Joseph Patrick Maxwell and Family - Part 6

Anne Gray's letter continued.......

Ellen Flanagan copied the birthdate of the children as follows ---

Dennis born June 16, 1836
Mary     "     March 17, 1938 (should be 1838) - not registered
James   "     Sept. 27, 1941 (should be 1841)
         Served in our Civil War - fought in Battle of Anthi...? 92nd Bull Run
Ellen born March 22, 1846
Julia     "   June 12, 1851
Anne    "    ----------------
Delia    "   Dec 12, 1852

John a half brother born in this country by a second wife- had 2 sons lived in Whitisboro N. Y. - outside of Utica.

The Maxwells arrived in Herkimer N.Y. with no money and seven children.  I understand they settled in Herkimer Co. because it is Dairy Country and that was what the knew as County Meath was also dairy country.

Great grandfather Maxwell was suppoed to have been a school teacher in Ireland.

The children all married local people and most all lived in town in Herkimer Co - Moslty on Dairy Farms - Middleport - Fairfield - Newport etc. Little Falls etc.

I have a list of most of their wifes and husbands - and children.  I will send it if I get it finish.  I expect to spend some time in Herkimer County this fall and will do some investigating - cemeteries etc.   I have found New York State record very poor to 1970.  I will try the census records again.

I hope I have caused you more confusion.  I have a lot of information on most all.

So good to hear from you.

Most Sincerely
Anne
(Mrs. Maxwell H. G....?)  I am a widow - no children.

Some parts of Anne's letter are hard to make out.  I suppose that when she wrote it, she was getting up there in years.  The list of children for Joseph and Judith does not include Catherine Maxwell Duffy's information.  I am assuming that since she is mentioned earlier in the letter and that this was written to Catherine's son, Owen, that she knew or assumed that Owen already had his mother's information.

I am unable to make out the Civil War Battle information.  I am no expert on that war and tried to locate a possible match online.  Maybe someone has more information about that.

I am still at a loss to who Anne Gray's father was.  He's one of two Gray brothers, John or Alexander.

Another interesting tidbit that I discovered in this letter is that Ellen Maxwell McLaughlin must have went by the nickname of Minnie.  Her oldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth McLaughlin Flanagan, also went by the nickname of Minnie.  I hope that this might solve some confusion out there for my fellow researchers.....and me too!

To be continued.................

Joseph Patrick Maxwell and Family - Part 5

Help!  The previous post of this series about Joseph Patrick Maxwell and Family took me quite a while to piece together.  I also made an attempt to update the information that is contained on my family tree on Ancestry.com.  Unfortunately, my tree online is far from perfect.  Of course, let's not let 'perfect' be the enemy of all the good. 

I will be hitting up some of my researchers for help in being my fact checkers and providing any updates to the information contained in my posts about the Maxwell's.  I do get lost sometimes with all of the same/similar names attached to the Maxwell family units.  I have the same challenges for my other family lines.  The Maxwell's loved the names Dennis, Mary, James, Joseph, Judith, Catherine, and Maxwell, of course.

Currently, I intentially have Anne Gray listed as a child for Mary Maxwell Gray and Alexander Gray because I do not know which son is her father.  She is actually a grandchild of Mary and Alexander.  Because I have a letter written by her, I wanted to place her on the tree and attach the letter.  Hopefully, I can determine which of the sons is her father.

Her letter is quite informative.

Anne T. Glover
3382 Aeon Rd.
Rock Creek Farm
Geneseo, NY 14454

May 22, 1978

Dear Owen (Duffy),

I enjoyed hearing from you but regret at this point that I can contribute very little to the Duffy history.

I remember you grandmother - Katie Duffy (Catherine Maxwell Duffy) visiting us in Rush with her sister Ellen (Maxwell) McLaughlin.  At the time I was too young to be interested in family history.

My grandmother was Mary Maxwell Gray.  I believe I met you when I was in California in the summer of 1949 when I was invited to dinner at your parents home at the State Farm with Ellen (Minnie) McLaughlin (nee Maxwell).

I have the Maxwell Family of Joseph and Judith Shaffrey as being married September 24, 1834 and registered in the records of Moynalty, County Meath, Ireland, which is about 40 miles north and west of Dublin.

To be continued............