My Moynahan Genealogy Blog: May 2018

Sunday, May 20, 2018

A Family of Card Players

EVERYONE in my family enjoys/enjoyed playing cards:

My grandfather Creighton loved cribbage and played with everyone in my family
My grandmother Rhea (Coughlin) Moynahan would always organize card games for her grandchildren at the kitchen table.
My father and step mother are euchre champions
My Coughlin ancestors mention euchre at the beginning of this 1940 recording (Track 6 (3:05))
My Windsor relatives would always play cards in the evening when we visited from Toronto

And the list goes on! (Please remind me of any other card game examples - war, rummy, Fan Tan and canasta - in the comment section below)

A 1935 Bridge Tea

While I was researching my grand aunt Aileen (Moynahan) Boyle, I accidentally found an interesting article about "Bridge Tea" in 1935 and some of my women ancestors who attended.

The Border Cities Star; 7 Jun 1935 (page 25/42)

In 1935, the Catholic Women's League (C.W.L.) of Our Lady of Prompt Succor (O.L.P.S.) organized their most successful bridge tea in their history.

There were 145 tables in play and a number of women organized bridge tables in their own homes and later took their guests to the church auditorium where tea was served.

Source: The Border Cities Star; 7 Jun 1935 (page 25/42)

Source: The Post: “Bridge Party” by George Hughes; Nov 28, 1953

And my ancestors who were in attendance at the 1935 Catholic Women's League (C.W.L.) of Our Lady of Prompt Succor (O.L.P.S.) Bridge Tea included:

The Border Cities Star; 7 Jun 1935 (page 28/42)

I also learned that bridge playing was so popular in Windsor that there were regular newspaper columns on Contract Bridge strategies such as this one below:

Source: Border Cities Star; 15 June 1935

There is something about large numbers of women getting together to play Bridge that makes me smile. How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during these bridge games!

An Old Fashioned Game?

I asked my father, "Does anybody even play bridge anymore?" to which he responded, "Oh yes!"and that makes me very happy.

Life Magazine; Nina Leen; Women Playing Bridge

Some Bridge Links

Why Play Bridge? https://www.bridgeworld.com/indexphp.php?page=/pages/learn/beginners/whyplaybridge.html
"At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age". The New York Times. 22 May 2009.

Links to Border Cities Star article: June 7, 1935

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Patrolman Timothy Moynahan Robbed

I love reading old newspapers. I regularly buy a monthly subscription at newspapers.com and run queries for one month on surnames in my family tree.

A LOT of my greatest finds come from newspapers available for free online! (See my links below).

I was curious about this article about Special Officer Timothy Moynahan who was robbed in Detroit in 1911 while delivering the payroll to Detroit city garbage workers.

Source: The Amherstburg Echo, December 29, 1911

The article ends by saying that "Moynahan is a native of Maidstone township" which puts Timothy squarely into my Moynahan research files in Essex, Ontario.\

I found a photograph of Officer Moynahan with additional details on the robbery.

Source: Detroit Free Press; Thursday, December 28, 1911

Moynahan On The Police Force More Than 30 Years

The Detroit Free Press article states that:
"With one eye gashed and completely closed, and his right nostril cut badly, Moynahan was taken after the robbery to his home 685 Seventeenth St in the police patrol. Moynahan was on the Police force more than 30 years...."

"Every Wednesday for nearly five years Moynahan has carried the pay envelopes of these garbage wagon drivers to the station at at twenty Fourth St and the river. Three weeks ago it was moved to Eighteenth St."

Source: Detroit Free Press; Thursday, December 28, 1911

1884 Prevented Suicide

Patrolman Moynahan was written up in the newspapers again in 184 after he happened across a distraught woman on a Saturday night

Source: Detroit Free Press, Dec 15, 1884

1903 Timothy's Wife Committed Suicide

Unfortunately, Patrolman Timoth's wife Catherine (Murphy) Moynahan who struggled with mental health issues, died in 1903

On Catherine (Murphy) Moynahan's death certificate it indicates that the couple had seven children of which five were living in 1903.

Source: Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records

On the 1880 census, there are three children: Cornelius, Felix and Frank. I believe that this may mean that Timothy's father's name was Cornelius.

Timothy and his family lived many, many years at 685 17th Street, Detroit Michigan and there were many other Moynahans in Corktown as well but I was unable to connect Patrolman Timothy Moynahan with our Maidstone Moynahans as reported in the Amherstburg Echo in 1911.