Agnes Fennessy and her grandmother Bridget Rourke Kinane in June 1919 My great great grandmother was Bridget Rourke or O’Rourke. It has been hard to find information about her. In fact, I’m not sure if her name was Rourke or O’Rourke, since there are records for her that used either name. Also, I’m not 100% sure this photo is of her. The photo album page it was on was labeled “Dan Agnes & Grandma June 1919.” I’m guessing this is her, because my grandmother (Agnes Fennessy, on the left, labeled Nana) and her brother Dan lived in Jersey City, and Bridget also lived in Jersey City. Their other grandmother, Mary Mullaney, lived in Brooklyn. That is not terribly far, but correspondence I’ve had with other descendants of Mary’s indicates the Jersey City and Brooklyn families didn’t spend much time together. I have not yet found any record that states exactly when and where Bridget was born or when she married. However, all records available show she was born in Ireland about ...
Standing (L-R): Laura Masoner Christian Muse (1872-1951), Charlotte Masoner Freeney Stephens (1870-1946). Sitting (L-R): Mary Effie Masoner Price (1880-1941) and Martha Ellen Masoner Ross (1874-1944). We used to have this photo on display in the kitchen. It’s of the four Masoner sisters. Back in the 1990s, before Ancestry and FamilySearch, in the early days of internet genealogy, there were message boards so genealogy enthusiasts could find each other. I still have printed copies of emails from that time, and a distant relative kindly sent me a copy of this photo, with each person labelled. If you’re closely related to my husband, the woman of most interest to you will be Charlotte. She is the one standing on the right, with the smaller hat. They were the daughters of Thomas J. Masoner and his wife Sarah E. McCracken. Thomas, born in Illinois, and Sarah, born in North Carolina, likely met in Texas. [1] Charlotte was the eldest of their daughters. [2] She was named after her mat...
This photo of Dan Stephens was taken about 1940, when he was about 70 years old . My husband’s grandmother’s father was Daniel Harven Stephens. For years, I’ve heard his cousins say, “Dan Stephens was the richest man in the county. Then one of his sons-in-law sold him some worthless stock and he lost everything he had. But when he got rich he treated people just as well as when he was poor.” I also heard the story of when my husband’s grandmother (his daughter Jewell) came to babysit them during summer vacation, she’d take them all to a farm to pick crops. Genealogical research revealed Dan’s father was an illiterate farmer who moved from state to state in the South, never owning any land. So, I had built up a picture in my mind that Dan Stephens was a poor, ignorant farmer that was a patsy for some city slicker. Thanks to the availability of online newspapers, I have found out that my impression of Dan was all wrong. In fact, he was an eager entrepreneur who jumped...
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