More Photos

I've been in the process of setting up a new computer this week, so didn't upload all the pictures I received from Letty and Cici (partly because I needed to install a new scanner to copy a few of them.) Here are the rest with what information is available. I have uploaded them as I received them save for some minor cropping of white space. I plan on cleaning up what I can of them (saved as a revised version!)

Lizzie O'Leary (standing) with
her sister Polly and mother Mary
about 1903 Ireland

John Alexander Coleman
1905-1913
Daniel & Lizzie's oldest child

Daniel J. Coleman (Uncle Dan)
about 1920

Eileen, Lizzie, Daniel J.
& Elizabeth (Bess) Coleman

Margaret, Daniel P., &  Lizzie Coleman
aboard ship about 1920

Margaret, Daniel P., & Lizzie again

Daniel J. & Elizabeth (Bess) Coleman
(we won't ask what Nana did to her hair)

Family Photos

Growing up I spent a lot of time at my maternal grandparents' house, which had a large room downstairs off the garage.  When my mother was growing up, this room belonged to her two brothers, but I knew it as the family room where Grandma kept a lot of the toys for her many grandchildren. When my grandparents converted it from a bedroom to a family room, they hung a variety of pictures on the wall. Most of the pictures were early photographs of their parents and grandparents. I never really knew who was who in those pictures, but I always knew they were family and the stories related to the various people pictured.

After my grandparents and my grandaunt Elise (my grandfather Dwyer's sister) passed away, my mother's older brother and cousin started going through the family photo albums and scanning pictures for the rest of the family to share. So over the years I've acquired copies of pictures of my grandparents as children (though mostly of my grandfather), my mother and her siblings throughout the years, and so forth and so on. There are lots and lots of pictures of the Dwyer side of my family.

The Murray side, however, is a completely different scenario. For most of my life I've only ever seen about a dozen photographs of anyone on my father's side of the family that were taken before my parents were married. There are a couple of pictures of my dad in high school, a few more from when he was in the army, a picture of Nana and Grandpa Murray taken when my uncle Ed was ordained a priest, another of my father and three of his four brothers taken when my dad was about five, and one or two of my father’s brother Dan after a hunting trip. That’s it. The Dwyer family was big on photography. The Murray family, not so much, and for all I knew there were no other photographs.

At this point in the story, it has become necessary to talk about living people. When I started this blog, I decided not to name any living people, however the narrative starts getting confusing if I keep referring to several people as “cousin.” For this reason, I will be using aliases when referring to living relatives as I continue the story.

About five years ago, however, my father's cousin Letty sent some pictures to Uncle Eddie. He asked one of my cousins to duplicate them for the rest of the family, and suddenly I had about a half dozen new photographs. They look to have been taken in about 1942, based on the one shot with my father in it. There are two pictures that are particularly good. The first is of Nana and Grandpa Murray who are in their late 20s and standing arm in arm in front of the summer rental house they were staying in. The second photo is of my great grandmother Lizzie O'Leary Coleman with Grandpa Murray, my father, and his two older brothers Ed and Dan. Lizzie is wearing a hat in the picture, which makes it difficult to see her face, but it’s nice to see a picture of my grandfather as a young man and my father sucking his thumb!

Lizzie O'Leary & Daniel  
Coleman (seated)
on their wedding
day in 1904

These new found photos are precious to me, and I have the two I mentioned framed and hanging on my living room wall. Then about two months ago, my father's cousin Cici, with whom I have been corresponding about my Coleman/O'Leary research, sent me a scanned file of a photograph of Lizzie O'Leary and Daniel Coleman on their wedding day! Holy smokes!  There are more photographs!

Lizzie O'Leary on her wedding day

When I told her I had received the photo with out any problems, she sent me several more. I have also been in contact with Letty about my research and she too sent me some photos, in this case, hard copies. Some of the pictures I received from Letty were duplicates of the ones I received from Cici, but all told, I now had about a dozen photographs from about 1900-1920 of my Coleman relatives! Wow!

Lizzie O'Leary Coleman 
at her house in Bernal Heights 

Granted, photography has only been around for a little over 150 years and mass-produced cameras weren't readily available until the end of the 19^th century, but it is amazing what having a photograph of someone can inspire. The questions about who the person was, what did she do for a living, what was life like for him, and so much   more just multiply when you have an image of a relative long past. Having these few family photographs further cements that these people existed and had lives and hopes and dreams like we all do and that they aren't just stories of forgotten ghosts.

 

The Colemans on board ship circa 1920
Uncle Dan, Lizzie,
Aunt Margaret (on Lizzie's lap),
Daniel, and Nana

Aunt Eileen & Uncle Dan
I'm guessing their
First Communion
circa 1915

More Muddling Through the Mullanes

Trying to put the pieces together to make some sense of the Mullane branch of the family tree has been a bit frustrating. Despite sending off for my great grandmother Mary Mullane Murray's death certificate months ago, I've not yet received any notification as to whether or not it's been found. All I know is what I've been able to find online in the CA Death Index (her birth and death dates and that her mother's maiden name is Manning) and her death notice in the San Francisco Chronicle (that she had two brothers named Phillip and Patrick.) Not knowing who her parents were makes it harder to determine if the Mary Mullane I found in 1900 married to Edward Hayes is the right person. That Mary Mullane has at least five brothers and possibly as many as eight based on the names I've found living at the same addresses. Right now, most of the information I've found makes me suspect I have found the right person, but there are still several grey areas that make it difficult to be 100% certain.

I know that Mary Mullane Murray was born in 1871. That means she should show up in the 1880 census, but when I searched for her name, nothing came up. Ditto when I searched on any of the brothers who were born before 1880. Not having her parents' names meant a bit of a road block for searching. I knew the Mullanes should be showing up in San Francisco in 1880, but I couldn't figure out why they weren't. Since I'd already had this experience with the Murrays not showing up due to undigitized pages of the census, I turned to the city directories and looked up all the Mullanes that were listed in 1880. I only found three: Cornelius Mullane, teamster, living on 25th between Douglass and Diamond; Michael Mullane, groceries & liquors, living at 446 Natoma; and Timothy Mullane, porter Lawrence Ryan, living at 25 Fillmore.

That wouldn't be too hard to search. At least, that was the thought. None of the three turned up in a general search of the 1880 census. Great, that meant browsing page by page again! At least I had the reference to narrow down the enumeration districts. Cornelius should show up in Enumeration District 183, and I find Con Mullane (age 30) working as a milkman. He is married to a woman named Maggie and has a one year old daughter Eliza. There are no other children, so that should eliminate him from my list as Mary's father. Michael should show up in Enumeration District 133 or 134, and I find 446 Natoma in Enumeration District 133, but no Michael Mullane. Drat! Last try is Timothy who should show up in Enumeration District 223. I scroll through the pages looking for 25 Fillmore and find a record for T.J. McLay (age 32) working in a furniture store living at that address. He's married (Mary, age 35) and has seven children: John (10), Mary (9), Joseph (7), Thomas (6), Phillip (5), P.H. (4), and E.W. (11 mos.) Well, that matches up with the Mullanes I found around 1900, but the last name is completely different.

I head back to the city directories and go forward and backward on Timothy Mullane at 25 Fillmore, and in the 1881 city directory Timothy J. Mullane is listed as "furniture, r.25 Fillmore." I find him at 25 Fillmore as early as 1872 and continuously thereafter until 1888. His listed occupation varies over the years, but the address consistency leads me to believe that the census enumerator misheard the last name for Timothy Mullane in 1880. By the 1891 directory, Mary Mullane, widow, shows up at 45 Belcher which is the same address I found Miss Mary J. Mullane in 1896 living with what appears to be six brothers.

So, Timothy Mullane and his wife Mary are the parents of the Mullanes I found in the San Francisco City directories of the late 1890s/early 1900s. Phillip and Patrick (P.H.) show up with Mary again. Mary is 9 years old, which means she was born in 1871 which again matches up with the information I have for my great grandmother. Edward (E.W.) also shows up again, and what I've found out about him so far leads me to believe he was one of my Mary's brothers. Still, none of this is confirmation.

While I strongly suspect I've found the right family, I'll need to search further on Michael Mullane in order to eliminate him as a possible father to my Mary Mullane. (And it is entirely possible that he is an uncle, so more information will be useful!) If I can ever get her death certificate to turn up that might save me considerable time.

More Mystifying Mary Mullane

Trying to find out about my great grandmother Mary Mullane has been quite a puzzle. To date, the only Mary Josephine Mullane I have found in San Francisco was married to a Dennis Edward Hayes in both the 1900 and 1910 censuses. My grandfather Edward Murray was born in 1914, which leaves a four-year gap between records and should have Mary Mullane and Marshall Murray married by 1913.

I sent off for her death record months ago, but haven’t received any response to the inquiry and may need to request it again as I’m hoping that will help me identify her parents and thus help clear up some of my confusion. I also sent off for the birth record for my grandfather, which provided some interesting, but again confusing, information.

For starters, my grandfather’s name is listed as John Marshall Edward Murray. Where on earth did “John” come from?! My best guess is that it was to honor my great great grandfather John Murray. From what I can tell, he never used John at any point in his life after that. And that’s not even the confusing part!

Towards the bottom of the birth certificate is a notation “Number of children born to this mother, including present birth.” That number is listed as two. Next to it is a notation “Number of children of this mother now living.” That number is listed as one. Well, ok, what’s that all about? There was a family story that my grandfather had an older sister who died as a child and that would match up with the birth certificate information. The question becomes, then, when was this sister born?

According to the 1900 and 1910 census records Mary Mullane Hayes had no children. If this Mary Mullane is the same Mary Mullane that married my great grandfather, then between April 1910 (when the census was taken) and May 1914 (when my grandfather was born) she would have had to have lost a husband, remarried, and had a daughter who subsequently died. That’s an awful lot in a fairly short time. It’s not impossible of course – a fairly reasonable scenario would be something like this:

  May 1910 – unknown daughter born to Mary & Edward Hayes
  1910 – unknown daughter dies in infancy
  1911 – Edward Hayes dies/abandons/divorces Mary
  1912 – Mary meets Marshall Murray
  1913 – Mary and Marshall are married
  May 1914 – Edward Murray is born

I have no evidence whatsoever to support that timeline, but it’s one that makes sense. Another scenario is that Edward Hayes dies before the unknown daughter and Mary marries Marshall then the daughter dies – a widow with a young child might be likely to marry sooner rather than later especially at that point in history.

Unfortunately, that’s all speculation. I’ve yet to find any record of Mary and Marshall’s marriage. I have no idea what happened to Edward Hayes. And I haven’t the faintest idea if the sister is a full sister or half-sister or when she was born or when she died. Heck, I don’t even know for certain if the other child was a girl!

I have been tracking down some other leads on the Mullanes, but I will save them for another post. I will say, this particular branch of the family tree is quite confounding!

The Arrival of Lizzie O’Leary

I knew from previous findings that my great grandmother Lizzie O’Leary had arrived in the United States some time between March 31, 1901 (when she appears in the Irish Census) and July 12, 1904 (when Daniel and Lizzie’s marriage license was issued.) Several of the US Census records had her arriving in 1904, which seemed to be my best bet for a starting point when I decided to look and see if I could find her immigration record.

SS Umbria, the ship Lizzie O'Leary
sailed on from Ireland to New York
(ancestry.com)

It didn’t take too long for me to find the record at Ancestry.com once I tried looking for Lizzie O’Leary rather than Elizabeth. Up popped her record arriving at Ellis Island on June 6, 1904 on the Cunard line ship the Umbria which set sail for New York on May 29 from Queenstown (now Cobh) Ireland. I would image that Lizzie caught a train from New York to San Francisco shortly thereafter.

The passenger manifest had some very useful information beyond Lizzie’s travel information. According to the manifest, Lizzie was 28 years old, a dressmaker who had last lived in Ballinsloe. Her brother had paid for her passage and she had at least $50 with her. The most interesting fact, however, was what relative or friend she was going to join. Rather than listing her fiancé Daniel Coleman, she listed her brother Arthur O’Leary! Ok then, that backed up my suspicion that Arthur had also moved to San Francisco and was likely why I couldn’t find him in the Irish census records.   

Address for Arthur O'Leary on passenger manifest
(ancestry.com)

I’m having a hard time corresponding the address listed for Arthur O’Leary in the passenger manifest with any of the Arthur O’Learys I’ve looked up in the San Francisco City Directories. The address on the manifest looks like 83 “Asnoy” Street or maybe “Amoy” Street, neither of which exist in San Francisco. I thought it might be Army Street, but there is no one named O’Leary living on Army Street in the 1903-1905 city directories. I’ve run through the list of streets starting with the letter “A” in the city directories to see if anything else makes sense, but nothing does so far. Ditto for any one named O’Leary – none of the addresses look like anything that could be mistaken for “Asmoy.” More puzzles.

Back to Holy Cross

Two trips to Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma and I hadn’t been able to find my great grandparents Marshall and Mary Murray. I had been told at the office they were buried in Section V, but I could not find them and trying to figure out the section numbering was beyond frustrating. Then a couple of weeks ago I discovered that the folks at SFGenealogy.com had a searchable database of Holy Cross Cemetery available for 1887-2001. I plugged Marshall and Mary in and up popped their records – in Section U! No wonder I couldn’t find them! I entered in the names of various other family members buried at Holy Cross over the past 100 or so years and they all turned up where I expected them to and I logged the specifics for some where I only had the section noted.

My great grand parents
Marshall and Mary Murray

So I headed back up to Holy Cross with a list of names and gravesites to find. I knew that my Kenny great grandparents were also in Section U and from the database they were in Row 14, Grave 134. Marshall & Mary were in Row 23, Grave 59. Mom had shown me where the Kennys were on our last visit so I parked near their graves and counted down the aisle until I got to grave 59. Then I made a right turn and counted rows up until I hit row 23. I was only off a couple of markers and there were Marshall and Mary – finally!

Aunt Eileen & Uncle Bill Doheney

My list for section U also included my grandmother’s sister Eileen Coleman Doheney and her husband Bill. They were fairly easy to find right along the road at the top of the section. Aunt Eileen and Uncle Bill are buried with Uncle Bill’s sister Gertrude and mother Annie.

Nana’s aunt Ellen O’Leary Ford and her husband John Joseph Ford are buried in Section V with their daughter Catherine and her husband Edward Ambrose Dwyer. It was a pretty hot day, so I only did a cursory look for the Fords in Section V and will go back to look for them another day.

My father's younger brother
Jackie Murray who died at age 2

Next it was over to the children’s section to look for my father’s younger brother Jackie (John Joseph Murray.) I’d bypassed this section on previous visits since I only had a general section and not a row and grave number. It’s very sad walking through the rows and seeing lives ended so young. I found Jackie’s grave in fairly short order.

My father's second cousin
Mary Catherine Ford

Since the children’s section is close to the newer crypts where my father’s second cousin Mary Catherine Ford was buried, I walked down there too. Mary Catherine was the daughter of Arthur Patrick Ford and died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 58.

I’ve found several other relatives in the on line database and will make another trek up to Colma in the coming months to document their locations. The database was able to clear up a couple of mysteries. Nana had an older brother John who died as a child. I knew it was sometime between the 1910 census (where John appears) and 1918 when Aunt Margaret was born, but didn’t have a specific date. It turns out that John died in 1913 and is buried with his parents. The database also helped confirm a marriage record I’d found for Catherine Ford Dwyer – in Washington DC! No wonder I was having problems finding her husband in San Francisco. I’m not sure if Edward Dwyer died in San Francisco or in the Washington DC area, but at least I’ve got a name and date to help figure it out! Finally, I have a suspicion that my great grandmother’s brother, Arthur O’Leary might have lived in San Francisco as he was mentioned in Ellen O'Leary Ford's death notice. There are several Arthur O’Learys buried at Holy Cross, four who died after Ellen in 1932. Two of those four show up in the CA Death Index from 1940-1997, and one of those two was born outside of the US. I’ll need to do a bit more digging there also, but it’s a place to start.

Baptismal Records

In looking for the O'Learys in Ireland, I had found extracted birth/baptismal records for my great grandmother Elizabeth O'Leary and seven siblings. Having only expected to find four siblings, I was surprised to say the least. Since these records weren't originals, but a database of copied records, I wanted to see if there was any chance of finding the original records (without having to fly to Ireland since that's not going to happen any time soon.)

Early on in my searching I had found an Irish genealogy site that had some church records scanned but since at the time I didn't have enough information to make the site useful I just bookmarked it as a resource that might come in handy at a later date.  I forgot all about that site until I found a website called "Irish Genealogy Tool-Kit." What a great resource! It has lots of information and sent me back to the site I'd found months before with the church records. I expect to reference that site quite a bit as I move forward.

The Irish Genealogy website is hosted by the Minister of Arts of Ireland and has a collection of pre-1900 church records for just three of the Republic of Ireland's 26 counties plus the city of Dublin. Luckily for me, County Cork is one of the three counties! (Carlow and Kerry are the other two.) Using the information I got from Ancestry.com, I started plugging in the names and dates for Lizzie O'Leary and her siblings. I had much better luck here than I did with the Irish Census records and found the following:

Baptism of John Leary, 16 January 1865. Parents: Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney.  Sponsors: Patrick Leary and Hannah Ford. Parish/Church/Congregation: Ballinhassig.

Baptism of William Leary, 14 February 1867.  Parents: Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney.  Sponsors:  Daniel Murphy and Eliza Looney. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Ballinhassig.

Baptism of Ellen Leary, 6 April 1869. Parents: Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney.  Sponsors: John Leahy and Ellen Coleman. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Ballinhassig.

Baptism of Edmund Leary, 25 December 1870. Parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney.  Sponsors: Edmund and Margaret Leary. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Ballinhassig.

Baptism of Eliza Leary, 19 March 1873. Parents: Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney.  Sponsors:  Timothy Riordan and Mary Looney. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Ballinhassig.

Those records match up fairly closely with the records I found on Ancestry, most being within a day or two of the birthdate shown in those records. I've yet to turn up records for Polly (Mary), Jeremiah, or Daniel, but the records I found provided additional information I can use in my searches. Taking a look at the sponsors names there appear to be at least four, and probably five, additional family members -- Patrick Leary, Eliza Looney, Edmund Leary, and Margaret Leary. The second Mary Looney is the only one that's puzzling. I suspect it's a sister-in-law or cousin of my great great grandmother Mary Looney as it's not likely that she was both mother and godmother to my great grandmother Elizabeth, but I don't know that for certain. It could even be a clerical error by the priest who recorded the baptism.

Having found some of the O'Learys, I thought I'd also look for the Colemans and see if they turned up at all. In the stories told by Aunt Margaret, her father Daniel Coleman had a half-brother named Bartholomew who also moved to San Francisco. I'd found a death record for him that indicated his mother's maiden name was Cosgrove, and when I searched on his record at Ancestry.com I turned up two brothers, Michael and Cornelius, in the birth and baptisms database. So I was looking for six Coleman siblings, my great grandfather Daniel, his brother John, his sister Margaret and three half-brothers. I turned up the following information (as transcribed):

Baptism of Dan Coalman, 21 March 1860. Parents: J--- Coalman and Ellen Roes.  Sponsors: Ned Coalman and Johann McDonna. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Courcey's Country or Ballinspittal.

Baptism of Ellen Coalman, 20 November 1861. Parents John Coalman and Ellen Moss.  Sponsors: Jeremiah Donoghue and Mary Coveney. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Courcey's Country or Ballinspittal.

Baptism of Michal Coleman, 22 July 1867. Parents John Coleman and Eliza Colgrave.  Sponsors: Bartholomew Coleman and Margaret Mudge. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Courcey's Country or Ballinspittal.
  
Baptism of Cors Thos Coleman, 27 December 1868. Parents John Coleman and Eliza Cosgrave.  Sponsors: Maurice Cosgrave and Mary Murray. Parish/Church/Congregation:  Courcey's Country or Ballinspittal.

As you can see, some of the spelling is a bit off and there are some transcription conflicts.  I took a look at the attached records and Ellen "Roes" and "Moss" look to be Ellen Ross, which was my great great grandmother's name. (The writing on some of the records was atrocious!) The transcription for Eliza "Colgrave" also looks more like Cosgrave in the image. I couldn't find a record for John Coleman Jr. or Bartholomew. The only sister I turned up was named Ellen, not Margaret, so I don't know if there was another sister or if the there's another name conflict. According to the records I've found for Bartholomew, he was born in 1880 and there were only about 40 recorded baptisms in the 1880s for anyone named Coleman (or Coalman) so I suspect Bartholomew's record hasn't been digitized yet since most of the other decades have upwards of 500 Coleman records. Either that or it's been lost to time, though the extracted record I found on Ancestry would seem to indicate there's some kind of record available.

So, again, I have more information to sort through and follow up on. The baptismal dates again match up fairly closely with the records I've found on Ancestry. Daniel Coleman's is the only one that's a little odd as I've found birth dates from 1860-1878 for him, but I've consistently found March 17 so I'm fairly confident in the record. (And I know the 1878 record is wrong as it's from the 1920 census which shows him as age 42 and Lizzie as age 41 and I've always known he was about 10 years older. Most of the other records have him born between 1860-1866.) 

I am very pleased at the progress I've made on the Coleman/O'Leary side of the family in the last two months. There is much much more to sort through and uncover, but that will be true every time I learn something new since each new item uncovered tends to bring along other questions that need answers.

Irish Census Records

Having found seven siblings for my great grandmother Elizabeth O'Leary in Ancestry.com's extracted baptismal records, I wanted to see if I could confirm that they were indeed her siblings.  I had already traced her sister Ellen O'Leary Ford to San Francisco and identified her children and grandchildren. I needed to work out her other sister who I was told was named Polly, but records turned up as Mary.  I also needed to look for at least five brothers.

As I have throughout the process of working on the family tree, I looked for other sources for records beyond Ancestry. I had found a source for the 1901 and 1911 census records of Ireland through the National Archives of Ireland. Their search functions and digitizing of records isn't as clean as Ancestry, but it's pretty good. The biggest headache being that each digitized image of the census record is a separate file and with the way the Irish censuses were recorded I had to open multiple files to gather all the information. (As opposed to the US census records where all the information for multiple families is recorded on a single page which were digitized in groups so I could scroll through pages to see neighbors, etc.) The next biggest headache is understanding the land divisions in Ireland as they definitely don't make a whole lot of sense to someone like me who has lived her entire life in urban/suburban United States of the late 20th/early 21st century! It's definitely not as neat and easy as knowing my relatives lived at 6 Harry Place in San Francisco in 1880, but I think I'm getting a general idea.

As I mentioned in my last post, I believe I found my great great grandparents Jeremiah O'Leary and Mary O'Looney in the 1901 census. Only daughter Mary was living with them in 1901, so I set off to look for the five sons and my great grandmother who was still living in Ireland in 1901. I started with oldest brother John. According to the record I'd found on Ancestry, he was born January 16, 1865 which would make him 36 in 1901. I entered that information and up popped a record: John O'Leary, age 36, teacher, in Fahanalooscane, Ballymartle, County Cork. Living with him is his sister Eliza O'Leary, age 24! Well, that matches up with the family story that Lizzie O'Leary's older brother was a teacher who worked with Daniel Coleman's sister. According to the census record, John O'Leary is married, but his wife doesn't appear on the census form. Unlike the US census records, which recorded the usual residents of the enumerated houses whether or not they were at home on the day the census was taken, the Irish census is based on who was in the enumerated house on a specific date (e.g. March 31, 1901)

Having found John in 1901, I decided to see if I could find him in 1911. He appeared again in Fahanalooscane, and this time his family also appears on the census record. Wife Hanora (age 43), sons Jeremiah (10) and Denis (5), and daughters Mary (7) and Hannah (10 months.) Ah-ha! Well that's loads of useful information. I now have John's wife's name so I can look for her in the 1901 census. His oldest son is 10, so he was likely an infant when the 1901 census was taken, so perhaps Hanora was staying with family when the census was recorded. Denis is 5 in 1911, which would mean he was born in about 1906. That matches up with the information I found about Dennis O'Leary in San Francisco, whose wife and daughters attended my parents wedding!

Well, that certainly was a promising start. It got a bit more difficult after that. I had very little information on the other brothers beyond birth dates, so identifying if I'd found the right people would be quite difficult. I found five different William O'Learys living in County Cork in 1901. One was born in the United States, so that left four options, but none were living in Ballincollig. None of them had any clues to indicate I'd found the right one, so I'll have to go digging some more there. Next on my list was Edmund. No Edmund O'Learys showed up in the 1901 or 1911 census records. I did find a couple of Edwards, but none of them appeared promising. So what happened to Edmund? Is he indeed a brother?Thinking he might be the mysterious "Arthur" from Ellen's death notice, I tried that name with the age I'd found for Edmund. Again, nothing promising. There was an Arthur O'Leary who was about the right age and living in Ballincollig, but he was illiterate. Since all the other O'Learys could read and write, I doubt he's the Arthur I'm looking for.

I set Edmund and Arthur aside and moved on to Jeremiah. This is a brother I knew existed, so what could I find about him? I turned up 19 Jeremiah O'Leary's in the 1901 census that were within 5 years in age of the Jeremiah I was looking for. Two were born in Cork City, so I eliminated them. Another was born in County Kerry, so I eliminated him also. That left 16 possibilities, one of which was living in Ballincollig. I clicked on his record and he was living with an aunt, Ellen O'Leary, and a sister Hannah O'Leary. Drat. That probably isn't the right one either. It's going to take some time to weed through the remaining 15. Okay, let's see if we can find Daniel O'Leary. There are 34 Daniel O'Learys in County Cork in 1901. Arrgh!

So, I've got a lot of work ahead of me weeding through the various census records to see if I can figure out if any of the people I've found are Lizzie O'Leary's brothers. I'm not even completely certain that they all are brothers. John at least matches up with the family stories and I know there was a Jeremiah. As for William, Edmund, and Daniel, it's hard to know for certain. That doesn't include the mysterious Arthur who may be one of those three or a completely different person! I need to see if I can find out more on those birth records I found on Ancestry.

Other O'Learys

After having found some O’Leary relatives in California, I went to look back to see what I could find in Ireland. I had learned that my great great grandparents were Jeremiah O’Leary and Mary O’Looney, so I plugged those names into my family tree and did a search of Irish birth records looking for my great grandmother Elizabeth O’Leary. What I had been told by Aunt Margaret was that Lizzie had two brothers and two sisters, so I expected to find some siblings when I searched on Lizzie’s name. What I didn’t expect was to find was SEVEN siblings!

The Irish Births and Baptisms database I found on Ancestry.com let me search for children of Jeremiah O’Leary and Mary O’Looney born between 1865 and 1885. My first searches came up with too many names to easily sort through, so I narrowed my search to include only children whose father’s first name was Jeremiah and were born in county Cork. That gave me a much shorter list to look through and what I found was the following:

John Leary, born 16 Jan 1865, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney

William Leary, born 12 Feb 1867, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney

Ellen Leary, born 4 April 1869, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney

Edmund Leary, born 23 December 1870, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney

Eliza Leary, born 18 March 1873, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney

Mary Leary, born 29 April 1876, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney

Jeremiah Leary, born 1 September 1877, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Leary Looney

Daniel Leary, born 25 June 1880, Ballincolby, Cork, Ireland; parents Jeremiah Leary and Mary Looney Leary

I didn’t find an Arthur O’Leary as referenced in Ellen’s death notice, but now there were five names that didn’t match up with the information I had. I had Lizzie’s two sisters as Ellen and Polly, but this shows them as Ellen and Mary. Based on my experience with Mary/Mollie Murray, I suspect Mary is Polly’s given name. So, that would explain the sisters.  What about all these brothers though? There are five when I expected to find only two, and only one matches up with the names I had. It’s possible that Arthur is one of the brothers I’ve found who went by a different (middle?) name or there’s one more sibling I’ve yet to find. The birthplace definitely matches up with the family history and the dropping of the “O” in O’Leary and O’Looney isn’t anything surprising, so I’m sure I’ve got the right family.

Well this is a surprising find indeed. A good thing to do then would be to check the Irish censuses. One small problem with that however – there is no census information available for Ireland prior to 1901. The records were all destroyed. Fantastic. The other issue is that these records I’ve found are extracted records. That means that volunteers copying from microfilm and other original records compiled the database but there isn’t a way to view the original records directly on line (at least that I’ve found yet.) It’s quite possible that some of these records are transcribed incorrectly.

I’ve yet to go completely through the two Irish censuses that are available for 1901 and 1911, but I have found what I believe are records for Jeremiah and Mary in 1901 and another record in 1911. According to the 1901 census, Jeremiah O’Leary was 76 years old and working as a farmer. Mary O’Leary was 58 and their daughter Mary (Polly?) was 21. That is four years younger than the Mary/Polly I found in the baptismal records, but close enough to probably be the right family. There were also 11 lodgers/boarders living with the family. Two soldiers and their wives, one with a daughter; three men that I’m guessing were farm hands (their occupations are listed as “groom” and “joiner”); and a young widow and her two children. The original form lists the O’Learys with the “O”, however Jeremiah signs the form as the head of the family, and he omitted the “O” in his signature. That would match up with the baptismal records then.

I couldn’t find Jeremiah in the 1911 census, so I looked for Mary. I found a Mary O’Leary living in Ballincollig who was listed as age 73 and is a widow living with her daughter Marianne, age 30. Again, the ages are a bit off, so I’m not completely certain. Also, according to the record, this Mary O’Leary had given birth to six children and all six were still living. I found eight children, so that’s a conflict. This Mary is working as a shopkeeper, so I’ll have to puzzle this one out a bit. And, of course, I'll have to see if I can find the five O'Leary brothers in the Irish Censuses.

A few other things to consider. According to Aunt Margaret, Lizzie’s brother Jeremiah fought in World War I. He was born in 1877. World War I started in 1914 when he would have been 37 years old. That seems a bit old to be joining the military. It’s possible he was already in the military when the war broke out. I should probably add studying Ireland’s involvement in World War I to the list of things I need to learn more about. Also, one of these brothers is the father of Dennis O’Leary whose wife and twin daughters were invited to my parents’ wedding in 1965, but which one?

As always, answering one question opens up the door to many more questions. I look forward to delving more into these.

Onward with the O’Learys

As I mentioned in my last post, I managed to get a couple of leads to start tracing out some of my O’Leary relatives. I decided to start with the names from the invitation list to my parents’ wedding in 1965. Who were A. Ford and J. Ford and what could I find out about Catherine Dwyer and Mrs. Dennis O’Leary?

My first step was to take a closer look at the items I had taken from my parents’ house. The card from Mrs. Dennis O’Leary was signed May O’Leary and said that she and her twin daughters would be attending the wedding. Okay, so that’s four people to find: Dennis O’Leary, who presumably has died by 1965, May O’Leary, and their twin daughters. I plugged the information I had into my family tree and went on to the next. Mr. & Mrs. A. Ford also responded to the wedding invitation that they would both attend, but their daughter would be unable to join the festivities. The card was signed Mr. & Mrs. A. P. Ford, so no full name, but another initial. I plugged them into the family tree also. Mrs. Catherine Dwyer also accepted the invitation, but by 1965 she appears to be widowed. There wasn’t a card from Mr. & Mrs. J. Ford, but they and their daughter were on the invitation list, so I entered their information too.

Before I continue, I should pause to mention that I decided when I started this blog not to mention any living people directly by name.  Now I’m at a point where I am discovering some of my father’s second cousins and as such they are probably within 10 years or so in age of my father, which means in all likelihood a good number of them are still living. Until or unless I have sufficient evidence to prove otherwise, these cousins will be referred to indirectly (e.g. Dennis O’Leary’s twin daughters.) While it is possible that some of Nana’s cousins are still living, they would all be near 100 years old or more so I’m figuring that it’s not likely.

Once I entered the information I had, I headed off to take a look at the San Francisco City Directory for 1965. This is different than the phone book that just lists name, address, and phone number for the registered owner of the telephone. The city directories often listed spouses’ names and occupations as well as home and often work addresses. A very useful tool that I was surprised to discover continued into the early 1980s! I was able to find J. Ford quickly – his full name was John J. Ford and his wife’s name was Verna and he worked for E.F. Hutton & Co. Using this information I was able to check census records to learn that in addition to the daughter that was invited to my parents wedding, they also had a son. I’ve not found out much yet on these two beyond their names and approximate birth dates.

There were several different possibilities for Mr. & Mrs. A. P. Ford, but none of the names I found in the city directory matched up with the address I had, so I decided to go back a bit further. I knew he was the son of Ellen O’Leary and the brother of John J. Ford, so I searched the census records and I found the Ford family in the 1920 census. This helped quite a bit. A.P. Ford is Arthur Ford and he was born in about 1913. John J. Ford is his older brother, born in about 1905 and they had a sister, Catherine, born in about 1906. Ah-ha! Catherine Dwyer is likely Catherine Ford! Their father’s name is also John J. Ford, born in about 1868 in Ireland. The elder John Ford worked as a galvanizer.

I haven’t been able to identify Arthur Ford’s wife as yet, but know that they had at least one child, the daughter who was invited to my parents’ wedding. I’ve also been unable to identify Catherine Ford Dwyer’s husband, but it’s been entertaining looking for him as I keep hitting records for my Dwyer grandparents and great grandparents! My mother says that there is no direct relation to her Dwyers and Catherine’s husband, and she’s probably right at least as far as we can easily identify, but perhaps somewhere in the far distant past there is a common root. I haven’t been able to learn if Catherine and Mr. Dwyer had any children.

My next search was for Dennis and May O’Leary. Since they were living in Burlingame (or at least May and her daughters were) in 1965, I knew I wouldn’t be able to find them in the San Francisco City Directory, so I worked with what I knew and looked for twin girls named O’Leary that were about my father’s age. It took a few tweaks to find them as they were a bit younger than I thought, but in looking for them I was able to find four older brothers. Having these brothers enabled me to find Dennis in the 1940 census where three of the four boys also appear.  Dennis was born in about 1907 in Ireland, unlike Nana and her Ford cousins who were all born in San Francisco.

As I was gathering more information on the Ford family, I was able to find a death record for Ellen O’Leary Ford that came from a collection of San Francisco funeral home records. Ellen died in 1932, and when I found this record I was working on my iPad, so the image file attached to the record was hard to read. When I took a look at the image on my computer I learned two things. First, that Ellen died from second and third degree burns over one half of her body area. That seriously stunned me for a bit. As I’ve been going through the family tree I’ve been finding out how various relatives died and for the most part they’re fairly common causes: childbirth, heart attack, etc. But second and third degree burns? What an awful and painful way to die. I am going to assume there was some kind of house fire as that would seem to be the most likely cause, and will definitely start digging through old newspapers to see if I can learn more about that.

The second thing I learned from the death record I found for Ellen was much more mundane, but definitely useful. There was a clipping of her death notice from the San Francisco Examiner and it said she was the “dearly beloved wife of John J. Ford, loving mother of John J. Jr., Arthur Patrick, and Catherine H. Ford. and beloved sister of Arthur O’Leary and Mrs. D. Coleman.” Ah-ha! I’ve found the missing brother!

Or at least, that’s what I thought. I’d yet to begin searching on my great great grandparents Jeremiah O’Leary and Mary O’Looney. What I’ve found in those searches has me a bit more puzzled. We’ll save that for another post.

O’Learys and O’Looneys – Oh My!

After about seven months of working on my family tree, I decided it was time to see what I could find out about my grandmother’s side of the family. Nana was born Elizabeth Coleman, the fourth child of Daniel Coleman and Elizabeth (Lizzie) O’Leary. Daniel was a merchant sailor who eventually became a ship’s captain, and, according to family lore, his father John Coleman was a lighthouse keeper in Kinsale, Ireland.  Lizzie O’Leary was born in Ballincollig, Ireland and was about 10 years younger than Daniel. Again according to family lore, Lizzie’s brother was a schoolteacher who worked with Daniel’s sister Margaret and they were introduced to each other via their siblings. The story also goes that Daniel courted Lizzie for about 10 years before they were married. According to census records I found, Daniel was living in San Francisco by 1900 and Lizzie joined him there in 1904. I found a record of their marriage license in the San Francisco Call dated July 12, 1904 (which is also how I learned my great grandmother went by the name “Lizzie”.) I’m not certain where in San Francisco Lizzie and Daniel were married, but again going on family lore, think it was St. Phillip’s.

According to the stories told by Aunt Margaret (Nana's sister), Lizzie had two brothers and two sisters and she was in the middle. Her older sister Ellen married a Mr. Ford, younger sister Polly remained in Ireland. Her older brother (name unknown) was the schoolteacher who introduced her to Daniel and her younger brother Jeremiah fought in World War I and died shortly thereafter while living with Lizzie and Daniel when they were in New Jersey.

That was everything I knew when I started out looking in to the O’Leary side of the family tree. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I was recently contacted by one of my father’s Coleman cousins who is also looking into the family tree, and her questions about what I knew prompted me to do two things: (1) ask if she knew the names of Lizzie’s parents and (2) dig up some of my notes. I was delighted when she responded with the names of my great great grandparents – Jeremiah O’Leary and Mary O’Looney. (O’Looney?  Well, that certainly explains a few things about the family!) That will help a bunch in trying to dig up some records from Ireland.

Getting in to my notes, one I found was an email I’d sent to my mother several months ago asking about digging in to her wedding invitation list to see if there were any relatives on Dad’s side of the family that I should look in to. I called Mom to ask if I could come over and look for the list. Mom said she didn’t think she had a list of who she invited to her wedding, but I knew I had seen one several years ago when I was putting together a scrapbook for her and my father’s 40^th wedding anniversary.

I went over to my parents’ house and Mom was convinced that there was no such list, but she’d help me go through some of the boxes she had stored in the closet of my old bedroom. We pulled out the boxes that looked most likely to have what I was looking for – the repurposed shoe and gift boxes – rather than the nice photo boxes. The first couple of boxes didn’t have what I was looking for, but the third box I opened had a repurposed plastic bag that was filled with cards. I pulled one out and it was a congratulatory card for my parents’ wedding; other cards were responses to the wedding invitation. Okay, maybe what I remembered finding was this bag of cards and not a list of names. I started digging through the cards and asking Mom who people were for names I didn’t recognize. I soon found a card from a Mrs. Dennis O’Leary who lived in Burlingame. Bingo! When I spoke to another of my father’s cousins a few months ago, she mentioned visiting “some O’Leary cousins in Burlingame.” I set that card aside and kept digging through the bag. A few more cards came out that my mom identified as “someone your dad invited” and I set those aside too. Towards the bottom of the bag I pulled out several sheets of paper. A-ha! I’d found it, the invitation list I had remembered seeing a few years ago. The reason my mom didn’t remember it was because it wasn’t the list of everyone invited to their wedding, but the list that Nana had given her for Dad’s side of the family! Woo hoo! This was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. There were actually two versions of the list – one that Nana had written out by hand (that also had hand written notes by my mother and someone else – either my father or his older brother from the handwriting) and one that was typed up. There were also a couple of other, shorter lists, but those names were mostly family friends.

I scanned over the list and noted the first page was mostly names I knew – Nana’s brother and sisters and their families and a couple of family friends. Page two had a couple of interesting names – Mr. & Mrs. A. Ford and Mr. & Mrs. J. Ford. These should be Ellen’s sons, Nana’s first cousins. I also had the address for Mrs. Catherine Dwyer who was not a relative from my mother’s side of the family, but a cousin of Nana’s. Three names of people I knew to be Nana’s cousins, complete with addresses for 1965. Woo hoo a place to start searching!

The handwritten list is 4 pages long with about fifty names written on it, about half of whom I recognize. The other half I’ll have to figure out with my parents and then start digging on the names that we can’t readily identify. I did get a start on the three names and addresses I had and think I have found about two dozen O’Leary relatives who are about my parents ages or younger. I’ve also done some preliminary searching on Jeremiah O’Leary and Mary O’Looney and may have some interesting information there too.  More on these items in another post!

Muddling through the Mullanes

After a recent lull in my researching, I decided to focus a little more energy on the family tree. I've gotten to a bit of a sticking point on the Murray branch, so I thought I'd look into the Mullanes. I don't have a lot of definitive information about the Mullane branch of the family tree. I know my great grandmother's name was Mary Josephine Mullane and she married my great grandfather Marshall Edward Murray sometime prior to 1914 when my grandfather Edward was born. I also know she had at least two brothers, Phillip and Patrick, as they were mentioned in her death notice in the San Francisco Chronicle. Finally, Mary Mullane's mother's maiden name was Manning.

After that, things get confusing. The only Mary Josephine Mullane I have been able to find to date lived on Belcher Street in the late 1890s/early 1900s. This Mary Mullane, however, is married to a Denis Edward Hayes in the 1900 and 1910 censuses. If this is the right Mary Mullane, then in 1900 she was living with her husband and two brothers, Joseph and Patrick, and in 1910 she and Mr. Hayes are living with another brother, John. Through the San Francisco city directories, I have also found a Timothy, Thomas, Phillip, and Edward Mullane living at the same address on Belcher.

Now, the first rule of genealogy is not to assume anything. Documentation is crucial to correctly identifying the correct family members. However, with the lack of solid information, I needed to start somewhere and decided to see what I could find on the Belcher Street Mullanes. I left Mary alone since I've already been tearing my hair out trying to figure out if she is indeed the correct Mary Mullane and focused on what I am assuming are the brothers.

From what I've found so far, the Mullanes had a rough time of it in the early 20th century. Patrick Mullane married a woman named Ella Mary (last name unknown) and in about 1907 they had a daughter Myrtle. Myrtle only appears in the 1910 census though. When Patrick and Ella show up again in 1920, there is no sign of Myrtle. Since she would have been about 13 in 1920, I decided to take a look at the California Death Index for 1905-1929. There's a Myrtle Mullane who died in 1916 at age 9. From what I can tell so far, Patrick and Ella had no other children. Phillip Mullane married a Mary Greeley in 1902 and they had at least 4 children. In the 1910 cenus, they have two sons Edward and Clayton, but according to the census record Mary had given birth to three children. By the 1920 census Phillip and Mary show up, but with only one son and his name is Leonard, age 7. Since Edward and Clayton would have been 16 and 12 in 1920, I looked for them in the CA Death Index, and found an Edward, age 13, who died in 1917. I didn't find a Clayton Mullane, but I did find a Phillip C Mullane, age 9, who also died in 1917. I'd have to order the death certificate to be certain that Phillip C Mullane and Clayton Mullane are the same person, but their ages are similar and Phillip C Mullane died in San Francisco. As for the fourth unknown child indicated in the 1910 census, I found a birth notice for a daughter born to a Phillip Mullane in 1905 in the San Francisco Call, but couldn't find any death record that might correspond to a girl born in 1905 who died before 1910. If these are the Patrick and Phillip Mullane identified in my great grandmother's death notice, then they had a really tough time.

John Mullane died in 1911, based on a death notice I found in the San Francisco Call. That death notice indicated brother Thomas had predeceased him, probably in 1910 (again referencing the CA Death Index.) From what I can tell neither married. I haven't found much on Joseph and Timothy Mullane yet, which leaves Edward. Edward married a woman named Margaret Shanahan (I think) in about 1908. They had three sons, Edward (b 1909), John (b 1911), and Raymond (b 1914.) This was a record I was most interested to find. Recently, one of my father's Coleman cousins contacted me as she is also doing research on the family tree. In comparing notes, she mentioned that she had known one of my father's Mullane cousins in high school. Based on the information she gave me, I believe this cousin is a descendant of the elder Edward Mullane.

I'm still waiting on Mary Mullane's death certificate, which I'm hoping will list her parents' names and help me sort out all of this muddled mess, but based on the bits of information I've found, I do feel I'm on the right track. Hopefully I'll have similar luck to what occurred with the Murrays and the missing 1880 census and I have identified the right family with out all the details filled in.

Second and Third Field Trips

As summer rolled in, I found myself spending less time digging into the family history than I did during the winter and spring.  I have done some poking around here and there, but haven't turned up a whole lot of new information that has any definitiveness to it.  But that doesn't mean I haven't kept poking around at things either and some of the research I've needed to do required access to records not accessible on line, which definitely slows down the process.

However, I did get a chance to make a couple of field trips during the month of July.  The first was a fortunate happenstance when my cousin invited the family over for her daughter's second birthday.  Since this is the cousin who lives a block from where our great great grandparents lived from 1877-1890, I made a special point to bring my camera and planned to take a quick stroll down the street.  Unfortunately, I forgot to put the battery back in my camera after I had taken it out to charge it!  Thankfully, my mother had her iPhone with her, so I was able to borrow it when we took a stroll down the street.

Numbers 2 & 4 Harris Place,
the approximate location
of  John & Bridget Murray's home from 1877 -1890

The house my great great grandparents lived in is no longer there, but I was able to take a picture of the houses that are on the site now.  John and Bridget Murray and their family lived at 6 Harry Place, so I took pictures of the flats that are at 2 & 4 Harris Place and 8 & 10 Harris Place.

1815 Union Street - location of John Murray's last place of employment

John Murray worked at the Occidental Laundry for most of his life in San Francisco, but the only address I had for the laundry was "Filbert between Gough and Octavia", so I wasn't able to take a picture of that (the block is mostly residential now, with a couple mom & pop type storefronts.)  I did have an address for the last location that John worked and it was also within a short walking distance on Union Street, so I strolled up there to take a look at what is there now.  The building looks to have been remodeled considerably since 1890, but the storefront looks like it might be from the original building. The original building probably looked something like the yellow one to the right in the picture.

My next field trip came at the end of July when Mom and I trekked up to Holy Cross cemetery to see if we could find Marshall and Mary Murray, my great grandparents.  Mom was also going to show me where some of the relatives on her side were buried that I couldn't find on my previous trip.

My Theler great great grandparents

On my initial trip to Holy Cross in April, I had located the approximate location for my great great grandmother Bridget McDonough Murray and her daughter Nellie and, based on the notes from my mother, they were buried in the same section as my Theler great great grandparents.  Mom and I headed up there first, and Mom realized that she had mismarked her map. The Thelers weren't in Section M, but in Section K which is down the hill.  That explains why I couldn't find them on my first trip!

Joseph & Maggie Kenny, my great grandparents

After finding the Thelers, Mom and I headed over to Section V to try and find Marshall and Mary.  As I mentioned before, the numbering makes no sense (on the rare occaisions when we could actually find numbers on the headstones) and after traipsing back and forth over the whole section, we couldn't locate their grave.  We decided we'd ask at the office for some more information, but before we went back down to the office, we went over to Section U to find my Kenny great grandparents.  We located them fairly quickly and hopped in the car to go back to the office, only to discover that a funeral procession was pulling in.  We decided to skip the office for now and plan for another trip.

142 Bosworth St. where my
Coleman great grandparents lived

14 Marsily St. where my Coleman
great grandparents lived when my
grandmother was born in 1914

Once we left Holy Cross, Mom and I drove up to San Francisco to find the house Nana grew up in on Bosworth Street.  We found it quickly and when we got out of the car to walk around the neighborhood a little bit, I noticed that the house was on the corner of Bosworth and Marsily St.  The Colemans lived on Marsily Street before they moved to New Jersey, so Mom and I walked up the street and took a look at that house also.  It looked to be fairly original to what the house probably looked like in the early 1900s when my Coleman ancestors lived there.

While we were walking around the neighborhood, my mother told me a story I'd never heard before.  Apparently my father's oldest brother fell out of the first floor window and severely broke his leg when he was about 2 years old.  When we got home, my father elaborated on the story some what -- the owner of the grocery store saw that my uncle was about to fall and ran across to try to catch him.  If I'd known that part of the story, I would have taken a picture of the small grocery store that is still across the street!