Fruits of One Tree

 This month I’ve been researching one of my great great grandmothers. She was born Mary Cusick or Cusack in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1846. She didn’t even know her exact birthdate. Apparently, the family never celebrated birthdays. She never learned to read or write, and I’ve seen her last name spelled both ways. County Cavan is a county with no coastline, but it has many lakes. It’s in the northern part of Ireland, near Northern Ireland. I was able to visit it in 2015 and it is a rural area with lush green hills, and reminded me of times I visited Pennsylvania. Mary was a baby and toddler during the Great Famine, but her family must have had the means to find food. When she was a child, she came to America with her mother Mary Smith Cusick and her sister Ellen Cusick. [1] I haven’t yet found out if she had more immediate family making the journey, but I do know her mother’s sister Bridget Smith Flood also emigrated with her husband Peter Flood and son Charles. Charles was Mary Cus

 I have copies of two photos of my great great grandmother Anna Wilhelmina (Ladewig) Bruguier. One was taken when she was young. The other looks like it was taken when she was in midlife. She looks a little sad, doesn't she? She had good reason to be sad.  I’ve been doing genealogy for over 25 years, and when I survey all the ancestors whose lives I’ve studied, my great great grandmother Anna Wilhelmina (Ladewig) Bruguier stands out as the person who suffered the most losses of family members. It makes me wonder how this affected her. Was she bitter? Apathetic? Depressed? Religious? Angry with God? Alcoholic? We will never know, since there is no one left alive who knew her, and I have never seen any diary or letters from her. One thing is sure, however, had she lived today, all of those deaths could have been prevented by today’s medical care. In 1900 and 1910, the U.S. government was so concerned about childhood mortality that it instructed census takers to ask how many children