The Joseph Brady Family

This is a photograph of some of my Newark, New Jersey relatives. The photo is labeled in the handwriting of my aunt Rita Brady as "Lizzie's sister, Aunt Lizzie, Cousin Joe, Uncle Joe Brady, New Jersey." "Uncle Joe" was the son of my great grandparents, Garret Brady and Mary Ann Bestick.

In the 1900 census, Joseph Sr, his wife Elizabeth and son Joseph were living with Elizabeth's mother Margaret Hampson, a widow, and Margaret's daughters Emma and Maggie at 145 Academy St. in Newark, New Jersey.

My Keys to Ireland

I am participating in the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. The focus of this edition is "My key to Ireland." It is dedicated to the stories of genealogists tracing their Irish family trees.

My ancestors came from several different counties in Ireland: Kilkenny, Longford, Meath, Tyrone and possibly Mayo. I learned of these places of origin from a variety of sources. And I am still gathering evidence on some of them.

I found the birthplaces of my 2nd great grandparents, Timothy Bestick and Ellen McSorley in their 1833 church marriage record from Newark, New Jersey. I've written about that discovery here. I have found additional records of Timothy and his parents in Longford church records. I haven't been as successful with Ellen. McSorley is a common name in Tyrone, and it will take more digging in U.S. records of Ellen and her siblings in order to find their place of origin in County Tyrone.

I was told by my aunt, Rita Brady, that her grandfather Timothy Whelan was from Kilkenny. Since then I have found some evidence supporting that. The Whelan surname and the surname of Timothy Whelan's first wife, Mary Sinnott, are both common in Kilkenny. I am still gathering information about other Whelans from Kilkenny who settled in Chicago, to see if any of them are related to Timothy.

Aunt Rita also told me that Timothy Whelan's second wife, Catherine Markey, was from County Meath. According to Rita, Catherine and her mother came to the U.S. from "County Meath near the River Boyne, 5 miles from the sea." This exact wording was also used by a distant cousin who was descended from Catherine's aunt Bridget Ratty Crawley. The wording was so specific that it sounded like a quote from a travel brochure. I later found that wording in a gazeteer of Ireland.

My Aunt Rita told me that her grandfather, Garret Brady, was from County Mayo. I haven't found any supporting evidence of this in obituaries or other sources. And Brady is not a common name in County Mayo. But Aunt Rita's information has been pretty reliable about our other ancestors, so for now I am taking her word for it and hoping to find records of Garret that will lead me to his place of origin in Ireland.

Frances Whelan, 1874-1960

This is a copy of an obituary that has been handed down in my family. It is for Sister Delphine, previously known as Frances Whelan. She was the daughter of Timothy Whelan and Catherine Markey, and was my dad's favorite aunt.

Frances was born 20 October 1874, and was baptized at Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, on 1 November 1874. Her godfather was James Whelan. His relationship to the family is not known, but I hope to find that out someday.

According to the 1902 Chicago city directory, Frances was a teacher who lived at 1140 Jackson. I've been told that she delayed joining the convent in order to help her widowed mother.

Information from the Sinsinawa Dominican's archives indicates that Frances taught Latin. She also served as a superior of a convent on two occasions. The archives also provided a copy of Frances' grades from her days as a student at Saint Clara Academy. Her lowest grade was a 75 in Bookkeeping, and her highest was a 96 in Latin 2.

I don't remember Sister Delphine, who died when I was very young. I have heard from family members that she was alot of fun. Once her relatives, including Tim Furey, were visiting and Tim asked what he could bring her besides stationery. She told him beer would be good. He had some delivered from the Pabst brewery.

Here is a photo of Sister Delphine labeled "Sr Delphine Summer 1949 Oak Park."

Ann Scrobel, Jackie and Binsky

This is a picture of 2 of my relatives from Gary, Indiana and a family friend. On the left is Joe Slavinski, who was also known as Binsky. (Why, I don't know.) Joe was a friend of my grandfather Anton Skrobul (aka Antanas Skrabulis.) Next to Joe is Ann (Waxner) Scrobel, the wife of Anton's brother William. Standing in front of Ann is her granddaughter Jackie Buyse.

The Scrobels and Waxners were "double cousins." Ann Waxner's brother Walter married William Scrobel's sister Antanina. So their children were cousins on both their mother's side and their father's side.

The Whelan and O'Malley Families of Chicago

While researching my Whelan family, I collected the following Whelan baptisms. The spellings of names were copied as they were written in the baptism register. These entries are from Holy Name Cathedral (Chicago, IL) Baptisms 1891-1904 (FHL 1578585, item 8.)

Baptized 18 Dec 1892, John Thomas Whalen, son of Timothy Whalen and Elizabeth O'Malley. Born 5 Dec 1892. Sponsors Martin O'Malley and Mary O'Malley. Page 23.

Baptized 27-Jul 1894, Michael Whalen (conditional), son of Michael Whalen and Marg Whalen. Born 27 July 1894. Sposors Mary Melvin. Page 51.

Baptized 21-Oct 1894, Ann Whalen, daughter of Timothy Whalen and Eliz Omalley. Born 7 Oct 1894. Sponsors James Ohara and Miss Grass. Page 55.

Baptized 20-Jun 1896, William Anthony Whalen, son of Timothy Whalen and Eliza Omalley. Born 13 Jun 1896. Sponsors Patrick Omalley and Ann Omalley. Page 82.

Baptized 27-Jun 1897. Joseph George Whalen, son of William Whalen and Lizzie Gleason. Born 19 May 1897. Sponsor Mary McConnell. Page 99.

Baptized 24-Apr 1898. Mary Evaline Whalen, daughter of Timothy Whalen and Eliz Omalley. Born 8 Apr 1898. Sponsors William Omalley and Blanche Omalley. Page 111.

Baptized 2-Jul 1899. Timothy Whelan, son of Timothy Whelan and Eliz Omalley. Born 15 Jun 1899. Sponsors Patrick Walsh and Nellie Whelan. Page 127.

Baptized 29-Sep 1901. Agnes Bernice Whalen, daughter of Timothy Whalen and Eliz Omalley. Born 11-Sep-01. Sponsors Peter Omalley and Margaret Omalley. Page 157. Married Thomas Schreiber 5-5-62 Our Lady of Grace.

Baptized 25-Oct 1903. Francis Aloysius Whalen, son of Timothy Whalen and Eliz Omalley. Born 9-Oct-03. Sponsors Nicholas Ratty and Mary Omalley. Page 185. Married Irene Rossdahl Jan 28,1953 St. Philomen.

These entries are not my immediate family of interest. However, I believe that the Timothy and Elizabeth (O'Malley) Whelan family above may be related to me. My great-grandfather Timothy Whelan, who died in 1894, and his family attended Holy Name Cathedral. He had some possible siblings in the Chicago area, and I have wondered if this Timothy above could be the nephew of my Timothy. One new piece of information from the entries above supports a relationship between these 2 Timothys--Nicholas Ratty, sponsor of Timothy and Elizabeth's son Francis, was a relative of my Timothy's wife Catherine. I hope that in the future I'll find documentation that will prove or disprove a relationship between these 2 Timothys.

The Skrobuls and Friends

This is a picture of some of my Skrobul relatives from Beckemeyer, Illinois and their friends. I believe the photo was taken in the early 1940s.

In the back row: Grandpa Anton Skrobul (aka Antanas Skrabulis), a friend named Tony McCloskey, my uncle Stan Skrobul.

In the front row: my uncle Anthony Skrobul, an unidentified friend.

If you know the name of the unidentified friend, I'd like to hear from you.

Who are you Baby Raymond?

The theme for the 9th Edition of Smile For The Camera is Who Are You - I Really Want To Know? For me, I come back once again to Baby Raymond.

I have blogged about Baby Raymond before (here) including a copy of this photo. Well, as I continued organizing my old photos, I came across this second copy of the photo. On the back of this one is written "Baby Raymond from N. Dakota." So, we have another bit of information about Raymond, who was treated at Shriners Hospital in Chicago in the 1940s--apparently he was from North Dakota.

I hope someday I'll learn more about Baby Raymond, and be able to pass on some baby photos of him to his descendents.