Genealogy Happy Dance with the McCarry Family

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!

Searching for John and Catherine Welsh

Last week I was working on my ProGen assignment and was considering using my great grandmother, Bridget Welsh McCarry for the subject. It really had nothing to do with the assignment but I thought I would once again search for her father, John Welsh's death certificate. I knew that he most likely died between 1900 and 1910 because he was with Bridget and her family in the 1900 Census. They were living in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, PA. John we listed as widowed. I have no information on his wife, Catherine's death either. I only know that she died after 1880 and before 1900. Blast that missing 1890 Census! But I was hoping that I would have the same break with them that I had in finding Catherine and Emil Gunther.

I started searching the Philadelphia Death Certificates in Family Search. There are so many John Welshs in there. I had it narrowed down because he was not with the family in the 1910 Census and also they had moved to South Philly by then. Not knowing when they made that move, I was thinking it was after he died. Well much to my surprise I found a John Welsh that was a widower that died in 1907. I opened the certificate to view so I had more information. Well he was from Ireland, good.. then I saw the street address, 1827 Manton St. Ok, check the 1910 Census quick...yes! it is the same address that Bridget and her family were living in 1910! I found him. I also had the fact that James and Bridget McCarry and family moved to South Philly before April of 1907. Don't you love when you can get some other pieces as a bonus? And I had another bonus with this. It listed his parents! John Welch and Catherine Niland. I was in Genealogy Heaven!!! Well the death certificate also told me that he was buried in Westminster Cemetery. This is located in Montgomery County, just across the river from Manayunk. I continued to search the death certificates to see if I could find Catherine. I did find a Katie Welsh. It did not say if she was married or single, but she died in 1896 so I opened it up to view. Well this did not help much. She was from Ireland, good. Of course it did not list her parents, but the address was 4441 Cresson St, Myk ( Manayunk) and she was buried in West-Minster ?Cemetery. So I have nothing to connect this Catherine Welsh to my Catherine Welsh. So my next step was to call the cemetery to see what I could find out. I gave a nice young man all the information I had and he said he would give me a call. And all week I wanted to post about this but I wanted to wait for my happy ending!!!!! Well that nice young man called me back today and I am sorry to say he could not give me my happy ending:( He told me with John Welsh being such a common name and the records from back then are so hard to read and are not indexed that he was not able to find my John Welsh. And to top it off he does not have a record of a Catherine of Katie Welsh being buried there. I thanked him for his time and help and hung up very disapointed.
So I guess I am going to have to search some more. I know I have to try connecting John with this Catherine. See if I can find him at this Cresson St address. Moving forward with the past!!! Oh also, I decided to go with someone else for my assignment!