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

Here are some of the stories that I have been working on this month:

• Odile VanHuyse (1886-1958 Windsor, Ontario) bike accident! He was the father-in-law to my cousin (1c1x) Eileen Margaret Demarse (1921-1990) and he fell off his bike and was knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital by a good Samaritan who happened to be passing by. However, the police later fined him $2 or two days in jail for riding a bike without lights and another $1 or one day in jail for not having a bicycle license! When I found Odile's obituary I discovered he worked as a self-employed contractor and carpenter noted for his ability to make spiral staircases. (Sources: Windsor Star 23 Jul 1953 Pg 5;Windsor Star 14 Jul 1953 Pg 12; Windsor Star 8 Apr, 1958, Pg 8)
• James Moynahan (1866-1899) was a Pythian Knight! Reading James' funeral notice in the Windsor Star I was surprised that the Pythias "turned out in large numbers to attend the burial of their departed brother" and "The services will be conducted by the Knights of Pythias, deceased having been a member of that order". (Sources: Windsor Star 24 Feb 1899; Windsor Star 27 Feb 1899). This started me on a long tangent of researching secret fraternal societies but this one in particular was started in Copper Harbour, Michigan! There might be a blog post about this after after all!
• A Forgotten Fenian - Mortimer Moynahan (1831-1885) came to my attention and will definitely be a future blog post for my Lost & Found Moynahan File. He was a forgotten Fenian leader alongside famous O'Donovan Rossa and he ended up in a tenement building on Cherry St. New York with his wife and small children. This story does not end well but I feel I must tell it.
• On my Broderick-Knapp family tree, I noted an entry for the Knapp-Broderick Memorial on Find A Grave that was incorrect (1944 vs 1974) and there was information that Thomas C. KNapp (1907-2003) managed the Courtland hotel in Komoka, Indiana. This couple only had one daughter (Geraldine my 2c 1x) and I learned more about her and her family (and found her and her children all on Facebook!) I will definitely be writing a future blog post on a couple that met at the Cadillac Hotel in Detroit and ended up running a hotel in Indiana.
• My great grandfather John Moreland's WWI personnel file can be found at the Library and Archives of Canada (Digitized service file - 58 pages - PDF format: B6355-S031 ) but it ends in 1919 so I have taken the steps through an Access To Information request to get the rest of his file 1919 to his discharge 19 Aug 1937 in Kingston, Ontario. He had a wife in 1935? According to he Kingston Voters List? Who was she?
• Another one for my Lost & Found Moynahan File will be about John Moynahan (1849-1904) who died of Erysipelas (a skin condition) at 55 years of age in 1904.  He originated the idea of putting prize fighters on the stage and managed the famous pugilist John L. Sullivan but he's not even mentioned in the accouts of the day? (Source: Lincoln Star Journal 26 Feb 1904 Pg 1)
• I need to brush up on my prison research (the list is getting long) because there are records that I would like to access in Michigan and Ontario. Most recently, I came across "Hugh Moyhan, James Moynahan and Matthew Moynahan, notorious thieves and housebreakers, were sent to prison for three years, the first names at Jackson and the two latter at Ionia." These three belong to the  Lost & Found Moynahan File (Source: Detroit Free Press; 5 Oct 1884, Pg 11) 

But First ... Listen To This

Returning to the family of Matthew Moynahan (1835-1875) and Catherine Hart (1810-1871) and our Colorado Moynahan kin, I was trying to verify the data that I had for a Silas W. Jeffries (1865-1936) because I was reminded that I had been communicating on ancestry with a Jeffries descendant as far back as 2002 ...

Source: Ancestry Message Board

Source: Ancestry Message Board

While I was reconciling Patty Jeffries family tree for Matthew and Bridget (O'Brien) Moynahan (who also moved from Michigan to Colorado in the early 1870s) with my family tree, I stumbled upon an incredible story about Matthew and Bridget's son James (1871-1914) and Amy Smith (1873-1912) and their three children who were orphaned and raised by their grandmother Almina Smith (1843-1944) and Aunt Luna B. Smith (1875-1975)

In my next post, I will tell the story of this family and these three children who:

• died much too young 
• died on his 48th birthday!
• were raised by centenarian Smith women
• flew and wing-walked with Charles Lindbergh
• joined the navy and served 4 years on the S.S. Colorado
• became famous Greeley athletes 
• became a member of the House of Representatives 
• Donald Moynahan's widow married the engineer (George William Serat) responsible for building the Golden Gate, Mackinaw and many other bridges around the world!
• And more ....

There is so much to tell about the five members of this family that it's hard to know where to begin ...