Johnny Murray: The Dashes Between B-M-D

My family tree has grown from 3001 ancestors in August 2019 to 4031 ancestors and I attribute most of the additions to my "On This Day" practice where I manage my online databases on the anniversaries of the ancestor's birthdays, marriage anniversaries, and death dates.

The Halifax Explosion: A Tomlin and Moreland Update

On the morning of December 6, 1917, there was an explosion in the Halifax Harbour that injured 9,000 people and killed 2,000.

This blog post is an update to previous posts about the impact of this explosion on our ancestors:

1. My grandmother Dorothy Moreland was only seven years old and was living with her sister Florence at a foster home because her father John Miller Moreland was overseas fighting in WWI. The foster home at 500 Gottingen was destroyed.
2. My 2nd great-uncle Francis Clifford Tomlin was a tinsmith at the Hillis & Sons Foundry and searched day and night through the ruins of north end Halifax and the next day's blizzard looking for the bodies of his daughter, mother-in-law, 4 sisters-in-law and their families; 3 brothers-in-law; all those who worked with him at the Foundry. He died of meningitis on March 21, 1918 and when the Halifax Relief commission refused to give his widow, Maggie a survivor's pension, she was angry and made a point of carving into her husband's headstone that he was a victim, putting the date of the explosion before the date of death. This post is the story about his family that survived.

Sr Chrysostom Honora Moynahan (1862-1941)

Sr Chrysostom Honora Moynahan
AEF chief nurse buried with military honors. | American Women in World War I

Mrs. Mary Moynahan's Horseback Mishap

This blog post is about Mary Moynahan and a serious injury she sustained after being thrown from a horse while taking a beginners' class on November 14, 1933.

Source: Lansing State Journal; Oct 7, 1936

Mary (Moynahan) Weyburn (1829-1851)

This blog post is about Mary Moynahan of Sandwich, Ontario who married Dr William Weyburn of Detroit, Michigan in 1849 .

Like Denis Moynahan (1823-1865) of  Sandwich township Mary's life was also cut short (she died two years after her marriage at the age of 22)which means that I know so very little about her.

1849 Detroit Marriage

This is the only record of the marriage between Miss Mary Moynahan and Dr. William Weyburn.

Grandmother Rhea (Coughlin) Moynahan's Photographs

 I always loved this photo of my grandmother Rhea (Coughlin) Moynahan (1902-1992)

Another Mystery Solved: John Miller Moreland's Second Wife

My great-grandfather John Miller Moreland's (1882-1940) life story has always been filled with some surprises, some challenges and even more unknowns.

John Moreland was only six-years-old when his mother Agnes Bell Hind died and, because his father was at sea (worked on ships as a "fireman" and later remained in Melbourne Australia), John was sent with his sisters to a Scottish workhouse and later enlisted in the British Army. 
 

My great-grandfather John Miller Moreland (1882-1940)

The Moynihan Hedge Schools and Irish Education

My Kerry ancestors arrived in Canada without having had the benefit of an education. This was in large part the result of the Penal Laws. My Irish ancestors could not read and write when they arrived in North America (which explains the variations in the spelling of our surname Moynahan/Moynihan/Minehan)

In the 1800s, my great-grandfather John Moynahan became a teacher (with his sister Nellie) in Essex Ontario and education became a very important part of our family history.

This blog post summarizes what I have learned about education in Ireland before our ancestors emigrated.

Louise M. Minihan - I Found Her At Last

Tracking women in your family tree can feel like an insurmountable challenge and that is why I am so delighted this week because I finally found Louise M. Minihan - the daughter of James Minihan (1840-1899) and it happened entirely by accident!

And then I found her mother Frances E. (Hiles-Minihan-Kellerher) Keeler in New York City where she died under tragic circumstances.

The Story of the Orphaned Colorado Moynahans

This is a complicated story to tell because it is full of tragedy but also remarkable events that want to be told. It's the story of the three children of Matthew and Amy (Smith) Moynahan of Colorado, USA: James (1903-1946), Donald (1906-1954) and Robert (1910-1963).

So Many Stories - So Little Time To Tell Them

I love to tell the ancestor's stories. So many new stories have come to me in recent weeks that I cannot possibly keep up and write about them all but I DO have a few interesting ones lined up already in the queu!

October 2019 Research documents

Blessings: Distant Cousins Find This Blog!

When I started this blog in 2014 , I did so because I wanted to share the photos and stories of the ancestors with my family. With my blog, I could give a little bit at a time. A picture here, a story there, in the hope that someone out there would enjoy and appreciate what I was sharing.

I never knew at the time that one day I would be writing about what my blog has given back to me!

Through the "Blogger Contact Form", this past summer I met three distant cousins for the very first time:

1. June 2019: A distant 2nd cousin from our Foreman family tree contacted me
2. July 2019: A distant 5th cousin from our Colorado Moynahan family tree contacted me
3. August 2019: A distant 4th cousin from our Tilbury Moynahan family tree contacted me

The Blogger Contact Form

Into Tuft's Cove: Aunt Barb Floats About Until Rescued By Nana!

In August 2019 I finally posted a draft blog post from 2016 about my trip with my maternal Aunt Deb to visit my other maternal Aunt Barb in Ohio in 2016. Things I Learned About My Nova Scotia Roots (in Ohio)

In that blog post I wrote about the story that I heard about my Aunt Barb nearly drowning in the narrows of Halifax Harbour when she was a baby and that made it to the front page of the newspaper

With thanks to my Aunt Deb, my sister Kelly and my cousin Jodie, I have added it t the original blog post (Things I Learned About My Nova Scotia Roots (in Ohio)) and I am posting the story here as well.

Donald Moynahan: Born Under A Lucky Star

This is a news story about a Moynahan cousin from Tilbury who appeared in the news in 1964 having been the sole survivor of a car accident that claimed the lives of four other persons.

In the final paragraph of one of the many news stories about the accident, Donald Moynahan said,

"I must have been born under a lucky star. When I was just a kid, I was in a car with my grandfather and my brother and the car was in an accident. Both my grandfather and my brother were critically injured and were in the hospital for months. I didn't get a scratch.

I guess I better touch wood."

The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)
22 Jan 1964, Wed · Page 1

OTD: August 30: Raymond Stanislaus Krolicki Died (1986)

On October 26, 2017, I posted about Ambrose E. Moynahan who died "On That Day" in  1954.

Ambrose Moynahan was a mining engineer and is one of our Michigan/Colorado Moynahan ancestors. While researching Ambrose in 2017, I discovered two surprises:

1. I discovered (too late) that I had connected with Ambrose’s granddaughter June Woeber in 2002 on an ancestry message board. June passed in 2014 in California.(See: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/10/otd-oct-26-ambrose-edwin-moynahan-died.html)
2. I also discovered a familial connection to a Capt. James Minihan and his son Ralph (originally from Michigan) who are buried in the Buckskin cemetery, Colorado. (See: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/02/capt-james-minihan-1840-1899.html)

Things I Learned About My Nova Scotia Roots (in Ohio)

In 2016, I visited my maternal aunt in Ohio. I had not been there in forty years! My mother Dawn (Creighton) Moynahan had passed away thirty-five years ago and then I moved even farther away to Sudbury!

It had been a very long, long time and drove there with my other maternal aunt (my aunt Deb) and when we arrived, my aunt Barb shared her home, her hospitality, some wonderful photos and cherished stories with me. I am so grateful. It was a trip that I will never forget.

Below, I will try to summarize, in twenty-five words or less, a few of the things that I learned.

"Tufts Cove" Should Be Spelled "Toughs Cove"

Between 1929 and 1941, my mother and her Creighton siblings
were born in Tuft's Cove, Nova Scotia.
Tufts Cove, Nova Scotia as it appears today (Source: Google Maps)

The Visitors From Australia - NOT Our Moreland Kin

In 2015, while visiting my aunt Barbara in Ohio, I was shown the picture below that was taken in Tuft's Cove, Nova Scotia presumably in the summer of 1941 and is known as "Visitors from Australia" . This blog post describes my attempts to confirm the identity of the three Australian visitors.

UPDATE: In less than twenty-four hours of posting the photo, an Australian descendant of  Susan (Marrinan/Willis) Moreland (her grand-daughter) wrote that:

"Thanks for the photo.   I don't think this is my family in the photo...  In 1941 the war was on and my mother was living with my Nanna Susan Moreland (her mother-in-law).  She ... definitely didn't go overseas then or to my knowledge ever. Ena Mary Moreland (that's what written on her death certificate) did die on 26th August 2010.  She was 17 in 1941.   She was the daughter of Charles Moreland and Susan Moreland.   Ena was deaf and had no children.  She never went overseas, that I know for sure..."

Rather than delete this blog post about our Australian Moreland ancestors, I have decided to leave it here to honour Charles, Susan and Ena Mary Moreland (who died August 26th )and hopefully one day, I will find photographs to add to our tree.

Picture known as "Visitors from Australia" taken at Tufts's Cove, Nova Scotia
In the private collection of Barbara (Creighton) Huston
Picture taken summer 1941 with Dorothy (Moreland) Creighton and her children: Kenny was 1 (born Aug 1940), Barbara 7, Claire 11 and three visitors from Australia

OTD: August 26, 1885 Denis Moynahan Died in Detroit

My daily genealogy practice since 2017 has been to create monthly calendars using my Family Tree Maker 2017 program that lists all of the births, marriages and deaths for the 3,072 ancestors in my family tree.

Each day, I look at the ancestors listed on that particular day and I:

1. honour them by saying their name and then looking them up on my Ancestry Family Tree
2. review all of the information that I have for that ancestor on ancestry.ca
3. search for any new information on that ancestor that may have become available since the last time I checked

Denis Moynahan

 My 3rd great-grandfather Denis Moynahan died on August 26th, 1885 in Detroit Michigan.

The Ireland Chronicles: Ireland's Oldest Pub?

For decades we have been collecting our ancestor's stories by tracking their footsteps since they first arrived in Canada and America in the early 1800s.

In 2019, our brother Pat Moynahan sponsored our very first trip to Ireland so that we could  search for our ancestor's stories there.  We have many stories to share about our Kerry Moynahan ancestors and we are publishing them under the title "The Kerry Chronicles"

Visiting the Brazen Head Pub in Dublin, 2019

The Moynahan Postcards

Family historians regularly use the popular internet auction website eBay as a source for genealogical records and books and many years ago I set up an eBay alert for "Moynahan -Bridget". (I had to put "-Bridget because I wanted to avoid being notified every time a Bridget Moynahan poster or movie went on sale!)

I was delighted when I was alerted that this group of "Cecelia Moynahan" postcards (below) were for sale!

eBay Photo: Antique & Vintage Postcards Lot Panama Quebec Kenilworth Moynahan

Celebrating 3000 People !

Yesterday, I reached a new milestone in my family history research when my ancestry account recorded 3001 people in my family tree.

Peter H. Donnelly: Murdered? Or Suicide?

I was doing a blog post  on Mary (Moynahan) Parks (1833-1905) and I was distracted when I learned that her son-in-law Peter H. Donnelly died in the Railroad Exchange Hotel (demolished in the 1920s) in Salt Lake City in 1891.

Source: The Utah directory, for 1883-84 :
by J. C. Graham & Co; J.C. Graham & Company. (1883)

Here’s the thing: on ancestry.ca, Peter's death was recorded as “Murdered, in, hotel, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA” by someone who has done extensive research and with whom I have written to over the years. I trust her work!

August 8, 1833: Mary J. Moynahan Born in Detroit

On this day, Mary J. Moynahan Parks was born in Detroit (1833) daughter of James (1810-1858) and Catherine (Hart) (1810-1871) Moynahan. Mary J. (Moynahan) Parks

Book Excerpt: Portrait of Denver and Vicinity, Colorado

OTD August 3: In Loving Memory of Hannah Moynahan

My daily genealogy practice since 2017 has been to create monthly calendars using my Family Tree Maker 2017 program that lists all of the births, marriages and deaths for the 2,946 ancestors in my family tree.

Each day, I look at the ancestors listed on that particular day and I:

1. honour them by saying their name and then looking them up on my Ancestry Family Tree
2. review all of the information that I have for that ancestor on ancestry.ca
3. search for any new information on that ancestor (shaking "green leaves") that may have become available since the last time I checked

I had been wanting to write about the Warnock family for some time and what better occasion than on the anniversary of Hannah (Moynahan) Warnock's death on August 3, 1948.

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79808496/hannah-warnock

Jeremiah Moynahan - The "Millionaire Ragman"

This week I had the good fortune of being contacted by a 5th cousin who is in possession of a treasure trove of archival materials on the Moynahan family. Having seen a few pages, I became intrigued with "Jeremiah Moynahan" who was the eldest son of Matthew and Honora Moynahan and apparently received a "splendid education" in Ireland.

Excited, I immediately began searching databases for "Jeremiah Moynahan" and I accidentally stumbled across a DIFFERENT Jeremiah Moynahan who lived in St. Louis, Missouri and had a VERY interesting story!

Heirs of Jeremiah Moynahan Are Being Sought

Source: The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts 10 Jan 1910, Mon  •  Page 9

Folklore Thursday: The Bealnadeega Ghost

As part of "The Kerry Chronicles" there will be "Folklore Friday" posts featuring stories found in The School Collection. The "Folklore Thursday" posts will be primarily about text from the collections that mention Moynihans or Ó’Muineacháins or stories about places or other events in Kilcummin parish in Co. Kerry. 

This week's "Folklore Thursday" story is about "The Bealnadeega Ghost" who was reported to have killed two men, one of them being Malachy Moynihan of "The Bower", Kerry.

Excerpt:

"It is said that in olden times 

there lived in Bealnadeega a Fairy 

and when the people were going from Killarney to Cork 

in cars conveying goods 

they used to meet her on the road. 

When two men used travel together 

she would never attack them, 

but used to always attack a lone man." 

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0451, Page 008
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

"Try Where the Old Chapel Was at Freemount” .

For decades we have been collecting our ancestor's stories by tracking their footsteps since they first arrived in Canada and America in the early 1800s.

In 2019, our brother Pat Moynahan sponsored our very first trip to Ireland so that we could  search for our ancestor's stories there.  

We have many stories to share and we are calling them our " Kerry Chronicles" 

The three cemeteries that we visited in count Kerry 2019

 This is the story about our visit to the Freemount cemetery which was the second cemetery that we visited in county Kerry in 2019 and here is what we found.

Announcement: The Kerry Chronicles

My brother Patrick at the Rathmore cemetery in Kerry, Ireland in spring of 2019

For decades we have been collecting our ancestor's stories by tracking their footsteps since they first arrived in Canada and America in the early 1800s.

In 2019, our brother Pat Moynahan sponsored our very first trip to Ireland so that we could  search for our ancestor's stories there.  We have many stories to share and will start with "The Kerry Chronicles" (and later the Galway, Clare, and Cork Chronicles ).

We are launching "The Kerry Chronicles" because we found new information in large part because of an unplanned stop at O’Carroll's Cove Beach Bar & Restaurant.

OTD June 30, 1921

Bernard Moynihan was 19 years old and working in a field when British Forces shot him. He was the only son of  a small farmer at Shankhill, Kilcorney, Millstreet, Cork, Ireland.

Nellie Moynahan'sTrip to Ireland and Scotland in 1908

My second great-aunt Nellie Moynahan (1865-1940) from Windsor, Ontario has always fascinated me growing up and when I heard that Nellie traveled to Ireland, England and Italy in 1908, I wanted to know more.

I am planning a trip to Ireland in 2019 with my brother an sister and we know that our Brennan and Moynahan ancestors came from County Kerry but we haven't located the exact towns in County Kerry. Did Nellie go to county Kerry? Did she visit any family there?

Ellen ("Nellie") first born of Jeremiah and Mary (Brennan) Moynahan & her brother (my great-grandfather) John Moynanan

Finding Roach Ancestors in Midleton, Co. Cork, Ireland

This blog post is one of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Co. Clare in 2019.

My 2nd great-grandmother Catherine Roach/Roche (1811-1872) married my 2nd great-grandfather Denis Moynahan (1787-1885) in St. Anne's Church in Detroit, Michigan.

Finding our Coughlin and Duffy Ancestors In Ireland

This blog post is one of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland in 2019.

Our Coughlin Ancestors 

Finding Our Moynahan Ancestors In County Kerry, Ireland

This blog post is one of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Kerry in 2019.

Kerryman Matthew Moynahan

My 4th great grandfather Matthew Moynahan (1770-1860) emigrated from county Kerry in the 1820s with my 4th great grandmother Honora (O'Leary) Moynahan  (b. 1774) and Matthew died in Maidstone, Ontario in 1860. Matthew and Honora had six sons and three daughters in Ireland.

Burial record: 5 Feb 1860 (Maidstone, Ontario)
Source: Catholic Church Records, Drouin Collection (1747-1967)

William Foreman (1820-1900)

My husband's 3rd great-grandfather William Foreman (1820-1900) was born in England in 1820 

and emigrated to Ontario where he acquired 100 acres of land in Wellington County 

and lived as a farmer until the day he died.  

Immigrants Before 1865: Department of Finance - Emigration Service Fund

While searching the Library and Archives Canada collection of  Immigrants Before 1865, I came across an entry for Catherine Brennan on the "30th of September 1844; From Toronto to Sandwich" so I requested to see the document.

I later learned the good news that the LAC had digitized the records Department of Finance, Emigration service Fund (RG 19, volume 2532) and the digitized links had not yet been added to the LAC website.

The Department of Finance, RG 19 records involve the accounts for payment to teamsters and boat captains for transporting indigent immigrants to inland destinations by wagon or boat. It also includes receipts for making coffins. (Search this database here: http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/search.aspx)

Record item 740 for Catherine Brennan in 1844 

Source: Department of Finance, Emigration service Fund (RG 19, volume 2532)

Finding Our Hussey Ancestors in Co. Galway, Ireland

This blog post is the third of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Co. Galway in 2019.

  

Co. Galway, Ireland: 1840-1860

"Like most towns in Ireland, Galway was used to food shortages; they had occurred here in 1816, 1817, 1822, 1831, and in 1842 there were food riots in the city. Nobody, however, was prepared for what happened in 1845 when the potato crop failed. As winter approached, the situation did not seem any worse than usual, though people were concerned about food being exported from the docks while there was a shortage locally."

Margaret Minahan with the "Gold Tooth"

When I came across this 1912 entry for Margaret Minihan of Tilbury, what captured my imagination was "Distinguishing marks: gold tooth right side upper" and "Griswold House". It made me curious about Margaret Minihan of Tilbury, Ontario.

The National Archives at Washington, D.C; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Card Manifests (Alphabetical) of Individuals Entering through the Port of Detroit, Michigan, 1906-1954; NAI: 4527226; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004

Nellie Moynahan & Niece Mary Broderick

I was delighted to come across this 1939 news clipping recently from the Windsor Star. 

It made me think about the life of my great-aunt Nellie Moynahan (1865-1940) and her niece Mary whom she raised.

Source: Clipped from The Windsor Star, 11 Apr 1939, Tue, Page 16

Finding Our Broderick Ancestors in Co. Clare, Ireland

This blog post is the second of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Co. Clare in 2019.

My 3rd great grandparents Michael and Margaret (McNally) Broderick emigrated from county Clare, Ireland in 1843 with my 2nd great grandfather Martin Broderick (born 1831).

Capt. James Minihan (1840-1899)

Capt. James Minihan as pictured in
"A brief history of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry by Trowbridge, L. S., 1836-1912"

I became curious about a Capt. James Minihan who I found while researching my Colorado cousins. James showed up in:

• The 10th Michigan Cavalry COMPANY "B" roster shows that James Minihan was from Redford, Michigan and that he was 24 years-old: http://www.migenweb.org/michiganinthewar/cavalry/10cavb.htm 
• A brief history of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry by Trowbridge, L. S. (Luther Stephen), 1836-1912 https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofte01trow 

2018 - My Top 5 Family History Discoveries

Photo taken at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Toronto, final resting place of Timothy Moynahan (1861-1941)