The Scotts of Scot's Hall Portraits

The idea for this post came from the discovery that several Scott family portraits are now in the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art.  These portraits were all among those reproduced as engravings in 1876 for the privately published "Memorials of the family of Scott, of Scot's Hall", so I thought I'd go through the portrait list published in the book and see how many I could track down to the present day.  This does not include any of the family memorials, which presumably have not left the church walls and floors they were placed on!  Where possible, I have provided a link to view the actual portrait, as the quality of the engraved reproductions varies substantially.  The provenance of the portraits at least until 1876 can be relatively assured: it was then that the engravings were reproduced with the permission of the widowed Mrs. Thomas Fairfax Best.  Mrs. Best's deceased husband was the son of Caroline Scott and Mr. George Best (per Burke's Landed Gentry) and a grandson of Edward and Margaret (Sutherland) Scott of Scot's Hall.  Portrait locations will be added as discovered.

Portrait of Reginald Scott, 1542 - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Sir Thomas Scott, 1585 - unknown, though the engraving matches copies in the NPG from 1803
Portrait of Sir John Scott of Nettlested - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Scott - NC Museum of Art, identified as Emmeline Scott
Portrait of Lady Catherine Scott - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of the celebrated Mary Honywood - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Edward Scott, Esq. D.C.L. - unknown
Portrait of George Goring, Earl of Norwich, Commander of Royalist Forces, Kent - unknown
Portrait of the Countess of Norwich -unknown
Portrait of Colonel George Goring (may be misidentified; see NPG collection) - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Sir Thomas Scott - unknown
Portrait of Lady (Caroline) Scott - unknown
Portrait of George Scott, Esq. of Scot's Hall - unknown
Portrait of Anne Pemberton, 1st wife of George Scott, Esq. - unknown
Portrait of Cecilia Dering, 2nd wife of George Scott, Esq. - unknown
Portrait of Commodore Scott - unknown
Portrait of Margaret Sutherland, wife of Edward Scott, of Scot's Hall - unknown
Portrait of the Honble. Lady Mary Compton, wife of Captain Arthur Scott, R.N. - NC Museum of Art
Portrait of Caroline Scott, wife of Thomas Best, of Chilston Park, Kent - unknown
Portrait of Thomas Best, Esq., M.P., of Chilston Park - last sold in 1997, buyer unknown
Portrait (Medallion), Mrs. George Best, Chilston Park - auctioned; buyer unknown

So now let's talk about the attributions provided by the book.

Oceanic: Queenstown to Ellis Island, May 1913

This one's a very special post for me, as it combines one of my favorite things, historic ships, with a truly amazing find in an immigration document that confirms quite clearly my previous research.

To the right is a photo of the White Star Line's Oceanic (II), which was built at Belfast's Harland & Wolff shipyard in 1899.  Until 1901 this ocean liner was the largest ship in the world, and until requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1914 and run aground that same year off Shetland, she carried thousands of immigrants to new lives in America from the ports of Cherbourg, Southampton, Liverpool, and Queenstown (Cobh).

One such passenger, who boarded Oceanic at Queenstown on 8 May 1913 and debarked at Ellis Island one week later on the 15th, was Laurence O'Reilly of Ballyhaunis, Mayo.  Before I go into what the ship's manifest says about him, I'd like to fill in a little background on him first.  He was born on 2 December 1883 and baptized Laurence Christopher O'Reilly on 5 December 1883 at St. Agatha's, Dublin (Laurentius Christopherus O'Riely in the transcribed record).  His father, Laurence John O'Reilly, a Superintendent in the Dublin Metropolitan Police, was head of the household in the 1901 Irish census when the entire family lived at 5 North Richmond Street.  Laurence Christopher, the oldest son, was 17.  By 1911, Supt. O'Reilly had retired and moved his family back to his home county of Mayo.   27-year-old Laurence Christopher is still in their household at Carrowneden, just outside Ballyhaunis, in the census of that year.

The first page of the manifest of Oceanic's May 1913 voyage gives his age as 28 (he had actually turned 29 the previous December), says he is a shop assistant, of British nationality and Irish origin, last residence is Ireland and his father is Laurence O'Reilly of Ballyhaunis.  It's on the second page of the manifest that things get really interesting: the younger Laurence's destination is Hazleton, Pennsylvania (spelled "Hazelton" on the manifest), his steerage ticket was paid by his father back in Ireland, and the relative he was on his way to was his "Aunt Mrs. Delia Fagan" of Lattimer Mines.  And there it was: my great-great grandmother's name, in black-and-white, confirmed as the sister of this Laurence's father!  Even though I was already sure of her place within the O'Reilly family back in Ireland based on the few records I had, the surviving records contained some inconsistencies in names and dates.  This passenger list explicitly laid out the family relationship, and since it refers to her married name, Fagan, there's absolutely no doubt of her identity.  It was exactly the kind of concrete evidence I'd hoped to find, and in a most unexpected place!  This definitely ranks very high on the list in terms of the most exciting family document finds for me.

The lesson here is that it's always worthwhile to check immigration records for collateral relatives.  You may be surprised what information the passenger lists for these other relatives can tell you about people in your own direct line, and they may provide precisely the evidence you need to link your own family back to their family of origin in their native country.

For more on Adelia O'Reilly Fagan:
What's in a name? Adelia, Delia, Bedilia and Bridget; or check out all posts tagged "O'Reilly".

Image: 'Oceanic' moored at Harland & Wolff shipyard, Belfast courtesy PRONI (via flickr)
Sources:
Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
The National Archives of Ireland. Census of Ireland 1901/1911 and Census fragments and substitutes, 1821-51 [database online.]
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.  Church Records [database online].

Filling In Gaps with the NLI Parish Registers

The biggest, most exciting event for genealogists researching Irish roots this year has got to be the release of hundreds of digitized images from the National Library of Ireland's collection of church parish registers.  Thanks to these records, I've been able to fill in some gaps and address some of my speculation regarding my own research.

1) I had theorized that a baptism record for Julia Bridget O'Reilly in the parish of Bekan, Mayo, which I believed to be my great-great grandmother Adelia's baptism, had been misread and that what someone had read as Julia could be Delia.  As it turns out, the transcription was incorrect, just not in the way I had thought it would be.  She was actually baptized Julia Bedelia O'Reilly.  That name makes me even more sure that the record is my great-great grandmother's, for reasons which I've already explored in a previous post.

2) I had also suspected that an Isaac O'Reilly who lived in Rathfarnham was the same person as one of Adelia's nephews, a son of her brother James.  Finding the marriage record of Isaac and his wife Julia (Mannering) in the parish records of St. Joseph's in Terenure confirmed that Isaac was indeed the son of James O'Reilly and Margaret Rothery.  Furthermore his witness at the marriage was none other than Laurence O'Reilly of 5 North Richmond Street, his uncle and James and Adelia's brother.  The record also provided the important information that Isaac's parents were living in the U.S. in Delaware City, Delaware.  Thanks to that clue, I looked into Delaware records and was able to track down both the baptism record of Isaac's sister Sarah and the marriage record of his brother Laurence.

Search the NLI Parish Register collection

Postcard image of St. Joseph's Terenure courtesy South Dublin Libraries 

Dr. Watt of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi

This is a brief follow-up to a previous post I wrote on members of the Watt family buried in Steele Creek ARP Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Among the graves of the immediate family of the Rev. James Bell Watt was a gravestone for a Dr. William J. Watt who had died in 1857.  I didn't know the name, but wondered whether he could be the younger brother of Rev. Watt referred to in a biographical entry on one of Rev. Watt's sons.  I've since found some additional information on him and his possible relationship to the Steele Creek Watts.

In 1850, a "Doc" William J. Watt, whose age matches that of the gravestone at Steele Creek, is living in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi.  The name that follows his, Virginia, is evidently his wife, and the census indicates they have married within the year.  His birthplace is given as South Carolina, and if we'll recall, Rev. Watt was also originally from Fairfield County, South Carolina.  The 1860 census shows Virginia Watt as the head of household in Starkville, Oktibbeha County, as would indeed be the case if her husband had died in 1857!  Notice also that their oldest son is named James Bell Watt.  Their younger son John apparently died later that year.  His gravestone stating he is the son of "W. J. and V. C. Watt" is located in the ARP Cemetery in Starkville.  That same cemetery is full of Watts, Bells, and Montgomerys who came from the Fairfield District and were all kin to the Steele Creek Watts, including three of the brothers of Rev. Watt's first wife, Nancy Bell.  By 1870 Virginia Watt had married again, when her two surviving Watt children can be found in the household of her second husband, James P. Curry.  In 1880 she is a widow again, and lives with her Curry children.  Her son James B. Watt is enumerated just above her.  Her daughter Margaret Watt married Dr. Samuel A. Montgomery, a descendant of the Fairfield Montgomerys; further information on him can be found on page 450 of this book.  Virginia herself lived until 1899, and is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Starkville, Mississippi.

Given the heavy presence of Fairfield County natives in the Starkville ARP congregation, particularly of those closely connected to the family of Rev. James Bell Watt, my opinion is that it is likely that "Doc" Watt who appears on the census in 1850 was also from Fairfield County.  I think it is also likely that he is the same person buried at Steele Creek and that he was the brother that Rev. Watt's son's biography referred to.  Of course, my investigation is still not complete and there are still offline sources I'll need to hunt down and check up on, but so far nothing found rules this particular relationship out.  Quite the contrary, what circumstantial facts we have would seem to support it.

A Tragedy at Campti

The Opelousas Courier, 12 Feb 1853

Again I'm bringing clippings from the Opelousas Courier relating to people from the Natchitoches area.  These two, which I came across while working on the post relating to deaths at Cloutierville published in the same journal, recount the story of a bizarre and inexplicable crime befalling a member of the Rachal family.  It's precisely the type of story that often gets lost or only hazily passed down among the simple aggregation of names and dates that often constitutes a genealogy.  The brief account in English is included here in the image to the right; below is my translation of the further details published the following week in the French edition of the same paper:

On the evening of 21 January [1853], a man named Samuel Summers disembarked from the steamboat John Strader at Rigolet de Bon Dieu and spent the night at the home of Mr. Cockfield.  The following day and night he proposed to spend at the home of Mr. Onézime Rachal.  In the afternoon he chatted with a person named Standish, and engaged him to go outside with him.  Standish agreed to his wishes and accompanied him outside; but they were just a few paces from the house when Summers drew from his pocket a knife and tried to cut his throat.  Standish, in resisting, received such a deep wound to his abdomen that his entrails were exposed.  A few moments after he ceased to live.

Drawn by the noise of the fight, Mr. and Mme. Rachal appeared outside; Summers, when he saw them, rushed toward them, knife raised, and inflicted several blows to the husband and wife.  The latter was mortally wounded.  The house-guests and servants, at the sight of the appalling tragedy, were seized with panic and fled.

As the news of what had happened spread throughout the neighborhood, many inhabitants armed themselves in haste and went in pursuit of Summers.  They found him after half an hour in a field belonging to Mme. Metoyer, two miles from the Rachal residence, but he had attempted suicide, for he had a large wound to the throat and three others to the abdomen.  He was taken to the prison and succumbed there during the night.  It is thought that Summers was a madman escaped from some hospital.  It is indeed impossible to conceive of such a crime on the part of a man capable of reason.

I searched the Natchitoches books I have copies of to try to determine who Onezime Rachal's parents were, without any luck.  I don't own a copy of every published Natchitoches record book that exists, though, so it is possible I may yet find him the next time I consult one of those in a library.  The 1850 census contains an entry for an "Onizieme Rachal" with a wife named Amelia.  The 1832 baptism of Marie Aimée Liegue Brevel, daughter of Jean Bte. Brevel and Marie Euphrosine Lestage, was sponsored by Onézime Rachal and Marie Aimée Lestage, "Mrs. Onézime".  Baptisms in the 1840s that Onézime sponsored are sometimes co-sponsored by either Emelie Lestage or Emelie Rachal.  Are Emelie and Aimée the same person, or is Emelie a second wife?  Is Amelia a census enumerator's anglicization of her name?  And is Emelie Lestage the Mme. Onézime Rachal who was killed at Campti?

Sources:
The Opelousas Courier, 12 February 1853 <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389/1853-02-12/ed-2/seq-2/>
Le Courrier des Opelousas, 19 February 1853 <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389/1853-02-19/ed-1/seq-1/>
Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.
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.

The Burton Free School

These photos, from the application packet for the 2013 historic site designation for the public schools in Burton, Texas, show Burton students ca. 1910.  Of those identified, I have spotted several names familiar to me from my research of this area.  The child identified as Bill Bryan in the photo on the left and the bottom photo on the right is my great-grandfather, and the others with the same surname are his siblings.  Additional relatives in these photos are the Watts, McCains, and Burkes, who were their cousins.

The associated historical marker reads:

Burton Public Schools opened in 1874, and by 1926 nine grades were offered. In 1938, construction on Burton’s first high school began. Funded through the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), the building was completed in 1940. Designed by architect Travis Broesche and built by local contractor Will Weeren, the school exhibits international and rustic architectural style. Features include abutting two-story rectangular blocks, a curved wall near the entrance, and a native field stone veneer.

Source:
Texas Historical Commission. [Historic Marker Application: Burton Public School]. The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth491853/. Accessed July 5, 2015.

Revolutionary War Patriot Ancestors

Happy 4th of July!  Today I'm sharing a list I've compiled of my DAR-eligible patriot ancestors.  The numbers and abbreviations following the names are the numbers as indicated by the DAR Patriot Index and the state served.  Lineage through my paternal or maternal line is indicated by a (P) or (M).

1. Baker, Thomas - #A005106 VA (P)
2. Bell, William - #A008824 SC (M)
3. Buchanan, Alexander - #A016383 NJ (P)
4. Bullock, Micajah - #A016885 NC (P)
5. Cheatham, William - #A202873 VA (P)
6. Clay, Charles, Sr. - #A022833 VA (P)
7. Clay, Jesse - #A022850 VA (M)
8. Dalby, John - #A029356 VA (P)
9. Ford, Nathaniel - #A040933 SC (M)
10. Guyton, Joseph -  #A048677 SC (P)
11. Hickerson, John - #A111186 VA (P)
12. Hurt, Moses - #A088208 VA (P)
13. Kelsey, Samuel, Jr. - #A064394 SC (P)
14. Kelsey, Samuel, Sr. - #A064398 SC (P)
15. Lemoine, Charles – not in patriot index but was in Natchitoches Militia LA (M)
16. Montgomery, Charles - #A078960 SC (M)
17. Morgan, Nathaniel - #A034848 VA (P)
18. Rachal, Julien - #A200189 LA (M)
19. Stone, Micajah - #A109702 VA (P)
20. Thaxton, William - #A113929 VA (P)
21. Turner, James - #A117084 VA (P)
22. Waters, Joseph (Watters) - #A122240 NJ (M)
23. Wright, Robert - #A130983 VA (M)
24. Young, Hugh (Yongue) - #A015655 SC (M)
25. Young, James (Yongue) - #A015654 SC (M)

My grandmother was a member under #10 in this list, Joseph Guyton, which means if I didn't want to compile all the documentation for a full application under another ancestor, I could apply using a short form and my grandmother's info.  This would piggyback my application onto hers, and the only documentation I would need to provide would be documents proving my relationship to her.  Finding a relative you can short form apply from is an avenue well worth exploring if you find the documentation of a full application a bit daunting!

Sources:
DAR Patriot Index - go on, have a look for your ancestors!
SAR Membership Project for Creole Families - source for Charles Lemoine

Watts in Steele Creek Cemetery

Back when I wrote up a short biography of my 4th-great grandfather, Rev. James Bell Watt, I had cited as one of my sources a history of the Steele Creek church where he was pastor.  What didn't make it into my earlier post was that along with a history of the church, the book also contains a full listing of the burials in the Steele Creek cemetery alongside the church, up to 1976.  The listing is actually very helpful, because the compilers provided a chart showing the layout of the cemetery and grave locations via a grid division of the chart.  The number and first letter correspond to the grid location, while the W or E that follow indicates whether the grave is on the west or east side of the cemetery.  I have broken up the listing of Watt burials located in Steele Creek and grouped them by their locations as provided in the book rather than by the straight alphabetical listing it provides.  In doing this I hope to give a clearer picture of the specific groupings within the family as a whole for reasons I will clarify below.

7FW - immediate family of Rev. J. B. Watt
Watt, Fannie - d. 12 Jun 1851 (aged 18 months) "Daughter of Rev. J. B. Watt"
Watt infants - "Two nameless babes, children of Rev. and Mrs. J. Bell Watt"
Watt, Reverend James Bell - 4 Apr 1820 - 16 Sep 1860 - "Pastor of Steele Creek"*
Watt, Louisa Angelina - 6 Dec 1835* - 8 May 1917 - "Wife of Rev. James Bell Watt"
Watt, Mary Caroline - d. 20 Aug 1838 (age 4 months) - "Daughter of J. B. Watt"
Watt, Mrs. Nancy M. - d. 10 Apr 1854 - "Wife of Reverend J. B. Watt"
Watt, William J. - d. 4 Feb 1857 (age 34 years)
(*I have corrected Louisa Watt's birth year from the book's printed date of 1865, which would be impossible as her husband died in 1860, to the correct year of 1835.  Rev. Watt appears in the full alphabetical list in 11DE, clear across the cemetery.  but a list of pastors buried at Steele Creek that precedes the full list places him in 7FW, with the rest of his family.  I have chosen to use that location for my list, but note the discrepancy.)

8GW - immediate family of Rev. Watt's youngest son, Walter
Watt, Elizabeth Reed - 4 Jun 1870 - 7 Jul 1937 "Wife of Walter W. Watt"
Watt, Walter W. - 27 Sep 1860 - 5 Nov 1941

11AE - family of William Franklin Watt, son of James Bell Watt Jr and grandson of Rev. Watt
Watt infant - 8 Jan 1917 - 8 Jan 1917 "Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Watt"
Watt infant - 18 Dec 1918 - 15 Feb 1919 "Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Watt"
Watt, William Franklin - 17 Jun 1886 - 23 Jun 1964
Watt, William Franklin Jr. - 13 Feb 1914 - 11 Jan 1973

11BE - family of James Bell Watt Jr
Watt, Emma Wilson 2 Jul 1859 - 25 Apr 1935
Watt, James Bell 25 Jan 1859 - 15 Apr 1925

The one burial in the list that really caught my attention was the one I couldn't immediately identify as a member of Rev. Watt's immediate family or as a descendant - William J. Watt, who was 34 years old when he died in 1857.  This would make him about two years younger than Rev. Watt, and born in either 1822 or 1823.  The biography of Rev. Watt's youngest son, Walter, that appears on page 25 of the History of North Carolina, vol VI, mentions that Rev. Watt was the elder of two brothers.  Might this William J. Watt be his younger brother?  I have as yet found no other biographical sources of Rev. Watt that mention a brother by name, but the age and grave location suggest that William J. Watt was a close member of the Reverend's family.

Happy Flag Day!

This photo probably dates from mid-1920s and depicts my grandfather, Robert Fagan of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Deaths at Cloutierville - Ancestors in Neighboring Newspapers

Today's post highlights one of my favorite tips for searching for ancestors among old sources - in this case, newspapers.  What I like to remind everyone is not to assume that just because your ancestors lived in one particular location, that information on them will be limited to that location!  Since newspapers were one of the best ways to spread information about ones' friends and neighbors, newspapers located outside of the actual hometown of an ancestor may provide you with better information, since they're meant for the people who didn't keep up with that person on a daily basis.  Check surrounding towns' newspapers for mentions of your ancestors, or even the papers of the towns where their families lived in other counties or states.

Today's news clipping comes from the Opelousas Courier, a weekly paper in both French and English editions published in Opelousas, Louisiana from 1852 to 1910.  Opelousas is the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, which is located three parishes away from Natchitoches, where the people it mentions were from.  The notice is of a list of recent deaths at Cloutierville, located along the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, and states that among the deceased are also "names who are well-known in our Parish".

• The Opelousas courier. (Opelousas, La.), 05 Nov. 1853. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83026389/1853-11-05/ed-1/seq-1/>

Of particular interest to this blogger are the names Eusèbe Deslouches, Hyppolite Rachal, and Mmes. P. S. Compère and Julien Rachal, which match names in my own family tree.  The Eusèbe Deslouches in my records was the son of Appoline Rachal and Landry Deslouches, and the nephew of Hyppolite Rachal, who also appears in the list.  Hyppolite was, like Appoline and my ancestor Cyriaque, a child of Sylvestre Rachal and Marie Rose Michel-Zoriche.  If they are the same people as mine, Eusèbe Deslouches was about 9 years old and his uncle Hyppolite was about 28 years of age at the time of their deaths.  As neither of them could be found on the 1860 census, I think it likely but not 100% confirmed.  Also here in this list is an additional corroboration for the death of my 5th-great grandmother, Mme. P. S. Compère (née Lolette Rachal, daughter of Julien Rachal and Marie Louise Brevel) who died September of 1853, according to my records, which cited her succession filed with the Natchitoches clerk of court as the source for that date.  The Compères' elder son Joseph Maximin had married Clara Dejean of Opelousas, and so their name would indeed have been familiar in Opelousas.  The name in this list that precedes Lolette's, Mme. Julien Rachal, is not her mother, who died in 1815, but is probably instead her sister-in-law, Marie Melanie Lavespere, the widow of Mme. Compère's brother, Julien Jr.  Two of their sons were also married to Dejean sisters, so the Rachals would have been known in Opelousas as well.

The next column on the newspaper page (link in the caption above) contains a letter from the bishop at Natchitoches which may be relevant to this list.  In it, he laments the devastation brought upon the communities at Cloutierville, Shreveport, and Alexandria by a recent outbreak of yellow fever.

The Bitterman House

This picture probably dates from the same time as the family portrait taken in/about 1903.  The members of the extended Bitterman family are gathered at the Nuecestown home belonging to Levi Bitterman, who can be seen seated on the front porch of the home in this photo.  The matriarch of the family, Esilla (Rachal) Bitterman, is dressed in black on the upstairs gallery, standing between two of her Wright granddaughters.  A photo of the same house belongs to the General Photograph Collection in the Special Archives and Collections of the Corpus Christi Public Library, corroborating the identification of the photo as another image of the Bitterman family.

James Thomas O'Reilly in Dublin and America

In addition to my great-great grandmother and some of her O'Reilly nephews, I've found evidence that another member of the same family also left Ireland to come to America.  This was my great-great grand uncle, James Thomas O'Reilly.

James Thomas O'Reilly was born 17 May 1854 and baptized the 24th of the same month at Bekan, Mayo.  The sponsors to his baptism were Francis Treston and Anne O'Reilly, presumably relatives of his parents, Laurence O'Reilly and Bridget Treston.  He was likely named for his maternal grandfather, James Treston of Cottage, Mayo, in accordance with the popular naming conventions of the time.

James appeared again in the records at the age of 19, when he married Margaret Rothery 2 November 1873 in Dundrum.  James's address is given as Bride Street, which is right in the Dublin city centre, though unfortunately no occupation is given.  Margaret's address is given as Dundrum, as are the addresses of both parents.  James's are given as Laurence and Bridget O'Reilly and Margaret's are Isaac and Sarah Rothery.  From the 1884 marriage record of Margaret's brother, Isaac, in Rathmines, we learn that their mother's name was Sarah Doyle.  The Thom's Directories list Isaac Rothery, their father, resident in the Churchtown area for many years as a cattle dealer.  This was also around the time Laurence O'Reilly and his family had moved from Mayo to Dublin following the death of James O'Reilly there in 1872, and the Rotherys lived very close by and certainly would have known them.  As the marriage record doesn't state James's mother's maiden name, we can only look to the evidence in additional documents, but I have since concluded that this was the same James from the Bekan parish baptism register.

The church records show three children born while James and Margaret lived in Dublin: Laurence, born 19 August 1874 in Churchtown; Isaac, born 10 Jan 1876 in Churchtown; and James, born 18 January 1877 in Roundtown.  At this point their trail went cold in Ireland.  I was able to find an obituary for Margaret's mother printed in Freeman's Journal in January 1884, with the request that American papers please copy (commonly requested when relatives have moved abroad).

Based on the request in Sarah Doyle Rothery's obituary, a check of American records under their names turned up Margaret's death certificate in 1920, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.  We had the right Margaret... but what about James?  As mentioned above, the marriage didn't conclusively state he was the son of Laurence O'Reilly and Bridget Treston.  I also didn't turn up a death certificate in Pennsylvania for him, and since he also doesn't appear with the family on the 1910 census he likely died sometime between 1900 and 1906, when the state officially started issuing death certificates.

However, two documents among the Pennsylvania records provide links back to the Bekan baptism.  The first is the 1900 census.  Included in the census data for that year are the month and birth year of the respondent.  James, listed here as James O'Riley, gives his birth date as May 1854, exactly matching the Bekan record.  The second is the Philadelphia death certificate of James and Margaret's son, James, the one whose baptism was recorded in St. Joseph's Dublin, in 1877.  The younger James died in 1908 of cancer at the age of 31.  His parents are recorded as James T.  O'Reilly (T as in Thomas) and Maggie Rothery (name transcribed incorrectly; see image).

So, to conclude: we know from the Pennsylvania records that the James O'Reilly who married Margaret Rothery in Dublin was named James T. O'Reilly and that he was born in May 1854.  The Dublin marriage tells us that James's parents were named Laurence and Bridget, and the Mayo baptism of Laurence O'Reilly and Bridget Treston's son shows that he was born in May 1854 and his middle name was Thomas.  Taken together, I think it is a reasonable conclusion to draw that the Pennsylvania, Dublin, and Mayo records are all referring to the same person: James Thomas O'Reilly.

(Additional fee-based church records I am unable to provide links to were found on RootsIreland.  Freeman's Journal can be accessed for a fee from either Find My Past or the British Newspaper Archive.  Thom's Directory is also available via Find My Past.)

The Case of the Missing Irish Anzac

Today, April 25th, is the annual observation of Anzac Day, the remembrance of the Allied troops from Australia and New Zealand during WWI.  This particular Anzac Day is a very special one, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the Anzacs landing at Gallipoli.

Researching Anzac relatives is easy from any corner of the world now, thanks to the joint efforts of the Australian and New Zealand governments, who have put the service records of these soldiers online.  You may research them yourself, at the Discovering Anzacs site.

One example is a distant cousin of mine, Joseph Michael Lavan of Ballyhaunis, Mayo (it shouldn't be a surprise that many were Irish born).  Joseph Michael was the youngest son of Susan Treston of Cottage, County Mayo, who was a first cousin of my great-great grandmother, Adelia O'Reilly.  Susan's father was Hubert Treston, the younger brother of my great-great-great grandmother Bridget Treston.

Joseph Michael's service record tells us is that he signed on relatively late in the war, in 1917.  He was sent from Australia to England, and from there to France, where he survived several gas attacks.  It is here that the record acquires a bit of a mystery.  It was while recuperating from the last of these that Joseph Michael was invalided to hospital in London and mid-May 1918 granted a furlough until the end of the month, which he failed to return from.  On 31 January 1919 he reappeared in Waterford, in civilian clothes, and rendered himself to the civil authorities.  What the record can't tell us (or doesn't, at any rate) is why Joseph Michael disappeared when he did, what he was doing in all that time, or why he was found back in Ireland.  A possible reason emerges, however, based on clues contained both in the service record and in existing Irish records.

What the service record does say is that sometime before his record was closed, his family contact back home had changed.  It had been his mother, Mrs. Susan Fallon of Ballyhaunis, but her name was crossed out and his brother, Bernard Vincent Lavan, a resident of Ballinlough, Roscommon, written in.  When Joseph's furlough was up and he didn't return, a letter was sent from the Army to Bernard rather than to Susan.  Looking at the Irish records, specifically the will calendars in the possession of the National Archives in Dublin, we learn that Susan Fallon had died sometime prior to the end of 1918, when the administration of her estate was granted on 24 December to Mssrs. Patrick Costello and James Lyons.  Susan had a cousin named Patrick Costelloe who lived at Graigue Lodge, Tuam, Galway; it is unclear if he is the person referred to here or not.  James Lyons is also an extremely common name throughout Mayo (Lyons is one of the most numerous surnames in the entire county), but the 1901 and 1911 Irish census tells us that a James Lyons was a merchant in Ballyhaunis, and ran the Commercial Hotel (Susan and her first husband, Michael Lavan, had run the Railway Hotel in Ballyhaunis).  James Lyons had a daughter, Annie, who had married Bernard Lavan, mentioned above, in 1910.  It is reasonable to conclude that it is this James Lyons who helped administer Susan's estate.  Could Susan's death have had something to do with Joseph's disappearance in those months between his leaving the hospital in London and turning up again in Waterford?

Regardless of the disciplinary mark on his record for his unexplained absence, Joseph Michael did receive recognition for his military service by being presented both the British Medal and Victory Medal, as indicated by the stamps and medal numbers recorded in his file.  He certainly hadn't had an easy time in the short duration of his active service, as the number of times the word "gassed" appears in the notations for his file indicate, and his disappearance and reappearance coinciding with his mother's death back home in Ireland certainly adds an intriguing, and very human, element to the story of a young Irishman far from his home.

Dr. Charles Henry DeWan

Way back when I first started researching my grandfather's Irish ancestry, I asked my grandmother what she knew about his family.  One of the things she told me was that her mother-in-law, Kathryn DeWan Fagan, had a brother who was a pathologist.  This was Dr. Charles Henry DeWan, as my research would uncover.  

The youngest DeWan sibling, Charles was born 18 August 1892 in Herrick, Pennsylvania.  Their father, Patrick, had come from Ireland sometime before 1862 and their mother, Anna McGovern, had family roots in Counties Armagh and Longford.  Charles graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where his brother-in-law Dr. Peter Edward Fagan had also earned his MD, and returned home to Bradford County as an intern in 1917 to join the staff of the Robert Packer Hospital.  During a 45 year medical career, Dr. DeWan was a deputy coroner for Bradford County and director of the pathology department at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania.  Under his supervision the pathology lab grew from one room to an entire hospital floor, and his death in 1963 garnered a front page headline in the local paper (plus an additional page).  The following photograph is of Dr. DeWan.

Dr. Charles Henry DeWan
Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

It is my belief that the image above, being created prior to 1977, is likely in the public domain as classified for works created between 1923 and 1977 as laid out here and additionally that fair use applies, as I have provided a commentary on it by adding details on the life of its subject which were not published with the image.

The USGA's "Photo" Pietzcker

While not a household name today, a number of iconic images of the country's most famous golfers of the 1920s and 1930s were photographed by my 2nd cousin 3x removed, George Sealy Pietzcker.   George was born in Sour Lake, Hardin County, Texas on 18 January 1885.  His father, Ezra James Pietzcker, was from Massillon, Ohio and was the son of Mary Ann Biedermann/Bitterman (sister of my 3x great-grandfather Levi) and Dr. August Pietzcker, a Moscow-born Prussian who family tradition said had been taken from Moscow to St. Petersburg as an infant to escape Napoleon's invading army in 1812.  Family tradition also held that Mary Ann and Levi's father, Joseph Biedermann, had been a member of that invading French army and was one of a small fraction to survive the Russian winter and make it back alive.

George's mother, Veturia Elizabeth Merchant, came from a family that had resided at Sour Lake since at least the 1840s.  Possibly not entirely coincidentally, some of her husband Ezra's Bitterman cousins had also been born in Sour Lake, and he may have ended up there while on the trail of his missing uncle Levi in Texas, a Herculean task given him by the family back in Ohio.  Ezra traveled a lot for his work, including stints in Houston which allowed him to stay in touch with his Texas Bitterman cousins (once he succeeded in finding them!), and we all probably owe cousin Ezra a great deal in particular for a letter, now part of the pension file of Esilla Bitterman in the Texas State Archives, which details to his cousins some of the history of the Bitterman family as he knew it.

Eventually the entire Pietzcker family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri.  George started a photography studio while they resided there and although golf photography was his chosen specialization, he also on occasion photographed other events.  A collection of photographs he took in 1910 documenting an aviation meet feature photos of Wright planes and Theodore Roosevelt, and are now part of a special collection at Duke University.  Throughout the next couple of decades, George traveled the country working as a photographer for the USGA.  His original photos are extremely rare now and sell for thousands when they come up for auction.  A selection of reproductions of some of his most famous subjects are available through the USGA Museum, and many are republished in the book Golf's Golden Age.  George appears on the US Census records with the rest of the Pietzcker family through 1930.  During the next decade, George relocated to Miami, Florida, with wife Julia and retired there.  He died in Miami on 1 December 1971.  

Bitterman Family Portrait, ca. 1903

Three generations of Bitterman descendants are depicted in this photograph, dating from around 1903 (based on the ages of the infants in the photo).  From the groupings in the photo I've been able to reconstruct a pretty good idea of who everyone is.  The white-haired man near the center of the photo is Levi Bitterman, with daughter Mary Ann and wife Esilla (Rachal) sitting to either side of him.  On Esilla's other side, wearing a plaid dress, is their daughter Emma with husband William Woodson Wright Jr. and their children seated and standing around them.  At far left in the center row is Levi and Esilla's son Fred, with wife Mary Susan (Elliff) and their daughters.  On the other side of Mary Susan is Milus Polk Wright, Mary Ann's husband and brother of Emma's husband W. W., and the four boys sitting on the ground and the girl behind them belong to M. P. and Mary Ann.  At the back row is Lee Bitterman with wife Hester (Clark), married about a year at the time this was taken, and the identities of the next two young men in the photo would be either Ulyses or Edgar Bitterman (but I'm not certain which one is which).  On their other side is their niece Mabel Wright, her brother Earl, and sister Ghaskye.  Their brothers Will and Harry are seated on the ground in front of their parents, The small girl with her hair in ribbons, immediately behind Harry and being held onto by their father, is my great-grandmother Pearl Anais, who was around three years old.