TO EVERY RUMOR IS A HINT OF TRUTH.

When I was a child my grandmother told me about her sister Loretta and how she died at an early age. The neighbor "scared her to death with a Halloween mask." Or so my grandmother Gertrude O'Rourke had told me.

Last Saturday I was at the Carnegie Library and perusing the deaths from 1885 to 1096. In the O section I came across a death for Loreto O'Rourke in 1894. I sent for the copy and sure enough it was the often spoken of Loretta. She died November 24, 1894 after an illness of fever for a duration of two weeks. She was buried November 25, 1894 in the Monongahela Cemetery, which is now All Saints Catholic Cemetery in North Braddock PA. I wonder if their other three children are buried there too?

My grandmother said Loretta was the youngest which would make her birth in 1892. My grandmother said her birthday was 1892, that makes me question did Gertrude remember her sister or was it something she was told? The records from the Diocese of Pittsburgh did not indicate a Loretta O'Rourke birth/Baptism. Also, another child my grandmother spoke of was Dennis, who had drowned in the river.

Will the cemetery have those records??? I have to see.

On another listing I had requested with the Bartel name was a death of a six day old infant names Henry Bartel. I do not know if he is a relative but the cause of death was lock jaw. Lock Jaw is the old name for blood poisoning or tetanus. People now are vaccinated for that and when we get an injury outside we can get a booster.

How would an infant get this infection?? The answer is easy, the umbilical cord was cut with a knife or scissors that were infected. Poor baby Henry he did not have a chance from the start. Lots of woman and children died from infection associated with childbirth. Things have changed since then.

March Birthdays

I just occurred to me that this month of March was the birthdays of two of my great grandparents.

Thomas Dowd was born 14 March 1860, in Mayo County, Ireland. I know about him in PA, but nothing in Ireland. He also died on 18 March 1930, I have to find out what was the cause of death. He lived seventy years in an era when the life expectance was forty years. Thomas had a few siblings who came to the USA. Catherine, Norah, and Michael, I would like to find out more about them.

Bridget Naughton was born 25 March 1868, also in Mayo County, Ireland. She had an identical twin sister. This was told to me by my father, who could not tell them apart and verified by my cousin Ann. Bridget was my cousins grandmother. I found a listing on the LDS site for her with her exact date of birth and it listed her parents were Thomas Naughton and Catherine Ward. I am 99% certain that this was "my" Bridget. I wish they had a mechanism where you could contact people who have submitted information.

She died 15 January 1939. I know where they are buried but there is no stone. I have been thinking about buying one for their grave. It will seem a bit odd to have a gravestone purchased by a great grandchild who had never known them. Do other people do such a thing?

I did add their name to the data base at All Saints Braddock Catholic Cemetery. If other descendants were looking for them, now they would be found.

Randy’s Genealogy Fun

I have noticed that quite a few people were reading Randy Seavers Blog and answering these questions.  I feel like an orphan.

Provide a list of your paternal grandmother's patrilineal line. Answer these questions:
* What was your father's mother's maiden name?
* What was your father's mother's father's name?
* What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?
* Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.

 

1) What was your father’s mother’s maiden name.

I had been told that it was Martel, but I find out that name is French.  Since Ellen was Catholic I wonder if perhaps it could have been Mortel/Mortell???  Those names are listed as Irish names…

2) Her father’s name?

The only inkling or clue is on her death certificate is the name Patrick.  Location ???? Somewhere in Ireland.

3) Patrick’s patrilineal line?

I have no clue, I would love to find this information.

4) Male siblings?

I do not know that either…This information remains a mystery..

I feel sort of cheated and really out of the Genealogical Loop with this one.   I am jealous of people who can name their ancestors back so many time.  Sniff,sniff…..

More Children

Here are my brothers.   This picture was taken ca. 1956.    My brothers are Thomas, Richard and William.    William sometimes reads this blog and my niece Olivia will get a charge out of her dad and his brother picture.

This was taken in our yard.   The tree in the background was very small.   It grew to be quite large, forty feet or so tall.   We had about four of them lining the side yard.   One day I stopped to visit my dad and he had chopped the tops off of the pine tree, they really looked silly.

This is my grandmother Gertrude O’Rourke Dowd Graham.   This was taken in 1960.   She was 58 years old  at that time.   She was younger then than I am now.   Gertrude had a hard life, widowed at 28 and had to eke out an existence with two children.  I can remember her doing housekeeping work for others and one day she took me and she was the cleaning lady in a finance company office.   I had to sit still in a chair and wait while she cleaned the office.

She quit school in the fifth grade and the only thing I eve saw her read were the obituaries.   She would peruse them and then would usually take me with her and then she would go to pay her respects.

  One Saturday she got an idea to go to downtown Pittsburgh and go to  the morgue.   She took me too.   I have no idea who she was looking for but I remember how cold it was, and she looked at a few deceased.    They were covered with sheets and the attendant had to pull them out on rolling trays and uncover their faces.  She must have been looking for someone in particular because that is a really random thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.   It was the only time she did that to my knowledge.

My father wanted to send his three daughters to school.  He had stated that he did not want us to have to bear the life his mother had.   The three girls all went to school and become nurses.   I went first and then I had to pay back the tuition money so the next one could go.  

 

Lovely Children

The picture above is one of my mother and I ca. 1950.   You can see that my hair is in pigtails too.

The picture below is of my sisters ca. 1960.    My mother always put our hair in braids.   I think that was to keep it neat.   When I was little and my mother would be in the hospital for childbirth my father would send me across the street to the neighbors who would braid my hair for school.   My grandmother would come out and stay for the week to watch us so Dad could go to work.

My sisters picture was taken on the ferry ride to one of the islands on North Carolinas Outer Banks.   I do not know where the brothers were at this time.  I actually do not know where I was either, probably looking for dolphins who would ride along the boat.

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY

Since the past two postings on Nosseck I decided to add the photo.   That is a massive stone.   What is the significance of the partially finished front section with the rough stone on the rest of the monument?    

I have to go back and go to the office and see who is all there..