Friday's Photo: Helen Driscoll Staubach

Doris typed the following on the back of this photo:
"Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951 Kay, mother, and I" 
Pictured: Doris Staubach, Helen Driscoll, and cousin, Kathleen Caccavo

Helen Driscoll was born in Cohoes, New York on March 7, 1887 - 138 years ago today. She was the daughter of mill workers and one of at least eleven children. Helen worked in the mills until about 1924 when she and some of her sisters left for New York City. In 1933, she married Charles Staubach Jr., and together they raised a daughter, Doris—my beautiful mother-in-law.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. Church records clearly state that Helen was born in 1887, yet over the course of 50 years, various documents record her age differently.

Consider the following:

1900: Helen was 13 years old

1910: Listed as 21

1915: Recorded as 23

1920: Just 27

1933: She was 39

1940: Now 47

1950: Marked as 60

Helen’s records show a woman who may not have aged by the calendar but instead by the circumstances of her life, making her story all the more compelling. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page, where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2025

Diana Quinn, #1 Diana's Bryan-Quinn Family, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/45260559?cfpid=6334928766: accessed 7 March 2025). 

Easter, photograph, ca.1951; digital image, from the privately held photo collection of D.B. Quinn, 2025.

Friday's Photo: Helen Driscoll of Cohoes, New York

Helen Driscoll Staubach and her daughter, Doris
January 3, 1953

Helen Driscoll was born in Cohoes, New York in 1887. She was the daughter of mill workers and one of at least eleven children. Helen worked in the mills until about 1924 when she and two of her sisters left for New York City. Helen married Charles Staubach Jr. in 1933. Their daughter, Doris, was my beautiful mother-in-law. 

This is a family I researched when just starting this life-long endeavor in the late 1990s. An increase in available online genealogical resources is allowing me to find much more about this family than in my earlier attempt. 

Watch for new posts about Helen and her family in the next few months. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page, where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2023 

Helen and Doris Staubach, photograph, 3 Jan 1953; scanned image, original photograph from the privately-held collection of Diana Bryan Quinn, Virginia Beach, VA, 2023. 

Friday's Photo: December 25, 1951, An Engagement Party

Written on the back of this photo is Mother, me, and Bill. My engagement party. December 25, 1951. Pictured are Helen Staubach, Doris Staubach, and William "Bill" Quinn. Doris and Bill were my husband's parents. Helen was the mother of Doris. I'm sure the photo was taken in New York City as both Doris and Bill's parents lived on West 153rd Street. 

Doris and Bill were married just a little over a year later on January 3, 1953. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2020 

Sources 

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Friday's Photo: Charles Staubach, Sr.

Charles Staubach, Sr. - photo taken about 1921

Charles Staubach, Jr. doted on his daughter, Doris, when she was a child. She remembered him as a kind man who took her out for ice cream after he attended services at the Lutheran Church each Sunday. When I asked Doris, my mother-in-law, about his family, she was only able to tell me a little. She knew that her father's parents spoke German and they had a butcher shop. 

Years later, I now know just a little more. Charles Staubach, Sr. was born in Herbstein, Germany on October 18, 1846. He came to New York sometime in October of 1871 and married his wife, Margaret, in 1872. His only child, Charles Staubach, Jr., was born in 1878. 

Charles Sr. completed an application for a passport in 1921. He was going to Germany to visit his brother. He was 74 years old and retired. The photograph above was his passport photo. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2020 

Sources 

"United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKDF-PDYV : 16 March 2018), Charles Staubach, 1921; citing Passport Application, New York, United States, source certificate #48326, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 1644, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

"United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6NB-C7Q : 25 August 2019), Charles Staubach, Jr, 1917-1918.

#52ancestors Post Forty-Nine: A Quinn Honeymoon at Mirror Lake Inn

The writing prompt for #52ancestors for week forty-nine is winter. 

My in-laws, Bill Quinn and Doris Staubach, were married on January 3, 1953. These photos, taken on January 6, 1953, must be photos taken on their honeymoon. The original photos are very tiny and Doris and Bill could not be recognized until the photos were scanned and enlarged. 

The Mirror Lake Inn is near Lake Placid, New York. See the current inn and read it's history by clicking here. 


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

#52ancestors Post Twenty-Three: Going to the Chapel

This week's writing prompt for #52ancestors is Going to the Chapel. So, I thought I'd post a collection of wedding photos that belonged to my husband's parents, Doris Staubach and William Quinn. I suspect most of the weddings occurred in New York in the 1950s. If anyone has clues as to the identity of these brides and/or grooms OR knows of any connection they may have to family, please contact me via email or leave a message on my Facebook page. 

Unknown Bride

Marie and John
On the back is written April 1951 - John died Aug. 1951

On the back - Helen Kenny and William Montero
Found at Ancestry.com - Helen M. Kenny married
William T. Montero on June 13, 1941

April 1952 - Marie and Cornelius
Cornelius was a groomsman in Doris and Bill's Wedding

Robby and Mary

Unknown Bride and Groom

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana
© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of  Diana Bryan Quinn. 

Friday's Photo: Charles and Helen Driscoll Staubach are buried in Old Saint Raymond's Cemetery

In 2012, I visited Old Saint Raymond's Cemetery with my husband and his sister.  Our goal was to find the graves of Charles and Helen Staubach, maternal grandparents of my husband and his siblings. And, to find the grave of Julia Harvey Glynn, my great-great-grandmother who I wrote about last week. 

We found Charles Staubach quickly in section 15, but although they were buried in the same plot, his wife's name was not on the stone.  Helen Driscoll Staubach died in 1965. Her daughter, Doris, was living with her husband, an army officer, and five young children in France. She came home alone to arrange her mother's funeral and burial. She may not have had the time or money to arrange to have her mother's name added to the stone. 

Charles Staubach in NY. The children might be the children
of Bertha Driscoll Cacavvo, sister of Helen. The woman on
the steps might be Helen Driscoll Staubach. 

Doris Staubach Quinn, my mother-in-law, gave me the funeral documentation for her mother and father when she requested I find out more about her family. From these, I learned death dates, cemetery locations, addresses, and names of newspapers where an obituary or death notice might be found. I am adding the documents to share with family. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my 

Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

Friday's Photo: A Young Doris Staubach

Doris Staubach Quinn
1929 - 2012

Last night, while looking for a photo to post, I saw this photo that once belonged to my mother-in-law.  Doris, who pretty consistently labeled her photos, did not label this one. There's only a little scribble on the front. When enlarged, I could clearly see an arrow and the letters ME. Doris was telling us that was her in the photo. It is the earliest photo I have seen of Doris. I would guess 1931. She was a little older in the photo on the right. Doris was born on July 21, 1929 and would have been 88 years old today. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other interesting finds. 

Diana

© 2017

Source


Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

Friday's Photo: Arlington Cemetery in December

We visited Arlington National Cemetery last week. There were wreaths on most of the headstones that I could see. A few of the older headstones, where military fathers and sons were buried together, had two wreaths and gravestones, marked with the Star of David, had no wreath out of respect for the Jewish tradition of not placing floral decorations on graves.

 

The wreaths are placed on the graves by Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization that coordinates wreath laying ceremonies at Arlington as well as other cemeteries in all 50 states and other locations throughout the world. Click here to read more about the history of this organization. 

For my Quinn family -  Photos of my husband and his parent's graves - William Joseph and Doris Staubach Quinn. 

Diana

© 2016

Friday's Photo: Fun in NYC

Doris Staubach and a statue at Audubon Terrace - Oct. 1950

When this posts, I will be on my way to NYC for a few days so thought that a few NYC photos would be appropriate. 

These photos of my mother-in-law, Doris Staubach Quinn and her friends, were taken at Audubon Terrace in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan - not far from Doris' home on West 153rd Street. 

Doris wrote, "Madelyn, Me, and Nancy - Fall 1950"

Doris wrote, "MaryLou, Nancy, Me - Fall 1950"

Nancy, October 1950

Doris wrote, "Madelyn, me, Mary Lou  October 1950"

Nancy, Madelyn, Mary Lou

Mary Lou - October 1950

Diana

© 2015

Friday's Photo: Rockaway Beach

Doris wrote " Rockaway - July 2, 1949 me, Jeannette, Marie, Lil, Rita"

Last week, I posted a photograph of my mother at what I thought was Jones Beach and she corrected me saying that it was Rockaway Beach. Her parents lived in Queens at the time and Rockaway Beach is a neighborhood on the south shore of Long Island in the borough of Queens.  


This Friday's Photo, also at Rockaway Beach, is one that once belonged to my mother-in-law, Doris Staubach Quinn. Doris is at the top left, looking so very glamorous at the beach. At the time, Doris lived in Manhattan with her mother and was working in an office. It is thought that these are co-workers as some of these women have been found in other photos from office events or parties. 

Diana

© 2014

Friday's Photo: Summer at Saratoga Lake

My mother-in-law, Doris Quinn, spent parts of her summers at Saratoga Lake in New York. Here she is pictured with family and friends in 1942 at Saratoga Lake. Doris is seated next to Delores Tabner Houlihan and her son Dennis. In the back row are her parents, Charles and Helen Driscoll Staubach, and Jim Tabner, father of Delores. 

Diana

© 2014

Friday's Photo: Doris and Friends

Front - Nancy and Mary Lou
Back - Doris and Madelyn
January 1950

Madelyn, Mary Lou, and Doris
Fall October 1950

Mary Lou, Nancy, and Madelyn - Fall 1950

I have been scanning my husband's family's pictures for several years. My favorite pictures are those that belonged to my mother-in-law, Doris Staubach Quinn, before her marriage. 

Last night, the nephew of one of Doris' friends, Mary McMullan, found a picture of his aunt on my blog and contacted me. So, I thought that I would post more of her friends in hope that I will learn more!

Diana

© 2013

Honoring the Mothers In My Family Tree

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to my sister - a wonderful mother and grandmother!

Happy Mother's Day to my Aunt!

Doris Staubach Quinn - My mother-in-law.
1929 - 2012

Edith Giddens Davis, my grandmother
1897-1975

Myrtie Hairston Bryan, my grandmother
1880-1927

Harriet Albritton Bryan, my great-grandmother
1836-1909

Lodema Criswell Hairston, my great-grandmother
1856-1919

Bertha Davis Hawkins, my great-grandmother
1879 - 1965

Mary Lucy Glynn Giddens, my great-grandmother
1866-1926

Julia Harvey Glynn, with daughter Carrie, my great-great-grandmother
Died in 1919

Elizabeth Regan Bryan, my great-great-grandmother
1798-1877

Caroline Olive Davis, my great-great-grandmother
1847- after 1901

Mary Ann "Polly" Evans Criswell, my great-great-grandmother
1829-1883

Diana

© 2013