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Thank you for visiting my blog!

This blog is used to share information I find about the families I am researching. To see these family names click on the "My Families" tab. Please feel free to make comments, corrections, and ask questions here or on my Facebook page or go to the "About Me" tab to send an e-mail.

Reading this Blog

My posts can be accessed by the date posted from the column on the right. Blog posts containing specific surnames can be found by clicking on the names in the left column.

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Friday, March 18, 2016

Friday's Photo: A New Photo of Terrell Bryan AND More About His Time at the Texas Confederate Home



One of the recent photos at Erath County Photos, History, and Memories on Facebook is a photo of Civil War veterans posing on the north side of the courthouse in Stephenville during the year 1911. It was published in a 1984 calendar. 

I remembered the photo as I have the calendar and knew that my Erath County Civil War ancestor could not be in the photo. In 1911, Terrell Bryan lived in the Texas Confederate Home. 

A few of the men attending Terrell Bryan's funeral in 1920.


As I looked at all of the veterans in the photo, I wondered if any of those men had attended Terrell Bryan's funeral so pulled up my post, Masons Attended Terrell Bryan's Funeral in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas, to compare.  Only a few looked old enough to be veterans. None appeared to be in the calendar photo. However, one of the veterans in the calendar picture caught my eye. He could possibly be my great-grandfather, Terrell Bryan. I needed to review my research!


Bryan family, please weigh in.
Is this Terrell Bryan?
According to the Texas Confederate Home Roster, Terrell Bryan came to Texas in 1876 and resided in Stephenville. He was admitted into the home on May 4, 1910 and discharged, at his own request, in August 1912. He was re-admitted on October 31, 1916 and died on May 26, 1917. In case of death R. E. Bryan would be contacted and he wanted to be buried in Stephenville, Texas. 

Some of these dates conflict with other records. In an earlier statement, written by Terrell Bryan, he came to Texas in 1877. AND, his death date is May 16, 1920. So, was he really in the Texas Confederate Home in 1911?

A revisit to my Bryan family web pages to find a letter Terrell wrote while staying at the Texas Confederate Home led me to some forgotten, but very interesting newspaper transcriptions telling a different story. 

Terrell Bryan was admitted to the Texas Confederate Home in 1910, but in March of 1911, he returned to Stephenville were he remained for three months. And, in September of 1911, he visited Stephenville for a few days.  It is very possible the man in the front row is Terrell Bryan. 

Update (July 2017):  An Erath County history expert stated this man looks like Terrell, but he has been identified as J. A. Butin in the photo (possibly John A. Buntin). However, there is no source for the identification. 

Visit Moments in Time, my Facebook page, to see the full photo shared from Erath County Photos, History, and Memories. 



Diana

© 2016

Sources

Davis, K. H., Devereaux, L. E., & Ericson, C. R. (2003). Texas Confederate Home roster: With added data from Confederate Home ledgers. Nacogdoches, TX: Ericson Books.

Erath County Photos, History, and Memories. (n.d.) In Facebook [Group].  Retrieved 17 Mar. 2016  from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php? fbid=10207399997411637&set=gm.509090979275972&type=3&theater.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

Quinn, Diana B. (2002). Letter - Terrell Bryan to Thomas Martin in Bienville Parish. Bryan Davis Hairston Criswell Giddens Quinn Driscoll Murray Staubach Glynn. Rootsweb., Web. 18 Mar. 2016. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bryanquinn/Bryan-WillsdeedsobitTX-TerrellBryantoThomMartin.htm.

Young, Dan. (1983). Town and Country Bank Presents A Calendar of Erath County History 1984. Erath County, TX: Vanderbilt Street Press.



Sunday, March 13, 2016

Kinvara Company Irish Volunteers Centenary Commemoration 1916 -2016





My husband's grandfather, William Joseph Quinn, was an Irish Volunteer with the Kinvara Company and we will have the privilege of attending this commemoration in Kinvara. 

William Quinn was born on May 30, 1894 in the townland of Caherawoneen, Parish of Kinvara, County Galway, Ireland. His parents were William Quinn, a farmer who died in 1903, and Bridget Brannelly. William served as an Irish Volunteer from 1914 until sometime in 1920 or 1921. 

I look forward to learning more about the Quinn family and their lives during that time in Ireland. 

To read more about William Quinn's service, read my posts about his roll as an Irish Volunteer by clicking on this link


Diana

© 2016

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Friday's Photo: Sister Bethlehem - Mary Murray

This photo is said to be Sister Bethlehem - Mary Murray - Original Source Unknown

Sister Bethlehem, born Mary Murray, was the daughter of Patrick Murray and Mary O'Rourke. For family reading this post, Sister Bethlehem was the sister of James Murray (father of Susan Murray Quinn, Patrick Murray, and many other children). 

Sister Bethlehem's Record of Apostolic Service gives a year of birth as being 1850, but a Mary, daughter of Patrick and Mary Murray was born in 1838 according to a transcription of the church records in the Parish of Abbey, County Clare. That is a significant difference in dates and I wonder which one or if either are correct. 

As found on her Record of Apostolic Service, Sister Bethlehem entered Notre Dame du lac in Notre Dame, Indiana as a Novitiate (trainee) in 1877.  She served as pharmacist for the student infirmary from 1894 to 1905 and a charge of St. Vincent's infirmary and pharmacy from 1910 to 1920.  During the last few years of her life, her service was recorded as "hose mending."  She was listed as a patient during the years 1923 to 1925.

A Google search found Sister Bethlehem on a calendar in the University of Notre Dame archives. 
1880 May 14
Bethlehem, C.S.C. S(iste)r M(ary): Notre Dame, Ind(iana) 
 to Father (Daniel E.) Hudson, (C.S.C.): (Notre Dame, Indiana)
At the request of Mother Annunciata, C.S.C., who is ill, Sister Bethlehem asks for 100 of the little souvenirs Hudson mentioned. Sister asks Hudson to pray that the Mother may be well in a few days.

And, also in the archives,  a June 1939 article about the demolition of the "Old Infirmary" in The Notre Dame Alumnus.
"Two outstanding Sister s who served there were Sister Bethlehem and Sister Cecilia. Sister Bethlehem had a keen eye for those students who were faking, and her way of testing everything was castor oil. If the student could survive that test he was sick." 

Mary Murray or Sister Bethlehem could only be found in the 1920 census. Mary Murray was listed with others from her convent.  One, Ellen Agnes Murray (aka Helen Murray and Sister Mary Columbkill) was Sister Bethlehem's niece, a daughter of James Murray. It is unknown if the others are related - Sister M. Urban (Catherine Murray), and Sister M. Loyola (Loyola Murray).

Sister Bethlehem died on April 18, 1925 and is buried at Our Lady of Peace Cemetery, Notre Dame, Indiana. Her grave can be seen by clicking this link to Find A Grave


Diana

© 2016

Family papers and photos obtained from M. Fahey. 

"Mary Murray in the 1920 United States Federal Census." N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?h=102384386&db=1920usfedcen&indiv=1>.

"Notre Dame Archives: Calendar." Notre Dame Archives: Calendar. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://archives.nd.edu/calendar/c188005.htm>.

"The Notre Dame Alumnus." The Archives of  The University of Notre Dame. N.p., 1939. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. <http://www.archives.nd.edu/alumnus/vol_0017/vol_0017_issue_0007.pdf>.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

My Website is Down!




A few people have written to tell me that my website (not this blog) is down. I have had the website on  Rootsweb since sometime around 2001 or 2002. These pages have trees for many of my ancestors' families, quite a few photos and many document and newspaper transcriptions. I searched Google for information about why the site was down and found the following message below. 

We're currently experiencing a temporary website outage due to RootsWeb hardware failure. Rest assured, our development and web operations teams are busy working to securely restore the site as quickly as possible.
Our initial expectation is to have the site back up and running on or around March 15, 2016.
We apologize for the disruption and thank-you for your patience. We will provide other updates here as we have them.

So, the web pages should be back up in a few days. When they are back up, check them out from this blog by going to the "My Families" link at the top of this page. 






Diana

© 2016

Friday, March 4, 2016

Friday's Photo: Going to Ireland

We will visit at least two churches. This is St. Patrick's in County Clare.
My husband's Murray family attended this church. 


I will be traveling with family to Ireland this month and thought that they would like to see a few of the places they will go. 



The Quinn home in County Galway 

The Quinn house in County Galway. This photo was taken in the 1983 on our first trip to Ireland. 



The Quinn house as seen by Lori and Brian Quinn in 2014.


The Murray home in County Clare


The Murray family lived in this house. It is not known when they lived in this house.  Date of photo unknown. 

The Murray home in 2015. Courtesy of Lori and Brian Quinn

Cemeteries

Much to my family's dismay, we will spend time in cemeteries. I will look for Murrays and other distant family in the cemetery next to St. Patrick's Church. We will look for Quinns in County Galway cemeteries. 




Diana

© 2016