Yesterday was a great genealogy day!!!!!
As I mentioned last time, I am working on my ProGen assignment. I am trying to prove birth date, place and parents for my great grandfather, James Francis McCarry, aka Grandpop McCarry. Well I am ok with direct evidence on the date and place, but have not been sure about the parents and siblings. It is like I have known in my heart since I found this family that it is my 2nd greats, my McCarry's, but nothing on a piece of direct evidence tells me this is so. I do have his baptism record but the priest did not write out his first name in the record so the present pastor of the church would not give me a certificate because it is only in the record as "J. McCarry".
Well, working on this is getting me to look at all my records and things I have found over again. The other day I was looking at the marriage license for the "brother" and saw his father's address at that time. I realized it was down at the corner of the street and one block over from where Grandmom and Grandpop McCarry lived at that time! He must have moved closer to them after his wife died.
Then the biggie was yesterday! I hit paydirt! Did the Genealogy Happy Dance! I started looking for directories and found a bunch of Philadelphia directories on Ancestry that I never saw before. I found one for the year Grandmom and Grandpop were married, 1894. It had listed James and his father, Patrick, as ironworkers and the address was the same address that James had on his marriage license! A match was found! I found others that matched James, Patrick and Patrick, Jr with the address and working with metals. Sometimes James and Patrick, Jr were boilermakers and riviters.
This past Wednesday, Marian Pierre-Louis, of Marian's Roots and Rambles, presented a webinar on Legacy about discovering Massachusetts Ancestors. In it she said that she thinks people are not using City Directories enough and we should be. Well Marian, thank you for the hint and I will be using City Directories much more!
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