Hi everyone,
I
hope that all of your June events went off without a
hitch. Now you can enjoy some other summertime past times
like fishing, swimming, sailing and sporting events.
My granddaughter, Jordan, completed her rookie year of
Cal Ripkin Little League Baseball in Newport, and she
received a nice plaque and photo.
My granddaughter Jordan
Lou
is busy adding many new products to LittleShamrocks.com.
These are from one of our newer affiliate companies,
and they are of the same fine quality Irish food and
gifts.
They will include some new brands of jams, baking needs,
etc., as well as an assortment
of several more gift baskets
and Irish cheeses.
My
sister, Marylou, who has been following the Willett branch
of our family tree, gave me a few tidbits she
learned about our Irish famine immigrant great-great
grandparents,
Michael Casey and Mary Ann (Denning) Casey. I didn't
know the names of our great grandmother, Anna's, siblings.
She
had two brothers, Patrick and Edward, and one sister,
Catherine; along with Anna, all four of them were born
in the Province
of Quebec, Canada.
Patrick
was the oldest (d.o.b. 1854), married Lizzie D., and
they had two children, a daughter, Kate, and
a son,
John. This information came from the 1880 U.S. Census
and Patrick was listed as the only sibling who could
read and
write. Edward was the second born (d.o.b. 5-18-1855),
was never married and was employed as a marble polisher.
He
passed away on 1-11-1927 at the age of 71.
Anna
(d.o.b 4-18-1857) was the third born. She was married
to Edward Willett, Jr. and had three children,
two sons,
Jeremiah and Charles, and one daughter, Clara.
Jeremiah was my grandfather. Anna was a homemaker and
she
passed away at Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington
on 11-15-1914
at the age of 57. Her funeral Mass was observed
at St. Mary's Cathedral in Burlington, Vermont, and
she was
buried at St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, also
in Burlington.
Catherine
was the youngest (d.o.b. June 1861), and was also never
married. She was employed as
a domestic
and
passed away in Burlington on 9-27-1913 at the
age of 52. Her residence was listed as 30 Spruce Street
in
Burlington. As a young child, in the 1950's,
I
remember our family
stopping at Clara's house on Spruce Street. She
and her husband, Henry Killary, owned the house
at the
time and
it is possibly the same house which was passed
down in the family.
Patrick
and his family must have moved elsewhere because, at
present, no death records have been
found for him
or his family in Burlington, Vermont. In Anna's
obituary, Patrick was not listed as a surviving
sibling, so
he must
have died prior to 1914. Their parents, Michael
and Mary Ann Casey, are buried in one of the
Catholic cemeteries in Burlington. Marylou
also gave me
copies
of some
photos
of Anna and her husband, Edward Willett Jr.,
taken sometime between 1873 and 1886.
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Anna
Casey Willett
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Edward
Willett Jr.
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We
received a surprise submission from Rich Reynolds, Terry's
cousin, from Rhode Island.
We hadn't
seen Rich in more
than nine years when he was a newlywed living
in New Hampshire. Now, he and his wife, Lori,
have
an eight
year old daughter
named Mary Catherine Reynolds. He is still
working on a family tree and was searching
when he found
LittleShamrocks.com. He was delighted to
see that it was ours and he learned
some new information. After corresponding
with him a
few
times, we both learned something new about
their branch of the Reynolds family tree.
Rich
told us that one of grandfather Terence's sisters, Margaret,
had passed away circa
1910 at the age of
18 in Ireland, due to an appendicitis attack.
We knew that
one
of them had passed at a young age, but
were not sure which one. He told us that another
of the
three sisters,
Mary
Kate, had emigrated to the USA and had
married someone named Phillips. Mary served as a
witness at her brother
Terence's wedding to Margaret Clarke in
1912. She spent most of her married life in Connecticut
and
lived to
the ripe old age of 95. Mary's passing
would
have been in about
1986. Rich knew nothing of Bridget (Brigid),
who was the youngest sister. He was interested
in learning
that she
had emigrated with her brother Hugh in
1914. I searched for Mary Kate Reynolds on Terence's
passenger
list
from the S.S.Cymric, which departed Queenstown,
Ireland and
arrived in Boston on May 10th, 1908.
Using
the same information
for their Irish residence, except their first names and
sex, the search
came
up with both
Terence and
Mary Kate. Since Terence's name was the
last name on that page of the list, I
am making
an educated
guess
that Mary
Kate's name was the first name
on the next page. Even though I would need the actual
page for proof,
I think
it's safe
to say that
the two
of them emigrated together.
Another
point of interest for Rich was that we had found a newspaper
obituary
for Bernard
Reynolds,
through one
of our affiliates, RecordsIreland.com.
Because of that obituary, we learned
that
Bernard was a
widower
when
he passed in 1913, so his wife, Winifred,
had already passed. Also in 1913,
the remaining children, Hugh
and Bridget,
went to live with their mother's
brother, Peter
Shanly, in Ballinamore. I just can't
wait to go grave hunting
when we get to Ireland in December.
Ireland
doesn't get very
cold and gets only a trace of snow,
so it should be no problem. I think
we should
start
our
search looking
for
Shanly graves in the Ballinamore
area ... just a feeling I have.
I
hope that all of your July events will be fun and exciting.
I will
look forward
to writing
the August
newsletter
to update you on new information.
Thank you for
your continued
support for LittleShamrocks.com.
Until next time ...
Sláinte,
Tyna
