52 Ancestors, Week 6: Social Media

The theme of Week 6 of Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is social media. I haven't found an ancestor on social media, but I did find a cousin. It was after posting to this blog (which I do VERY INFREQUENTLY) about my grandpa Herrick's first cousin Grant that several months later I was contacted by Grant's granddaughter, my third cousin Vicki. Vicki and I have met twice, and she showed me around my dad's birthplace — East Palestine, Ohio, which just a few weeks ago was the site of a major train derailment and toxic chemical leak.

The "52 Ancestors" theme can also encompass the social columns of our ancestor's newspapers. It was such a social tidbit that broke a brick wall on this line. The column mentioned that Mrs. C. P. Morgan went to East Palestine for a family funeral. Katherine Morgan (Vicki's great-grandmother) and Margaret Herrick McCabe (my great-grandmother) were sisters. While investigating whose funeral Kate attended, I found a surname of interest which then led to discovering Kate and Margaret's eldest brother, Robert Donlon — someone we'd not heard of before, although my father had told me about several of Margaret's other siblings.

So don't discount those social columns. By compiling and analyzing the social items pertaining to your  ancestor, you may be able to reconstruct a family unit that had been unknown to you.

52 Ancestors, Week 2: Favorite Photo

 Week 2 of my pal Amy Johnson Crow's writing prompt, "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks," is "Favorite Photo." 

Do I have just one? Not that I can think of. Several stick in my memory, and when I finally get all my photos organized and scanned, then I'll be able to finally post them. Until then, this one brings me much joy.

My Aunt Joy once told me "We have a picture of your Grandpa Herrick when he was a little boy. It's part of a paperweight." For years, I meant to ask to see it. A year ago at Christmas, I was at my cousin's holiday open house. After everyone else had left, I asked her whether she received the paperweight after her mother had died. She didn't recall it specifically, but she kindly dug in a box in her study, and — there it was. I brought it back to her dining room table, around which my family had gathered several hours earlier.

It proved almost impossible to photograph — the smooth, curved glass reflected the lights over the table. I had no idea how the photo was set into the paperweight. Could it be removed? YES!! With shaking hands I picked up my iPhone and took the best photo I could of the photo of little Charles Lewis Herrick. Part of the original caption on the reverse is still visible. In ink: "17 months old" and "born 1894." Barely visible in pencil: "Charley Her" and "April 10th" which was Grandpa's birthdate. 

I wondered about the circumstances behind the paperweight. What had the photo originally looked like before it was cut to fit inside the recess in the bottom of the paperweight? Was the photo only of Charley, or were there several poses done at the time, perhaps with his parents? I have photos of Charley's mother, my great-grandma Margaret "Maggie" Donley Herrick McCabe. Of Charley's father, my great-grandpa Harry Herrick, I have no photos — yet.

52 Ancestors, Week 1: I'd Like to Meet...

For the past few years, my friend Amy Johnson Crow has featured a writing prompt called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks." I've been bad about writing and blogging regularly (all you have to do is look at the dates of my previous posts, LOL!). This is the year I actually stick to it. I'm not getting off to a promising start, though - Amy's already posted prompts for Week 3, and here I am, blogging for Week 1. Oh well!

Week 1's prompt is "I'd like to meet..."  I’d like to have met my great-grandmother, Margaret Donley Herrick McCabe. Born in England, she and her family came to the US in the early 1880s.  She died in 1950, six years before I was born. So, I think I'll ask Maggie as if she were still here.

Margaret Donley
Herrick McCabe

• Did your family all immigrate to the U.S. together? Or did some of you arrive first, and the others followed? When and from where did you arrive in the U.S.?
• It appears that your family lived in Iowa in 1885. How did you wind up in PA in 1893? Where did the other family members go?
• How did you meet Harry Herrick? He had been in Texas, and returned to Washington, Pennsylvania sometime around the death of his grandmother Jane. Was it a love match? A one-night stand? 
• When and why did you and Harry split? Did you formally divorce? (I hope so, because you later married Robert McCabe, so...) When and where did you and Harry divorce? Did you ever have contact with him again? When did you divorce McCabe (or did you)?
• Was Julia Donley a sister of yours? If so, why do I not find any connection between her and her siblings?
• Most importantly, who were your parents — John Donley and Katherine Kelley? Or Patrick Donley and Margaret Kelley?

So many questions; so few answers. Maggie, why did you use Donley, but your eldest brother Robert used Donlon? Speaking of Robert, why did my dad hear from his dad — your son — about various family members, but not a peep did Dad mention a Robert? Heck, Maggie, Robert even lived in East Palestine, Ohio, the town in which Dad was born. 

I'd love to know the answers to the most mundane questions. Did you speak with a British accent? What were your favorite foods? What kind of mother were you: the soft, nurturing kind? A hard-as-nails badass? What made you decide to leave Iowa behind and come to Chicago? What (or who) was here for you?

DNA and genealogical research will help answer some questions, but there will be others that go unanswered forever, and that's a shame.

Census Goal: Discovering Donnellys

Twelve days and counting until the 1940 U.S. Census. Dad spoke of many of his Iowa relatives, and I'll get a chance to find them. I want to see Dad's grandmother, Margaret Donnelly Herrick McCabe. In 1940 great-grandma would be in Chicago, where she operated a rooming house (no, Jana Sloan Broglin, not the kind your Aunt Merle had!). Dad said that when Margaret first came to Chicago, she was a lady barber, and her shop was across the street from the Coliseum at 12th and Michigan. I believe the Coliseum was made from the original Libby Prison, the famous Civil War prison.

I want to find Margaret's sister, Katherine Donnelly Morgan. Just a few months ago, I found that Dad's Aunt Kate had gone back to Ohio and is buried near her son, Grant. Is Kate enumerated in 1940 in Chicago with Louis Henderson? Dad always called him "Uncle Louie," but it was years before Dad's mother told him that Kate and Louis were not married. I believe he and Kate are listed as Henderson in 1930. Stories are running together in my mind. Was Aunt Kate the one who ate her dessert first? Or was she the one who drove all the way to Ohio without knowing how to back up?

I want to find out more about Aunt Mary Liz Donnelly Bishop. She apparently was the sister of Katherine and Margaret, but I've never found enough to locate her beyond a doubt. Or at least to differentiate her from other Marys. Dad said she was in Iowa as well.

The Donnelly boys intrigue me also. Dad said his grandmother had at least three brothers: Eddie, Matt and Jim; also possibly a John and a Tom. One of the boys may have been a boxer. One of them supposedly went to California and did either truck farming or acting.

Many years ago, I recall riding in a car with Dad, Uncle Bill and other relatives. I think we were out of town for a family function. When we stopped in Spring Valley, IL, Uncle Bill said that the Donnellys had lived there. I had never heard that from Dad. I wonder if they were miners.

So. The Census Goal is to find Donnellys. Genealogists are told to "start with yourself" and 1940 is as close to starting with myself as I'm likely to get, at least for another 10 years. Finding Margaret's parents will be a kick. Margaret's death certificate lists her parents as Patrick Donnelly and Katherine Kelly, while her marriage license to Robert McCabe lists her parents as Thomas Donley and Margaret Kelly. Sheesh. (Not as hard as tracing Smiths, but definitely harder than Mom's Polish side.)