henry (March 26, 1896 - June 14, 1949), lost a brother, Victor (July 10, 1902 - September 13, 1940), in a boating accident.

• A 3rd great grandfather, John Aloysius Joyce (February 11, 1829 - September 30, 1910), served in the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American war (1846-1848) when he was just a boy.

I am sure if I plunked around a bit more I could find others who either perished at sea or rode upon it as part of their occupation, military service, or personal passion. What most of them needed was a watchful eye from their peers, like that of the brother of my 3rd great grandfather John Losee. 

His brother, Leander Losee (November 8, 1846 - April 23, 1917), served in the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He went on to serve as head of a Life-Saving Station here on Long Island, New York. Unfortunately, Leander had a pretty public ousting from his position due to gambling and drinking on the job but that is neither here nor there really. 

Life-Saving Stations were the precursor to the United States Coast Guard. They consisted of extraordinary boat houses strategically located along the coasts of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as around the Great Lakes and stouthearted men, yes, as far as I can tell for Leander's Station it was only men, knowledgeable and at the ready to rescue those in need. Ships running aground was extremely common and especially so along the south shore of Long Island and the coast of northern New Jersey as an excessive number of ships attempted to enter the narrow passageway into the Port of New York at a time before air travel and advanced nautical navigation systems.

The first legislation for the establishment of U.S. Life-Saving Stations was enacted in 1848. Some of the earliest were built on Long Island beginning in 1849. Much like volunteer firefighters today, the crews of these Life-Saving Stations were comprised of men with the best of intentions to save, to rescue, those in danger. In a position, though, that is much like manning a reference desk (said the librarian), a lot of time is spent sitting around waiting for something to happen; waiting to be needed. And what is that saying? Idle hands are the Devil's play things. Vices take hold when waiting is your workshop. Oh Leander. (Oh. Hey. Oleander is a flower) Anyway...

According to a U.S. Coast Guard list from 1876, there were 11 District, encompassing 157 stations. 36 of the stations were in the 3rd District, the second largest district. District 3 consisted of stations in Rhode Island and Long Island. 32 of those 36 stations were on Long Island and Leander Lozee (misspelling of his surname Losee) is listed as keeper of station #28, Meadow Island, L.I. 

However, an article from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from February 3, 1880, puts Leander in charge of Life Saving Station #31. #28? #31? I have a feeling the stations numbers changed with the growth of the program. 

The Coast Guard's website (https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Land/Stations-Units/Article/2665769/station-meadow-island-new-york/) states the Meadow Island Life-Saving Station was positioned at the entrance to Jones Inlet. For those Long Islanders who have never heard of it, I am not surprised. It is due north of where the present-day Coast Guard Station is located on the west end of Jones Beach. There are a couple bay houses on Meadow Island but it is largely uninhabited and hosts a significant stretch of the Loop Parkway.

I find the station listed as "discontinued" in the report dated June 30, 1880. The Coast Guard's website also states Leander was the only known keeper and that he was appointed on December 9, 1872 at the age of 30.  A mention in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on page 3 of the February 17, 1880 edition states the station was ordered closed. Thus, I assume the rise and fall of that Life-Saving Station all hinged on Leander.

Just scrolling through the very detailed Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Stations for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1880, I learned that the number of disasters in District 3 totaled 22 with 144 people saved and no lives lost. At least 15 of those lives can be directly connected to Leander and the Meadow Island Life-Saving Station; that's 10% of the lives save in that year alone. I'm not sure I was entirely comprehensive, however, 11 of those individuals saved were crew members of 2 wrecks near Jones Inlet:

1. The schooner L. V. Ostrum out of Patchogue, Long Island traveling from Fire Island to New York City with a crew of just 3 men
2. The schooner Hector out of Boston destine for Philadelphia with a load of coal and a crew of 8.

For those doing the math, the additional 4 lives rescued by the members of Meadow Island station came just days before it's closure. On February 4, 1880 a vessel called Gussie ran aground after being caught in a gale and was heaved afloat by the crew of Meadow Island's station.

Point is, the sea is dangerous and just like our more familiar firefighters on land, there were and continue to be individuals willing to risk their lives at sea to help others. Some of those souls were my relatives.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 29: "Fun Facts" - A list of 10

Here are some fun facts I have in my family history:

1. My parents grew up next door to each other. 

That's not an expression. They literally lived next door to each other.

2. I come from a long line of seafaring men yet just looking at the ocean can make me seasick. 

Both my grandpas served in the navy in WWI. My great grandpa, Abram Earle (January 13, 1891 - November 18, 1973) started building his own boat. His father, my great-great grandfather, Abraham Earle (About 1849 - Fall 1890), died at sea abroad a ship called The Rise and Go in Newfoundland. Abraham's father-in-law, my 3rd great grandfather, Reuben Samms (About 1830 - October 7, 1869), also died at sea during a seal hunt. Another of my 3rd great grandfathers, John M. Losee (August 17, 1841 - February 10, 1918), had a brother, Leander L. Losee (November 8, 1846 - April 23, 1917), who served in the Navy during the American Civil War and was captain of a life saving station along the south shore of Long Island. And yet another 3rd great grandpa, John Aloysius Joyce (February 11, 1829 - September 30, 1910), served in the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American War (mid-1840s) at 16 years-old as a cabin boy on the U.S.S. Potomac. Boat people! I'm queasy just writing this.

3.  My family has multiple children born on their parent's birthday. 

My grandmother was married on her 20th birthday and then had her 3rd child on the same date 5 years later, February 27. That son's ex-wife had their second child on her birthday, June 2. My grandma's brother, Robert, had his first child on his birthday, October 21.

4. My mother, my paternal aunt, and my step-mother were all in the same graduating class at the same high school.

5. My father's sister married his best friend from high school. 

6. Both my brother-in-laws were best friends in high school too. 

And get this, those boys when to the same high school as mom, Aunt Jane, and my step-mom.

7. I have a pair of aunts who married brothers.

Also, my great-great grandmother, Flora Smith-Losee (Mar 1875 - September 1, 1920), and her a sister, Melinda Smith-Losee (November 1, 1869 - August 19, 1955) married brothers; John M. Losee Jr. (March 25, 1870 - May 24, 1940) and Oliver Combs Losee (May 3, 1868 - February 10, 1937), respectively.

8. I have two 5th great grandfathers who served in the American Revolution; Colonel Daniel Moore (February 11, 1730 - April 13, 1811) and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moore (May 22, 1724 - October 27, 1778).

And... they were brothers whose children married. Yeah my 4th great grandfather, William Moore (1763 - July 1817), and 4th great grandmother, Eleanor Moore (1767 - October 19, 1836), were 1st cousins.

9. William and Eleanor Moore helped settled the area of St. Felix-de-Kingsey, Quebec, Canada in 1803.

"Settler" is just a term for people showing up and building a house, typically to colonize the area and thus, typically European white people were settlers.

10. I descend from the man who settled Freeport, Long Island in 1659; Edward Raynor (1624 - 1685). 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 5: "Branching Out" - Great-great grandparents Michael & Agnes Fay

For the last few years I have been working a lot with genetic genealogy. Mainly helping people find their biological parent or parents. In the summer of 2020 I decided I would dive more deeply into my own AncestryDNA results. My goal was to place 100 of my matches into my family tree. In order to do that, I most certainly had to expand my family tree; branch out as it were. I'll explain a little bit about how I did that.

Last week, though, I received an Ancestry message from a DNA match suggesting we might be 2nd or 3rd cousins based on what AncestryDNA suggested. Well, I already had built Cousin Lori in my tree and was able to quickly say, "Oh, we're 2nd cousins once removed on my mother's side." I Love it!

Ideally, Step 1: Make a fleshy tree! 

I really think it is best to do your DNA testing after you have developed a really fleshed out family tree. Get back at least to a few great-great grandparents and expand the tree by including everything you can find on your direct ancestors' siblings and their offspring. Make a fleshy tree!

I do realize though that it is not always the order in which genetic genealogy research comes into play. For example, I had a friend who had a good fleshy tree. He took an AncestryDNA test and linked it to his tree. And oddly, none of his matches popped up in ThruLines. 

ThruLines is a feature of AncestryDNA that shows you how you may be related to your DNA matches. It is based on information from your DNA matches' family trees. Now if you have been doing genealogy research for sometime you know how shitty some family trees can be. Lots of "researchers" just copy information from other people's trees without vetting the information themselves and backing it up with documentation. In short, you can't trust ThruLines. It might not place your DNA matches in the right place - - BUT once you link your DNA to your tree, ThruLines should recognize some of your direct ancestors in the trees (even shitty trees) of some of your DNA matches. For my friend it did not.

I had to break it to him that he was adopted. 48 years-old and the thought never crossed his mind. That is when genetic genealogy comes to play a bigger role. For most of us though, we aren't adopted and our fathers are our biological fathers. Thus, once you link your AncestryDNA results to your fleshy tree, ThruLines will show how some of your matches may be connected to you. If it doesn't, hate to break it to you but you're probably adopted or you have some bad research going on in your tree.

I generally, I did not use ThruLines to get my 100 matches in my tree though.

Step 2: Look at your match list.

That ethnicity pie chart is junk science if you ask me. It's interesting, sure, but it's not going to tell you who your great-great-great grandparents were or where they lived. I wish people would stop caring about estimates so much. Sure busted fender, need a kitchen remodeled, want to know how long the wait will be for dinner, go get all the estimates you want. Genealogy isn't an estimate.

And ThruLines I already discussed. 

You want to figure out who you have in common with each of your matches!

I am fortunate to have a lot of known family members who have tested through AncestryDNA. Let me count... 43! 43 of my DNA matches on Ancestry are people that I have either spoken to face-to-face in-person during my lifetime or conducted online genealogy research with and expected to see in my DNA results. That's a lot. Then again though, it is a big family.

When you open your match list, Ancestry now asks you if you know the person. You want to fill that out if you can.

Step 3: Link the known family members into your tree!

You should know almost everyone in the following groups: Parent/Child, Full Siblings, and Close Family. 

Towards the bottom of the Close Family group there might be a few people you don't know; typically some cousins of your parents or some second cousins wind up there. Second cousins are people with whom you have the same great grandparents in common. A majority of your Parent/Child, Full Siblings, and Close Family should already be in your fleshy tree. If not, maybe your tree isn't really that fleshy. Go flesh it up! Or maybe we need to have that heart-to-heart.

When you click on the name of a match in the list, it opens their DNA profile.

Next to their name you'll see a symbol which to me looks like the face of the Man in the Moon; a circle with a little pedigree shaped Y and a plus sign. Like this: 

Right? Looks like the Man in the Moon's face, doesn't it? Well, that is what I see. Anyway...

Once you click on that, a panel will open to the right and you can search for the person in your tree. If they are in your tree, it will link the match to the tree. 

Done!

Wait! What about the other 57 people that I worked into my tree that I didn't know in real life??

Well - - - 

This is when the work starts!

Step 4: Look at their linked and unlinked trees.

Sometimes Ancestry will show you that you and your match have a common ancestor in your respective trees. That will look like this:

Examine their trees. Build their line down into your tree from the ancestor you have in common down to the person you match to. Making sure you review their connected documents, etc. Build them right in. THEN you can use that "Man in the Moon"-tool and connect that match to your tree.

That technique added about another 30 linked DNA matches.

The remaining 27 to 30, you ask. Well about a dozen or so had unlinked trees that or "unavailable" trees. It took a few more clicks then to open their trees and look around for our possible common ancestors.

The additional dozen required much more work to link them to my tree. I had to apply the Leeds Method, look at what shared matches we had, email some of them, snoop for them on social media, etc. I used a bunch of techniques but you can do this. YES you can!

AGAIN, Branch out! 

Explore the siblings of your direct ancestors through documentation. Add them into your tree.

So, when my 2nd cousins once removed on my mother's side reached out to me because we had a DNA match - - remember her, back in paragraph 2 - - Cousin Lori - - she was already in my tree because I "branched out." 

Based on her Ancestry tree, which was not linked to her DNA, I could see exactly who we had in common; Michael Fay (October 1852-  13 January 1915) & Agnes Joyce-Fay (12 August 1865 - 12 December 1933), my great-great grandparents.

The Family of Michael & Agnes Fay

Michael Fay, my great great grandfather, was born in Saugerties, New York in October 1852 to Lawrence Fay and Bridget Kelly (or Kelley)-Fay who were both born in Ireland. Based on census records and records from St. Mary of the Snows Roman Catholic Church in Saugerties, New York, I believe that Lawrence and Bridget had 7 other children after Michael from about 1854 to 1869: Thomas, James, John, Martha, Joseph, Anne, and Lawrence J.

Agnes Joyce-Fay, Michael's wife and my great great grandmother, was the daughter of John Aloysius Joyce (11 February 1829 - 30 September 1910) and Mary Ann O’Neil-Joyce (about 1829 - 11 January 1911), again, both of whom were born in Ireland. Agnes was the youngest of their five Joyce children. Her four older siblings were named James, John, Mary, and Gertrude; all born between 1854 and 1863. 

Michael and Agnes Joyce-Fay had six children of their own: Leo (28 January 1888 – 27 January 1819), Anna (3 February 1889 – 5 February 1819), James (my great grandfather - 11 February 1893 - 1 October 1964), Mary Ann (17 June 1897 – 1965), George (7 October 1898 – 6 April 1976), and Agnes (April 1900 – unknown). 

This is what I mean by "branching out" and making a "fleshy tree". I had all these siblings in my tree when Cousin Lori contacted me. I descend from Michael and Agnes's son, James. Cousin Lori descends from their son George. I had already had documents attached to George including his marriage record and census records identifying his children. Years before I had already communicated with other cousins from this line. So although I don't "know" Cousin Lori, she was already in my tree thanks to that DNA match and good old fashion genealogy research through documentation.

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!

Genealogy Lesson #21: Vital Records: A Different Death Index

In the last lesson, posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, we moved from searching the NYC Municipal Death Records Index on the German Genealogy Group (GGG) website to the NYC Municipal Death Records Index provided by FamilySearch.org.

If you were able to find the death of my 3rd great aunt, Gertrude Joyce-Sheridan (born circa 1865 - died 1934) in the FamilySearch index, you can see their index provide much more detail about the death certificate. FamilySearch’s index provides the following data:

Gertrude M. Sheridan
New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949

Name: Gertrude M. Sheridan

Event Type: Death

Event Date: 21 Apr 1934

Event Place: New York City, Queens, New York, United States

Address: 905-Troy Ave

Residence Place: B'klyn, N.Y.

Gender:Female

Age:70

Marital Status: Married

Race: White

Occupation: Domestic

Birth Year (Estimated): 1864

Birthplace: U. S. A.

Burial Date: 24 Apr 1934

Cemetery: Calvary Cemetery

Father's Name: John Joyce

Father's Birthplace: U. S. A.

Mother's Name: Mary O'Neil

Mother's Birthplace: Ireland



These are details taken from the actual death record. The name of her parents and thus Gertrude’s maiden name confirms that this indeed is MY Gertrude Sheridan.

This death certificate could now be ordered if one desired or one could got to their local Family History Center and view an image of the document for free.

It is good to also see the actual document because sometimes there are details that are not in the index, such as the cause of death, which might be of use or interest to the researcher.

You can certainly see though that not all indexes are built the same. Some of you might wonder why then anyone would look at this New York City Municipal Deaths Index anywhere other than FamilySearch. In short, human error. That is to say that sometimes there are records that make it into one index and not the other. 

When doing genealogy research you want to make sure you look everywhere possible and thus conduct what is known as an exhaustive search. It should be noted that there is also an index for New York City Municipal Death Records on Ancestry.com if you have access to that database.

Before moving on to marriage records, in the next lesson I will write about death records outside of New York City.

Genealogy Lesson #20: Vital Records: A Different Death Index

In the last lesson, posted on Friday, April 24, 2020, we investigated the NYC Municipal Death Records Index as provided by the German Genealogy Group (GGG).

Looking for my 3rd great aunt, Gertrude Joyce-Sheridan (born circa 1865) who died sometime between 1930 and 1940. Using just her name in the GGG’s New York City Municipal Archives Death Records Index should have resulted in 5 hits.

Using Gertrude’s estimated date of birth, 1865, which I derived from census records we can do some simple math to compare the ages of the individuals listed in our search results.

• Gertrude #1 born in 1919 - died at age 4 = born in about 1915
• Gertrude #2 born in 1925 - died at age 40 = born in about 1885
• Gertrude #3 born in 1934 - died at age 70 = born in about 1864
• Gertrude #4 born in 1945 - died at age 54 = born in about 1890
• Gertrude #5 born in 1945 - died at age 45 = born in about 1900

It is Gertrude #3 that is likely our Gertrude Sheridan. However, there isn’t enough information in this index to really know for use.

Ordering this document from the New York City Municipal Archives would cost you about $20. I think that is a very expensive good guess. Before taking that step, let’s look at the New York City Municipal Archives Death Record Index through another source.

Sign into your FamilySearch.org account.

Click on Search. This is usually located in the top navigation bar.

Choose Records. This is usually accessible by hovering on the work “Search” in the top navigation bar.

Go to the “Find A Collection” section of the search page. This section is usually on the bottom right.

Type into the search box “New York, New York” and you will see a drop down menu appear for the New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949.

Do a search again for Gertrude Sheridan with the date of death range 1934 to 1934.

Can you find her death record in the index? If so, what other details have you learned from the data listed? 

I will share with you what I have found in my next post.

Genealogy Lesson #19: Vital Records: Death Certificates

Vital records are the documentation of life events kept under governmental authority. In other words, official birth, marriage, and death records. Just like with our census research we are going to work backwards through time beginning with someone’s death and moving back to the person’s marriage, if they had one, and then their birth.

Vital records are managed by the individual states in which the event occurred. There is no centralized location of birth, marriage, and death (BMD) records for all of the United States. Therefore it is critical for you to know where the event occurred.

Frequently the state in which an individual dies is also the state in which they were born but this is certainly not always the case. Often we also assume that the individual died close to home but that is also not always the case. I have several ancestors who were away from home when they died. You might know where the family lived for decades but you may come to find out your relative died in say an accident that occurred far from home. I offer the example of my 3rd great grandfather, John Joyce.

The Joyce family owns a huge plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens County, New York; one of the largest cemeteries in the United States. I was certain John had to be interred in that plot. Unlike so many of my family gravesites, their plot had a huge headstone. John’s name does not appear on that stone. Sometimes a family doesn’t keep up with the engraving on a headstone; maybe they can’t afford to. For whatever reason I have discovered many interments not listed on a headstone but recorded in the cemetery’s records.

Calvary Cemetery charges an exorbitant amount of money to tell you the names of all the individuals buried in one plot. I paid them only to find out John Joyce is not buried in the Calvary plot he paid for.

For years I combed through the NYC Death Indexes available through several databases looking for John; convinced he had to have died in NY. Then last year a little shaky leaf appeared on John’s name in my family tree suggesting records from the U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938. I sincerely doubted these could be records for my John Joyce; a man with a very common name. Upon careful review of the image of the document I saw the name of his wife listed; also a very common name, Mary Ann Joyce. 

What was not common about the record though was the family’s address. Listed right there was the address I knew to be that of my Joyce family in New York City in 1910. So as it turns out John Joyce died in a Soldier’s Home in Dayton Ohio. His death certificate will therefore be in Ohio.

Be careful to recognize what you know AND what you think you know.

For this exercise we are going to compare the New York City Death Index as recorded in a variety of databases.

For the first part you will need to use the website: https://www.germangenealogygroup.com/

They provide free access to the New York City Municipal Archives Death Records Index as they were one of the groups who originally volunteered to index the New York City Municipal Archives Death Records.

Why are we using New York City records, you might ask, as opposed to looking at records for your specific ancestors located wherever they may have died. Well, because it is estimated that approximately 40 percent of all Americans are descended from people who immigrated through Ellis Island during its years of operation; 1892 to 1954. Although not all of those immigrants ultimately settled in NYC, potentially a good percentage of you will have some relative who experienced some life event in NYC.

Go to https://www.germangenealogygroup.com/

On the left navigation bar, click Database Searches. That will expand the list and several boxes down you will see a button for Death Records. Click on the link for Death Records. That will expand again and several boxes down you will click on the link to NYC Municipal Archives. That link will open a search page for you.

Note that it will show you want date ranges are available for each county of New York City. Scroll down a bit and you will see a green button that reads “Continue to Database Search Form.” Click on that button.

Search for Gertrude Sheridan. She is my 3rd great aunt; the daughter of the aforementioned John Joyce. Therefore her maiden name was Joyce. She appears in the 1930 U.S. Census but I can’t find her in the 1940 census. I am assuming she died in the 1930s. According to census records she was born in about 1964 or 1965.

Can you find a death record in the German Genealogy Group’s index of NYC Death Records for Gertrude?

If so, record all the given details provided in the index.

Last Name, Given Name, Age, Date, Year, Certificate Number, and County.

John Joyce, Is That You?

About 10 years ago I finished collecting the names of all my third great grandparents of which there are 32. All of us have 32 great grandparents but it's an accomplishment to be able to name them all. I can't say that I know all their dates of birth and death though. One in particular has always plagued me; John A. Joyce. 

He was the great grandfather of my maternal grandmother; Marilyn Irene Fay-Gardner. Grandma Marilyn died before I was born so I had very little reference for researching this branch of my family. In fact, my mother's whole side of the tree has proven to be quite challenging given the nature of the relationships among the living relatives. No one speaks to each other. In any case...

I knew virtually nothing about 3rd Great Grandpa John. Based on U.S. Census records I know he was born in Ireland in about 1828 or 1829 but I didn't know when, or where, or who his parents were - still don't know any of that. I knew he married Mary Ann O'Neill but I don't know when or where. And obviously he's dead but I can't find a death certificate or burial record for him which is the most befuddling part. 

My Joyces have a huge headstone in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. A big flashy thing! No branch of my family has big flashy headstones. Most of them don't have headstone at all. I am not of a wealthy stock. But here it is; a big shiny, showy headstone.

Years ago I wrote to Calvary and purchased what they call the Interment List; basically a list of every person buried in a single family plot. The cost of such a record begins at $120 and increases by $10 for every additional name. If you have a family plot with 10 bodies interred in it that will run you $210 for that list. Pricey if you ask me. I mean, I come from people who couldn't afford headstones, you think I have $210 laying around for lists? I don't! So I saved up. Yes, yes I did. And when I got the lists I was stunned to learn John A. Joyce bought the plot but he's not buried in it. I then combed the NYC Death Index for records that might possibly be him but nothing that jived. So I gave up.

Recently though I have been meditating on the fact that I tell my genealogy students to forget everything you think you know. Maybe he didn't die in NYC. Maybe there were no remains. Maybe he died in some awful fiery blaze. Or maybe he dies in another state and they never brought his body back to NY. Hmm. Maybe they spent all they had left on that flashy freakin' headstone.

Last night while poking through some Ancestry.com hints there was a records for a John A. Joyce in a U.S. National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Actually, there are many of them all for the same man. A careful read revealed that he was married to a Mary Ann Joyce who resided at 763 9th Ave. in New York City. 

1910 Census

That's her!

The above image of the 1910 census clearly showed my John Joyce, his wife Mary Ann, son George, and daughter Mary J, all living at 763 9th Ave. in Manhattan. 

My 3rd great grandmother, Mary Ann O'Neill-Joyce, died on January 11, 1911. Her death certificate listed her as married, as opposed to widowed so I assumed that she pre-deceased John. But maybe not...

According to the military records for John he died on September 30, 1910 in Dayton, Ohio; just months before his wife. 

I am still trying to corroborate this information to confirm that is my John Joyce but that address makes for pretty solid evidence in which case, this is my 3rd great grandpa's headstone...

John Joyce, Where Are You?

Common names are so frustrating to research. My John Joyce is killing me. If he weren't already long dead I might kill him myself. Grrr. 

Where are you buried great-great-great grandpa o' mine?

I can't find a death certificate for him in the NY City Municipal Archives records. There are John Joyces, many of them which is the problem but maybe he didn't die in the City of New York even though all his children were born and died in the city.
 
His wife, Mary Ann O'Neill-Joyce is buried in Calvary Cemetery. I suspect John is interred there...somewhere. I went through the hassle and expense of ordering the list of plot interment. Mary Ann is one of seven people interred in one family plot which means I paid $120; $90 for the first name and $5 for each additional name. I did this with the hope that John was along side of her and that it would lead me to his death certificate. But nope! No, John.

This investment is not a total lose, of course. I did receive a list of six other individuals buried with Mary Ann. This included four of her six children and two grandchildren. 

The four children buried with her are:

• John A. Joyce Jr. who died at age 38 on February 27, 1896.
• George Joyce who died at age 76 on March 6, 1931.
• Gertrude Joyce-Sheridan who died at age 70 on April 21, 1934.
• Mary J. Joyce who died at age 79 on January 24, 1940.

The two grandkids were the children of my great-great grandparents, Michael Fay and Agnes Joyce-Fay. They were two children that I knew nothing about and would not have known even existed if I depended on census records alone. They were:

• John Lawrence Fay who died at 2 months old on September 21, 1894.
• Michael Fay who died at 1 year old on July 22, 1897.  

The next time I have the chance to visit the NYC Municipal Archives I will look at the death certificates for these family members as I am curious to see their causes of death. Cause of death is one of the things not indexed on any list of NYC death certificates.

But again, when did John die and where the heck is he buried?

Family History Object Number 1: My Claddagh Ring

The claddagh ring is probably one of the most well know symbols of Irish heritage. 

This is my Claddagh ring. It was given to me as a Christmas gift when I was about 13. I cannot remember the exact year but I got it from my mom. She said I was old enough then to own a real piece of jewelry.

The ring represent love, loyalty, and friendship. Love is represented by the heart, loyalty by the crown, and friendship by the two hands coming together.

My ring happens to be tricolor which I do not often see on other Claddagh wearers. The hands and the band itself are gold, the heart is rose gold and the crown is silver in color. I don't know if the crown is white gold or silver but the band is marked "10K 6" and thus I'm pretty certain it is all 10 karat gold because I know the 6 represents the ring size. I have little fingers; this is big on me.

The way one wears their Claddagh ring also has its own meaning. If someone is single then the ring should be worn on the right hand with the point of the heart toward the fingertips. If someone is in relationship the ring will be place on the right hand with the heart pointing to the wrist. If one is engaged then the ring should be worn on the left hand with the heart pointing to the fingertips. If it is worn on the left hand with the heart pointing towards the wrist then it means the person is married.

I don't prescribe to those wearing rules. I wear mine on my left hand simply because I cannot stand jewelry in my right hand. It bothers me when I write and yes, I still write with a pen or pencil. It's not all typing you know.

I wear it on my middle finger, though. As cynical as I am about marriage, I still believe the left ring finger should be reserved for wedding and engagement rings. And because I am not currently in a committed relationship, I do wear the heart pointed outward towards my fingertip. Tradition is the one who makes the commitment to you should turn your ring around; if not actually give you the ring.

My DNA ethnic profile shows that I am 44% Irish. I have Irish ancestry on both my mother's and father's side of my family. Family lore on my mother's side, though, is that I am descended from the man who invented the Claddagh ring, however, there is more than one person given that credit and I have not been able to trace myself family back to either of them. 

One of the men credited with the design was named Richard Joyce. I do have the Joyce name in my family tree but it is a very common Irish surname. Although, my Great Aunt Ann did say the Joyces were from Galway which would jive with the story of Richard Joyce. Claddagh is a town in Galway County, Ireland where Richard Joyce returned to after his enslavement.

Oh yeah, Richard Joyce was captured by pirates in 1675, according to multiple online sources. He was on his way to serve as an indentured servant when pirates capture the ship. He was then enslaved to a man in Tangier, Morocco which is where he learned to be a goldsmith. In 1689, King of England, William III, managed to get the enslaved people back to Ireland. Among them was Richard Joyce who took his skills back to Galway, settled in the town of Rahoon, not far from Claddagh, married, had kids, and might have invented this ring design. He undoubtedly made rings of this design. Researchers just aren't sure if he invented it.

Like I may never know for sure if I am descended from him but I have Irish Joyce ancestry all the same and so it speaks to me just fine.

I'm back, baby!

It has been some time since I have written for this blog. My only excuse is that in addition to working full-time I take a graduate class. But I am back, baby, I'm back. I have no class now! None! And I have plans - - lots and lots of plans for summer research.

1. I am going to get my application for membership into the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). I keep putting that off for no good reason.

2. I have a list of headstone hunting adventures in mind; some to cemeteries I have not yet been to.

3. Yet another trip to the NYC Municipal Archives to comb through vital records.

and 4. Of course, I am going to dive into researching some of my less documented branches. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Ah, it smells like a very Irish summer. Watch out Joyces!!

Finding my Michael Fay

Anyone who invests themselves in genealogy research comes to learn that there are those ancestors who want to be known and those who just want to be left alone. As a researcher though, one can be a bit thick when it comes to accepting that last truth. For years and years I tried to find my Michael Fay, my great-great grandfather. It was such a long arduous process that I know I can not accurately detail for you all the steps I took to finally find his resting place; but I did, I found it.

I do recall trusting my hunch that he would be found interned in Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens. This hunch was based on the fact that I had found his wife and three of his children interned there; not all in the same plot mind you but in Calvary Cemetery.

This burial location hunch also came with the strong suspicion that Michael died in the great City of New York. Using the German Genealogy Group's New York City Death Index, searching for Michael Fay with no known date of birth (just an approximation taken from census records) and no known date of death resulted in far more many Michael Fays that I wanted to believe existed; 44 to be exact. Michael Fay is not quite the genealogical purgatory of say searching for a John Smith but still it was rough.

After applying what processes of elimination that I could, I narrowed the list of results. I knew he was listed in the 1910 census and that by the 1930 census his wife, Agnes Joyce-Fay, was living with her daughter, listed as a widow. I couldn't find either of them in the 1920 census. That alone reduced the results from the New York City Death Index list down to 10. Then by estimating those Michael Fay's birth years I limited the list further to 6 possibilities.

If you know a name and date of death for an individual interned in Calvary they are happy to provide a plot location over the phone; however, if you don't have a date of death then they charge a great deal to do the research for you. I don't recall the exact fee but it was enough for me to arrive at a different course of action.

Every week I would call Calvary and ask for a plot location for one of the 6 possible Michael Fays. Some weeks they would say, "Sorry, no Michael Fay buried here in that month." To which i would reply thank you and simply cross that man off my list of possibilities. Some weeks I would call and they would give me a plot location; that happened for 3 of those possibilities. On my 6th call, the woman who answered my call with a reply I recognized as a family plot. 

"Yes, Michael Fay who died on January 13, 1915 is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Cemetery #3, Section #17, Range #22, Plot EE, Grave #12."

That was the plot location I had for his two children, Leo Joseph Fay and Anna Fay who both died in 1918 with in days of each other.

The woman on the phone informed me that there were 4 internments in the plot. And so still there is the lingering question as to who the 4th interment is but at least I know great-great grandpa is there...without a headstone but there..........in the unmarked grave directly in front of this headstone erected for my 3rd great grandparents, John and Mary Ann Joyce; Michael Fay's in-laws.

Again, some ancestors would rather be left alone and others, others are begging to be found.