Fruits of One Tree

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...

 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...

 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 chil...

 I have traveled from Germany to America a couple of times, and it only took about a day. But on June 1, 1855, little 8-year-old Anna Ladewig, her mother Minna, big brother Gustav, 16, and sister Maria, 10, boarded a ship in Hamburg, Germany to come to the U.S. [1] I think their father Edward Ladewig was already in New York. [2] Unlike travelers today, Anna and her family were on that ship for almost two whole months. The passenger list shows them arriving in New York City on July 27, 1855. [3] But there are two mysteries about their arrival. The day after they arrived, the captain of the ship was arrested for “violating the quarantine laws, by proceeding to this city contrary to the orders of Dr. F. E. Eartindale [ sic ], the deputy health officer at Staten Island.” [4] That makes me wonder, was there someone sick on board, and were the passengers allowed off the ship? Sometimes the authorities would make the passengers stay on board another 30 days in quarantine. An ev...

 Today is St. Patrick’s Day, which makes me think of my Irish ancestors. Ancestry reminded me that my third great-grandmother, Johanna Mulcahy, died on this date, in 1881, in Jersey City, N.J., just across the Hudson River from New York City. I have found a few records for her. She married James Kinane in Croom, Limerick, Ireland on 10 February 1828. [1] I found baptisms of several of their children. Her son William, my second great grandfather, and her daughter Catherine, wife of Thomas Meany, settled in Jersey City, and Johanna lived with Catherine, at least in 1870 and 1880 when the census was taken. They all survived the Irish famine of the 1840s which killed 1/8 of the population; they were among another 1/8 who emigrated. [2] When she sailed to America, it probably took about two months. When she died at about age 75, her death certificate named the cause of death as “senile debility.” She was buried at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City under the name Johanna Cuneen, ...

 My father’s family name sounds German, but they were almost all Irish, except for the German immigrants who passed on their surname, which changed spelling several times over the decades.  They arrived in the U.S. between the 1830s and 1860s. My mother’s father’s family was mainly English, with some Scottish, Dutch, and German. They came to Massachusetts and New York almost as soon as each was available for settlement by Europeans. Not long after that, they settled in Connecticut and New Jersey. There are several ancestors on that side who qualify us to join the DAR or SAR (if we were so inclined). My mother’s mother’s family name sounds French, but they were almost all German, except for the Frenchman who passed on his surname. They emigrated to New York City in the 1850s and 1860s. My husband’s family was English and Scottish, with a little bit of German. They all appear to have arrived in the U.S. in the 1700s, if not earlier. They also qualify us to join the DAR or ...

 Hello family! My name is Lise and I’ve decided it’s long past time to share all the interesting tidbits I’ve come across while researching my family and my husband’s family. I’ve been doing genealogy for about 25 years now and it’s as much fun to me as any novel or TV show. Sometimes I think, “You can’t make this stuff up!” What’s also amazing is how different our daily life is today from even a hundred years ago. For instance, minor illnesses today were deadly back then. My family lived mainly in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ireland, and Germany. A lot of them lived in New York City. When I get tired of looking for them there, I like to research my husband’s family in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, and Georgia. I have written a couple of books about the family, but there are too many branches to write a book about every one! Our families are a good example of the power of square numbers. We have 2 1 = 2 parents, 2 2 = 4 grandparents, 2 ...