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.

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.