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.