In 1990, I sat at the dining room table of my grandparents house on James Street in Franklin Square, New York, talking "family tree" with my grandparents. My parents were there, too. Lot's of verbal information was provided by my grandmother (Josephine Hickey McGuire - 1915-2006) and my granddad (Francis "Frank" Robert McGuire - 1908-1993). I took notes as quickly as possible. Some of my notes are in my own shorthand of sorts.
What I did not actually write down but remember is my Granddad indicating is that Coach Frank McGuire was, in fact, his cousin. Did he ever meet his cousin? That's likely but probably not in later life but as a child. Is there anyone else who can confirm that Coach Frank McGuire was his cousin? Well, my mom was there when my Granddad made the statement and she remembers it. So there are two of us living individuals who recall this.
Now, I don't want to be smug or slight here but the rest of the family does not recall the "Coach" being a cousin. My father's two brother's and a couple of my cousin's either say that is not the case or they just don't remember either way that this topic was ever brought up. One of my Dad's brother's is very honest with me, though, and has said that the McGuire side of the family kept so many "secrets". They never talked about the McGuire's of old or their relations much.
Why the secrets? Well, Franics Joseph McGuire (b. 1878) was my Granddad's father. He took off on the family for the "high seas". Well, actually according to one of my uncles he was in Long Island City. He apparently had a bit of a drinking problem and maybe some other issues going on. I guess that's not much of a secret if everyone knows about him. There could be other interesting secrets to discover about him but at this point, nothing would surprise or shock me. His history is so cloaked in mystery that the worst of the worst (and I can think of some really bad stuff) is probably just not the case. It might be likely that he married someone else. I'll buy that if it comes up.
Ironically, Franics Joseph McGuire (b. 1878, NYC) is the uncle and apparent namesake of Coach Frank McGuire (Francis Joseph McGuire b. 1914, NYC). The Coach was born to Robert McGuire (b. 1872, NYC) and Anne Lynch. Robert McGuire was the older brother of Francis Joseph McGuire (b. 1878) who is my great grandfather.
In my recent search for the McGuire's, I finally can say with 99% certainty that Coach Frank McGuire is a cousin. I suspected this all along and had created a research family tree on Ancestry using census information to connect the two families. I set that tree aside for many months and had virtually forgotten about it. Then, my missing links were found in Charles and Sarah McGuire, my great great grandparents. I did find them on the marriage certificate of my great grandparents, Francis Joseph McGuire and Mary Elizabeth Romaine. I went back and found them on the U.S. Census too. What a find!
Then, I remembered my research tree that I had set aside. I reviewed that and it matched what I had created from the marriage certificate and U.S. Census.
So who was Coach Frank McGuire?
See my next post..............
No comments:
Post a Comment