An Irish Treasure: Citizenship Papers for Matthew McGinnes

[This post was composed for the 17th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Culture & Heritage]

One of my most cherished treasures was received from my great-grandmother Therese McGinnes Austin: it is the original certificate/form for US Citizenship for her father - my 2nd great-grandfather - Matthew McGinnes.

I remember when I inherited this item after Grandma has passed.  It was folded up (unfortunately) in a small envelope with her noticeable scrawl.  Usually if it was important, Grandma would use the words "very precious" and then lots of DO NOT DESTROY-type statements in all caps.

Matthew McGinnes was born about 1851 in Ireland and died in New York City on 15 February 1899, leaving behind a wife and five daughters.  His son, also Matthew McGinnes, had lived for less than a year from 1892 to 1893.

Naturalization as a United States citizen took place on 9 October 1888 in New York City.  One of my genealogy goals is to have a better scan done of this large document and then have it archivally framed so that it can be preserved for my nieces and nephews.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

13th Edition of Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture Posted!

In case you did hear - stopy by Smallest-leaved Shamrock and settle in for some great reading at the 13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

The theme this time around is Irish Families: Their Names, Arms, and Origins. Lisa had a great turnout with almost 50 surnames covered - from Aylward to Wade.

There would have been more had I not forgotten to submit my own entry You Say MacEntee, I Say McEntee which I posted earlier in the week.

And don't forget that Lisa has already announced the themes and submission deadlines for the 14th and 15th editions:

- Plan to join us for the upcoming 14th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. The topic will be Irish Vacations and it will be hosted by Colleen Degnan Johnson. For details visit Upcoming 14th edition: Let's go to Ireland! Irish Vacations on the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture blog. Deadline for this upcoming edition is Friday, July 10, 2009. Hope to see you there!

- Also plan ahead to join us for the 2nd Annual Small-leaved Shamrock Summer Reading Challenge. A compilation of the books read by participants will be the topic for the 15th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Last year's edition, Looking into the heart of Ireland, introduced us to quite a varied assortment of reading material on Ireland and the Irish. Get started now on your summer reading so that you can join us and share what you've read by August 30, 2009. Details can be found at Upcoming 15th edition: 2nd Annual Small-leaved Shamrock Summer Reading Challenge on the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture blog.

copyright 2009 Thomas MacEntee

You Say MacEntee, I Say McEntee

[This post was written for the 13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture hosted at Small-leaved Shamrock.]

I think it is a bit of coincidence that just this week a distant MacEntee cousin whom I met on Facebook asked me why my paternal grandfather's name is also listed as McEntee. And here I am to tell the story just as the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture is coming to town!

Most of what I know about the MacEntee surname is all family legend - it has been on my genealogy "to do list" to actually determine the "why" behind the name change from McEntee to MacEntee. Here is the information that I have about my surname, its origins and how it came to its present spelling:

- the name means "son of scholar" and in Gaelic is written as Mac an tSoi

- the name is found mostly in County Armagh and County Monaghan in Ireland

- my grandfather Abraham MacEntee almost always used the name McEntee with the "a" added

- it was Abraham's father - Elmer McEntee - who supposedly began using MacEntee for reasons which are not clear

- some say that local folk in Ulster County, New York pronounced the name as a "Mac" name anyway and he decided to change it - not legally - but through usage

- others say that due to anti-Irish sentiment present at the time in turn-of-the-century New York, the "a" was added to make the name appear as Scottish in origin

- and still others talk of a rift between two McEntee brothers over religion, that one became a Protestant and wanted to show the separation by adding the "a"

I've discussed the usage of MacEntee in a previous post and have been able to prove that it was in fact Elmer McEntee who originated the usage.

So I continue through a search of court and probate records, wills, etc. to see if any further information can be gleaned as to the "why" of the name change from McEntee to MacEntee.

My Key to Ireland: Unlocking Family Mysteries

This post was written for the 11th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

As I've related in several posts, my last name has always been a family mystery - whether it should be MacEntee or McEntee - with various explanations as to how the "a" was added.

The solution of that mystery was the key to opening up a treasure chest of other mysteries including where the McEntees lived in Ireland prior to arriving in the United States.

In one of many emails received from distant cousins, I've been told that the McEntees are from County Monaghan which is in the province of Ulster. It appears that Charles McEntee, my 4th great-grandfather arrived in Salina, Onondaga County, New York around 1800 where he and his wife Mary both died in 1806.

I've found some wonderful online resources for the McEntee family in County Monaghan including the McEntee surname study at the Connors Genealogy Homepage.

Right now I have no excuses for not delving further into my research. I guess I have been so focused on trying to connect Charles' son Edward McEntee with the famous McEntees of Ulster County, New York that I've neglected to realize that this mystery could be better solved by going back to the roots - back to County Monaghan.

A Wee Bit Superstitious

This post was written for the 9th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

My family, like many Irish families, had a handful of superstitions but we never saw them that way. Nor did we see some of them as "old wives' tales" as others might label them. To us, they were simply ways of life, touchstones or guidances for daily living. I'm not sure that many or even any of them had their roots in the Old Sod but in looking back, I know many of them originated with my great-grandmother, Therese McGinnis Austin.

First you need to understand that our Roman Catholic religion played a big part in some of these superstitions or practices. My family still adheres to bizarre doings surrounding specific saints:

- if you lose something, pray to St. Anthony;

- make sure you have St. Christopher with you when driving the car (despite said saint's being decommissioned and removed from the calendar of saints in 1969);

- if you can't sell your house, bury a statue of St. Joseph in your back yard and make sure it is upside down and pointing towards your house;

- remember that St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes; and

- chant "Hail Mary full of grace, help us find a parking space" after circling the block for the 10th time.

Okay, the last one is of my own making but you get the idea. Next, you add the basic superstitions that exist for most families:

- don't break a mirror, it is 7 years bad luck

- don't open an umbrella in the house

- if you drop a piece of silverware, company will arrive soon

- spilled salt must be thrown over the left shoulder, etc.

Finally, there would be the odd practices, barely noticeable, that bordered on being obsessive/compulsive:

- never park in front of a certain store because the owner's wife will put the evil eye on you

- to protect against the evil eye, walk down the street with each thumb between the forefinger and middle finger

- never purchase an odd number of something - always six or eight bagels, not seven, etc.

I'd love to find out the origins of some of my family's superstitions!

Latest Edition of Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture Posted

Lisa over at Small-leaved Shamrock has just posted the latest edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. The theme is Back to School. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate this go-around due to my current work situation and trying to get my own ventures up and running. But Lisa knows I love her blogs and her carnival and try to give her all the support I can.

The next edition is "Luck of the Irish": Superstitions and the Irish people, which will be hosted by Bill West at West in New England.

Halloween (or Samhain as it was known among the ancient Celts) is approaching and what better time to tell us about your family’s Irish superstitions? Perhaps you have stories about strange coincidences and events that might have been passed down by your Irish relatives, or even know of some favorite legend or haunted place in Ireland. Share them with us in the next edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

Deadline for submissions for the Irish Superstitions edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture is October 25th. The carnival will be published at West in New England on October 31. See you there!

Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness

Miriam over at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors has a great post today about her achievements and ways of giving back to the genealogy community. She's asked other genea-bloggers to also take time to list some of the ways in which they help out other genealogists and how this "pay it forward" attitude can pay off for all parties involved.

Here are my current areas of involvement:

Obit Daily Times: I've used this obituary search feature so many times over at RootsWeb and wondered why my hometown newspaper, the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, New York, had no entries. Well, I checked their How To Become A Contributor page and found out how the back-end of this 100% volunteer project works.

If you want to participate, you sign up to "adopt" a newspaper from which you will enter basic information based on the obituaries in that paper. It isn't as easy as it seems since the goal is to enforce uniform data input standards among hundreds of volunteers. But they graciously assign you a "buddy" who reviews your data and helps correct errors. It took me about two weeks until I was able to fly solo - after that, I consulted their wonderful handbook to look up issues that vexed me.

I enter a weeks worth of obituaries using their data entry software (installed on my computer) and then copy and paste it into a plain text email and send it off. But that's not all - there is another feature of this great project that is little-known.

What if you wanted more detail than just name, dates, etc? Well you can email Obit Daily Times and they will contact the volunteer who adopted that newspaper. Volunteers are required to keep the full text of obituaries going back 90 days. I receive maybe one request a week, in which I look up the full text that I keep stored in Google Docs (who wants all that data taking up space on their own computer)? I send off the text, the requestor is happy and I feel like I've made a difference.

Obit Daily Times is always looking for caretakers - consider volunteering for your hometown paper. This is especially important if you know the small towns, the nicknames and terms that can often appear in obituaries. I know for me, when an obituary says Milford they mean Pennsylvania, across the river from Port Jervis, New York. Someone not from the area wouldn't catch little things like that.

Unclaimed Persons: this is a project involving Roots Television and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak which has been very rewarding both in my role as a sleuth and as an Administrator.

The concept: medical examiner/coroner offices from around the country are often challenged to locate next of kin for people in their morgue. In most of these cases, there is a very limited amount of identity information (name, date of birth, date of death, last residence, etc.). Unclaimed Persons is a Facebook group that calls upon the sleuthing skills of its members to try and find the next of kin.

There are basic ground rules such as not making attempts to contact next of kin directly, not posting identity information of living people, etc. The Adminsitrator of a case is helps enforce these guidelines along with other duties. As an Administrator, I receive an assignment from Megan, I post the case details, and then I act as moderator and answer questions, help discuss theories, offer encouragement, etc. It is tempting to not try and solve the case I am assigned sometimes! Recently, I was able to pass along next of kin information to the Hillsborough County FL Medical Examiner's office for James Christian born in Birmingham, Alabama.

If you love puzzles, and want to try and solve one that can bring peace and comfort to some mother's child or some sister's brother who is deceased, then this is the project for you. To see more, check out a great video about Unclaimed Persons at Roots Television about Albert Crazy Buffalo.

Answering Lookup Requests: I get various requests as a result of both this blog and my genealogy database which I update at least four times a year using a GEDCOM to HTML software program. I can't tell you how many cousins and far-flung relations I've found this way. I receive inquiries from budding genealogists to the seasoned ones trying to resolve a brick wall. While I can't always provide the information they want or need, it is nice to know that I've given back the same way I've received information.

Genea-bloggers: This is one area that Miriam didn't address and I know was discussed in depth a few months ago. Perhaps we need to revisit some of these ways to help out other genea-bloggers such as:

- create a post announcing the posting of a blog carnival such as the Carnival of Genealogy, Smile for the Camera, Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture, and many others;

- post constructive and encouraging comments on the posts of other genea-bloggers, especially for those posts that you yourself know are difficult to write and share with the world; and

- point out great posts by fellow genea-bloggers, much like I am doing right now with Miriam's post.

The genea-blogger community is very well conencted, even more so now with all of our Facebook pages (LOL!). To me it is a group of people that are warm, intelligent, not cliquish, and who give out great karma not just so they can receive it back, but because it is the right thing to do.

Irish Words, Irish Ways

This post was written for the 5th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

Starting at an early age, my family made sure I knew that my heritage was Irish. And one of the best ways to reinforce this in a child was to engage in the Irish tradition of storytelling and using Irish words or phrases.

If it weren't for the efforts of my great-grandmother, Therese McGinnis Austin, and her nieces Dorothy Austin Mulholland and Ethel McCrickert Hannan, my only images of the Irish would have been stereotypical. Many of these archaic symbols could be seen in movies and television shows:

- the Irish policeman with the Irish brogue;

- the Irish maid always wisecracking, also speaking with the Irish brogue;

- the poor, put-upon Irish mother with at least 10 children; and

- the perpetually inebriated Irish father who was "bone idle" and spent most of his time and the family's resources at the corner pub.

But these older women who helped raise me and had a big influence which countered those stereotypes, always made sure that their homes had "touchstones" or "markers" which I could hear, smell, see, or otherwise witness during my young years.

I remember the dish towel that Grandma Austin had which was imprinted with the all-too-familiar Irish Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

And if I remember correctly, I could find the same prayer usually on a souvenir plate or a mug in the houses of other relatives that someone had brought back from a trip to Ireland.

What I thought of as tchotkes now I look back at as pleasant reminders of my heritage. The only relative I remember who actually made it to Ireland was my Aunt Ethel. I have some great photos of her at the Blarney Stone and in Dublin during a visit in the 1970s. My great-grandmother and my mother always said that Ireland was the one place they'd like to visit before they died.

Besides being regaled with stories of the Irish customs of their parents and grand-parents (what they ate, how they dressed, etc.) all my older relatives somehow possessed the ability to tell a good story. These days I don't so much remember the stories themselves, but usually who told them and how they were told.

As I've said in earlier posts, my family did not sit in front of the television very often, especially at my great-grandparents' house (except when Lawrence Welk was on - and family members would get up and dance in the living room!). After a meal, everyone sat in the living room and talked. You would think that after years of being together we'd all run out of things to talk about, but that was never the case. And if someone didn't have a new story, they'd start with an old tried and true one: "Remember the time that Father Casey woke up on the Church Hall floor . . ."

My cousin Ronald Mulholland had some of the best stories, and they were all "clean" since he was with the order of the Marist Brothers. All the same, the stories were always hilarious, with people laughing so hard they cried.

Now that I think of it, I have the same "gift of gab" as we used to call it. There are some stories of my family that I can tell over and over again and they always provoke a few laughs or some pleasant sighs - those sighs you utter when briefly you think back to those relatives who've passed on, and their stories, and their ways, and how much you enjoyed being there in that time and place.

As I get older, I do much more sighing as I conjure up memories of Grandma and my aunts, funny stories, Irish souvenirs, and how they made sure I never forgot who I was or where I came from.

Genea-Blogger Carnival Calendar

Inspired by Miriam's recent post at AnceStories in terms of various April carnivals that genea-bloggers might find interesting, I've created a Genea-Blogger Carnival Calendar using Google Calendars.



Events are designated as "deadline" or "published" (I sometimes submit a post but can't remember when it will be published), and the event details contain links to the carnival hosting site as well as the submission form.

I've inserted an example in this post until I decide where I actually want to place this on my already crowded blog. Perhaps I will just have a hyperlink in the side bar to it.

If you use Google Calendars and want to add this to your current calendar, simply search for Genea-Bloggers under the Public Calendars section.

It can also be accessed via hyperlink here.

For now, I've placed it in agenda format at the very bottom of this blog - the place where no one ever looks, I'm sure!

The Irish Tradition of Tea

[This post was written for the 4th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.]

I grew up drinking tea as well as coffee but much more tea. Not only was it due to the fact that tea was a much more acceptable beverage for a child than coffee, but more so due to the influence of my great-grandmother, Therese McGinnis Austin. To this day, some of my tea-related habits are difficult to break.

Spending mealtimes at Grandma's meant following certain habits, well actually traditions, that would now seem like rules:

1. Coffee is only served at breakfast
2. Tea is served with dinner and supper
3. Tea is meant to be strong
4. Use a tea cozy to keep the tea pot warm
5. Drink with milk and sugar
6. Always use a fancy teaspoon and pick the fanciest

And these are in fact the very rules I try to follow today. After many years in California, and returning to a cold Chicago, I've picked up the tea tradition once again.

1. Coffee is only served at breakfast

I think this is just a peculiarity of my upbringing but we never had coffee at any other meal besides breakfast. I don't know if this was a measure of frugality since coffee always seemed to be more expensive than tea or just practicality from a caffeine standpoint (you need the big jolt in the morning and less during the rest of the day).

2. Tea is served with dinner and supper

Also, in the days of living on a farm, the midday meal was always called dinner and the evening meal was called supper. Dinner was at 12pm and was a large meal such as roast chicken or another roast, potatoes etc. It was meant to replenish those working in the fields or the barn and keep them going until sunset. Supper was a lighter meal consisting of sandwiches made from the leftovers of the dinner meal. My great-grandparents kept this tradition later in life, despite not having a working farm. Since my great-grandfather worked as a timekeeper for many of the aqueduct construction projects (in the 1940s and 50s they were built to supply water to NYC), and he worked the swing-shift, this made sense. They had a big meal before he left for work, then those of us left at home would have supper later on.

3. Tea is meant to be strong

My favorite tea growing up was Lipton's basic blend. Grandma would use many tea bags so that the tea was strong.

Nowadays I am hooked on Twining's Irish Breakfast (pictured above). Irish Breakfast is different than English Breakfast in that it uses only black Assam tea and is not as much a blend as other breakfast teas. It is also known as "robust" meaning it is much stronger and has a more intense flavor. In Ireland, this is only called "tea" not "breakfast tea." Amazon is a great source for ordering this tea and many others.

4. Use a tea cozy to keep the tea pot warm

Grandma had a number of "weird pillows" in the kitchen. They were weird because I just thought that she never got around to sewing them all the way and one side was always open. But I later learned that it was mean to be slipped over the tea pot to retain the heat while it steeped for the regulatory 5 minutes. I don't have a tea cozy but I think I might either make one or buy one. For now, I throw a kitchen towel over the tea put while it is brewing.

5. Drink with milk and sugar

We never had lemon or honey or even cream available, just milk and sugar. Cream wasn't meant for tea since it could do with a touch of milk. And a "wee bit of sugar" always helped.

6. Always use a fancy teaspoon and pick the fanciest

This last rule has special meaning to me. Grandma always kept a cut glass container on the kitchen table which held about 20 different teaspoons. There was no lid, and the spoons were inserted with the handles pointing up. I am not sure if these were from various sets of silverware she owned over the years, or if they were picked up at rummage sales or flea markets. But the kids would always have a skirmish over picking their favorite spoon. To me, it didn't seem like tea time if someone wasn't sulking at the table due to their inability to grab their favorite stirrer. The remainder of tea time was spent plotting revenge or devising some scheme to wrest that spoon from the other child. Good times.

Irish Places: Belfast? County Armagh?

For the 3rd Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, I submit this small piece of what I know so far on my ancestors and where they came from in Ireland. Lisa over at Small-leaved Shamrock has done a great job with this new carnival even though this edition has been a challenge for me personally. I think because I haven't done enough research to establish the Irish hometowns for all my Irish ancestors. Among the Sullivans, O'Keefes, Griffins, MacEntees, Slatterys, Farrens and McGinnises, I have only found conclusive evidence of my great-great-grandmother Bridget Farren having come from what is now considered Northern Ireland.

Growing up as a child in upstate New York, I was always told by my great-grandmother, Therese McGinnes Austin that her mother, Bridget Farren McGinnes had come to this country from County Armagh. But that's all I was ever told. No dates, no exact location. Nothing. Even worse, I had no information about her husband Matthew McGinnis who also arrived on these shores from Ireland. Had that met in Ireland? Were they married in Ireland? Did they meet in New York and if so, how? So many questions, most of which remain.

I only have slight pieces of evidence about my great-great-grandparents, Bridget and Matt McGinnis: I have Matt's citizenship certificate from September 9, 1888 and I recently located a passenger ship manifest for the Auriana which arrived in New York on May 25, 1885 (pictured above). Source: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 online (downloaded from http://www.ancestry.com on 5 January 2008), Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.

My great-great-grandmother's name is written as Bridget Farran, which is an acceptable variation of her surname, and one that I've been using in research. In addition, her point of origination is listed as Belfast. I have to conjecture that the person completing the manifest either used that as a generalization or it is the location that Bridget gave during the process.

County Armagh is close enough in location, the northern part touching the Belfast area that this seems correct. In addition her age and date of birth seem to jive with what I've been given. The other piece of information on this manifest that confirms to me this is my Bridget Farren is the listing of the Martin family from County Clare immediately below Bridget's name. In The Box, which is my treasure chest of items from my great-grandmother, are several photos of Martin family members. I never could understand the connection with the Farren family but now it is much clearer. I wonder if Mary Martin was actually born Mary Farran and was sister to Bridget. Time and research will tell.

One bit of confusion has been an entry in the International Genealogical Index which lists her location as County Tyrone. Source: International Genealogical Index (R), Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1980, 2002, data downloaded 3 January 2008, Batch #: C012095. I believe the confusion may come from a town named "Omagh" in County Tyrone and is close enough to Armagh.

One other piece of handwritten evidence, undated, done in Therese McGinnis Austin's hand, is a small scrap of paper with "In case I need these" in ink at the bottom. There is also a note which states "Names of legatees of Ed Farren estate. 3 are dead I heard."

I am going to post the info here in hopes that there is a connection somewhere with someone - sort of the proverbial message in a bottle. I just hope it lands in someone's caring and helpful hands! (Note: the information is posted as is, errors included)

A. McCourt
9 Upper Edward St.
Newry, County Down
Northern Ireland

Ed Mallon
6 Davis St.
Newry, County Down
Northern Ireland

Annie McGill
Mullaghbawn, County Armagh
Norhtern Irelnd

James Mallon
Aghayalloghue Meigh, County Armagh
Northern Ireland

Stephen Mallon
Ballinliss Meigh, County Armagh
Northern Ireland

Bridget McAteer
Ballinless Meigh, County Armagh
Northern Ireland

My Irish Ancestry - The Proof Is In The . . .

. . . actually the image to the left is the only proof I really have in hand. One would think that this would not be my current roadblock in researching my Irish roots. Unlike Apple over at Apple's Tree who states in Looking for Irish Records that she is not yet ready to research her Irish ancestry, I am itching to do so. She has some great ideas as to where to start research and I will probably follow some of her leads.

I was raised to think that almost all my ancestry and roots were Irish. My great-grandmother, Therese McGinnes Austin, still had some Irish brogue words that crept in when speaking, despite that fact that she was born in New York City in 1894. Assuredly influenced by the linguistics of her mother and father, both born in Ireland, my favorite word was how the said "bread." It came out almost like the word "braid."

I had been told that my great-grandmother's parents came from County Armagh in what is now Northern Ireland. Bridget Farren McGinnes and Matthew McGinnes had lived there and immigrated to the United States in the 1880s. Matthew became a citizen of the United States on October 9, 1888.

On my father's side, I was always told that our original last name was McEntee and that my great-grandfather had added the "a" in Mac when he immigrated from Canada so that he could secure a job in New York where anti-Irish sentiment was prevalent in the 1880s and 1890s.

But I have since found that such a story is full of blarney, as they say. MacEntee is indeed an Irish surname which means "son of scholar" in its Gaelic form "Mac an tSaoi." In fact, one of the great fighters of the Irish Rebellion was Seán MacEntee who was later heavily involved in the politics of the Irish Free State. He held several cabinet positions, served as Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) but was unable to achieve the office of Taoiseach (prime minister). I do not yet know if I am somehow related to him and his daughter Maire MacEntee, the great Irish historian and writer.

I've learned with the MacEntee story, to take as suspect any "stories" that come my way. With my McGinnes and Farren ancestors I will need to also live up to my name Thomas, the Doubter.

So this post is not only a fulfillment of another genealogy carnival, it is also one of my genealogy and family history resolutions for the coming New Year.

This was written for the second edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture hosted by Lisa at Small-leaved Shamrock.