Another Twitter Cousin

On Saturday morning I opened up my Tweetdeck console, and while I checked out my Twitter messages I decided to post a few Surname Saturday messages. Surname Saturday is a daily blogging theme that I and many genealogy bloggers use over at GeneaBloggers - it lets us post our surnames we are researching either in a blog post or as a message on Twitter.  The goal is to get a wider recognition for some of the surnames and to see if others are perhaps researching the same lines.

Well, I posted some of my usual Surname Saturday messages on twitter which always include the hashtags #surnames and #genealogy (click the image to embiggen):

Pretty soon, I receive a reply from someone on Twitter.  While it isn't related to my MacEntee or McEntee lines, it is someone who also has a surname from Ulster County, New York:

Right away, I could see that we were probably cousins - I have the names Roosa (also related to the Roosevelts of Hyde Park, New York) and Schepmoes in my research.  So in my next message, I say how I am related along the Schepmoes line:

Well it turns out that we have the same 6th great-grandmother - Rebecca Schepmoes, born 1687 in Kingston, New York! You can see the rest of the messages here:

So to see if we are even further related and how far removed, I wanted to trace my descendancy from our common ancestors.  Hopefully I'll get a response from Chris, my new found cousin in Charlotte, North Carolina!

Jan Pieter Schepmoes, d. 24 Jun 1608 - 9th great-grandfather
Jan Janszen Schepmoes, 1605 - 1686 - 8th great-grandfather
Dirck Jansen Schepmoes, 1648 - 1724 - 7th great-grandfather
Rebecca Schepmoes, b, 1687 - 6th great-grandmother
Isaac Abraham Roosa, b. 1728 - 5th great-grandfather
Isaac I. Roosa,  1780-1860 - 4th great-grandfather
Jane F. Roosa, 1822 - 1903 - 3rd great-grandmother
William R.  Krom, 1847 - 1891 - 2nd great-grandfather
Loretta Margarette Krom, 1892 - 1947 - great-grandmother
Loretta Slattery, 1920 - 1986 - grandmother
Richard MacEntee [dates withheld for privacy purposes] - father

So the lesson of all this is: put those surnames out on Twitter, Facebook and other social media just as you would post a query on a genealogy message board! You never know who is going to find you and what connection you will make!


© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

The MacEntee Surname Distribution

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun over at Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings asks participants to determine the worldwide and local distribution of their surname. Here is what I've been able to find about the MacEntee surname using the World Names Profiler:

The countries listed include Ireland with 5.49 persons per million with the MacEntee surname and then the United States at .38, Belgium at .29 and the United Kingdom at .15.  I figure there must be either some misspelling causing the name to pop up in Belgium or a large expatriate community of MacEntees.  Perhaps they are in Belgium for the better beer - I would be.

In the United States, the results are less surprising really. The yellow for Illinois has to be me - I am the only MacEntee that I know of in the state.

My home state of New York is a little surprising to me, since they show the highest concentration in Orange County and not Ulster County where most MacEntees are located both historically and in the present.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

SNGF - Ahnentafel Roulette

This week's edition of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun has been posted by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings:

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick your mother, or yourself, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

Here are my results:

1. Well using my father's age of 70, I come up with a "roulette number" of 17.

2. Using my Ahnentafel report, the person designated number 17 is Elmira Wood, my great-great grandmother.

3. Elmira Wood was born on December 10, 1851 in New York City. On March 11, 1874, she married John W. McEntee at Guilford, Chenango County, New York. She died on her birthday - December 10 - 1882 at Gardiner, Ulster County, New York and is buried at the New Paltz Rural Cemetery in New Paltz, New York.

I have to admit that my Wood line is one that I've not pursued very much and it could use some work. To me, this is why Randy's games are not just "games" - they are exercises that spur us to take a closer look at our research and jog our memories or remind us of further work that we need to do.

My Sweet Sixteen - My 16 Great-Grandparents

It is time again for Saturday Night Fun - and thanks to Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings we have a nice challenge tonite:

1) List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

Thanks to a recent brick wall coming down, I can now complete these tasks!

My 16 great-great grandparents

1. John W. McEntee is the son of Edward McEntee and Ann E. Freer. He was born on Jan 21, 1840 in Gardiner, Ulster, New York, USA. He died on Jan 21, 1918 in Gardiner, Ulster, New York, USA.

2. Elmira Wood is the daughter of William Wood and Elizabeth C. Unknown. She was born on Dec 10, 1851 in New York, New York, New York, USA. She died on Dec 10, 1882 in Gardiner, Ulster, New York, USA.

3. Jacob L. DeGroodt is the son of Charles C. DeGroodt and Elisabeth Mariah Finehout. He was born on Sep 22, 1860 in New York, New York, New York, USA. He died on Jan 09, 1933.

4. Georgiana Simpson is the daughter of Elijah Simpson and Rachel Unknown. She was born Feb 1862 in New York, New York, New York, USA. She died on Nov 10, 1938 in Walkill, Ulster, New York, USA.

5. Martin Slattery. He was born in Ireland.

6. Margaret Leehive is the daughter of John Leehive and Unknown. She was born Abt. 1867 in Greenwich, London, England. She died Bef. 1900.

7. William R. Krom is the son of Jacob Markle Krom and Jane F. Roosa. He was born on Jun 25, 1847 in Marbletown, Ulster, New York, USA. He died on Nov 19, 1891 in Olive, Ulster, New York, USA.

8. Sarah Ann Christiana is the daughter of Jacob L. Christiana and Mary M. Smith. She was born Abt. 1851 in Olive, Ulster, New York, USA. She died on Feb 26, 1926 in Gardiner, Ulster, New York, USA.

9. William Dence Austin is the son of Ira H. Austin and Hannah Dence. His birth on May 24, 1863 (Boonville, Oneida, New York). He died on Mar 26, 1932 in Bronx, Bronx, New York, USA.

10. Catherine M. O'Keefe is the daughter of David O'Keefe and Catherine Sullivan. She was born on Sep 30, 1862 in Lowville, Lewis, New York, USA. She died on Nov 08, 1946 in Bronx, Bronx, New York, USA.

11. Matthew McGinnis. He was born Abt. 1851 in Ireland. He died on Feb 15, 1899 in New York, New York, New York, USA.

12. Bridget Farren is the daughter of John Farren and Ellen Doherty. She was born Oct 1861 in Belfast, Antrim, Ireland. She died Aft. 1930 in New York, New York, New York, USA.

13. Gustavus Henneberg is the son of Gustave Henneberg and Magdalena Schmidt. He was born on Jul 06, 1864 in Germany. His death on Aug 15, 1942 in Queens, Queens, New York, USA.

14. Magdalena Zwicker. She was born on Jun 12, 1864 in Germany. Her death on Feb 10, 1937 in Queens, Queens, New York, USA.

15. Robert F. Pressner is the son of Johann Pressner and Franziska Unknown. He was born on Jun 11, 1858 in Pogwitz, Austria. His death on Feb 07, 1897 in Manhattan, New York, New York, USA.

16. Anna Herring is the daughter of Franz Xaver Herring and Anna Manch. She was born on Nov 13, 1860 in Aixheim, Tuttlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Ethnicity

The dominant ethnicity is European - Y-DNA haplogroup is R.

Nationalities

5 Irish (31%), 4 English (25%), 4 German (25%), 3 Dutch (19%).

SNGF: Google Yourself

At first I was hesitant to join in on Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun since I didn't see much of a point in Googling myself (or an "ego search" as it has been called). I do have Google Alerts turned on for both my name and GeneaBloggers which helps me fight the good fight in terms of blog content theft and copyright violations.


But this morning as I went through all the blog posts from close to 500 genealogy blogs (yes, we are coming up to that high water mark!), I could see that not only was this week's SNGF just plain fun for some folks - they actually found relevant genealogy information!


So here is Randy's original directive:


1. Google yourself at www.google.com. Put your first name, middle initial and last name, plus the name of your city or town in the Search box to see what other persons may have mentioned you online, or to see which blog aggregators are "collecting" you.


2. Then go to the "Images," "Videos" and "News" links and see what they show.


3. Tell us about any surprises you found, either in your blog or in Comments to this post.


And here are my results:


1. I used "thomas macentee chicago" and came up with 149,000 hits. However, as you progress to the following screen for more search results, the number of hits keep dropping. It appears that Google then accounts for duplicates. So there are 850 base hits without duplicates or related searches.


Interestingly when you start to use Boolean operators as in "thomas +macentee +chicago" the number of hits drops down to 30,000 with base of 489.


I am not sure if using Chicago in my searches is acurate - this is not my hometown, I've only lived here for the past five years and I have a much longer history in California and New York.


2. Images shows 7,990 entries with many being from my blog posts or professional sites like LinkedIn. There are no tawdry photos or anything with black bars across the eyes or any body parts. Thanks footnoteMaven for not releasing those photos from Jamboree and that wee little incident. LOL.


Videos shows only two entries and they both seem to be a MSNBC piece with some named Tom McEntee. Sorry not me.


News fails to show any entries for the past 30 days (thank goodness) although the archives for all dates shows 401 entries. However keep in mind that I really have no history with Chicago past 2004 and many of those 401 articles are for the surname McEntee not MacEntee.


3. There were no real surprises for someone like me who has a heavier web presence than the average person. I am also not surprised with the results if I add the various cities where I've lived besides Chicago.

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.

Mom's First Talks About Her Firsts

[This post is part of the Bound for Mom mini-blog carnival hosted by Geneabloggers]

Being the sixth out of twelve children, in her early life I bet that Mom had few firsts.  And I can imagine that growing up during the Great Depression in Jersey City, New Jersey with my grandmother squeezing an extra dime out of every nickel meant lots of hand-me-downs.  I wonder what it was like for her to have her first new dress, her first new book, her first new anything that she could call her own.

Here I am, Mom's first born, talking about the firsts in her life.  While I can only guess about the many firsts she encountered growing up, I know I should take the time to sit down and talk with her sisters when I travel back to New York in May.  It would not only give me an opportunity to find out more about these "firsts" but also to get a better idea of what it must have been like to grow up in that place and with all those siblings.

There are many firsts that I remember from growing up: 

• Mom's first job after my father left us.  It was at the Sullivan County Community College and it was a secretarial position.  Mom, like most girls, had focused on business in high school and knew how to type and take shorthand.
  

• Mom's first car during this same period.  The  yellow Datsun station wagon had "disappeared" and I assume it was repossessed.  We soon had a used bright blue Toyota compact.  I stress the word used - it was so rusted that we called it the "Flintstone car" since your legs might bust through the floorboards if you weren't careful.
  
  
• Mom's first home.  We moved out of the apartment over on Weirk Avenue in Liberty out to a Lustron home over on Neversink Road.  This was during the summer of 1976 and although Mom knew it needed a lot of work, it was all hers.
  
  
• Mom's first plane trip.  I think it was 1982 to go see my brother who was graduating from Great Lakes Naval Base in Chicago.  Mom did this all on her own (she usually would have me arrange such things) and she had a great trip.
  
  
• Mom's first trip to Hawaii.  Mom and I went to Kauai in 1987 where we both had a blast.  She met me in San Francisco and stayed over then we took off for a short trip to Hawaii.
  
  
• Mom's first grandchild.  Mom was elated at the birth of Corwin Gallaway MacEntee in 1989 soon follwed by Connor, Jacqueline Rose and Patrick Thomas.

And I know there are some I just don't remember, some that are all too sad to think about and that I'd rather forget, and some that have yet to happen.  One thing I am certain of is this: despite all these firsts, Mom never put herself first.  It was always "her boys" - me and my brother Michael - that came first in almost everything she did.  And for that I am ever grateful.

Birth Announcements

John Newmark over at Transylvanian Dutch has posted a very funny birth announcement which reminded me of the one my parents sent out for me:



I found this while I was cleaning out Mom's house over two years ago so I threw it in The Box. The during one of Miriam Midkiff Robbins' Scanfests, I scanned the announcement and filed it away with my other genealogy records.

I assume they also had one for girls which started with "I'm Lucky I'm A Girl . . ."

Gotta go. Someone in this household just commented, "Oh it isn't on papyrus? And they had moveable type back then?"

Madness Monday: Martin Slattery

(Thanks to footnoteMaven for this great poster!)

This is my first Madness Monday post - and I think it is a great idea dreamed up by Amy Crooks of Untangled Family Roots.

I spent much of yesterday working on my Slattery line and am pulling what little hair I have left out trying to locate Martin Slattery, my 2nd great-grandfather.

Here is the problem: I have an obituary for my great-grandfather, John Vincent Slattery, from the Kingston Daily Freeman published on July 11, 1939. The obituary lists his parents as Martin Slattery and Margaret Leehive. However it is the unavailable 1890 US Federal Census and the fact that Martin Slattery and Margaret Leehive most likely died prior to the 1900 census which cause my madness.

In the 1900 US Federal Census, the children of Martin Slattery are living with their uncle - Margaret's brother - Michael Leehive. This continues over the next few census reports (1910 and 1920) with no trace of either Martin Slattery or Margaret Leehive.

Given the fact that Slattery is a rather common surname among the Irish, I will work on Leehive information. What I know so far is that Leehive (and its variants Lehive and Leahive) is an English surname which I hope will give me more information on my Slattery line.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo: Confirmation Day, 1955 - MacEntee Children. LtoR: Unknown, Geraldine MacEntee, John MacEntee, William MacEntee, Richard MacEntee, Loretta MacEntee. St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, Livingston Manor, New York. Digital image. Privately held by Angela MacEntee O'Neill, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] New Jersey, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Photo: Georgiana Simpson (1862-1938) and husband Jacob DeGroodt (1860 - 1933), my 2nd great-grandparents. Digital image. Privately held by Dan MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] New York, 2009

MacEntee and DeGroodt Ancestor Photos

I wanted to give a big thank you to my newly found cousin (we are in fact 2nd cousins) whom I've never met in person but who found me online because of this blog (as well as my overall web presence).

Dan MacEntee and I began emailing in May 2008 after I posted my series about whether or not the MacEntee and McEntee families of New York's Hudson Valley are related. Over the past few weeks he has been speaking with his 94-year old grandmother, Mary MacEntee, who married my Grand Uncle, Harold MacEntee. They have been reviewing old photos and Dan has been good enough to write down identifications of the people in the photos, possible dates, etc.

And then as a bonus he scans and sends me a few photos each week. The photo above is simply amazing to me: it depicts all seven sons of Elmer MacEntee and Margaret DeGroodt, my great-grandparents, who also had five daughters.

They are, from left to right, in birth order: John MacEntee (1901 - 1984), Harold MacEntee (1906 - 1979), Myron MacEntee (1907 - 1981), George MacEntee (1909 - 1965), Elmer MacEntee, Jr. (1911 - 1971), Abraham (1913 - 1977), and William, the youngest in the front (1925 - 1987).

One thing I notice and it would help if readers could take a look and give me their opinions: it appears that John, the eldest with the large ears, looks like Myron but not like Harold right next to him. John and Myron look like me and all the males that I know in the MacEntee family including my father. I also think that Harold and the other brothers who look like him resemble the DeGroodt side of the family and all look alike.

Judging from the age of William, or Billy as he was called, I would say he is about six or seven so this photo is dated 1931 or 1932. Other evidence which backs up my theory: I also received a photo of Jacob DeGroodt (1860 - 1933) and Georgiana Simpson (1862 - 1938), my great-great grandparents, which was taken on the same day as this photo. Since Jacob DeGroodt died in 1933, I think I am on the right track as to the date. I will put the DeGroodt photo up tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

Thanks Dan!

Mom Made Sense

This post was written for the 67th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy hosted by me right here at Destination: Austin Family.

Growing up I never really appreciated my mother's common sense and her ability to "get by" while at the same time "not being taken."  And it is no mystery where Mom got her sense of smarts as we called it.  As I've described her in previous posts, Mom was a child of the Great Depression born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey with 11 other siblings.  Mom was the middle child - Number 6 - and often played the role of negotiator and peace keeper.  It is my belief that her placement in the pecking order and the era in which she grew up provided an environment whereby she needed to rely on her wits to get by.  

Having been raised by working parents and a pair of stern yet doting grandparents, Mom had great role models who must have imparted some key bits of wisdom. But it wasn't until she was out on her own - after my father left us - did she really come to rely upon her common sense and practicality.  Mom was left with two young boys in the early 1970s and had no credit, little work history, and just a high school education.  But besides having a supportive family, Mom was able to call upon life's lessons learned from her mother and grandmother and let others know that she was not to be played for the fool.

I'll always remember one incident where Mom communicated this very effectively: it was a winter Saturday and we went to the movies in Monticello.  The theater had advertised in the local paper a showing of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  Mom was excited, we were excited and it was a big deal.  To put this in perspective: this was before the days of video tape and Disney movies were not shown on television and to have a classic re-released was an event.

Once in the theater, the movie began and since I had not yet seen the original I was unaware that what was being shown was a dreadful live action (not animated) knock-off in some foreign language with subtitles.  So as my brother and I sat in the dark reading, my mother got up and made her way to the lobby.  She confronted the manager (that's what Mom did, she confronted people when she was angry) and asked why he had advertised Disney's version of the movie to the point of even using Disney art work in the print ad.

Well five minutes later, Mom's hands yanked my brother and I out of our seats back to the lobby where by now she was part of a rabble of angry mothers.  It was something right out of a Frankenstein movie where the peasants gather with torches, rakes and pitchforks.  As I watched the theater owner suddenly hop in his car and take off, little did I know that Mom had somehow organized these women and was now their leader.

What next?  Off to the police station to see about fraud charges.  Yep, that's how Mom was - she didn't suffer any fools.  My next recollection is sitting in the lobby of the police station with many other children - and their respective mothers - as Mom explained the situation to the police.  In the overheated lobby the air hung heavy with harsh New York and New Jersey accents and the occasional four-letter word as well as many hand gestures, some of which even I could understand at that age.

Mom wanted more than just a refund.  She wanted to make sure that the theater owner understood what it had meant to her boys to see a Disney movie as well as the effort it took to drive 10 miles on a snowy afternoon.  I don't remember how the issue was finally settled but I do remember there being a local news story the next day in the newspaper.

I knew it wasn't nice to fool with Mother MacEntee.  And in short order that poor theater owner knew it too.  And at that time what my brother and I didn't know was we were being taught a lesson on how not to let someone take advantage of you or your situation.

Photo: MacEntee Family - Thomas, Jacqueline and Michael, 1975. Digital image. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. Copyright 2009.

Names, Places & Most Wanted Faces

Craig Manson over at Geneablogie has started a new meme which I think is important since it gets the surnames in my genealogy research info out into the blogosphere.  As Craig put it:

"List the surnames you are researching and the general localities. Then tell the names of your “Most Wanted Ancestors,” that is, the ones you most want to find behind that brickwall."

Note: I have been particular with the formatting of the information below and use ________ Surname hoping this will allow more people using Google and other search engines to find my post. Also I am using _______ County for the same reasons.

AUSTIN Surname: New York (Jefferson County, Lewis County, St. Lawrence County); Rhode Island (Kent County, Washington County)

CHRISTIANA Surname: New York (Dutchess County, Ulster County)

CRANDALL Surname: Rhode Island (Kent County, Washington County)

DEGROODT Surname: New York (Dutchess County, Ulster County)

DENCE Surname: New York (Lewis County)

FARREN Surname: New York (Bronx County, Kings County); Ireland (Belfast)

FINEHOUT Surname: New York (Dutchess County, Ulster County)

HENNEBERG Surname: New York (Bronx County, Kings County, Queens County, Nassau County), New Jersey (Essex County, Hudson County)

KROM Surname: New York (Dutchess County, Ulster County)

LEEHIVE Surname: New York (Ulster County)

MACENTEE Surname or MCENTEE Surname: New York (Dutchess County, Orange County, Ulster County)

MCGINNIS Surname or MCGINNES Surname: New York (Bronx County, Kings County), Ireland (County Monaghan

PRESSNER Surname: New York (Bronx County, Kings County, Queens County)

PUTMAN Surname: New York (Albany County, Montgomery County, Schenectady County)

SLATTERY Surname: New York (Orange County, Ulster County)

MOST WANTED ANCESTOR: Frances Pressner, my Great Grandmother, born abt 1889 in Liepsig, Germany, died March 10, 1960, Bronx County, New York. Having her parents info would allow me to know all 16 of my great-great grandparents.

My Foray Into The World of DNA Testing and Genealogy

I've taken the plunge and I've actually used a DNA testing kit for the first time. You can read more at my recent post over at Examiner.com where I give a review of a YDNA kit from familybuilder.com.

My reasons for being hesitant to test my DNA had to do with the price of the DNA testing kits and my feeling that the technology was not far enough into its development. With plunging prices on a variety of test kits (the 17 marker YDNA kit from familybuilder is $59 and Ancestry recently announced a 33/46 marker YDNA kit for $79) I no longer had any reason to put off taking my genealogy research to the next level.

In a previous post here at Destination: Austin Family, I discussed what couldn't be learned about my family tree from DNA testing. But what I most want to learn is this: is my theory about the MacEntees of New York's Hudson Valley being related to the famous McEntees of the same region true?

Stay tuned. I will have results in about four weeks and then I will need to contact McEntee family members who also have DNA testing data they can share.

I'd like to hear from anyone else who has decided to pursue DNA testing as part of their research.

Disclosure: familybuilder sent me their YDNA kit at no charge for purposes of reviewing the process of taking a DNA sample, using a DNA kit for genealogy purposes, and to receive and interpret results. I am disclosing this as a matter of transparency and honesty of my opinion. My intent is to give a good review (meaning a well-researched and written review) not necessarily a favorable review of all products I receive gratis.

Copyright 2009, Thomas MacEntee.  Some rights reserved.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo: Margaret DeGroodt (1883 - 1970), my great-grandmother, with Betty MacEntee and children Brian and Christeen MacEntee. Digital image. Privately held by Dan MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] New Paltz, New York, 2009.

Tombstone Tuesday

Photo: Headstone of John E. (1937 - 2000). Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery, Liberty, Sullivan County, NewYork. Digital image from Find-A-Grave - taken by Ellen, Geri Ellen & Barbi Neumann.

John MacEntee was my uncle - my father's brother - and his daughter Lisa is responsible for my involvement on Facebook. Somehow she found my blog and invited me to join Facebook to learn more about her and my other MacEntee relatives now living in Idaho.

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.

Tombstone Tuesday

Headstone of Elmer J. McEntee. Digital photograph taken March 10, 2008 at New Paltz, New York by Thomas MacEntee. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. 2008.

Elmer J. MacEntee, my grand uncle, was born on June 20, 1911 in New York, the son of Elmer A. McEntee and Margaret DeGroodt. About 1937 he married Florence Puff, the daughter of Samuel Puff and Mattie Holmes.

Elmer MacEntee died on May 15, 1971 at Newburgh, New York at the age of 59. He is buried at the New Paltz Rural Cemetery.

Tombstone Tuesday

Headstone of Elmer A. McEntee and Margaret DeGroodt. Digital photograph taken by Thomas MacEntee on July 14, 2008 at New Paltz, New York. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. 2008.

Elmer McEntee, my great-grandfather, was born on November 27, 1881 in New York. He was the son of John W. McEntee and Elmira Wood.

Elmer married Margaret DeGroodt in New York about 1900. She was the daughter Jacob L. DeGroodt and Georgiana Simpson.

Elmer was a carpenter by trade, according to the 1910 and 1930 Federal Census. According to family legend, Elmer was responsible for placing the "a" in the surname to create MacEntee. This is evidenced by the use of "MacEntee" on several of the Federal census records.

Elmer died on November 8, 1848 at Gardiner, New York and is buried at the New Paltz Rural Cemetery.