5th cousin to my Grandmother's Cat

Well, the DNA is back on Colette's spit test!  We sent our DNA into 23andMe to see what we could find out about our relationship.  We do have a bit of DNA in common.  We were categorized as 3rd to distant cousins.

If we follow the information we have, I am about 7 generations from the common ancestor and Colette is 5 generations, so I guess that would be distant! We might be 3rd cousins twice removed.  Colette and my grandfather were 3rd cousins. There are still a few lose ends to clear up.  Anyway, it's the Herlihy name that is the connection.

Persistent Mysteries

     I really don't enjoy being introduced as the "5th cousin of my grandmother's cat".  So I continue to pursue the elusive bit of genealogical information that will settle once and for all what relation I am to Colette's grandmother's cat.  (As long as that cat doesn't drag me in!)

     I met Colette Keniry through John Whalen.  John Whalen lived in St. Thomas, Derrynane, Le Sueur County, Minnesota.  He was my grandfather's cousin on his father's side.  John's father Thomas and my great grandmother Bridget Whalen Hogan were siblings. John's mother was Mary Herlihy Whalen.  She was a native of Carriganes, Ballydesmond, Cork.
     When Mary Herlihy arrived in New York, it was the 4th of July 1889.  She had to wait until the next day to get off the ship because of the holiday. The Le Sueur Sentinel announced her arrival thus: Mary Herlihy arrived from Queenstown on the 4^th after 10 days on the “City of Paris”, cousin of Dennis Sheehan.
     She was headed to St. Thomas, Minnesota where her brother Dan already lived.
     My favorite part of this whole story is that ongoing connection to Ireland.  Mary kept in touch with home. It was traditional to write at Christmas and Easter. At some point, the correspondence was done by Colette's mother--Kate Kelly Lynch.  Then Colette took over the job.  John Whalen's wife, Margaret, used to correspond with Colette.  Then, after Margaret's death, John wrote to Colette.  John gave me one of the letters.  I couldn't read her handwriting, so I did my best to decipher her name and wa-la!  Somehow, she got the letter! We have been writing since 1978. Thus, this family has been corresponding since 1889!!!!! I love that part! Unfortunately, none of those old letters exist.
     Back to the genealogy.
     When John's parents married, they got a dispensation to marry because they were (if I understand this correctly) 1st cousins once removed.  You'd think that with this specific of information, sorting out the exact families involved would not be THAT difficult!!!  But, that common ancestor is unknown.  The trail ends just before that person.
     Mary Herlihy's line is as follows:  John Herlihy & Mary Hartnett; John's father--unknown. Colette's line goes Catherine Kelly-->Hannah Herlihy--John Herlihy & Mary Hartnett-->unknown.
    Our line goes:  Mare-->Marguerite-->James J. Hogan-->Bridget Whalen-->Julia Sheehan-->Mary Herlihy Sheehan-->unknown.  Now, here is the rub.  Mary Herlihy Sheehan appears in her marriage record and in the baptismal records as Mary Sheehan.  Where does that Herlihy come in!!!???
     In the death records for the siblings of Julia Sheehan Whalen, the parent's names do not agree.  On Patsy Sheehan's death certificate, his parents are given as Dennis Sheehan and Mary Herlihy.  On Dennis Sheehan's certificate, the parents are given as Patrick Sheehan and Johanna Herlihy.  On John Sheehan's death certificate, his parents are given as Michael Sheahan and Mary Sheahan. Oops!  Looks like I don't have a copy of Julia's or Mary's death certificates.  Notes say that Julia's maiden name is Sheehan.
     Anyway, you get the point of confusion. On this side of the pond, the common knowledge is that the parents' surnames were Sheehan and Herlihy. In records in Ireland, the mother always appears as Mary Sheehan--even in the marriage record.
     At this point, who knows!  Could the mother of Mary Sheehan be a Herlihy? Probably not, because that would not work out with the 1st cousin once removed theme. I am entertaining that Mary may have been previously married. Right now, It looks very likely that John Whalen's grandfather and William Herlihy (whom I have not yet alluded to) are brothers.  I'm basing this on the furor caused by the marriage of Julia Babe Herlihy and Denis Herlihy.  They were third cousins.  Her grandfather was said William.  Denis' grandparents were John Herlihy and Mary Hartnett. The common ancestor would be the father of John and William.
     Well, let's add a little more.  Colette believes that the woman in the photo wearing the hat is her grandmother. Hannah Herlihy is a sister of Mary Herlihy Whalen.  She came to the USA in 1902.  She had been working previously to that in Limerick as a milk maid. The stories on Colette's side of the pond were sketchy. She was told by her mother that her grandparents had moved to America. Hannah was living in St. Thomas in 1903 she attended the wedding of wedding of Mr. Hogan in St. Paul according to a little news bit in the Belle Plaine Herald. This turned out to be the wedding of Thomas H. Hogan and Julia Kalka.  Thomas was the brother of James J. Hogan.
  
     The mystery continues...
  
 In the photo:  front: John, Jimmy, Tom, Thomas.
In the back:  sisters Hannah Herlihy and Mary Herlihy Whalen.

"I have called you by name, you are Mine." Isaiah 43

     The Irish often followed a naming pattern when giving their children names. You can see this play out in Ma's family. The children in the family are Mary Alice, Ann Mary (Ma), John, James and Dorothy.

The pattern is:
Sons
1st son was named after the father's father
2nd son was named after the mother's father
3rd son was named after the father
4th son was named after the father's eldest brother
5th son was named after the mother's eldest brother

Daughters
1st daughter was named after the mother's mother
2nd daughter was named after the father's mother
3rd daughter was named after the mother
4th daughter was named after the mother's sister
5th daughter was names after the father's sister

Ma's parents were David O'Connell and Margaret Doherty. David's parents were John G. O'Connell and Mary Ann Pyles. Margaret's parents were James Doherty and Ann Heatherston. Now, when you get to Dorothy, by tradition, she should have been named Margaret. The mother has the option of giving this daughter another name she likes. Colette Keniry used this option. When she got to the third daughter, she named her Fidelma. 

The pattern isn't exact in the James Doherty family. His parents were Hugh Doherty and Sarah Evans. Ann's parents were Richard Heatherston and Roseann Lynch. The children in this family were Sarah, Richard, Rose, Margaret, Hugh, Mary, Matthew, Samuel and Michael. It would be understandable that the name Richard preempted Hugh because Ann's father died about 1867, so it the first son may have been named after him. The next son is named after James' dad. Matthew is a brother of Ann. Both Ann and James have a brother Michael. Margaret is an older sister of Ann. At least the names are mostly in the family. The name that is puzzling is Samuel Henry.

Of course, this was not set in stone. If a child dies, you will often find another child given the same name in order for there to be a living namesake. Sometimes the pattern wasn't followed at all. If someone in the family died, a child could be named after that person, altering the pattern.

I remember Mom saying that her father wanted to name her Bridget. This would have followed the pattern for his mother's name was Bridget Whalen Hogan. None of the children were named according to the pattern, though Catherine had her mother's name and Uncle Jimmy had his father's first name.

One of my favorite stories is about all the Timothys in the Burns family. There were a lot of Tims. They were given nick names like "Old Tim", "Big Tim" and Timothy Q.

To differentiate people, names were often combined. There was a woman called Ceily Dick. Her name was Cecelia Kilduff Byrne. Her husband was Richard Byrne--thus her identifier. In Ireland, sometimes the nicknames would indicate the father. There is a Timmy Patsy Herlihy--his father is Patrick. There is a Jehr Billy--his father is William Herlihy. There is also Thad Jack--you guessed it--his father is John Herlihy. 

Tale of Two Bovines

     One of the pleasures of the Internet age is the availability of so much information at your fingertips. The first cow story is just a short add found by doing a search on the address of Patrick and Mary Hogan in St. Paul.
The Library of Congress has digitized selected newspapers and a search may be made at Chronicling America.
The following add was in the November 12, 1889 issue of the St. Paul Daily Globe:

Lost and Found.

Cow Lost—Lost since Nov. 6, 1889, one red cow with white spots on both flanks, with horns turn in.  Finder will please send word to Mrs. P. Hogan, 755 Sylvan st., city.

The other story was found the old fashioned way--by cranking through pages of microfilmed newspapers at the Minnesota History Center. 

Cow Walked Her Way Back Alone from St. Paul to St. Thomas Farm

By Win V. Working

          It’s a shame to start this story with a hackneyed reference to Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and the Chicago fire, but it can’t be helped. For this is a tale of another cow that achieved distinction in a novel way.  She didn’t start a fire, but she set a record—not for butterfat, but for finding her way home from West St. Paul to a farm near St. Thomas.  It happened back in pioneer days.  The cow belonged to James Whalen, an early settler who lived two miles south of St. Thomas. Here is the story as related to the writer by Thomas Whalen, son of the pioneer, who now lives on the old homestead:

          “I was only a young gaffer at the time, but I remember the incident distinctly and can vouch for the facts stated.  We came here about 60 years ago and one fall not long after we had settled on the farm father sold a cow to a man named Donovan.  He got $40 for her.  She was a fine cow, red in color, but only a scrub, of course.  We needed the money and had more cows.  Anyway, Donovan led the cow to Belle Plaine and there loaded her in a wagon or truck drawn by oxen.  At Jordan he picked another cow and took both to West St. Paul.  He wintered them and along in May put them in a pasture along the river.

          “Our cow had had a calf and seemed contented in her new home.  But one day, along about the first of June, both cows broke out of the pasture and disappeared, leaving the calf, which was probably tied up, behind. Donovan hunted for the cows high and low and decided they might have fallen in the river.  But he write to us to learn if we had seen anything of the cow, and we sent word back that we had seen no sign of her.  There the matter ended for the time being.

          “Then along in the later part of August—I know we had our harvesting and stacking done—we happened to look in the barnyard one morning and there was our cow.  She had a bell on and her udder was full.  We finally decided that she had just wandered away and had stopped at different farms, going in at night and being milked with the other cows.  Farmers along the way had probably milked her because they saw that she was fresh and had a full udder.  Any sensible farmer would do that.  Then she likely wandered on until she got to our place. She was nearly three months on the way, and, of course, we don’t know that she really started for home.  She may have simply drifted along until she got here.  But the fact is, she did get back home all by herself, all the way from West St. Paul.

          “We wrote to Donovan and he told us to keep the cow awhile.  In October he came and got her and that was the end of the cow incident.  But a good many people have found it difficult to believe the story and I am glad to have an opportunity to make public the real facts, so that people will not think we had been trying to put something over all these years.”

          The Whalens came to Minnesota from Michigan.  Thomas was born at Portage in that state in 1860.  His parents came from Ireland.  He was about 10 years old when the family settled on the farm near St. Thomas, where one son has lived continuously ever since. That section was all woods when the Whalens arrived, although several families were there ahead of them.  Among their early neighbors were Dennis Sheehan, an uncle of Thomas; Charles Denzer, Dennis Ring, John and Timothy Shea, Michael Courtney, John Merry, Thos. Healey, James Hickey, Daniel Fowler and the Connellys.  The church at St. Thomas was a log structure then.

          The Whalens farmed with oxen and lived in a log cabin.  There were seven children when the family came to Minnesota and two ore were born here. Only three are living.  This two besides Thomas are Mrs. Frank Blake and Mrs. John Buckley, both of St. Paul. These two sisters, by the way, can substantiate Mr. Whalen’s cow story both he and his wife informed the writer.  Thomas married Mary Herlihy June 28, 1892, in St. Paul.  She had been keeping house for her brother, Daniel Herlihy, near the Whalen farm.  Mrs. Whalen is a native of county Cork and the rich, charming brogue of old Ireland still distinctly marks her accent, and there is no danger of mistaking Thomas for a Swede or a Bohemian from his accent for that matter.

          The elder Whalen died in 1880 and his widow’s death occurred 14 years ago.  Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Whalen have three children, all boys—James, John and Thomas. They live at home and operate a farm near St. Thomas, which their father bought three years ago in addition to the home place.

          “Times have changed since I was a lad here,” Mr. Whalen mused. “it was a wild country then, but all the new improvements have come right into our neighborhood.  The news comes in by radio and every little while an airplane passes overhead.” “Ah, yes, there have been changes,” he added as he shook his grey head. But Mr. Whalen and his good wife both chuckled heartily as amusing incidents were recalled and gave evidence that they have not been cheated of their share of happiness, which by the way, they found for themselves.—Midland Feature Service.

Belle Plaine Herald, 19 February 1931

Shanty Irish

     When I was at Dad's last time, I mentioned the Whalen name.  I wish I could remember his immediate comment, but it alluded to their lack of cleanliness.
     I had heard before, from mom, whose people these are, that they were definitely not fastidious people.  Mom recalled a time that Grammy visited the Whalens and someone was stirring with her arm and there were flies all over the place. Grammy was appalled.
     The Whalens lived near Dad's grandfather in Derrynane Township, in Le Sueur County. To the left is a picture of Julia Sheehan Whalen.  She is the mother of Bridget Whalen Hogan who was Mom's grandmother.
     Julia was born about 1832 in Kerry, Ireland. I have not found a baptismal record for her. Her obituary says that she was married in Detroit to James Whalen. I have searched page by page for the Whalens in the 1860 census in likely counties for the family, but to no avail.  Both Bridget and Thomas were born in Michigan according to other census records. (Thomas is the father of John Whalen).
     Julia had siblings here in Minnesota.  Her known siblings were Dennis (1828-1905); Michael (1829-@1870); a female who remained in Ireland; Patrick (1837-1925); Mary (@1841-1918; William (1842-1917); and John (1845-1915).  Dennis, Patsy and Michael all lived in the upper peninsula of Michigan before moving to Minnesota. They worked in the copper mines.
     I have a couple of stories I love to think about--one Aunt Lill Krumweide told me.  She said that Gramdma Whalen had bright blue eyes and they sparkled.  She spoke Irish.  When she came to the house, she had a kid get her a glass of water, put it on her head and proceeded to perform a jig.
    Julia also smoked a clay pipe.  Francie O'Connell said she would often be seen with the Donahue women walking the long way to St. Thomas Church for Mass.
     So, when you get feel yourself getting a little uppity, remember your Shanty Irish great great grandmother!!!  (I'm pretty sure I got a few of these Sheehan genes!)

Julia's Obituary:

Mrs. Julia Whalen, a Pioneer Resident of St. Thomas, Passes Away.-

On last Wednesday, Mrs. Julia Whalen, who has lived in this community since 1866, passed away at the home of her son, Thos. Whalen. Mrs. Whalen, who had attained the ripe old age of eighty-seven years, fell about three weeks ago fracturing her hip, and was unable to stand the shock. Before this in spite of her years, she had remained wonderfully active.

The deceased was ever a cheerful, patient woman, ready and anxious to help anyone in distress and to share her last possession with the needy. Her happy helpful disposition made her many friends who will hold her memory a cherished possession.

Mrs. Whalen, whose maiden name was Julia sheehan, was born in County Kerry, Ireland in 1832. When a young woman she came to America and lived first in Detroit, Mich. Here she was married to the late James Whalen. In 1866 Mr. and Mrs. Whalen moved to Le Sueur and settled on a tract of land in St. Thomas, then a portion of the big woods. Until her husband's death in 1880, they lived and worked upon this farm, enduring at first many hardships. Since her husband's death, her son, Thos. Whalen, has run the farm, and she made her home with him. The land is now well developed.

To Mr. and Mrs. Whalen nine children were born, five of whom survive their mother. The living are Thos. Whalen of St. Thomas, Mrs. Nat Edelkam of LeSueur, Mrs. Hogan, Mrs. J. J. Buckley and Mrs. Frank Blake of St. Paul. She is also survived by a brother, Patrick Sheehan of Le Sueur and by a sister in Ireland.

The funeral services were held last Friday morning at ten o'clock in the St. Thomas catholic church, Rev. Dobbins conducted the services. The remains were laid to rest in the St. Thomas Cemetery.

The following were here from a distance to attend the funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Blake, Mr. and Mrs. J. Hogan, Mrs. L. Van Core (sic), Miss C. Hogan, and Mrs. Carlson, all of St. Paul.

Le Sueur Herald, 19 Nov 1919

James J. Hogan

         This is my mom's dad, James J. Hogan. He often went by J. J. Hogan.  He was born in 1881 in Camp Lake, Swift County, Minnesota. His parents were Bridget Whalen and Michael J. Hogan.  

         It was a surprise to me when I learned that he had been married before he married my grandmother. I found this out by reading the Belle Plaine Herald.  James and his wife attended the funeral of his grandmother, Julia Sheehan Whalen in 1919.  I knew it couldn't be Grammy. His first wife's name was Clare Strecker.  They were married 28 Jun 1911 at St. Patrick's Church, St. Paul, Minnesota.  As my great Aunt Lill told it, there was a big brouhaha over this marriage because Clare was not Catholic.  The priest tried to convince him that there were many fine Irish Catholic girls available.  He said he wouldn't have them. 

        Clare died in 1920.  There were no children from this marriage. 

        Jim Hogan worked for the railroad as a brakeman and died in a work related accident. This left Catherine Morehead Hogan, also called Cass, with 3 young children to raise.  Their children were Lois Catherine, born 1926; Catherine Marion, born 1928; Marguerite Luella, born 1930 and James Patrick, born 1932.  Lois Catherine died 22 Dec 1928.  Her death certificate actually says she is a boy and does not give her name.