James O'Reilly: Bequests

In previous posts I mentioned the ties between my O'Reilly ancestors to Mr. James O'Reilly of Mount Albion, Dundrum, as well as the probate case of O'Malley v O'Reilly, fought out between the estate executors, the O'Malleys, and Mr. O'Reilly's brother.  Today's notes feature a published notice from the newspaper regarding James's bequests.  Notices such as these are immeasurably important for researching Irish probate records since the original wills, stored in the GRO in Dublin, were destroyed by a fire in 1922.

Freeman's Journal, 2 October 1873

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS.

NOTICE is hereby given that JAMES O'REILLY, late of Mount Albion, in the County of Dublin, Esquire, who died on the 16th day of November, 1872, by his last Will and Testament, bearing date the 4th day of May, 1872, bequeathed the sum of £50 to the Rev. John E. O'Malley, of Westland-row, in the city of Dublin, Roman Catholic Clergyman, for Masses for the repose of his (Testator's) soul, and Testator also bequeathed unto the said Rev. John E. O'Malley, and Richard O'Malley and Thomas O'Malley, both of Woodlands, in the County of Dublin, certain Shares in the Dublin and Kingstown Railway Company in trust for Charles O'Reilly, as therein mentioned, and in case of the death of the said Charles O'Reilly, under the age of 21 years, in trust for Saint Peter's Orphanage, York-street, Dublin, attached to the Roman Catholic Church of Mount Carmel, Whitefriar-street, absolutely; and said Testator appointed the said Rev. John E. O'Malley, Richard O'Malley and Thomas O'Malley, Executors of said Will, all of whom duly obtained probate thereof on the 18th day of July, 1873, forth of the principal Registry of her Majesty's Court of Probate in Ireland.
Dated this 29th day of September, 1873.
JAMES PLUNKETT, Solicitor for said executors, 1, Capel-street, Dublin.
To the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests, and all others whom it may concern.

The important part pertaining to my research is the mention of Charles O'Reilly.  As mentioned in previous posts, Charles was the name of one of the sons of my great-great-great grandfather Laurence O'Reilly.  Our Charles was the godson of a James O'Reilly (his baptism took place in 1865 in Aghamore, Mayo) and appears on both the 1901 and 1911 Irish census living in Dublin off the annuities of stocks.  The Charles in the census records is most definitely our Charles, despite his birthplace being recorded as Dublin City, which the baptism record refutes.  The head of household for both those census years is a Marion Glynn, who is stated to be a cousin, and the records of Glasnevin Cemetery show both Marion and Charles buried in the O'Reillys' plot along with his parents, Laurence and Bridget (Treston), and an infant girl named Norah, the daughter of Laurence and Bridget's oldest son, Sergeant Laurence O'Reilly of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.

Presumably Charles was singled out for inheritance as the godson of James (if, as I believe, the same James who wrote this will was the James who stood sponsor at Charles's baptism), though I do not know the reason why James set up his will to pass the trust on to an orphanage in the event of Charles's death rather than to another O'Reilly family member.  James himself had at least two brothers then living and possibly a sister, while his heir Charles had several brothers and sisters also living.

Later: what became of the siblings of Charles O'Reilly?

Cane River Transaction: Rachal to Chopin

After several generations of their families living along the Cane River, my great-great-great-great grandparents, Ciriaque Rachal and Anaïs Compère, decided to move along with some of their friends and neighbors to form the nucleus of a small colony of Natchitoches Creoles at Liberty, Texas.  The 1845 document by which they transferred their Cloutierville landholdings can be found among the Cane River Collection of the Historic New Orleans Collection, which has been digitized as part of the "Free People of Color in Louisiana" collection of the Louisiana Digital Library.  A few things stand out about the document.  One is that it required the presence and signature of Madame Rachal, née Compère, for her portion of their property in a time when women's property usually defaulted to their husbands.  The Creole society they grew up in, however, was different and married women had more rights to ownership of the property they brought into a marriage than they did in Anglo America.  Another thing notable about the document is that Anaïs signed her own name to it in a clear and legible hand, only a generation or two removed from a time when most documents signed by women were marked by a cross next their name, which was written by someone else.  (Her mother-in-law, Ciriaque's mother Marie Rose, was another notable exception.  Her 1813 marriage contract shows an elegant signature of her own.)

Also of some interest to historians of the area is the name that follows the Rachals: J. B. Chopin, the man to whom they sold their Cane River frontage.  Chopin was a French immigrant to the area and was an in-law to the extended Rachal family through his marriage to Julia Benoist, one of Anaïs's cousins (Julia was a great-granddaughter and Anaïs was a granddaughter of Julien Rachal).  Madame Chopin was also a cousin to Ciriaque, but the relationship to his Rachal line was more distant.  J. B. Chopin was to become the father-in-law of the writer Kate Chopin, who was married to his son Oscar.

St. Mary's & Serendipity

Or, How chance genealogical coincidences can change how we view our own personal pasts.

St. Mary's Cathedral in Galveston has a long and eventful history.  Built in 1847, this Gothic Revival structure has survived several major storms, including the Great Storm of 1900 which killed an estimated 6,000 Galveston residents.  Most recently St. Mary's survived Hurricane Ike in 2008, which caused so much damage that the church was forced to close for nearly six years, only reopening earlier this year.

In those early years, some of the parishioners of St. Mary's included Catholics of French descent who came to Texas from Louisiana.  Among the baptisms that took place at St. Mary's were those of the two youngest children of my 4x great grandparents, Ciriaque and Anaïs (Compère) Rachal.  Creole natives of the Cane River area near Natchitoches, Louisiana, Ciriaque and Anaïs had moved with some of their kin to Liberty, Texas just prior to statehood.  On 28 November 1851, their sons Edward Rene (b. 24 January 1849) and Albert Pierre (b. 22 July 1851) were both baptized at St. Mary's.

Prior to the discovery of these baptisms, it had never even occurred to me that the church records for members of the Creole colony at Liberty might be found in Galveston.  The fact that the Rachal family appeared in these records of St. Mary's had an additional significance to me as well, as a Galveston native.  As a child I spent every Wednesday morning at Mass at St. Mary's, when our teachers at the Catholic school next door would line us up, single file, and march us over to church.  At the time it had never even occurred to me that it was anything more than just what we did on Wednesdays.  Now, of course, I look back on it as the unwitting continuation of my rich Creole heritage, more than a century after my ancestors' names had been entered in St. Mary's register!

Photo credit: [St. Mary's Cathedral Photograph #1]. The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth487039/. Accessed November 17, 2014.

52 Ancestors #16: Silvestre Rachal, "contrat de mariage"

I got the idea for today's post while going through my research folders looking for something to write about.  I came across a photocopy of an original French document from the Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana court records, and decided to share a scan of that document.  I visited Natchitoches in 2002 to do research, so that must have been when I obtained the copy.  The document is dated 23 September 1813, and is a marriage contract between my 5x great grandparents, Silvestre Rachal and Marie Rose Michel.  Silvestre was a nephew of my previously featured Revolutionary War veteran ancestor, Julien Rachal.

The document names both parties to the marriage, and gives the names of Silvestre's parents as Antoine Rachal and Marie Louise Dumoine (a mistake in the record, her surname was actually Lemoine).  Marie Rose is named as the daughter of Pierre Michel and Cecile Dupre.  Both Silvestre and Marie Rose's signatures appear on the document.  Both sets of parents are present as well, but unlike their children they all signed with a mark, signifying that none were literate.

Silvestre and Marie Rose had at least six children, and three of these I have been able to trace into adulthood.  Interestingly one of the witness signatures on their marriage document is that of "P. Compere"; this is Pierre Sebastien Compere, a Bordeaux native whose daughter Anais would marry Silvestre and Marie Rose's son Cyriaque nearly 25 years later.  Further tangling the branches of the family tree, Pierre was also the previously mentioned Julien Rachal's son in law, having married Julien's daughter Lolette earlier that year (1813).

Silvestre was said to have been among the citizens killed during a rash of duels that broke out following the Bossier-Gaiennie duel that took place in 1839.  His succession was proved in 1844, so he certainly had died before then.

52 Ancestors #15: Hugh McCloud Bryan - A General's Namesake

Unusual names, particularly middle ones, can sometimes provide clues to past ancestors.  It's often worth taking note of these names, in case they're stumbled upon later as the surname of some distant relative.  In some cases, the name simply carried significance to the person who was doing the naming.  This particular ancestor's name is a case where I originally thought the first possibility was true but came across historical evidence that changed my mind.

Hugh McCloud "Mac" Bryan (1861 - 1940), my great-great grandfather, was the son of Anna Margaret Schnell, a German immigrant to Texas, and John Bryan, a New Yorker of Irish origin.  His father John arrived in Texas in 1836 at the age of 25 to join the Texas Revolution, and it was John's Republic pension file that provided the surprising clue to the origin of Hugh's name.  In 1841 John took part in a disastrous expedition to Santa Fe while serving in the Texan army.  The members of the expedition were all captured, and marched south to imprisonment in Veracruz.  The officer who led that expedition was a general named Hugh McLeod (which would be pronounced like "McCloud").  Like John Bryan, McLeod was also from New York.

In light of this discovery within the pension file, I think it possible and even very likely that John may have named his son after McLeod.

52 Ancestors #14: Mammes Poissot, Royal Notary at Strasbourg

Tucked away in the manuscript archives of the Badische Landesbibliothek (Baden State Library) in Karlsruhe, Germany, is a folio titled Karlsruhe 517.  It contains an assortment of French records relating to the town of Strasbourg during the 18th century.  Number 49 consists of the following catalogue entry:

49.  Nomination à la place de greffier en la Marechaussée d'Alsace: Mammetz Poissot (Poisot) 1714 (Abschrift)

Both the name, date and place are consistent with information appearing in the Natchitoches church records pertaining to Remy Poissot dit Bourguignon, a Dijon native whose marriage in 1737 to the widowed Anne Marie Philippe states that he is "son of Mammes Poisot, royal notary at Stratsbourg".  A greffier, or clerk, often did perform the duties of a notary, and as all of the documents in the folio in Karlsruhe pertain to Strasbourg, document number 49 is quite possibly Mammes Poissot's initial appointment there.  The maréchaussée system was overseen by the marshals of France and served in the function of magistrates to maintain order.  A summary of the functions of the maréchaussée can be found in The Institutions of France Under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598-1789, Volume 2 by Roland Mousnier, pages 105-109.

52 Ancestors #13: Thomas Franklin Herring, Apothecary

This photograph is of my great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Franklin Herring, with his youngest son Lewis Barclay Herring.  I estimate the picture to date from around 1875, as Lewis was born in November of 1873.  Thomas was born in Florida on 12 September 1833 to John and Mary (Foreman) Herring.    By the 1850s he arrived in Texas, where he married a young widow, Eliza Ann (Rigsby) Barclay, and they had the following children: Marcia, Charles, James Clinton, Cora, Lawrence Rice, and Lewis Barclay.  Thomas had an apothecary shop in Tyler County, Texas and also composed music in his free time.  He died in Overton, Texas on 4 Feb 1881 and is buried in the Overton Cemetery.

52 Ancestors #12: John M. Gill - Chiselling at the Brick Wall

One of my "brick wall" ancestors is John M. Gill of South Carolina.  Born about 1803, he later lived in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas, where he ended up in Cherokee County.  There's a lot I don't know about him, but two questions in particular are priorities for me in my research.

1.  Who was his first wife?

The marriage records of Shelby County, Tennessee, show that he married Lucy Pearce 10 May 1845.  John had children who were born before 1845, so Lucy wouldn't have been their mother.  So who was?  Taking into account that the oldest child, Emily, was born in 1832 and in Tennessee, according to the 1850 census, I searched for marriages in Tennessee or South Carolina prior to 1832.  One hit in particular jumped out at me:  a marriage between a John M. Gill and Jane Clayton in Maury County, TN in 1831.  The reason it particularly stood out was the name Clayton.  One of John's sons, John James (J.J.) Gill, had a daughter named Fannie Clayton Gill.  Fannie's mother, Sarah Catherine (Sallie) Dotson, was a daughter of Josiah Dotson and none of my information on the Dotson family has any Claytons.  Clayton also seems an unusual name for a daughter, unless it happens to be a family name, so I had surmised that Clayton might have been a name from J.J.'s family.  If so, the Maury County marriage record could be a promising lead worth some further investigation, as it's definitely the right time and place and has the right groom's name.

2.  Where did John M. Gill's family come from?

I actually do have a pretty good idea.  One big hint is in the Gill household of the 1850 Shelby County census.  Below the names of the immediate members of the Gill family is that of Thomas Kelsey, aged 25 and a laborer.  Thomas was actually a member of the family, as he had married John's daughter Emily on 29 May 1850.  Thomas's ancestry went back to Samuel Kelso Sr., who had settled in Chester County, SC nearly a century earlier with other Scots-Irish families (including Gills) who came over at the same time, most of whom were either already related to the Kelsos by marriage or soon would be.  In fact, both of Thomas's grandmothers were also Gills.  Additionally, his family resided in Maury County, TN in 1830, right around the time of the marriage there between John M. Gill and Jane Clayton!  Given the patterns observed in previous generations of these immigrant families and in those of the Scots-Irish families of Fairfield County I've also researched, Thomas Kelsey marrying another Gill probably isn't entirely coincidental.  An additional clue might also appear in the name of John M. Gill's daughter Lucy's only child, a son named George Mills Gordon.  Might the M. in John's own name have stood for Mills?  The Mills family was another of the Scots-Irish Presbyterian families who settled the Fishing Creek area along with the Kelso/Kelseys and Gills and intermarried with both families.  It's my opinion that John M. Gill probably belonged to a branch of the Gills of Fishing Creek.

Some sources consulted:

1. 1850 United States Census, Shelby County, Tennessee
2. 1830 United States Census, Maury County, Tennessee
3. Ancestry.com. Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.  Original data: Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.
4. New Summerfield Historical Association, New Summerfield Historical Memories, (Jacksonville, Texas: The Association, 1985).
5. Dr. Mavis Parrott Kelsey, Samuel Kelso/Kelsey, 1720-1796 : Scotch-Irish immigrant and revolutionary patriot of Chester County, South Carolina : his origin, descendents, and related families including newly published information on the Mills, Gill, Pagan, Wylie, Morrow, Jones, Sealy, Jaggers, Reeves, Mauldin, Moore, Stevenson, McAlexander and other families, (Houston: M. P. Kelsey, 1984).

O'Malley v. O'Reilly, continued

I previously posted an article from the Dublin papers concerning the probate case of Mr. James O'Reilly.  Here is another one.

Freeman's Journal, 27 Jan 1874
O'Malley v. O'Reilly-- This matter came before the court on appeal from the decree made by Judge Warren, bearing date 23rd June, 1873, in the Court of Probate, whereby the document bearing date the 4th of May, 1872, was pronounced to be the last will and testament of James O'Reilly, late of Mount Alban, county Dublin.  The plaintiffs were the executors under the said will, and the defendant was the eldest surviving brother of the deceased.  The defences were that the will in question was not duly executed according to the statute, that it was obtained by undue influence of Mrs. O'Malley, the mother of the plaintiff, and others; also that it was revoked by a codicil dated 3rd of October, 1873, and also that it was revoked on the 5th of November, 1873, by the deceased tearing it with the intention of revoking it, and by causing it to be torn with that object.  The plaintiffs filed several applications raising different issues, the principal of which were that the codicil in question was not executed according to the statute, and that it and the other question of revocation were brought about by undue influence.  The issue on these pleadings was whether the paper writing bearing date 4th May, 1872, was the last will of James O'Reilly.  The case was commenced on the 8th, and occupied the court until the 14th of May, and four other issues were substituted for the one on the record, two of which - namely, the 1st and 4th - were found in favour of the plaintiffs, and the jury was discharged by the learned judge from finding on the second and third.  After the trial, the defendant moved for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection, and that the verdict was against the weight of evidence.  This application was refused by the judge, by order of the 23rd of June; and on the same day the final decree was pronounced, to the effect mentioned.  From this decree the defendant now appealed, principally on the grounds that the issues found at the trial were not the issues raised on the record, that none of the issues so found were material to the case, and that no issue was found which justified the decree.  Defendant's counsel also relied on the grounds raised at the new trial motion - namely, that the findings were against the evidence and the weight of evidence, and were void in consequence of misdirection.  Counsel for the appellant (the defendant below) -- Mr. Macdonogh, Q.C., Mr. Hemphill, Q.C., and Mr. Curtis, instructed by Mr. P. Rooney.  For the respondent (the plaintiff below) -- Sergeant Armstrong, Mr. Butt, Q.C., and Mr. John Murray, instructed by Mr. James Plunkett.
The arguments are at hearing.

The "document bearing date the 4th of May, 1872" is possibly the codicil referred to in the previous post which James O'Reilly's brother Laurence was attempting to establish as his brother's final wishes.  The text of this article would indicate his appeal of the previous verdict had succeeded.  This trial indicates a new decision in favor of the O'Malleys.  As in the previous case, Laurence O'Reilly filed an appeal, so this was not to be the final word on the matter.

52 Ancestors #11: François Brunet, The Blacksmith Who Changed Colonial Medical Law

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

When a New Orleans blacksmith died in 1743, no one could have anticipated that it would cause the colonial government of Louisiana to set a precedent in medical law that we take for granted today.  Prior to the death of François Brunet, it was perfectly legal (and common!) to practice medicine without any regulation or license.  Brunet's death would change that in a matter of weeks.

Register entry for Francois Brunet's baptism, Parish of St. Sauveur, Plancöet

François Brunet was born in Plancöet, Brittany to Floriant Brunet and Jeanne Groisel, probably in 1695; his baptism was recorded as taking place on 15 November of that year.¹  By 1727 he had left France and was carrying out his trade in New Orleans on Rue Toulouse.²  The New Orleans parish records record him on 13 November 1731 marrying the widow of a man who died at Natchez, Marie Eleque.³  The stepdaughter he gained from this marriage, Marie Jeanne St. Jean (my 8th great-grandmother) was evidently quite close to the Brunets, so that when her own daughters were born her stepsister Marie Louise Brunet was godmother to both and the namesake of one.⁴  Later church records from Natchitoches regarding these daughters record Marie Jeanne's surname as Brunet rather than St. Jean.⁵  In 1737 Marie Eleque died and François contracted to marry again; he filed an inventory of Marie's succession to account for any property due to her children prior to his remarriage.⁶  This was evidently his third marriage, and records of the council show that his third wife survived him.⁷

The parish entries and records of the council tell us how Brunet lived, and perhaps more importantly to the course of the law itself, they also tell us how he died. On 5 January 1743, Brunet got into an altercation with a farmer named Marin LeNormant and apparently suffered a sword wound to his leg.  He sought treatment from a young naval surgeon, but within a few days was dead.  The authorities in New Orleans evidently concluded that Brunet's wound itself had not been life threatening, and that malpractice on the part of the surgeon was to blame.  As a result, they decreed that in future anyone wishing to practice medicine anywhere in the entire colony of Louisiana must first obtain a license from the government in New Orleans.⁸  The council issued their decree regarding licenses on 19 January, less than two weeks after he died, and additional correspondence between New Orleans and Paris would result in Versailles issuing a pardon for Le Normant on 27 February.⁹

---

1 Parish register of St. Sauveur, Plancöet. Departmental Archives of the Côtes-d'Armor^↩

2 Huber, Leonard V. New Orleans Architecture Volume III: The Cemeteries. (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1974), 140^↩

3 Earl C. Woods and Charles E. Nolan, eds. Sacramental records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans: volume 1, 1718-1750. (New Orleans: Archdiocese of New Orleans, 1984), 97.^↩

4 Woods and Nolan, 44. See entries for "Cave".^↩

5 Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches, 1729-1803: abstracts of the Catholic Church registers of the French and Spanish post of St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches in Louisiana. (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2007) See entries referencing the younger daughter Marie Louise Cavé (Mme Remy Poissot, Jr) at the births of several of her children. Her parents' names are given in these records as François Cavé and Marie Jeanne Brunet. The New Orleans records show that Marie Jeanne went by St. Jean (her birth father's dit name), not Brunet.^↩

6 "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana", Louisiana Historical Quarterly 9 (1926): 132. François is listed as tutor (guardian) to children from his marriage to Marie as well as to the children of Marie by her first husband, St. Jean.^↩

7 "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana", LHQ 21 (1938): 315-6. These abstracts concern a suit filed against Brunet's estate and against the Widow Brunet (Jeanne Hubert) by Brunet's son-in-law Claude Chenier on behalf of his wife, the same Marie Louise Brunet mentioned above who was the godmother of her stepsister's daughters.^↩

8 Stange, Marion. Vital Negotiations: Protecting Settlers' Health in Colonial Louisiana and South Carolina. (Göttingen, Germany: V&R unipress GmbH, 2012), 110-11.^↩

9 Surrey, Nancy Maria Miller. Calendar of manuscripts in Paris archives and libraries relating to the history of the Mississippi Valley to 1803, Volume 2. (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, Dept. of Historical Research, 1926-28), 1001, 1024. The documents here regarding what they term the "Brunet-Marin le Normant affair" date from February 1743.^↩

52 Ancestors #10: Revolutionary War Capt. Micajah Bullock (1745-1828)

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

The flag pictured above was purported by the Bullock family to have been brought home by Captain Micajah Bullock of Granville County, NC from the 1781 Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the American Revolution.  The Guilford Courthouse Flag, as it is known today, now belongs to the North Carolina Museum of History, an affiliate of the Smithsonian, and is not without controversy.  While a Smithsonian textile expert, Grace Rogers Cooper, concluded in the 1970s it was more likely to predate the War of 1812 rather than the Revolution, one of the museum's curators, Al Hoilman, has provided his own argument supporting the Bullock family tradition.  It is certainly known to have belonged to the Bullocks, as it was donated by Capt. Bullock's son Edward to a Freemasons' lodge, who in turn gave it to the museum in 1914.

Micajah Bullock was born in 1745 in Hanover, Virginia, son of Edward Bullock of New Kent County, Virginia.  By 1769 he was in Granville County, North Carolina, where he married Frances Pryor on the 21st of June of that year.  He held various posts in the county including entry taker, sheriff, surveyor, and bondsman. He is listed among North Carolina captains during the Revolution and was also a veteran of the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776.  Later that year, he wrote a letter to the company's colonel, Ebenezer Folsome, regarding disputes over company pay and requesting the colonel's assistance in settling the matter. After the war, he went back home to resume his life among his family as one of the prominent landowners of the county.  He died in either 1827 or 1828, and is memorialized by a marker in the burial ground of Bullock United Methodist Church in Creedmoor, North Carolina.  His name lives on in a Raleigh-based DAR chapter and in the church his family founded in 1832 on a tract of land originally granted to Micajah.

Micajah's daughter, Nancy Ann Bullock, was my 4x great grandmother.  She married Knight Dalby of Granville County and with her sons went on to found the town of Dalby Springs in Bowie County, Texas.

Guilford Courthouse flag photo courtesy Artifacts Collections of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

O'Malley v. O'Reilly

Today's notes come to us courtesy of the 19th century Dublin papers, relating to the probate case of O'Malley v. O'Reilly, wherein a surviving brother of James O'Reilly, Esq. of Dundrum sued the executors of his brother's estate.

Freeman's Journal, 15 May 1873

COURT OF PROBATE.

(Before the Right Hon. Judge Warren and a City Special Jury.)

O'Malley v O'Reilly -- This suit, which has been at hearing since Thursday, was resumed yesterday and concluded.  It was instituted to establish the will of the late Mr James O'Reilly, of Mount Alban, Dundrum, county Dublin, which bore date the 4th November, 1871.  The testator died in November following, leaving property to the amount of about 9,000l.  He was formerly a gentleman farmer in the county Meath, but had lately retired from business, having invested a good deal of money in funds and stock, consisting chiefly of bank and railway shares.  He died unmarried.  By the will referred to the testator left over 4,000l worth of shares in the Royal Bank to the mother of the plaintiffs, who were distant relations, a small legacy to their brother, the Rev John O'Malley, one of the clergymen of Westland row Chapel, and the residue principally to the plaintiffs themselves, and to his brother, the Rev Mr O'Reilly.  The testator died at the age of about sixty years.  The plaintiffs, who are young men, lived with their mother and sisters near Santry, in the county Dublin.  The will was contested by Mr Laurence O'Reilly, M D, of Ratoath, county Meath, a brother of the deceased.  He disputed it partly on the grounds of undue influence, partly upon the alleged circumstance that the testator, on the 5th of November, eleven days before his death, came to the office of the solicitor who prepared the will and tore his signature off it.  A codicil, dated the 4th of May, 1872, was also relied upon by the defendant as revocation of the will, and which disposed of his property otherwise.  This codicil the plaintiffs disputed on the grounds of incapacity and undue influence.
Counsel for plaintiffs -- Sergeant Armstrong, Mr Falkiner, QC; and Mr Murray, instructed by Mr Plunket.  Counsel for defendant -- Mr Macdongoh, QC; Mr Hemphill, QC, and Mr Curtis, instructed by Mr Rooney.
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs, establishing the will. 

I have a few more clippings related to this case, which I will post individually.

52 Ancestors #9: Levi Albert Bitterman (1834 - 1913) - Lost and Found

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

At Christmas in 1887, an Ohio woman named Leah Kirchner received the photograph that accompanies this post.  The man pictured is Leah's brother, Levi Bitterman, my great-great-great grandfather.  Levi was 53 years old, and Leah - and the rest of the Bitterman family - had not laid eyes on him for nearly forty years.

They were not to see him in person for another seven years, when the following notice appeared in an Indiana newspaper¹:

Levi Bitterman Comes to Akron, Ohio, to See His Brother

 Akron, O.. July 13 -- Forty-four years ago Levi Bitterman, then aged 16, ran away from home.  He was never heard of and was long since considered dead.  He returned to the home of his brother George in Cuyahoga Falls today.  He is now a prosperous merchant in Newestown, Tex.  Bitterman was in the rebel army, and after the first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, after the Union forces were driven from the field, he found his brother Daniel, a Union solder, dying.  They had not met for nineteen years, but recognized each other.  The wounded man died in his arms.

Born on the 4th of July, 1834, in Stark County, Ohio, Levi was christened in a Lutheran church², though family tradition holds that just a few generations previous the family had been Jewish.  His father, Joseph, was an immigrant, and according to Levi's older sister Mary Ann's branch of the family, he had come from Alsace and the original spelling of their name was Biedermann.  A letter from one of Mary Ann's sons, Ezra, to his cousins in Texas, recounts some of the history of the family as far as he knew it and can be found in the pension file Levi's widow received from the state of Texas³.  One of the things Ezra repeats in his letter is the story that Levi had run away from home as a teenager after a disagreement with his mother.

So just what had he been up to all those years he was missing?  Apparently he joined a railroad company, worked on boats on the Great Lakes for a while, almost became a gold prospector, and finally went back to the railroad.  By the beginning of the Civil War he had ended up in Texas, where he married into a French Creole family at Liberty, the Rachals, who had left their native Natchitoches to come to Texas in 1844.  He joined a Texas regiment with his in-laws, and after the war moved to Nuecestown (located in part of what is now Corpus Christi), where he variously tried his hand at farming, ferrying, cotton ginning, and running a general store.  He was successful in all of these endeavours, and an article published in his hometown paper gives the impression that he just couldn't sit still for too long at any one thing⁴.  In fact, he only retired completely in 1906, 7 years before he died in 1913 at the age of 78.

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1 "Turns Up After 44 Years." Goshen Times 18 July 1895.^↩
2 Powell, Esther Weygandt. Stark County, Ohio: Early Church Records and Cemeteries. Akron, OH, 1973.^↩
3 #49919, (Mrs) Levi Bitterman, Confederate pension applications, Texas Comptroller's Office claims records. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.^↩
4 "Began Railroading at Age of 14 Years." Evening Independent [Massillon, Ohio] 14 Mar. 1912.^↩

Letter, Rev. Bernard O'Reilly to the Bishop of Meath, 1823

The other day in my post on my 3x great grandfather, Laurence O'Reilly, I mentioned some other O'Reillys who seem to be connected to his family.  One of these was Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, an Irish-born priest who taught in France.  A letter from him to Patrick Joseph Plunkett, the Bishop of Meath, can be found in the third volume of Dean Anthony Cogan's The Diocese of Meath, a history of the diocese compiled between 1862 and 1870.  Cogan's sources have since been lost, and his compilation is all that remains of the early records of the diocesan archives.

Seminaire de St. Sulpice, September, 1823

My Lord,

I trust that the motives which induced me to your Lordship will justify the propriety thereof.  It's to inform you that the Bishop of Perigeau [sic - Périgueux] has written to the superior of this seminary, requesting of him to send him an ecclesiastic qualified to profess theology in his seminary, and that I have been elected to fill that situation.  Although I have no doubt of your granting me permission to accept of it (particularly as I want three years of age for priesthood), still, I considered it a duty incumbent on me to inform you of it, and to request your sanction and approbation.  I shall be comfortably situated, and be worth about a thousand francs per annum.

I should think that your dimissories to Mr. Duelax, superior of St. Sulpice, will be sufficient for me there ; but in case any other should be required, the bishop shall write to you about them.  The death of my uncle has exceedingly affected me ; but it gave me peculiar satisfaction to learn that he died regretted by his flock, particularly by the widow and the orphan ; which gives me room to hope that he has exchanged this world for a better.  Dr. Kearney, superior of the Irish college, inquires for you incessantly, recalling with pleasure the happy days which you both passed together in this capital.  All your subjects at Paris are well, and join me in best respects to your Lordship.  Wishing you many happy years to govern the diocese of Meath,

I remain, with veneration,

Your Lordship's most obedient and humble servant,

 BERNARD O'REILLY.

Of note here is the mention that Bernard lacks "three years of age for priesthood".  If the canonical minimum of 25 applies, this puts Bernard's age at 22, making him born about 1801.  The other tantalizing item of note is the mention of an uncle who has died.  The mention of a flock would suggest the uncle was also a cleric, but if that is the case then the mention of "the widow and the orphan" seems to be figurative.  But who was he?  Clearly he was someone who had died recently, and whose death the bishop knew about.  Unfortunately, as Bernard didn't name him in the letter and these archives no longer exist, I may never know the answer to that question.

Bernard is mentioned twice more in a catalogue of additional letters held by the Meath archives.  Unfortunately Cogan did not reproduce these letters in their entirety, so the originals are now lost, but the catalogue entry does provide us with useful information nevertheless.

1825, May 29th.  Letter from Alexander, Bishop of Perigueaux, to Dr. Plunket, passing encomiums on Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, a native of our diocese, who had been recently appointed Professor of Theology, in the College of Sarlat.
1825.  Letter of Rev. Bernard O'Reilly to Dr. Plunket.

 We learn that Bernard's post is at Sarlat - the same place mentioned in a list of contributions provided for "the continuance of the public sympathy" (probably famine relief), published in the Cork Examiner on 22 March 1848.  "The Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, Professor of Divinity in Sarlat, France, per L. O'Reilly M.D., Radoath" provided £12.  L. O'Reilly M.D. of Radoath (sic) could only be Dr. Laurence O'Reilly of Ratoath, who was proved to be a brother of James O'Reilly of Mount Albion House through the probate of James's will.  It would appear that Bernard was another sibling (very likely the Rev.O'Reilly who received a bequest from James), and the likelihood of there being more than one Bernard O'Reilly from Meath who became a theology professor at Sarlat stretches credibility.  I propose that Bernard O'Reilly who wrote to the bishop and who was represented in the Irish donations by Dr. Laurence O'Reilly are the same individual, and that he was Dr. O'Reilly's brother.  Given the educational backgrounds and financial situations of these O'Reillys, it also seems likely they were from a family of some standing in the county.  There were at least three different O'Reilly families with significant property in Meath, however, so it will take some more time and research to figure out which one was the likely origin of these brothers.

52 Ancestors #8: Laurence O'Reilly, Dubliner

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

Some time back I wrote a post detailing the search for my great-great grandmother Adelia's family.  With more than a little luck o' the Irish (and even more perseverance) I was able to trace her parents in Ireland.

Adelia's father, Laurence O'Reilly, was born around 1820, possibly in County Meath.  What I have been able to establish is that he had some sort of connection to three brothers who came from Meath a generation before, although I have not yet figured out the precise relationship.  The eldest of these brothers (and the only one I have not yet ruled out as my Laurence's father) was another Laurence, who was born about 1794 and was a medical doctor who received his qualifications in Scotland in 1817 before returning to Ireland and becoming the Dunshaughlin district medical officer at Ratoath, Meath.  Another brother, Bernard, became a priest and theology professor in Sarlat, France, so would not have been my Laurence's father.  The youngest I have on record, James, was a gentleman-farmer at Clooney, Meath, before retiring to Dublin to a house called variously Mount Albion or Montalbin Lodge or House.  This James was stated in the Dublin newspaper reports on the probate of his will (which his eldest brother Dr. Laurence O'Reilly contested due to some dispute with the executors) as having been a lifelong bachelor and thus also an unlikely candidate to be my Laurence's father.  What is known is that this James did provide railroad and bank stocks for a minor named Charles O'Reilly (my Laurence had a son named Charles under the age of ten at the time of the will's execution in 1873; this Charles was baptized in Aghamore, Mayo, in 1865 with a James O'Reilly as godfather and on the 1901 and 1911 census appears in Dublin with his income source given as stock annuities) and that James's former home, Mount Albion House, was home to my Laurence's family from at least 1874 until about 1877.  It is, of course, also possible that Laurence's father could have been another brother entirely who has not yet been linked to these three, but the connections to James seem likely to me that he was probably my Laurence's uncle.

I know virtually nothing about Laurence's early life, only that he married Bridget Treston, a Mayo native, sometime before 1852.  The earliest baptism date found for one of their children on record is 1854, when their son James Thomas O'Reilly was baptised at Bekan, Mayo, although the oldest children, Laurence and Anne, have not been found in the baptism records.  1868 seems to mark the last of their Mayo-born children, Francis, and in 1875 their youngest son, John Joseph, was born and baptized in Dublin.

In 1874 the O'Reillys were certainly resident at Mount Albion House.  It is from that address that Laurence registered a dog, a brown terrier, while his son Laurence registered a brindle greyhound from the same address.  In December of 1876 a notice was published of Laurence's bankruptcy (unfortunately, the newspaper provided no details of how he arrived at this situation) and announced a sale of his property, although six months later the obituary of his daughter Kate still gave Montalbin House as the O'Reilly address.  Laurence and family left the house sometime before 1880, by which point his obituary in July of that year gives his residence as Joanna Cottage, Crumlin Road.  He was buried in the St. Bridget's section of Glasnevin Cemetery.

52 Ancestors #7: Julien Rachal - An Unconventional American Patriot

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

When Americans think of the Revolutionary War, most will immediately think of places located within the 13 colonies and the residents of those colonies fighting in the Continental Army against the British.  They didn't fight the war alone, however.  They had allies from Spain and France, and many might be surprised to know those allies included inhabitants of Louisiana, then under Spanish government.

My French Creole ancestor, Julien Rachal, was one of those soldiers.  Born at Natchitoches in 1760 to Louis Rachal dit Blondin and Marie Louise LeRoy¹, Julien was a member of one of the oldest and most influential families in the area, and his wife, Marie Louise Brevel, was the daughter of a leading citizen of the parish.  As a member of the local militia, Julien served in the Galvez Expedition to Pensacola under Spanish governor Bernardo de Gálvez in a successful bid to push the British out of Spanish Florida and give their beleaguered allies further north respite from the threat of invasion from the south.  Due to this service, Julien and other soldiers like him who were not Americans* nevertheless count among the veterans of the American Revolution and even count toward eligibility for the American Revolution-based lineage societies.

For those interested in tracing a potential qualifying ancestor in a non-English colony, the Northwestern State University of Louisiana's Creole Heritage Center has a listing of names from the Natchitoches militia available in PDF form on their website.  Another good resource I found online is this collection of research by Dr. Granville Hough on Patriots from Spanish America.  While Spain was the administrating government from this period, the records include many names of French and German extraction.

*Julien died in 1810, seven years after the Louisiana Purchase.  Although not born an American, he technically died one.  His death is recorded as occurring on August 5, 1810.²

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1 Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches, 1729-1803: Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste Des Natchitoches in Louisiana. Westminister, MD: Heritage Books, 2007.^↩

2 Riffel, Judy. "Natchitoches Burials, 1807-1813." Le Raconteur XXXI.4 (2011): 250.^↩

52 Ancestors #6: Josiah Dotson - A Museum Piece

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

Growing up, I always heard a story that there was an antique Civil War era rifle in the family that had been passed down through several generations and had been given to a museum by my grandfather's oldest brother.  As it turns out, the story is true!

Pictured is that Civil War rifle, and it currently resides at the Stone Fort Museum on the campus of Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas.  It was passed down through the generations from Josiah Dotson, my great-great-great grandfather.  Josiah, originally a native of Bledsoe County, Tennessee, became a Texas resident in about 1850 and served in the 18th Texas Infantry during the Civil War along with two of his brothers, Jeremiah and Milo.  According to the museum's information, the rifle has "Dotson" carved into the stock.

Josiah and Amanda (Leverton) Dotson

Josiah was one of ten children born to William and Margaret (Stewart) Dotson, who were both originally from North Carolina.  All but one of the Dotson children were born in Tennessee, while Josiah's youngest sister Margaret was born in Georgia.  In 1850 the Dotsons can be found residing in Chickamauga, Walker County, Georgia, and later that same year Josiah married Sarah Amanda Leverton in Murray County, Georgia.  Shortly afterwards the extended Dotson family moved again, settling first at Houston County, Texas, where my great-great grandfather Detroit was born.  Some stayed there, and some moved on to Cherokee County, settling around the area of New Summerfield, where they were still living when the country went to war a decade later.

Josiah and his brothers all survived the war and Josiah returned to farming at New Summerfield, where his grandchildren and great-grandchildren continued to live.  Josiah and his wife, Amanda, are buried among many of their family members at McDonald Cemetery in New Summerfield.

52 Ancestors #5: Sir Brian Tuke, painted by Holbein

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Brian Tuke
oil on wood panel, ca. 1527-1534
National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Art history has always been one of my favorite subjects, so much so that it was one of the fields I considered going into after high school.  Imagine making the discovery a few years down the line of an ancestor whose portrait was not only hanging in a national museum, but was also painted by one of the great masters of European portraiture!  This painting is of my 13x great grandfather, Sir Brian Tuke.  I descend from him through his daughter Mary (Tuke) Scott, down through the Filmers of East Sutton, Kent and the Clays of Virginia.¹

Sir Brian Tuke was one of Henry VIII's secretaries who also was the first Master of the Post and treasurer to the royal household.  He was also well known in his day as a scholar and antiquarian, and penned a dedication for an edition of Chaucer. An entry on his life can be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, which gives us much more information about his life.  Since a good biographical writeup is already availalbe, this gives me the opportunity to do something a little different here: I'm going to analyze what Holbein's painting directly tells us about him.

First, the Latin inscription at the top:  "BRIANVS TVKE, MILES".  This tells us we are looking at a picture of "Brian Tuke, Knight".  The second half of the inscription tells us "ANo ETATIS SVÆ LVII", that he is in his 57th year of age.  The next inscription is French: "DROIT ET AVANT" ("right and forward"), the Tuke family motto.  The last bit of text that appears in the painting is on a folded piece of paper lying next to Tuke's hand, one finger slightly directed toward it.  It reads: "NVNQVID NON PAVCITAS DIERVM MEORVM FINIETVR BREVIS".  This passage serves a threefold purpose: it is a Biblical quote (Job 10:20), establishing Tuke as both a good Christian and humble man (despite the richness of his garb); it establishes him as a learned man who can read the Latin that was the only version of the Bible available in his lifetime; and it serves as a sober meditation on the end of life approaching.  The quote translates to "Shall not the fewness of my days be ended shortly?"²

The background is fairly simple, in keeping with most of Holbein's portraits, so we may move on to the representation of the subject.  After inscriptions, the most important clues about a sitter come from their clothing.  Tuke's manner of dress shows him to be a man of obvious wealth, but not one of excessive taste.  The only piece of jewelry he wears is clearly expensive in manufacture but religious in nature, a gold crucifix bearing five black pearls.  In his hand are a pair of gloves, a popular symbol of gentility in Tudor portraiture.  Though his clothes are crafted from rich materials (note the cloth of gold sleeves, fur collar on what appears to be a black silk gown and single gold button on a black high-necked doublet, which appears to be fur-lined), Tuke eschews the stylistic elaborations that became popular during Henry's reign: bright color, damask, slashed sleeves or a feathered cap in the style of other courtiers, wearing instead solemn black and a cap in the fashion of noted humanist Erasmus, Sir Thomas More (who was a friend of Tuke's) and Sir Thomas Cromwell in their Holbein portraits.  While Tudor sumptuary laws did dictate to a large degree what a person was allowed to wear, as a knight Tuke was already elevated to a status that placed him above most of the dress restrictions, save those reserved for the royal family or their closest relatives.

Had there not been the identifying inscription on this painting to tell us who the sitter was, I would conclude that we have here a Tudor era gentleman in his later years, wealthy and very well educated, with a sober, intellectual outlook on life.  With the inscription and what biographical information exists on Tuke, we know that this was indeed the case.

1 My 4x great grandmother, Mary Clay (Thaxton) Hale, was a first cousin of at least four and niece to at least one of the Clays who appear in Wikipedia's list. She was born in 1793 in Halifax County, Virginia to Lucy Clay and William Thaxton. Lucy was a great granddaughter of Martha Filmer Green, whose father Henry Filmer of East Sutton, Kent was in turn a great grandson of Mary Tuke Scott, mentioned above.↩
2 On the matter of translations: I have quoted here from the Douay-Rheims translation rather than NIV or King James as it captures the meaning of the Latin more fully.↩

Image courtesy of The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

52 Ancestors: #4 Rev. James Bell Watt (1820 - 1860)

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

Reverend James Bell Watt, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina on the 4th of April, 1820.  His parents, James Watt and Margaret Bell, were both descendants of Ulster Scots pioneers who arrived in South Carolina in the mid-18th century.  He was said to have had a younger brother, and my own research so far has turned up three sisters: Martha Jane (m. James Robinson Castles), Rebecca Frances (m. David Wills), and Sarah Ann (m. Henry Carson Castles).  The Watts, like many of the other families of lowland Scottish heritage in their community, were members of the Presbyterian faith.

James Bell Watt

James began a classical education at Mt. Zion College in Winnsboro, SC but left school not long after on the occasion of his marriage to his cousin Nancy M. Bell on 31 December 1839.  Nancy's branch of the Bells were Associate Reformed Presbyterians, and sometime after they were married he also joined the Associate Reformed church.  After the birth of their first son, Frank, he picked up his studies again at Erskine College in Due West, SC and spent 1841-1842 there studying courses that he felt would be useful in his chosen field as a minister.  He did not graduate with a degree, but was licensed by the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Synod in 1843.  Rev. John Douglas's history of Steele Creek describes him as "tall and slender, a man of much personal dignity, of great suavity of manner, of ardent piety, a good preacher, fluent and impressive, though not boisterous."  In addition to his work as a minister, he also "wrote freely for the press" as a correspondent for the Due West Telescope.

In November of 1844 this "brilliant and magnetic" minister took his first assignment at Sardis and Steele Creek ARP churches in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.  On 10 April 1854 his wife Nancy died after a long illness, and Rev. Watt remarried later that year to Louisa Angeline Neal, whose family were members of the Steele Creek congregation of long standing.  In 1858 he broke his affiliation with the ARP church over the issue of closed communion (he didn't like that his own mother wasn't allowed communion in his church as she was Presbyterian, not ARP) and returned to the Presbyterian church.  He was installed as minister of the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church, but this appointment was to last for only two years.  On 16 September 1860, Rev. Watt died of typhoid fever he had contracted while ministering to the sick of his congregation.  Eleven days later his youngest son, Walter Wellington Watt, was born.  Rev. Watt was laid to rest in his church's cemetery.

Rev. Watt was survived by six children in all: sons Frank and Charles (my 3x great-grandfather) and daughter Margaret by his first wife, and sons William Neal, James Bell Jr., and Walter Wellington by his second.  Frank died at the hospital at Gordonsville, Virginia during the Civil War.  Charles and William Neal both went to Texas.  Margaret is supposed to also have married and moved to Texas.  J. B. Jr. and Walter remained in the Charlotte area and were members of the Steele Creek church where their father had been pastor.

See also:

• The History of Steele Creek Church, Mecklenburg County, N.C. - Rev. John Douglas (1901)
• Revised and expanded edition of Douglas's history - Steele Creek Historical Committee (1976)
• The Centennial History of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (1905)

52 Ancestors: #3 Marie Eleque (? - ca.1737)

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

The existing records for my New Orleans colonial ancestor Marie Eleque are rather sparse, so I'm going to cover what is known from existing sources first and then my proposed hypothesis regarding the origins of this particular ancestor.  I consider this one a research project still in progress.

What is known about Marie:

1. She was born in France, not New Orleans;
2. Her surname spelling in New Orleans records is extremely inconsistent.  Variants I've seen are Elecq, Eleque, Eleg, Elceq, Helceq, and Elee.  In my hypothesis is my theory on what her last name actually was.
3. The following entry in the Records of the Superior Council seems to be her first appearance in the New Orleans records: "Petition to Marry. May 5, 1725. Jean deDelmas alias St. Jean asks leave to marry one Marie, landed by LaLoire. Granted." (Records of the Superior Council, Louisiana Historical Quarterly, v. 2)  (LaLoire could have several meanings: it could refer to people in the area named La Loire, including one who was clerk of the company of the Indies who was killed at Natchez, or perhaps even more likely the ship LaLoire, which left France in 1724 with 19 girls aboard sponsored by the Company.)  This gives us 1725 as Marie's probable year of arrival in the colony. (19/5/2015 - CONFIRMED: Marie ELLECQ listed as a passenger aboard the Loire, which departed from Lorient, France on 9 June 1724.  Lorient is also located in the Morbihan département of Brittany, as is Bubry, Marie's likely hometown.)
4. That marriage appears to have taken place on 15 May 1725, when "Jean De Belmast, sailor of the Company [of the Indies], m. Marie Eleg".  (Woods, Earl C. and Charles Nolan, Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, v. 1.)
5. She was widowed by St. Jean and married again 13 November 1731 in New Orleans to François Brunet, a blacksmith from Plancoët, Bretagne.  In their marriage  record published by the Diocese of New Orleans, her parents are given as Pierre and Marie Tandie, and it says she's a native of "Bibri, Diocese of Vannes" and that she is the widow of "Jean Belmar, surnamed St. Jean Patron, dec. at Natchez" (this could be a very significant clue - I'll explain below).  (Woods and Nolan, Sacramental Records, v. 1)
6. She owned land on what is now Bourbon Street.  The chains of title for the earliest records on the particular properties contain a marginal note: "To Mary Elee, widow of Jean De Belmart, called S. Jean, whom Francois Vinnet has married. She has a granddaughter".  The property owner is given as "St. Jean" in 1728 and "Brunet" in 1731, consistent with the marriage date of Marie and François Brunet.  I don't know who the granddaughter referred to in the note is, as it seems to have been written during Marie's lifetime, yet the only grandchildren I have records of were born after she had died.  At the time of her remarriage, she and St. Jean had at least one child: a daughter, Marie Jeanne.  It could be the daughter the note is actually referring to, not a granddaughter, or that portion of the note could be from a later date.

52 Ancestors #2: Robert Fagan (1852 - 1932)

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

My great-great grandfather, Robert Fagan, was born in Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants from County Westmeath, Peter and Elizabeth* Fagan.  His birth date as recorded on his death certificate was the 24th of May, 1852.  What is certain is that his parents were already in Pennsylvania by the time he was born, as they are found on the 1850 census living in Hazleton with their Irish-born children, Julia, Garret and Eliza.  Family tradition says they arrived in the US overland across the Canadian border and that they arrived initially through a Nova Scotian port.  In Pennsylvania, sons Robert and Michael and daughter Mary would be born, the family's first American born citizens.

As a youth, Robert was one of the "breaker boys" or "slate pickers" who sat over chutes picking chunks of slate and other unusable materials out of the anthracite.  One of the slate pickers' supervisors at the time was a Mayo native, Edward Treston, whose niece Adelia O'Reilly would leave her home in Dublin for Hazleton sometime around 1882.  In 1883, Robert, by this time a superintendent, and Adelia were married.

1881 patent for bending railroad rails

Robert was also an inventor, holding patents on devices to bend railroad rails and to dispense powder from kegs safely, reducing the risk of explosion.  His obituary in the Wilkes-Barre, PA newspaper also mentions a "device for fighting mine fires, which was used successfully", and an industry journal noted when he had been granted a patent for eliminating rock drilling dust.  As some of the inventions he patented indicate, the safety of the men under his supervision was always a top priority.  The 1888 Report of the Pennsylvania mine inspectors contains the account of a serious fire in the Lattimer mines, and the following citation: "Much praise is due Joseph Dixon and Robert Fagan, and also to their assistants, John Burns, Oliver Rohrbach, Archie Boyd and John Carney, for the great care they took of the hundred and twenty men that were fighting the fire on the inside; and, indeed, I congratulate them on their success, as not one person was seriously injured during the one hundred and eight days and nights that they were engaged fighting this fire."  Given the number of men involved and the length of time the fire burned, it was surely no small task keeping them all safe.

He died the 30th of September, 1932 at the age of 80, having left behind three sons who all became doctors and four daughters who became teachers.

 *Robert's death certificate gives his mother's maiden name as Rogan, his brother Michael's has it as Grogan, and his sister Elizabeth's has it as Brogan.

52 Ancestors: #1 Mary Ann "Dr. Polly" (Foster) Rigsby (1816 - 1893)

I'm writing about my ancestors for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge.  Please join me in taking a moment to appreciate some of the people who helped me be here today!

My 4th great grandmother Mary Ann Foster was born 1 February 1816 in Wilkes County, Georgia, to Lewis Foster and Jane Lawson.  She married Lewis Johnson Rigsby on 9 January 1831 in Monroe County, Georgia, and in 1842 they moved to Texas.  They settled first in Angelina County, before moving to Tyler County and settling at Woodville.

The Rigsbys had 10 children, the second eldest being my 3rd great grandmother, Eliza Ann Rigsby Barclay Herring.  Doctors being scarce in the neighborhood, Mrs. Rigsby began to educate herself in the practice of medicine, taking a particular interest in women's ailments.  She taught herself through reading every published medical text and journal she could access and was known as "Dr. Polly".

When she died at the age of 77 on 8 May 1893, she was memorialized in her obituary as "no ordinary woman" whose "skill in the treatment of those diseases peculiar to her sex became widely known, and all the later years of her life were kept busy in works of humanity and charity."

My great great grandfather, James Clinton Herring, carried on his grandmother's legacy.  He became a doctor himself and practiced in Jones Prairie, Temple and Burlington, Texas.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge!

To read about my 52 Ancestors, choose the "My 52 Ancestors" link in the sidebar.

Joyeux 300ème anniversaire, Natchitoches!

2014 marks the 300th anniversary of the founding of a French colonial outpost in the wilderness of what is now northwestern Louisiana.  Originally founded as the settlement of Fort St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches, the city of Natchitoches predates the founding of New Orleans by six years, making it the oldest city in the state of Louisiana.  One of my 2014 genealogy resolutions is to make it back to Natchitoches to help celebrate the tri-centennial!

Kate Chopin House, Cloutierville 2002
Destroyed by fire, 2008

Natchitoches and its French Creole history have been a huge part of my research for years now.  My maternal grandmother would tell me about her own maternal grandmother, a first-generation Texas native who died a Presbyterian but still had the habit of saying a French rosary around the house.  Great-great grandma Emma no doubt learned it from her own mother Esilla, a Rachal from Cloutierville.  Through that family line, I can trace my roots back to the earliest history of the parish, and can even claim a connection to the writer Kate Chopin, who made her home at Cloutierville in the 1890s.  Her husband Oscar was a cousin through our shared ancestors, Julien Rachal and his wife Marie Louise Brevel.

My 5th great-grandfather
Pierre Sebastien Compere

For the genealogist with roots in Natchitoches Parish, there are abundant resources in the town to help you with your research.  Your first stop might be the Natchitoches Genealogy Library, located on the second floor of the Old Natchitoches Courthouse and operated by the Natchitoches Genealogical & Historical Association.  Or it might be the Cammie G. Henry Research Center, located on the campus of Northwestern State University of Louisiana.  Either location will provide you with a wealth of local history resources.  If you're not afraid of having to dig, the Natchitoches Parish Clerk's office contains records dating back to approximately 1732.  The last time I was there, about 12 years ago, the majority of those older records were not indexed so you had to have a pretty good idea of what you were looking for before you went.  You can also visit some of your ancestors directly in either the American Cemetery or the Catholic Cemetery, the oldest cemeteries in town.  Cemetery listings have been published and should be available at either of the research libraries listed above.  Whatever your course of action, I highly recommend checking out the bibliography I've created of books that have ranged from helpful to absolutely indispensable in doing my own research.  The more groundwork you've done ahead of time with those resources, the more time you can devote to those available only in Natchitoches.

Chapel altar, Fort St. Jean Baptiste

If you're more into experiencing the history rather than looking it up in books and documents, a trip to the Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site gives you a taste of what frontier life was like for the earliest French settlers.  Volunteers in period costume guide visitors on a tour around the site, featuring reproduction barracks, a chapel and even a large outdoor oven where the French baked their bread.  Another important historic site near Natchitoches is Melrose Plantation, which was built by the Metoyers, former slaves who became a founding family of the Cane River colony.  Today Melrose is a museum and a National Historic Landmark.  Also in the area is Oakland Plantation, now part of the Cane River Creole National Historic Park, which film buffs might recognize as the filming location of The Horse Soldiers, starring John Wayne and William Holden.  Check out the Cane River National Heritage Area website as well, for even more sites to visit and downloadable maps and a travel guide.

All photos by the author.

A Natchitoches Bibliography

The following will be of interest to anyone doing research on ancestors from Natchitoches, Louisiana.  The majority of these books are still in print and available via their publishers or an online retailer such as Amazon.  Copies of all books on the list can also be located in libraries via WorldCat.

• Burton, H. Sophie, and F. Todd Smith. Colonial Natchitoches: A Creole Community on the Louisiana-Texas Frontier. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.
• De Ville, Winston. Marriage Contracts of Natchitoches, 1739-1803. Nashville, 1961. Print.
• Mills, Donna Rachal. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Tuscaloosa: Mills Historical Press, 1985.
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown, and Gary B. Mills. Tales of Old Natchitoches. Natchitoches: Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches, 1978.
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches, 1729-1803: Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste Des Natchitoches in Louisiana. Westminister, MD: Heritage Books, 2007.
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches 1800-1826: Translated Abstracts from Register Number Five of the Catholic Church, Parish of St. François Des Natchitoches, Louisiana. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 2004.
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches Church Marriages, 1818-1850: Translated Abstracts from the Registers of St. François Des Natchitoches, Louisiana. Westminster, MD: Heritage, 2007.
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Natchitoches Colonials: Censuses, Military Rolls, and Tax Lists, 1722-1803. Chicago: Adams Press, 1981.
• Mills, Gary B., and Elizabeth Shown Mills. The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color. Baton Rouge: LSU, 2013.
• Prud'homme, Lucile Keator, and Fern B. Christensen. The Natchitoches Cemeteries: Transcriptions of Gravestones from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries in Northwest Louisiana. New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1977.
• Riffel, Judy. Natchitoches Baptisms, 1817-1840: Abstracts from Register 6 of St. Francis Catholic Church, Natchitoches, Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Comite Des Archives De La Louisiane, 2007.
• Riffel, Judy. Natchitoches Baptisms, 1841-1849: Abstracts from Register 9 of St. Francis Catholic Church, Natchitoches, Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Comité Des Archives De La Louisiane, 2010.