WHO WILL READ THE RECORDS???

I went to the DMV to get my picture taken for my drivers license renewal.   I had to answer about ten computerized questions before they would take my picture.   Just sort of generic about organ donation and changing your political party.

I asked the woman if a lot of people had trouble with renewals, I was thinking that if you had never used a computer it might be difficult.   She answered that the elderly have trouble with answering the questions with the key pad and a lot of teenagers could not write their names.

WHAT,  she said that when they get there a signature is required for your drivers license and a lot of them do not know how to write their names.   Can we print it, NO a signature is required.  Then the next is can my mom sign for me?   NO, just do your best.   The woman also said she doubted that they can read the written word at all.

This is one of the saddest things I have heard in a while.   I knew that cursive was being eliminated in the schools but it astonished me that they were never taught to write their own names.   Something is missing in the Education Department in the USA.

Which brings me back to Genealogy, or any type of off line research.  As we all know there are millions of records that have not been transcribed.   Does this mean that in fifty years or so they will be obsolete?   It is even worse when you think someone would want to read the documents written in the old penmanship styles.

I guess a person could make a lot of money transcribing the written word...

RESEARCH PROJECT.

I have to start on a research plan to find the parents of Michael Coleman and the connection to the parents of Mary Ann Saylor Coleman.
My first step will be to find every Coleman and Saylor in the census in Pennsylvania 1790, 1800, 1820, 1830, 1840 and 1850.  Then I will narrow them down to Eastern and Central Pennsylvania.
Michael Coleman was born circa 1809 and Mary Saylor in 1814.   According to the Civil War deposition of Michaels oldest son (William Thomas), the parents were born 1780-1847 for his father and his mother 1789-1831.
His dad would have been 67 at the time of his death and his mother 42 at the time of her death.  So I need to peruse the census looking for a couple with the difference in age of about 10 years. 

This was a great idea…I decided to look in the 1840 census for a man who would have been sixty years old living with his son, my theory was he had been a widower for about nine years.  I came up with this idea since I did not find the Thomas Coleman who Is my suspect for “father.”
I looked through all the Coleman names in the Huntingdon County area and found nothing.  In a flash of inspiration and now I wonder what I was thinking?   He was probably living with a daughter and since I have no idea about any names of Michael Coleman siblings I am back where I started.
I guess it was fantasy thinking on my part.  I have to come up with a new plan of action.

NEW THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST

Summer is almost gone and I did not get a lot done.  My time was spent selling my daughters house, packing, moving and helping her find another house.

I have been lax on doing much research, except for what is on line.   I have been hoping for more records for Allegheny County PA but not much has been posted.

I have a couple who were sponsors for my great grandparents, Patrick O'Rourke and Ellen Mortel O'Rourke.   For a few of their children the sponsors were James and Bridget O'Rourke.   It has been my theory that this was Patrick's brother and his wife.  Some where in my dads notes was an indication that Patrick had a brother Jim.

What I did find was three deaths for the parents of James and Bridget O'Rourke.  The first death was on 28 June 1886, Patrick O'Rourke age 7 years; cause  of death, Scarlet Fever.    The second death was on 24 July 1886, James O'Rourke age  5 years and 3 months, cause of death, Scarlet Fever.  The third death was on 3 August 1886, Anna O'Rourke age 1 year and 11 months, cause of death consumption of bowels.

Bridget and James lost three children the summer of 1886,  I can not image the sadness that this couple felt.  The death certificate gave and address and ward number for the city of Pittsburgh.   I have deducted or guessed that the church they would have attended would have been St. Agnes, which was a Irish Catholic Church close to their home.

When the Archives of the Diocese of Pittsburgh reopens to search for their Baptism and deaths will be on my agenda.    The dates when their children were born would coincide with the same years of my great grandparents would have been starting their family too.

GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF PITTSBURGH

I am really excited.   This week is the second GRIP being held in Pittsburgh.   I attended last year and had a great time and learned a lot.  This year I will be taking Advanced Land Research and it is being taught by Pamela Boyer Sayre and her husband Richard G. Sayre.

I love maps but I am having difficult trying to pin point the location on maps.   I hope to be an advanced map user by the time I am finished.   I cleaned up my computer (of useless trivia and files, did a virus and malware scan) and am ready to go.

Tomorrow will be the registration and we will get our special stuff.   The venue is at LAROCHE COLLEGE located in the North Hills of Allegheny County, it is just north of the city of Pittsburgh.  It is a small college and beautiful campus.

Staying at the college was an option but I will be staying at home and commuting.  Will update as I go this week.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

My grandfather, leaning on the train with his shirt undone.

MYSTERY MONDAY—MICHAEL COLEMANS PARENTS???

 

My  most enduring mystery is who are Michael A/H Coleman’s parents?   Michael is my husbands second great grandparent. 

In the deposition of the Civil War Pension for his son William  Thomas Coleman, it states that Michael was born 23 December 1809 and his wife Mary Ann Saylor was born 21June 1814.  Both were born in central Pennsylvania, Mary Ann in Huntingdon County and Michael possibly in Huntingdon County or perhaps near by Bedford County.

The deposition goes on to state the dates of birth and death for “mother” are 1789 – 1831.  The dates for “father” are 1780-1847.   Mother would have been 42 at the time of her death and Father was 67 and  both died before the important 1850 census.

I do not know the names or numbers of any siblings of Michael A/H, nor have I found any online trees of anyone that have included “mother and father.”   There are descendants of Michael and Mary Ann but none have found the parents information.

I did find on ANCESTRY a 1820 census from Centre County, PA that lists a Thomas Coleman (male 26 thru 44) and a female (26 thru 44) and six children ages. Two male children ages 10 through 15 and four females ages  under 10 years of age.   Michael and his parents would fit into this demographic.   But are they my “people?”

Source Citation: 1820 U S Census; Census Place: Spring, Centre, Pennsylvania; Page: 264; NARA Roll: M33_98; Image: 279.

 

Map is from Google Maps.

Spring Township is just a few miles north of the area that is mentioned in The Deposition.

In the 1830 census I find  a Thomas Coleman living in Warriors Mark, Huntingdon County.

This Thomas Coleman would fit the criteria for Michael A/H Coleman the best.  It has

 

1830 United States Federal Census about Thomas Coleman

Name:
Thomas Coleman

Home in 1830 (City, County, State):
Warriors Mark, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

Free White Persons - Males - Under 5:   1
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9:    1
Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19:  1
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29:  1
Free White Persons - Males - 50 thru 59:  1
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5:  1
Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9:   2
Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 14: 1

Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19:  1
Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49:   1
Free White Persons - Under 20:  8
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49: 2
Total Free White Persons: 11

The nine year difference in age between father and mother would be apparent  in this census. Michael would have been 21 at the time.

Source Citation: 1830 US Census; Census Place: Warriors Mark, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; Page: 50; NARA Series: M19; Roll Number: 166; Family History Film: 0020640.

 

 

Google Maps. Warriors Mark Township, Huntingdon County PA.

 

The distance between the two places is about 35 miles.  Now the question is how to “prove” they are “Father and Mother”

JOHN DOUD AND CATHERINE FITZMORRIS.

I had lost the link for the Glinsk Parish, County Galway Baptisms but I found it in one of my ambiguous files.   I have moved it to Evernote and there it shall remain. 

I went back to review the Baptism information to find the names of the sponsors of the Dowd sibling, Thomas (1859) (my ggf), James (1862), Maria (1864) , Catherine (1868), and Norah (1870).  
The interesting thing was for Catherine and Norah Doud there was a place residence listed as Camderry, Galway, Ireland.   I “Googled” the town and it is a very small place near the border of County  Roscommon.

  A check of the 1901 census for Camderry and I found a John Doud, age 68 and his wife Catherine (Fitzmorris ???), age 60 with a daughter Anne who is 15 years of age.   I have a suspicion that these are my great great grandparents.  My great grandfather was the first born after the marriage in 1858, and he emigrated in 1880. 

Now there are a lot of other siblings out there of which I have no idea of their names.   The older siblings probably never met the older ones. Catherine would have been 18 at the age of marriage and 45 when Anne was born.  

Every discovery brings about more questions.