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