Friday's Photo: John Foley of Boston

On the back of this photo is written April 1942, Ma and Johnnie. My husband's Aunt Kitty identified him as John Foley and his mother as a Quinn cousin that she visited in Boston. Mrs. Foley was Cecelia Quinn, born in County Galway. She married Michael Foley. And, just this week through a search on Ancestry.com, I found her great-granddaughter and am learning about another branch of the Quinn family! 

Diana

© 2013

Change

One item, not mentioned below, is the blank book "The History of Our Family." It's a blank book with places for me to hand-write about my family. I really wanted to do this, but my blog has now taken the place of a family book. 

This is not a post about genealogy, but a post about how fast things are changing in this digital world. I am cleaning my house. Not just vacuuming, but taking everything off of every shelf, cleaning, reorganizing, and recycling. I am having fun as I have found old postcards, books with inscriptions from family members, and more genealogical treasures. However, I am amazed at how many items on my bookshelf have become unnecessary in such a short period. Here are just a few:

• Travel Books and Maps - I took three trips last summer and never used travel books or maps. 

• Magazines - I found a stack of Ancestry.com magazines and a National Geographic (1981) that had wonderful pictures of Ireland. I read very few magazines. I saved these for content, but it's now content that I can find on the Internet. 

• CDs - I was so excited to receive my 1880 United States Census and National Index twelve years ago. Now, it's much easier to search at Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org for census records than to search through all of those CDs. 

• Reference Books - Grammar handbooks, a medical dictionary, and a world almanac are all things that I haven't used in many years. Google is my friend. J

• User's Guides - The last item is my Pack-Mate Users Guide that I received with my first computer in 1988. The Guide has over 120 pages. The computer had MS-DOS and 1 MB of RAM. At that time, you definitely needed a manual. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Goats

This is from my father's family's photos. The picture belonged to my grandparents, Redic Bryan and Myrtie Hairston. At first glance, I thought that it was a boy with puppies, but now am sure that they are goats or sheep. This is probably a boy - I'm looking at the overalls and haircut, but you never know. 

Does anyone else in the Bryan/Hairston family have this picture? Family names are Bryan, Hairston, Noah, Thompson, Hammett, Chisum, Gresham, Wylie, Biggs, Keith, Gilbert, Latta, and Criswell. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Mammoth Cave

Mammoth Cave is the longest recorded cave system in the world with more than 390 miles explored and mapped. Mammoth Cave National Park was established on July 1,1941 to preserve the cave system and the scenic river valleys of south central Kentucky.

Claude Davis
1893-1967 

On August 30, 1926, my grandfather, Claude Davis arrived in New York City aboard the Ancon, a U. S. passenger and cargo ship.  On the arrival list, his place of birth is listed as Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. I seriously doubt that he was born in Mammoth Cave, although I wouldn't be surprised if he spent much time in and around the cave.  At one time, Claude lived in or near the community of Elko which is now in Mammoth Cave National Park. Some Davis family members attended Joppa Baptist Church in Elko and several attended Silent Grove Baptist Church which is right on the edge of the park. Family members are buried in the park and many Davis family deeds describe property on the Green River that moves throughout the park. 

Sources:

Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. 

Mammoth Cave National Park 

Postcards from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Queenstown

Cobh (Queenstown), Co. Cork from the postcard collection of Maggie Land Blanck

I saw this postcard, along with many others at Maggie Land Blanck's Population and Emigration webpage. Although I knew nothing about Queenstown, I found it of interest as some of the Quinn and Murray family ancestors came to the United States from the port of Queenstown.  

The main ports from Ireland were Liverpool, Queenstown (Cobh), and Glasgow. Queenstown was originally called Cobh until Queen Victoria visited in 1849. The name was then changed to Queenstown, but in 1921 changed back to Cobh. Over two million Irish people immigrated to the United States from the port of Queenstown. 

The following Quinn and Murray family members came to the United States from Queenstown:

Mary Ann Quinn Meany 1905

Mary Margaret Quinn Dawson 1910

Sarah Murray Meehan 1903

Ellen Agnes Murray (Sister Mary Columbkill) 1908

Catherine "Kate" Murray McGing 1911

William Joseph Quinn (1921), Susan Murray Quinn (1921), and Celia Quinn Houlihan (1920) came to the United States from Liverpool. 

______________________________________________

Source:  

Blanck, Maggie Land. Population and Emigration. Retrieved February 15, 2013, from http://www.maggieblanck.com/Mayopages/Emigration.html.

Diana

© 2013

A Thoughtful Son on Valentine's Day

This Valentine was one of many treasures found in books that were purchased at an estate auction in the 1980s. I don't know the name of the book where this was found, but did find other two books that Glenn gave to his mother. To Mother From Glenn Xmas 1930 was written inside Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes and To Mother - Mother's Day 1931 From Glenn was written in Young Man of Manhattan by Katharine Brush. 

Agnes Spence and Emma H. Spence are written in other books came from that estate.  So, a little research indicated that Emma H. Spence was the mother of Robert Glenn Spence. One of his many siblings was Agnes Spence. 

Records indicate that Robert Glenn Spence was born on July 11, 1907 to John Cecil Calhoun Spence and Emma Halstead Spence. He was a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia and graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1929 with a degree in business. Glenn married Beulah James Flanagan on November 4, 1933 in Radford, Virginia.  

Robert Glenn Spence died on October 11, 1987. He is buried in Portlock Cemetery  in Portsmouth, Virginia. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Three of the Murray Sisters

This old Polaroid photo was sent to me in the 1990s by Paddy and Theresa Moylan. The three older women, from left to right, are Catherine "Kate" Murray McGing, Sarah Murray Meehan, and Susan Murray Quinn.  I can't identify the man in the picture, but was told that the woman next to him was Theresa Moylan. 

Does anyone recognize the man? Does anyone have pictures of Kate and Sarah when they were younger. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Kathleen Caccavo and Connie Sullivan

Kathleen Caccavo was my mother-in-law's (Doris Quinn's) first cousin. Their mother's were sisters - Bertha Driscoll Caccavo and Helen Driscoll Staubach. 

Kathleen married Connie Sullivan on November 22, 1952.

These pictures belonged to my mother-in-law. 

I continue to look for more about the Caccavo-Sullivan family and would appreciate any information. 

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: The Quinn Family

This is one of the pictures found in my husband's parent's wedding album. Doris Staubach and William "Bill" Quinn were married on January 3, 1953. In this photo, all of those pictured with the bride and groom are from the Quinn side of the family. Susan Murray Quinn and William J. Quinn, on the right, are the parents of the groom. Patrick Moylan is the groomsman to the far right and the son of Susan's sister, Julia. The others are sisters of the groom and I assume, husbands. 

Will someone identify the Quinn sisters and their husbands?

Doris and Bill were married at Saint Catherine of Genoa's Church in New York City. Where was the reception? Does anyone have a saved wedding invitation?  

Diana

© 2013

Friday's Photo: Another Photo Identified

Two summers ago, a Hairston descendant, Carla, gave me this tiny baby picture when meeting other Hairston descendants in Texas.  Written on the back is "Stella's or Myrtie's." 

Stella was Estella Chisum Gresham daughter of Martha "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson, the sister to my great-grandfather, Phillip A. Hairston.  Johnie Myrtlene “Myrtie” Hairston Bryan was the daughter of Phillip Hairston and my grandmother. Myrtie and Stella were cousins. 

The baby looked like another baby picture of Myrtie's daughter, DeRay Bryan, but I could not be sure. However, while re-organizing my genealogy papers and photos last week, I found some copies of Bryan/Hammett family pictures that I made during a research trip to Texas in 2001. This baby picture was one of those pictures and the owner of these pictures is a descendant of my grandfather's Bryan family. 

So, I can presume that due to the fact that both of my grandparent's families had this picture, and that the Bryan/Hammett family would probably not have a picture of Stella's baby, that this is of one of Myrtie's children - probably DeRay. 

Diana

© 2012, copyright Diana Quinn