Ancient Faces

How many people have joined the site ancientfaces.com?  Initially, I thought this was such a great idea.  You've got a library of old family photos at your fingertips.  The only issue is that it's not my family.  I can only offer this suggestion, it does not really add value to one's family tree to have a photo library online when the photo is not directly connected to the actual tree.

Personally, I uploaded one photo to this site as an experiment.  Mary Catherine Flanagan's headstone photo at Tulocay Cemetery was that photo.  I can look at my own uploads and find it but when I search the site, there are just too many photos to sort through to find it in a regular search.  I am glad that I did not add other photos.

A search for other family surnames just does not produce any "finds".  What I mean by "finds" is that I was hoping to maybe find someone of my family line.  Because the photos are not very well identified by location, dates, and the person's full name, it is like finding a needle in a haystack.  I also think the needle is probably not in the stack I'm searching in. 

In my opinion, it's time to move on.   I like old photos but love my own family's old photos.  I'm not likely to post them on that site any time soon.

From Ireland

I was recently surfing the internet for any resources in Ireland that would help me access records.  I found a rather interesting site at www.from-ireland.net.  It seems to divide the information by province (Connaugh, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster) and under each province are found the familiar counites of Ireland.  As near as I can tell, all of counties are there including those that fall under Northern Ireland.

The following is a quote on the site:   "How do you say thanks to people who come and dig your snow, who grit your area of the road just so you can access the main road? Nobody pays them to do this. How do you repay someone like that? Thing is, that is exactly how all our ancestors worked together to survive." - Dr. Jane Lyons

While the site does seem to be a little sluggish in response time (I'm used to a "lightning fast" internet and website.), I have mustered up a bit of patience for this site.  My first test of this site was to review County Louth records.  Can I find my Flanagan ancestors on this site with ease?  Let's see what I can come up with. 

Gravestones Transcriptions - Gravestones, Co. Louth
-No Flanagan's Found
Commentary -  It would appear that this site is reliant on people to transcribe gravestones and submit the information the appropriate adminstrators who provided this information online.   I guess no one has transcribed St. Fechin's graveyard in Termonfechin or maybe it's lost in the search on this site.

I was able to find Maguire's, Bellew's, and Kirwan's indicated as being buried in the Ballymakenny graveyard, County Louth, Ireland.  The full information is published in a book called Seanchas Ardmhaca, by James McGary.  That could be an interesting bit of reference material.   I still don't think that the first place that I should start.

Civil Records:  Birth Register Indicies
Commentary -  Narrowing the search on this, did not produce Louth records.  I'm thinking that the site has an issue.  Instead, I reviewed each and every page without narrowing the search so that Louth records would display.  One of the main things that I noticed here is that the records only go back to 1864.  Also, I did not find any Flanagan's.  There really aren't that many records for County Louth in this index. 

I put my searches aside on this site after checking a few other section of it for County Louth.  I'm sure that this site has merit, I'm just not finding what I'm looking for.  That seems to be the case in searching Ireland.  I'd offer this advice to people about this site.  Give the site a few searches but spend no more than a hour on it.  If you don't find anything during that time-frame about your ancestors, it is unlikely that you will find anything down the line. 

I am making note of this site, just case I can use it again in the future.

Ride for Heroes

Ride for Heroes

A Personal Fundraising Page by Dennis McLaughlin 

Benefiting Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Link to Ride for Heroes 

 

Charles McGuire

If I ever thought that there were a lot of Frank McGuire's in New York City circa late 1800s, early 1900s, how about those Charles McGuire's?  Yes, there were a lot.  I pulled the Charles McGuire's death records for NYC off the Italian Genealogy site.   Italian Genealogy NYC Death Records

Below I have copy and pasted all of the Charles McGuire's that I could find in NYC.  Mind you, I did search all of the counties/boroughs.  Brooklyn is in Kings County.  There really aren't a lot of Charles McGuire's in Brooklyn.  At least, not who died there.  Trust me, there are still McGuire's in Brooklyn and probably Manhattan, alike.  They could be my distant relatives even today.  I wonder.

With all of these Charles, how in the world can I find my great great grandfather, Charles McGuire?  Well, I can try to narrow things down.  Any young tyke or young adult could be eliminated.  Note that the Charles McGuire who died in Manhattan at the age of 3 years old on January 19, 1908 is almost with 99% certainty, my grandfather's brother.  My own grandfather and an aunt indicated that he died when he was three or thereabouts.  My aunt actually pointed me to this site to find him.  Find him I did.  Now, I want to try and find Charles McGuire, my great great grandfather and the McGuire Irish immigrant in my direct line.

I have poured over census and might have discovered that Charles died when Frank Joseph McGuire, one of his son's, was quite young.  I might have found that he was born around 1844.  I might have found him in Pennsylvania too.  Now, I think I might be getting way off track.  Back to square one! At least I bothered to capture the information below.  I'm not exactly sure where I want to go from here.  For now, I "table" my research....no pun intended. 

Kings - 1900-1920

Surname	Given Name	Age	Month	Day	Year	Certificate Number	County	Soundex
McGuire	Charles	75 y	Dec	11	1909	22911	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	1 y	Jan	18	1902	1225	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	1 y	May	27	1902	9416	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	4 y	Jan	3	1914	260	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles F	3 y	Apr	6	1910	7399	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles P	40 y	Oct	26	1901	19725	Kings	M260

Manhattan - 1900-1920

Surname	Given Name	Age	Month	Day	Year	Certificate Number	County	Soundex
McGuire	Charles	39 y	Jan	6	1900	845	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	32 y	Jan	13 '03	1903	1670	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	1 y	Aug	28	1905	27645	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	56 y	Oct	8	1905	31628	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	3 y	Jan	19	1908	2248	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	8 y	Dec	2	1908	35102	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	5 d	Jan	8	1909	891	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	62 y	Nov	14	1909	33208	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	1 m	Sep	20	1910	28848	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	19 y	Feb	23	1911	6431	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	17 y	Oct	13	1911	30930	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	34 y	Sep	20	1907	30686	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	45 y	Jan	25	1906	3065	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	4 y	May	3	1913	14400	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	51 y	Sep	8	1913	26890	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	45 y	Dec	17	1914	35289	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	85 y	Jan	5	1918	1182	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	70 y	Apr	3	1919	12868	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles J	61 y	Feb	18	1914	5489	Manhattan	M260

Manhattan - 1870-1899

Surname	Given Name	Age	Month	Day	Year	Certificate Number	County	Soundex
McGuire	Charles	32 y	Apr	4	1870	57003	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	34 y	Dec	6	1874	193064	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	47 y	Sep	28	1880	360333	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	2 m	Mar	17	1881	376305	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	1 y	Jul	17	1881	389693	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	36 y			1884	503452	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	60 y	Oct	2	1885	542672	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	25 y	Jul	20	1888	23263	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	59 y	Jan	13	1889	1568	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	39 y	Mar	7	1893	8242	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	7 m	Jul	5	1896	22355	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	2 m	Aug	10	1896	27207	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	28 y	Sep	22	1896	32705	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	28 y	May	15	1899	14317	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	3 m	Jun	26	1899	18238	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	3 m	Jan	13	1891	1443	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	32 y	Jun	5	1891	19784	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	47 y	Aug	10	1891	28270	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	4 m	Jan	14	1895	1989	Manhattan	M260
McGuire	Charles	67 y	Sep	18	1892	34139	Manhattan	M260

Kings County - 1870-1899

Surname	Given Name	Age	Month	Day	Year	Certificate Number	County	Soundex
McGuire	Charles	43 y	Sep	23	1873	8646	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	40 y	Feb	4	1890	2446	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	67 y	Feb	10	1891	2155	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	17 y	May	14	1892	7714	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	1 y	Jul	2	1893	10702	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles	3 m	Aug	25	1899	14676	Kings	M260
McGuire	Charles J	22 y	May	7	1894	6752	Kings	M260

Francis Robert and Francis Joseph McGuire

My McGuire and Romaine (or is it Rohman?) line almost completely evade me.  I have found that I might actually have more definitive information about my Romaine's as opposed to my McGuire side.  The irony is killing me because my given last name is McGuire.  Of all the surnames in my line, my own last name is the one that gives me fits.

Francis "Frank" Robert McGuire (1908-1993) was my grandfather.  I have notes from when I interviewed him about his family line.  The best he could offer were his siblings names, parents names, and his McGuire grandparents' names.  While that was pretty good at the time given the disjoint in the family, I am now wanting much, much more.

The disjoint that I refer to is my grandfather's own father, Francis "Frank" Joseph McGuire (about 1878-about 1946).  He had some problems.  Most likely drinking.  He took off to the "high seas" and did not return to his wife and four living children.  I have not truly been able to figure out when he baled on the family but by 1930, he was not in the picture.  Whatever happened to Frank Joseph McGuire?  Well, he was in Long Island City according to my uncle.  My uncle is one of the oldest grandchildren and he indicated that the "high seas" was actually Long Island City.  That's certainly a big clue.

Another clue that I have is my grandfather's Certificate of Baptism.  I almost want to say this is better than a birth certificate or a death certificate.  The following is my transcription:

Certificate of Baptism
Church of St. Louis
This is to Certify that Francis Robert McGuire
Child of Francis J. McGuire
and Mary Romaine
born in Brooklyn, New York on the
22nd day of February 1908 was Baptized
on the 8th day of March 1908
According to the Rite of the Roman Catholic Church
by the Rev. J.R. Farrenkopf
the sponsors being John Romaine
and Margaret Connors as appears from
the Baptismal Register of this Church.
Dated October 8th, 1935

Signed, Rev. Joseph P. Herbert, Pastor

This duplicate certificate was probably obtained before my grandfather got married.  Mind you, St. Louis Catholic Church was in Brooklyn, New York.

So, that's a pretty good source document.  It has a lot of great information that I already knew.  In the way of new information, I gleaned the church name off of it and, very likely, my great grandmother's brother's name.  My only question is, where are the McGuire's?   While Frank J. McGuire is indicated, there's no McGuire sponsor.   I guess I have to move on to something else.

The next bit of information that I have is the parents of Francis Joseph McGuire.  They were Charles McGuire and Sarah McGrath.  My grandfather indicated that Charles was from Fermanagh, Ireland.  I have to admit that seems rather generic to me knowing now what I know of Irish geography.  The McGuire name and County Fermanagh are almost synonymous with each other.  It probably is actually harder to find a McGuire in Brooklyn (and I don't think you'd have to look too far) than in Fermanagh.

How Common - McGuire?

Just how common is the surname McGuire?  Well, in most of the U.S. you do find the name in any city directory.  While it may not be the most common name ever in California, we are around here.  Now, let's travel back in time to Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York circa 1880.  The name was certainly there.  Let's cross the bridge into Brooklyn for that same time period.  GOOD LORD!   How many  McGuire's were living in Brooklyn?  Were they all related to each other?   That name was pretty common at least in part of Brooklyn.

Now, I won't get into location details because I'm just not the best with the geography of Brooklyn circa 1880-1900.  Let's just say there were "a lot" of people living there.  Isn't that an understatement and compare it to today.

So, how lost am I on my McGuire line in New York City.  And, yes, let's just pull in all of the five boroughs of New York City to make it all fair and good.  I don't want to lose any ground right now but I might just get lost walking those streets.  Where's the subway home?

In my past, I could probably manage to navigate lower Manhattan to the subway which would go to Jamaica and then bus it to Franklin Square.  Yes, I just bypassed Brooklyn all together and often wonder if I have truly ever set foot there.  I guess I've driven past/through it and been to Coney Island as a tyke.  I often find great humor when comparing Jamaica, Queens to the island of Jamaica.  They have so little, yet so much in common.  Ocho Rios, Jamaica, v. Jamaica, Queens?  I could pass on both anytime in my future and wish that I could wipe them from my past.

Back to those McGuire's, they evade me as do my Romaine's.  Oh, wait a minute, that's all the same side of my family.  At times the search seems dismal.  I really think church records would be my only solution.  That darn church in Brooklyn never did call me back.  My gut tells me that trapped somewhere in their records is my family line.  From St. Louis Catholic church that closed and records rolled to St. Lucy's that closed, to St. Lucy's-St. Patrick's who have all of those church records, I believe that I'd find so much of what I seek.

Can someone go there and find out for me?  I don't know what else to say.  It's probably a daunting task but I don't live nearby Brooklyn and am not sure when I might get there.

End rant....Now, onto some real as can be McGuire research.

My Love of Old Photos

I love old photos, especially when they are of my family.   I know that I've said it before.  In reading some of the old letters that I have, I found a wonderful comment about photos made by my great, great uncle.

"It is a most useful art, this photographing, by which one can from one end of the world to the other [send] a pretty correct representation without writing a word about it."

---Michael Flanagan, written in 1873

The Essence of Genealogy

Here you will find a poem that I found in a "Birthday Book" that belonged to my Grandma. It was the book's dedication by Rev. Hugo W. Hoffmann. I think it represents some of what genealogy is all about.

"If stories of dry and learned lore we gain,
We keep them in the memory of the brain;
Names, things, and facts - whate'er we knowledge call -
There is the common ledger for them all;
And images on this cold surface traced
Make slight impression, and are soon effaced.
But we've a page, more glowing and more bright,
On which our friendship and our love to write;
That these may never from the soul depart,
We trust them to the memory of the heart,
There is so dimming, no effacement there;
Each new pulsation keeps the record clear;
Warm, golden letters all the tablet fill,
Nor lose their lustre till the heart stands still