(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Day Dream Believer

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh
1869-1939
(Someone cut this photo)

My dad loved and admired his grandmother, Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh.  He never talked much about his childhood except to say it wasn’t a very happy one.  There were a number of alcoholics in the family, but that’s a story for another time.  Mary Theresa was the most stable of the adults who came and went in their household on Charleston Avenue in the Newtown community in Portsmouth, Virginia.  She saw to it that Daddy got to church and to school. 

Maybe the uncertainty of the Killeen-Walsh “village” that was raising Daddy prompted Mary Theresa to foster his dreams for something better.  In fact, he grew up to be a very positive and hopeful man, a dreamer, always confident that things would work out for the best. 

I don’t know who first had the dream to own a pony – Daddy or Mary Theresa.  Daddy said that they would sit on the porch and listen to the train whistle blow.  Mary Theresa would say, “Sonny, this might be the train with your dapple grey pony.”  Of course, he never got that pony, but he did name one of his real estate investment companies Dapple Grey.  Perhaps prophetically, it didn’t amount to much either.

Honestly, I’ve always hated the pony story.  It reminds me of a sad and curious blend of Willie Lowman in Death of a Salesman and the mother in The Glass Menagerie, both of whom fail to achieve their dreams of greatness for themselves and for their children.  I have to remind myself that they achieve a measure of heroic nobility by refusing to let reality get in the way of dreaming in the first place. 

Maybe the same can be said of Mary Theresa.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Tombstone Tuesday: Walsh and Killeen

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers which asks bloggers to create a post including an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors; it may also include a brief description of the image or the ancestor.

My great grandparents on my father’s side are buried side-by-side in St. Paul’s Catholic Church Cemetery in Portsmouth, Virginia. 

from Findagrave.com
Photo by Maggie

from Findagrave.com
Photo by Maggie

Not very far away in the same cemetery is Mary Theresa’s first husband John Joseph Killeen.  He is buried in his Glynn cousins’ family plot.

from Findagrave.com
Photo by Maggie

There are many of these "pillow-style" tombstones in the Catholic cemetery.  I like them!

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Mystery Monday: What child is this?

Mystery Monday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks us to share mystery ancestors or mystery records – anything in our family history research which is currently unsolved.  With any luck fellow genealogy bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so far and possibly help solve the mystery.

When my cousin gave birth to a Down’s Syndrome son thirteen years ago, the entire family was shocked.  Her pregnancy had been uneventful.  She did not fit any risk profile.  We wiped our tears and concluded it must have just been a fluke.

 

So when I was going through our great aunt Helen Killeen Parker’s scrapbook, and saw these pictures I gasped: 

This is definitely a boy with Down’s Syndrome.  But who was he?  I suppose it’s possible he was a brother to Helen and I suppose it’s possible he died young and I suppose no one talked about him which would explain why my dad and his sister never mentioned him.  But he’s not in the 1910 or 1920 census with any of our family. 

I wonder if he was a cousin.  In St. Paul’s Catholic Church Cemetery (Portsmouth, Virginia) where the Killeens and Walshes are buried, there is a grave for a John J. Walsh inscribed “Our beloved son.”

from Findagrave.com
Photo by Maggie

The dates 1905-1919 match the date on the boy’s pictures.  However, he is not in a plot near my great grandmother Mary Theresa Walsh.  In fact, he’s half way across the cemetery from any of my known Walsh relatives.  Instead it's more likely he belonged to the Walsh family buried around him.  In 1910, Thomas and Deliah Walsh had a son John, age 5.  In 1920, little John is not in the census with them.  So if this picture is of THEIR son, then why is it in my great aunt’s scrapbook?  Maybe Thomas was a brother to my great grandfather John Walsh whose family I have yet to determine.  This is a terrific clue to expand my research.

And if this little boy was indeed family, it is important genetic information.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Week 10 Road Trips

This is Week 10 of Amy Coffin's Abundant Genealogy Series.

Genealogy Road Trips:  No two genealogy road trips are the same but they’re always fun and meaningful.  Describe a memorable trip in your past.  Where did you go?   What did you find (or not find)?  Did you meet any new cousins?  What did the trip mean to you and your family?

I first met cousin Olen Morris when he responded to my Rootsweb query.  We exchanged information for several months.  At some point he offered to show me around Greene County if I ever made the trip, about a 3.5 hour drive from my home.  Heck yeah!  In 2002, my sister Mary Jollette and I took him up on it and planned a weekend to see where our great-great grandfather James Franklin Jollett grew up.  

 

The directions to Olen’s house from beautiful downtown Stanardsville were easy to follow.  House after house held small family burial plots from many years ago, and not necessarily the family of the current residents.  We knew the area held a lot of history.

As we drove up, Olen was in the yard waiting for us.  He and Sherry were exactly the kind of people you hope to find in your family, so warm and welcoming. 

Olen and Sherry Morris

We exchanged some family tree information and calculated our relationship – 5^th cousins through one line and 4^th through another.  Olen pulled out lots of old photos.  It was so exciting to see ancestors for the first time.  Indeed, it was almost surreal though when he showed pictures that we already recognized because we have them too, like this one taken at a family reunion some time before 1928:

 

Susan Clementine Shiflett Morris, Austin Morris,
James Franklin Jollett, Ambrose Vernon
(Ambrose was husband to Aunt Clem's sister Victoria)

I wonder who took that photo and made sure everyone got a copy. 

Then we hit the mountain roads with Olen as tour guide.  First stop was the Bingham Church where many of our oldest known ancestors married.

Our drive into Shiflett Hollow was interesting, to say the least.  Olen made himself FULLY visible, smiling and waving, because my sister and I were strangers in a strange land in a vehicle no resident would have recognized.  Olen wanted to be sure we didn’t arouse suspicion and get shot.  (See, I told you he’s the kind of person you want in your family!) 

The vista views of Shiflett Hollow were beautiful.  Just ignore that rusty car graveyard at the curve in the road.  We saw Olen’s grandmother on the porch of her little blue shack house.  Olen said the house was VERY old, an original home place of SOMEBODY in the family. 

 

We stopped along a road next to a cow pasture.  The draw was that this pasture had been a family burial plot at one time.  To get to it, we had to jump a ditch, side step our way up a short but steep incline, and then go either over or under a wire fence.  Some of the tombstones were clearly visible, even if toppled.  I took a picture of this one although I don’t know why because the name is not in my database.  Maybe I took it simply because it was easy to read:

The excitement of the day was finding a marker for Rhoda SOMEBODY (was it Morris? Douglas?), one of Olen’s ancestors.  He had been searching for it a long time.  It was barely readable, but it clearly said Rhoda.  I’m terrible at recognizing momentous occasions and failed to capture it on film.  No surprise there on my part!

 
For Mary Jollette and Moi, the excitement of this trip was finding Burton Lewis Jollett’s place.  He’s James Franklin and Lucy Ann Jollett’s oldest son, our great grand uncle.  I love the wooden hand pointing the way.

Our last stop of the day was visiting the Austin Morris home place.  Austin was married to Susan Clementine Shiflett, sister to our great-great grandmother Lucy Ann Shiflett Jollett.  The house today is occupied by a Morris descendant and is the site of the annual Morris Reunion. 

We actually attended the Morris Reunion the following June.  Everyone seemed rather excited to meet some Jollett descendants.  Unfortunately my research on some of the collateral lines was too scant to make useful connections.  Nevertheless, it was inspiring to be among people who were fully immersed in their own family history and cared so much to keep that history alive. 

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Surname Saturday: Sheehan

Surname Saturday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers to focus on a particular name, its origin, its geographic location, and how it fits into one’s research.

My dad loved his grandmother, Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh. The few details he’d throw out every now and then painted a picture of a quintessential Irish Catholic matriarch. She was twice widowed at a rather young age. Daddy’s mother was from the second marriage.

Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh
1869 - 1939

Mary Theresa Sheehan was born in 1869 in County Cork, Ireland, daughter of Daniel and Nora Sheehan. According to the 1900 Census for Bronx, New York, she arrived in the United States in 1886. So did her husband John Joseph Killeen. It is unclear whether they had traveled together. They both claimed to have been residents for 14 years, but they had been married only 7. I do not see a Daniel Sheehan in the census, so I do not know whether the whole family came over together or not. Daddy always said that Mary Theresa traveled with some cousins, the Glynns and Querys. However, I have not confirmed any specific relatives with those names on the Sheehan side, only on the Killeen side.


Mary Theresa married John Joseph Killeen about 1893. They had the following children:

• Elizabeth Agnes “Lillie” Killeen (Feb 16, 1894 New York, NY – Jul 17, 1982 Portsmouth, VA)
• Matthew George “Mac” Killeen (May 8, 1895 New York, NY – Mar 7, 1969 Portsmouth, VA)
• Mary Agnes “Mae” Killeen (Sep 5, 1898 New York, NY – Dec 8, 1980 Portsmouth, VA)
• Margaret Mary Killeen (Apr 21, 1901 New York, NY – May 31, 1978 Norfolk, VA)
• Helen Martha Killeen (Jun 7 1903 New York, NY – Oct 11, 1980 Portsmouth, VA)

John Killeen died Apr 8, 1905. His Glynn cousins introduced Mary Theresa to John Fleming Walsh. They married and had the following children:

• Julia Mary Walsh (Sep 6, 1907 Portsmouth, VA – Apr 17, 1982 Portsmouth, VA)
• Catherine Walsh (Oct 12, 1909 Portsmouth, VA – Oct 2, 1969 Portsmouth, VA)
• Theresa M. “Tate” Walsh (Mar 10, 1913 Portsmouth, VA – Mar 18, 1987 Lowell, MA)

John Walsh died in 1918.

HISTORY OF SHEEHAN

The surname “Sheehan” is an Anglicized version of the Old Gaelic “O Siodhachain” which means peaceful, gentle, courteous. Appropriately, the Sheehan Coat of Arms is a blue shield with a silver dove holding an olive branch in its beak. The oldest O Siodhachains were a clan from County Clare, but they moved south to Cork, Kerry, and Limerick. My Sheehan family comes from County Cork. The name is 75th in the list of Ireland’s most widespread name.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Games

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

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt depicts a group of Korean women playing the game of Go.  Immediately this picture came to mind:

Violetta Davis is the first woman on the left, back row.
Velma is on the right, front row.

My grand aunts Violetta and Velma SUPPOSEDLY are playing cards with their friends on New Year’s Day 1923.  But REALLY?  What kind of card game requires its players to sit side by side in rows?  I believe this picture is purely staged.  For what purpose, I have no clue except to speculate that they thought that an action shot was preferable to smiling and saying “Cheese.” 

I also wonder how they’re all outside without benefit of wool coats on New Year’s Day.  Was Shenandoah, Virginia enjoying a heat wave in 1923?  Typically this part of the state gets snow when no one else does, so sitting on cold porch steps playing a casual game of cards seems like an unlikely thing to do.

And look – here’s another one of these phony balony photos of people playing cards.  It’s still 1923, and these girls are apparently sitting on the top step of a set of stairs leading to a basement or steep backyard. 

Yeah, you never know when or where the mood to play cards will strike. 

I think Violetta and Velma are playing a game with ME!

If you’re game, head on over to Sepia Saturday and see if everyone is playing by the rules.  Play nice.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Rockers

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that focuses on a family heirloom.

To commemorate St. Patrick’s Day, this month I am celebrating my Irish roots by focusing on my dad’s side of the family.  My research is very thin because I have not devoted much time to it.  As the saying goes, “It is what it is.”

One of my very special treasures is this child’s rocker:

It was given to me by my great aunt Helen Killeen Parker when I told her we were expecting our first child.  She was thrilled by the news.  Helen knew she was dying of leukemia and had been tagging all her belongings with names of the people she wanted them to go to.  Until that phone call, she had not decided who should get the little rocking chair.  Helen passed away just a couple weeks later. 

The story of the chair is unknown, but it must be old.  Helen and her husband Herbert never had children. 

I inherited this rocker from Helen as well.  It’s dainty.  I don’t really remember seeing it in her house, so it might have been in a bedroom.  Perhaps it was right under my nose and I never appreciated it as a child.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.