Sentimental Sunday - Hail the Irish

As I like to do during the month of March, my posts will shine the light on my Irish ancestors. While Feb 28 is not March, it is nevertheless the first day of the week, so I might as well jump in with it.

This tiny photo (about 1.5" x .5") was glued into the crease of a scrapbook passed along to me from my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker. I cannot determine the who or the when. The woman does not look much like the young version of my great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh. 

Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh

But who else could it be? 

Woman and child

I tried to convince myself that maybe this was Mary Theresa as a baby in the arms of her mother Bridget Gorman Sheehan, but the clothes do not say “1870.” Do they?

Maybe it is Mary Theresa after all, holding Helen who was born in 1903. Or possibly Mary Theresa holding Aunt Lil born in 1894.

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - VALENTINE: To Mother

My dad’s favorite grandmother was Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh. Judging by all the greeting cards glued into a scrapbook, she must have been a sentimental woman.

 

Two of Mary Theresa's scrapbooks

Not in the best of shape 

Among the many Valentine’s Day cards is this one from her daughter Catherine, known to family and friends as “Cat.”

Mary Theresa was obviously close to her youngest two daughters, Cat and “Tate” (Teresa), both of whom lived in Washington DC. 

Mary Theresa and Cat
either 1936 or 1937
(similar photos show both dates
so they must not have
remembered when)

The three traveled back and forth visiting one another. This particular letter covers several topics that more easily could have been handled by a telephone call – confusion over travel plans and the return of a dress.

Thursday Nite

Dearest Mom:

Guess you think I have deserted you but I have been quite busy for the past few days and just didn’t get a chance to write you.

Tate was over last night and she was reading your letter and she said you told her you were coming up on the 10^th. Then I

 

Page 2 is on the right; page 3 on the left

realized that you were probably looking for us to come down but I didn’t know because you didn’t tell me when you were coming up. Did you mean in your letter that if we came down last week that you would have come back with us? I didn’t plan on coming until I knew definitely that you were coming because I didn’t want to make a trip down and

then you say you would have to wait a couple of weeks longer. Mom if you will just drop me a note and let me know when you can come we will come and get you and you know it will be perfectly alright to bring the kids if you think they won’t worry you too much. Let me know please.

Mom, I took back the dress and they gave me my money back. I

The "kids" are my dad and 
his brother

didn’t know just why you didn’t keep it so I thought I would wait until you were here then we could get another one.

Did both the kids pass? I surely hope so.

Well Mom I will be looking for a note from you telling us just when to come for you so let me know.

Until then I will say so long.

All my love

Cat

 

 

Mary Theresa died a month later.

I suppose it was a sign of the times that they wrote letters instead of making a phone call. And what a gift that Mary Theresa kept the cards and letters – at least some of them anyway – as a testimony to their loving relationship.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Photo Friday - Pretty Lady

I love the expression on this beautiful woman's face. The photo is in a scrapbook that came to me from my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker. Therefore, I wonder if this is my great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh in her younger days.

Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh
6 Jan 1869 - 18 Jul 1939

This portrait is definitely Mary Theresa. Same woman?

If not, maybe it is one of her sisters.

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - LABOR: The Chauffeur

I do not know if my Irish granny’s family suffered the discrimination in New York City reflected in employment ads stating “No Irish Need Apply.” Like so many Irish immigrants, Mary Theresa Sheehan and her sisters arrived in the late 1880s claiming “domestic servant” as an occupation. The occupation column for Irish men typically read “laborer.” Being largely unskilled, the Irish took the most menial of jobs and crammed multiple families into apartments barely large enough for a single family. The Irish took those dangerous jobs nobody wanted to do; no wonder the police and fire departments were manned by large numbers of Irish.

 

Trip to New York 1918

The Irish were also the first to join the ranks as taxi drivers when Harry Allen started the New York Taxicab company in 1907 putting the horse-drawn hansom cab out of business. Several more cab companies opened business soon after.

The first drivers wore uniforms designed to look like those worn by West Point Cadets. Do you think these drivers look like West Point Cadets?

 

New York 1918
In the back seat are Lillie Killeen and SOMEBODY's baby "John Jr"

I don’t know. However, I do believe they are related to my great-grandmother, Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh. These photos are from a visit to New York in 1918.

New York 1918
In the back seat are Lillie Killeen, possibly Mary Theresa Walsh,
the poodle known as Cutey, and "John Jr"

Possibly these men are her brother-in-law and nephew. Mary Theresa’s sister Elizabeth was married to Patrick Byrnes. He was consistently listed as a driver in both the federal and New York state censuses: 1900 truck driver; 1905 driver; 1910 driver for a brewery; 1915 driver; 1920 chauffeur; 1925 truck driver. In 1920 son Robert was a chauffeur and son Richard was an express driver.

In the early years of the taxi business, anyone could get a license and start driving that day. There was no background check.

In researching the job of a chauffeur, I found some interesting images of the early chauffeur’s license and badge.

from "The Evolution of the New York Driver's License" New York Times Archive

from "The Evolution of the New York Driver's License" New York Times Archive

The style of the badge evolved over time, but they were required until 1928.

 

1918 New York Chauffeur's badge
 from chauffeurbadges.com

New York 1918
same baby "John Jr"

Some people have suggested that the uniform in this photo looks like one worn by a policeman or fireman. The man looks very much like the front seat passenger in the first two photos. 

New York 1921
Unknown man with "John Jr"

Here he is again in 1921. Fireman? Policeman? Sea captain? Chauffeur? 

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - UNFORGETTABLE: These Darn Children

I am obsessed with these children:

John Jr and "Bob" 1921

I write about them all the time.

 

John Jr, Cutey, and Bob
a beach in New York - maybe Rockaway

Why?

Because I can’t figure out how they are related to my father’s maternal grandmother’s side of the family. It is driving me crazy because I feel like I am THIS CLOSE to breaking through that wall. Those bricks mock me.

Here is what I do know:

My great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh and her eldest daughter Lillie Killeen thought enough of the family to travel from Portsmouth, Virginia to New York City in 1917 to greet the baby.

Lillie Killeen and John Jr 1917

My great-grandmother and the children’s family were close enough that an entire photo album was dedicated to pictures of the children and given to my great-grandmother.

The children were named John Jr (born 1917) and “Bob” (born probably 1919 or 1920).

This was captioned "Bob sucks her thumb."

Bob was a girl. I can’t tell by the handwriting on the back of the picture. Was she also called Bobie or Barbie?

They lived in Richmond Hill, a section of Queens

Lillie and John Jr. in Richmond Hill 1920

They once had the whooping cough.

On the back of the photo is written
"These were taken Mar 1922 while they had whooping cough."

Here is what I think:

Mary Theresa’s sisters were NOT the mothers or grandmothers of these children. None of them had children as late as 1917. The only sister old enough to have had a grandchild born in 1917 was Johanna Sheehan Hederman. Only 2 of her children survived. Catherine married a man named Charles Fraundorf making it improbable that they named a son John JR. Johanna’s son John was still single and living at home in 1920, so he is not likely the father either.

This photo of WOMEN with the children makes me think perhaps the young woman was daughter of Mary Theresa’s brother John Sheehan. If that is so, then she must have married a man named John.

 

In New York 1921
Poodle is named Cutey
The children are "Bob" and John Jr.
The Women are ???

I think this man is the father:

Maybe the father of John Jr and Bob
1920 Richmond Hill, Queens, NY

I think this man is John Sheehan, possibly the grandfather of the children.

Is this John Sheehan with baby John Jr and Cutey, the poodle?
1917

Is this John Sheehan?
1918 NY

My plan of attack:

I have researched every man named John Sheehan born about 1866 in Ireland who lived in New York between 1887 and 1940. And there were plenty of them! They either had no children or too many children. None had children that fit the John Jr and Bob profile.

Was John Sheehan the father or grandfather of the children?

I need to take a closer look at the daughters of these John Sheehans. Perhaps a marriage record will offer up a husband named John and census records will reveal a John Jr and “Bob.”

I should also consider that maybe John Sheehan did not stay in New York. Maybe he lived in some other part of New York, or maybe Boston, or even Canada.

Sometimes I want to just stop looking for an answer, but I can’t. These children are just unforgettable.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: The Merchant

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

Pictures like this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt can be a real time-suck for me because I find myself Googling to identify the model of the cars, to determine whether products like Meadow Gold milk and butter are still available, and to find old photos of buildings identified by their signage. It’s a handsome photo, one with which I cannot compete. I have grocery stores and grocers in the family, but most have already been introduced on my blog. The good news is I still have one more. The bad news – and it’s really not that bad – is that he isn’t family.

When Barry and I were planning our wedding in 1973, the FOLK WEDDING was the rage. I guess it grew out of the “Make love, not war” / “Do your own thing” attitudes of the 1960s-early 70s. Less formal than traditional wedding ceremonies, the folk wedding often included folk tunes accompanied by guitar. So I needed a singer. And a guitar. My aunt, my dad’s sister, suggested Joanie Glynn. What? Who? “You know – the Glynns. They’re cousins,” she said and Daddy confirmed.

I’ve gone years just accepting that the Glynns are our cousins. I figured they must be those distant cousins, those 2^nd or 3^rd cousins that no one really gets to know. When I actually did the research, I saw almost immediately that they are not MY cousins at all. They are not my aunt’s or dad’s cousins either. They are not even my grandmother’s cousins. The Glynns are cousins of my grandmother’s HALF-siblings. My great-grandmother married twice; my family descends from the second husband. The Glynns are related to the first husband, the OTHER side of the family.

So here is John Joseph Glynn. 

John Joseph Glynn (1862-1942)
probably Matthew C. Glynn  (1891-1969)

John Joseph Glynn was born to Michael and Mary Irwin Glynn in Ireland in 1862, immigrated to the United States in 1884, and in 1890 married Bridget Mary Killeen, sister of John Joseph Killeen, my great-grandmother’s first husband. John Joseph Glynn and John Joseph Killeen – try keeping that straight. I guess the Irish did not have much imagination when it came to naming babies.

Bridget Mary Killeen Glynn (1863-1948)
either John Joseph Jr or Ellen Frances

John and Bridget were in Virginia by 1890 as all 6 children were born there between 1891 and 1910. John operated a grocery store at the corner of Henry and Second Streets. In the 1900 and 1910 census, they lived on Second. In later censuses, they lived on Henry. In every census except 1940, John was enumerated as a grocer or merchant. City directories through 1935 also show him as a grocer. By 1936, he was retired.

 

Portsmouth City Directory 1935

Photo albums that I have inherited from my Killeen aunts Helen and Lillie reflect the closeness of the Killeen and Glynn families.

 

September 1931
Bridget, John Joseph,
daughter Ellen, aka "Nell"

Captioned "Brothers"
possibly John Joseph Jr and Matthew
but assumed age difference is too much

Lillie Killeen with cousins
William and Margaret Glynn

"Cousin Nell"

That's cousin Nell on the right - not sure of the other 2

I have the Glynns to thank for my very existence. My great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen had planned to be a New Yorker until John Joseph Killeen died in 1905 leaving her a widow with 5 children to raise. Her sister-in-law Bridget Killeen Glynn persuaded her to come to Portsmouth to be with family. According to family lore, it was Bridget who introduced Mary Theresa to her future second husband John Fleming Walsh. And as they say, the rest is history.

I’ll say this though about the Sheehan-Killeen-Walsh group, they did not and do not discriminate based on a last name. Family is family. A cousin is a cousin regardless of DNA.

There is more in store at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Monument Avenue

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

Last week’s Sepia Saturday prompt featured a postcard of Broad Street in Richmond, the capital of my state, Virginia. It was from the early 20^th century, probably about the same time that my great-grandparents and their friends made a trip to Richmond.

A couple very old photos in the album belonging to my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker fascinated me. I can date the photos to before 1918 because that is the year my great-grandfather John Fleming Walsh died.  

 

Possibly John Fleming Walsh
and Mary Theresa Walsh

My first thought was that they must have toured the beautiful Monument Avenue which has long offered a scenic drive through the city. Dotted every few blocks are monuments, most dedicated to the leaders of the Civil War. The one exception is a statue erected to honor Arthur Ashe, Richmond native tennis star.

George Washington Statue
Richmond, VA

When I saw this photo, I first thought it was of General Robert E. Lee, but the position of the horse did not match. It is actually the George Washington statue which is not even on Monument Avenue. Instead it stands outside the state capitol and marks the terminus of Grace Street.

Only 3 monuments were in place on Monument Avenue when the Walshes and friends made the trip. The neighborhood had only recently begun to come alive with grand residential architecture and gardens. No wonder they took so few photos. They probably were not very impressed.

Foreground - J.E.B. Stuart Monument (green-looking)
Robert E. Lee Monument (black-looking)
Way in the distance a column - Jefferson Davis Memorial

Today, few will be impressed with Monument Avenue. Few will remember the annual Monument Avenue 10K race or the spring time event, “Easter on Parade” when locals strolled the avenue in beautiful hats and other finery. In response to changing attitudes and standards, the statues were removed in early July 2020.

Stroll along the avenue to Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2020, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.