It seems that name-checking a lot of people helps to sell newspapers. As mentioned in “Benefits of sharing” the article in the Marshall Daily News reporting the death of Susan (Kelly) Cronin in 1907 contained information on her place of birth. The article on her funeral has a list of some of the mourners. They…
All posts by Keith Stanley
Still seeking John Kelly
There is a wonderful piece of dialogue from a radio programme broadcast on the BBC in 1972. Neddie: [on discovering Eccles in the coal cellar] What are you doing here? Eccles: Everybody’s gotta be somewhere… Quite so, Eccles. Everybody does have to be somewhere. But where? I am still trying to discover more information about…
Crossing the aisle
In the post “real people not just names”, I considered matters such as the education, diet, clothing and entertainment of my ancestors. I need to go further. I am also interested in what they believed. Not just about religion. Did they think that the earth was flat? Did they hold with folk tales about the…
Real people – not just names
Developing a deeper understanding of relatives can be quite important in tracing their movements. For example, if you own land then you are likely to stay in one place. If you are a tenant then moving is easier. Indeed, you may be given no choice by the landlord. Many tenant farmers were evicted when their…
Benefits of sharing
A distant relative shared some information about the early days of the Kelly and McHugh ancestors in America. This took place a few years ago. I learnt that members of the family ended up in Marshall, Michigan. Some stayed there, whilst others (e.g. Patrick McHugh and his wife Catherine Kelly) moved south to Missouri. Susan…
Susan Kelly revisited
Having drawn a blank on both Theodore Kelly (see ‘The wrong Theodore’) and John Kelly (see ‘Thank you Thomas Cromwell’), I have looked again at Susan Kelly. Susan married Jeremiah Cronin in Michigan in the late 1850s, just prior to the establishment of a central recording system for the State. She stayed in Marshall, Calhoun…
Thank you, Thomas Cromwell
I have become well used to the absence of records in Ireland. Only fragments of 19th century census returns have survived. Practicing Catholicism was illegal for many years. This is a powerful disincentive to the keeping of records. Even in the subsequent period, there are many gaps in parish records, and a knowledge of Latin…
The wrong Theodore
The 1880 (American) Census shows Susan Cronin (nee Kelly), her husband Jeremiah and six children living in Marshall, Calhoun, Michigan. Staying with them are Anna McHugh (daughter of Susan’s sister Catherine) and two other members of the Kelly clan. Jessie Kelly was 10, born in Nebraska. Both her parents were both born in Ireland. As…
More on DNA
I am posting this in the hope that someone will either confirm my theories or tell me that I am completely wrong. If I share a single 3 cM segment of DNA with someone, then there is a 97% probability that it is due to random factors. Turning it round, there is only a 3%…
Looking for faint stars
It seems that most of the DNA evidence that I have at present is like trying to identify very faint stars on a dark night. You know that they are there, but you cannot be certain exactly what you are seeing. Is it a star, or a figment of your imagination? We want to discover…