Thomas Kennedy as a Clergyman

In previous posts I have been relating my searches for and research about the Rev. Fr. Thomas Kennedy. I learned of his existence and connection to my family through a FamilySearch Full-Text Search Finding Amelia Small in FamilySearch Full-Text Search. First, I looked into records about his life in Tracking the Rev. Fr. Thomas Kennedy and then I followed the trail to learn about The Military Service of Thomas Kennedy. Now it is time to see what I can find about his life as a clergyman.

After searching Brooklyn City Directories (both by name, and by Municipal Registers for clergy assigned to Catholic Churches) and censuses, and not finding anything that seemed to fit definitely, it was time try Google. Through Google, I learned about the Diocese of Brooklyn, and its archives. Those archives contained a list of historic churches. These were were good resources, but at this point they did not help me tune into this ancestor.

From the Google results, I followed a link to the text of Priests and Parishes of the Diocese of Brooklyn: 1820 to 1944 which is where I found a big break. There was only one Thomas Kennedy in the alphabetical listing, and his time as a priest fit with what I had learned about him. The entry for him with abbreviations and dates:

Kennedy, Thomas J., ––-, -–– (SBA 6-22-1873) 9-26-01 S John Evangelist-73; S Malachy-74; S Francis Col -78; ILR-83; S Joseph, Hewlett-84; 0 L Sorrows, Corona-85; S Malachy Home -01

I decoded several of the abbreviations, then decided to copy the text that contained the explanation of the coding of the entries into ChatGPT, and told it to use those instructions to decode the Thomas Kennedy entry. Between us, we had a history of his religious life.

• Name: Kennedy, Thomas J.
• Birth date, Birthplace: Unknown/unrecorded
• Death date: 26 Sept 1901 [this is one day different than what I had]
• Seminary: St. Bonaventure, Alleghany [Allegany], Pennsylvania [this is in New York State]
• Ordination: 22 June 1873

His assignments were listed by year (approximately). The entry for “ILL” is for Illness, Leave, Resignation. Presumably it was for illness as he resumed his service as a priest after it. The instructions in decoding the entries included a note that his ordination may not have been at the seminary.

Later in the book his order is given as the Society of Fathers of Mercy (S.P.M.).

With what I learned from the Office of Diocesan Archives for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, I knew that Diocese covered Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. That helped to make sense of where the churches were (and are). I also learned that their archives contains deceased priest personnel files.

His last assignment was at St. Malachy’s Home, in Rockaway, Queens, New York.

The next stop was the webpage for St. Bonaventure’s University, and their archives. In their digital archives I located an Alumni directory of Saint Bonaventure’s College and Seminary, 1859- published in 1928 (with no copyright restrictions). On page 123 there were several Rev. Thomas Kennedy entries, but the years and Diocese matched what I knew:

In the Catalog of St. Bonaventure’s College there were several other mentions of a Thomas Kennedy who distinguished himself in Logic, Natural Philosophy, and Rhetoric, but I will have to analyze these more to be certain it is our Thomas Kennedy.

With all the knowledge I now had, it was time to go back to the newspapers. Newspapers are one of my favorite resources. They were the social media of past times. I located articles about the Rev. Thomas J. Kennedy in the Brooklyn Eagle.

One article from 1873 how Thomas Kennedy of this city [Brooklyn] was among those receiving orders at St. Bonaventure’s College.

Another article in 1897 celebrating his silver jubilee as a priest included a biographical sketch, which discussed how he turned to religion when being nursed by the Sisters of St. Vincent in a Washington hospital after his left arm was wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He had been ordained by the Bishop Ryan of Buffalo. Due to his wound and his health, he had resigned and was stationed at Malachy’s orphanage. (See picture above.)

Then, in 1901, an article titled “Father Kennedy Dying” appeared. (The link to the clipping may not require a free account at Newspapers.com to view.) This column held the answers to so many questions. Some were about details of his service in the military, and why he was absent without leave (his wound). It included other facts, like his studies at and graduation from Notre Dame before attending seminary at St. Bonaventure’s College. He was a member of the Great Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Post No. 569, which had the distinction of being composed of all priests. Sadly, his health had deteriorated, and in his retirement he had moved to Kentucky to spend his final days in the monastery [the Abbey of Gethsemani].

It also included the fact that he was born in County Longford, Ireland, and immigrated with his parents. This points to where his sister (my great-great-grandmother), as well as my great-great-great-grandparents, came from in Ireland. They lived in Harlem [Manhattan, New York County] after arriving in the United States.

There are many more avenues to follow about his education, his service the military, and his time as a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Other avenues come with limitations in the passenger lists of the time, and the scarce records in Ireland during the mid-1800’s. But finding a county or origin in Ireland is a start!

Without a doubt, I had won the genealogical lottery. You can be sure that I immediately called family members to come into my office to view the column, and his picture!

The Military Service of Thomas Kennedy

The search for the Rev. Fr. Thomas Kennedy began with a FamilySearch Lab’s Full-Text Search Finding Amelia Small in FamilySearch Full-Text Search and continued in Tracking the Rev. Fr. Thomas Kennedy. At this point I wanted to follow the thread about his Civil War service.

My first stop for Civil War veterans is the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors (CWSS) database to learn what I could about his service and his organization. One surprise at CWSS was a note that: “This database is no longer maintained and updated.”

I searched for: “1st Regiment, New York Infantry” AND Kennedy, Thomas. There were three results. (I could have searched for Thomas Kennedy, then selected filters for Union and New York, and searched on results for 1st Regiment, New York Infantry.)

Thomas Kennedy was a Private in Companies A, F and G.

I clicked on the Battle Unit Name to learn more about the history of the 1st Regiment, New York Infantry, in the Civil War.

The second search result was an entry for Thomas McKinley contained a General Note that the original was filed under Thomas/Kennedy, and a Name Note – true name of soldier.

Then third result was for Kennedy, John. Although he might be related, I have no evidence. So I will just keep track of this.

Kennedy, Thomas 1st Regiment NY Inf Co G Invalid Pension Filed 11 Feb 1897 (Dead)

Over to Fold3 to search for military records there, I located three pension index cards for Thomas Kennedy. There was one each for the Companies in which he had served in the 1st Regiment, New York Infantry. Each card had the filing date of 11 Feb 1897 for an Invalid Pension, and the alias of Thomas McKingley. All three cards have been stamped “DEAD.”

Thomas McKingley’s Pension Index showed the alias Thomas Kennedy.

The next stop was the The New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center. They have a variety of online resources. I selected Unit History from the navigation menu, then the US Civil War, 1861-1865.

The 1st New York Infantry Regiment page had descriptions of the Regiment from two sources and gave me other information about its two years of service and the location where each of the companies mustered in and when.

Mustered in: April 22, 1861
Mustered out: May 25, 1863

The history of this regiment includes its service at Newport News, and discusses a noteworthy incident when Merrimac attacked the fortifications on March 8, 1862. Earlier in the war, USS Merrimac had been burned, captured and rebuilt as an ironclad warship, CSS Virginia. The Battle of Hampton Roads, where Virginia fought the Monitor in the Duel of the Ironclads, occurred on March 9, 1862. This story had captivated my son when he read Patrick O’Brien’s book, Duel of the Ironclads, in 1st grade. Finding out an ancestor was there was a big deal. We had visited the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News to learn more about CSS Virginia and USS Monitor as described in this blog post Family History Outing: The Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, VA (where there was also some Pioneer Infantry history).

The page also contained links to other online resources.

The New York State Military Museum had a link to the Adjutant-General Report of the State of New York for the Year 1898. This report contained the register of the First Veteran Infantry, which included these two entries. They presented summary information without all the details found in the muster rolls.

At Ancestry.com, I looked at results in the New York, U.S., Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900 database. The result for Thomas Kennedy contained 1st Inf for the Regiment, and with an explanation field: “see McKinley, Thomas.”

He was mustered into Company G, then was transferred to Company F.

He mustered in to Company F, then was transferred to Company A. There was a reference in the Remarks about his name being Thomas Kennedy, and a reference to a letter.

On the back of this page, a letter from the Record and Pension Office of the War Department had been attached. It has been determined that Thomas Kennedy was the true name of the soldier who had served as Thomas McKinley.

He was mustered into Company A after being absent with out leave from December 1862 until May 1863, but he was satisfactorily accounted for. In other Civil War records I had seen soldiers who were sick or wounded later rejoin their organization. Tracking these men after battles or while troops were moving was challenging.

With this information, I can create a timeline to compare events in the history of the 1st Regiment Companies with the time that Thomas Kennedy was with each company.

I went back to Fold3 to search for the Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) Index.

The card for Thomas McKinley was a reference card pointing to the original filed under Kennedy, Thomas, the true name of soldier.

I know that I need to view the CMSR and the Pension file for the Rev. Fr. Kennedy to learn more about him and, hopefully, his family connections. So I ordered them through a NARA retrieval service.

This story is just unfolding.

Tracking the Rev. Fr. Thomas Kennedy

Previously I posted about getting up and running with FamilySearch Labs: Full-Text Search and how I learned about a new ancestor in Finding Amelia Small in FamilySearch Full-Text Search. Everyone is connected to relatives, no matter how isolated they appear to be. It may be that I located a lead to a collateral relative who might help to answer these questions about Amelia Matier Small’s mother:

1) Where was Mary Kennedy born?

2) Who were Mary Kennedy’s parents?

What I knew:

Amelia’s parents were William Matier and Mary Kennedy

How I knew those facts:

Amelia MATIER Small’s death certificate (New York City Municipal Archives D-Q-1946-0009408).

Amelia Small was referred to as Thomas Kennedy’s niece (from the Application for the Letters of Administration for Thomas Kennedy)

What I learned from this document:

JOSEPH N. MATIER, a nephew residing at 226 Bridge Street
FRANK A. MATIER, a nephew
CATHERINE P. MATIER, a niece
CASSANDRA L. APPLEGATE, a niece residing at Gravesend, L.I.
AMELIA SMALL, a niece residing at #364 Hart Street, Brooklyn.
BRIDGET MATIER, a widow of William F. Matier, who died at the County of Kings, on the 24th day of October 1901, residing at 694 Sackett Street, said Borough.
THOMAS MATIER, a grand nephew (son of William F. Matier deceased) residing at 694 Sackett Street, Brooklyn.
WILLIAM MATIER, a grand nephew (son of William F. Matier) residing at 694 Sackett Street, said Borough.

I sketched out a simple tree to combine data from the previous documents into my hypothesis:

Note: Other names and relationships have been omitted from this graphic. (Keeping an open mind, the possibility exists that Thomas Kennedy might be William Matier’s half-brother or adopted brother.)

After reviewing what I knew, I cast a net to find US documents about Thomas Kennedy.

Using Full-Text Search for William Kennedy in Brooklyn, Kings, New York yielded several results, but it can be difficult to connect someone with a common name to a family. One result was the Application of Thomas Kennedy to become a Citizen of the United States that contained the signature of William Matier attesting to his residency and character. William Matier is the name of Mary Kennedy’s husband, so finding this combination of names might suggest that Thomas Kennedy’s brother-in-law was vouching for him. This document is dated 21 June 1882, and there was an interesting notation at the top: “No Charge Clergyman.”

Since I had Thomas Kennedy’s place of death and date, I searched for him on Findagrave.com, but could not locate a record for him.

I turned to Ancestry.com to search for other documentation. Ancestry did suggest a Findagrave memorial. This one was for Rev. Thomas F. Kennedy, buried at the Abbey of Gethsemani Trappist Cemetery. The reason that my previous search did not work was that the first name had been listed as “Rev. Fr. Thomas” in the Findagrave memorial rather than “Thomas.” The name, death date and location of the tombstone matched what was known from the Application for Letters of Administration. From this it seems reasonable to conclude that Thomas F. Kennedy had been a priest. As it turns out, there are two memorials for this ancestor in the cemetery, with different pictures of the tombstone (Rev. Fr. Thomas Kennedy and T. Kennedy).

Photo courtesy of Robin Jordan

Another record that Ancestry.com offered in the search results was for a military tombstone for Thomas F. Kennedy in the U.S., Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1861-1904 database. This was an interesting development. The name, date and location of the burial matched what we knew about the Rev. Fr. Kennedy. We can now add that he had been a Bugler in Company A, 1st New York Infantry Regiment.

I followed Ancestry.com search results to entries in online obituary collection but none of them matched. (The Rootsweb Obituary Daily Times Index is now hosted on Ancestry.com.)

I did search the newspaper databases to which I had access for Thomas Kennedy in Brooklyn, New York, and in Kentucky, but there was no clear success. It could be my search terms, or the collections of newspapers. There was a mention of a Thomas Kennedy in Brooklyn being ordained at St. Bonaventure, so I kept track of that entry as a potential clue.

Of course I opened up a document and saved the images, citations and notes as I went through these searches. Of course it slows us down when we want to click through and follow each lead, but there is nothing more frustrating that wondering how or where we located a record. Stop, document and save!

I also reflected on how one document found through FamilySearch Lab’s Full-Text Search could launch a whole new avenue of research for me to follow.

The next thread to pull on is what can be found in Thomas Kennedy’s Civil War records. This will be covered in a future blog post.

Finding Amelia Small in FamilySearch Full-Text Search

Researching an Irish family in New York City can have its challenges. Some surnames were very common, and traditional naming patterns often resulted in many individuals with the same names across different branches of the same family group. The passenger lists of the mid- to late-1800s contain little identifying data. It can be difficult to trace these ancestors back to their place of origin in Ireland. With these challenges, one strategy to unravel the stories is searching for family units rather than individuals. The other strategy is to use collateral research.

Of course, I have searched through the unindexed probate and land records available on FamilySearch, but the indexes built into those records will only show the name the name of the main subject. The text of these documents may contain other names and events, and the Full-Text Search helps you find them!

I have been entering the names of these mysterious ancestors into the Full-Text Search and recently had a success connecting one ancestor to another relative who came to the US. This might open an opportunity to do collateral research. You can view a previous blog post describing how to use this tool at FamilySearch Labs: Full-Text Search.

I began at https://www.familysearch.org/labs, and entered the name my ancestor Amelia Small in the search box. Since this search focuses on pattern matching, remember to search for a woman’s birth name and married name. As a reminder, Full-Text Search works better by entering the person’s name between quotation marks into the Keyword field (rather than the Name field).

One of the results was intriguing. My ancestor Amelia Small’s name appears in a probate record, and the address is where she resided.  

Clicking on the record collection name at the top of the result opened a new tab with the record and the full transcript. The search terms were highlighted.

ChatGPT offered a better formatted transcription of the text:

…kin of the deceased, adopted child or children, as far as they are known to your Petitioner or can be ascertained by him with due diligence, are as follows:

JOSEPH N. MATIER, a nephew residing at 226 Bridge Street
FRANK A. MATIER, a nephew
CATHERINE P. MATIER, a niece
CASSANDRA L. APPLEGATE, a niece residing at Gravesend, L.I.
AMELIA SMALL, a niece residing at #364 Hart Street, Brooklyn.
BRIDGET MATIER, a widow of William F. Matier, who died at the County of Kings, on the 24th day of October 1901, residing at 694 Sackett Street, said Borough.
THOMAS MATIER, a grand nephew (son of William F. Matier deceased) residing at 694 Sackett Street, Brooklyn.
WILLIAM MATIER, a grand nephew (son of William F. Matier) residing at 694 Sackett Street, said Borough.

Amelia Small was an heir! I recognized her siblings from the family structure, and from the address listed for her. A list of heirs can be valuable, and in this case, it provided siblings’ addresses, women’s married names, and even a sibling’s death date.

Amelia was the niece of the subject of this document. I followed the back arrow to see the first page of the Application for Letters of Administration for the deceased, Thomas Kennedy, who had died intestate (without a will).

From Amelia’s death certificate I knew the names of her parents, William Matier and Mary Kennedy, both born in Ireland. Some pieces were falling into place. This suggests that Thomas Kennedy was Amelia’s mother’s brother.

There was some other information on that first page.

Thomas Kennedy had died at the Abbe[y] of Gethsemany [sic], Nelson County, Kentucky, on the 25th day of September 1901. This raised questions of whether he was a monk, a priest, or a visitor at the Abbey of Gethsemani is a Trappist Monastery located in Trappist, Nelson County, Kentucky.

While this document contained the explicit information (given by his nephew) that Thomas Kennedy had no wife or children, there might be other avenues to trace his life and connections.

There will be more in this blog to share what more was learned about Thomas Kennedy, and how it was learned.

FamilySearch Labs: Full-Text Search

If you don’t already have a free account for FamilySearch, you need one!

You may have used the indexes that are a part of court and land records will only list the principal people in the records. That means that you would find your ancestors’ probate records or the land to which they were a grantor or grantee.

But what about the other names that are mentioned in these documents? You have probably seen a will that includes a list of individuals inheriting something from the deceased. These lists may be very helpful, as they may reveal the addresses of relatives, or show female ancestors under their married names.

To find those other names in unindexed records, try the Full-Text Search experiment at FamilySearch labs.

FamilySearch labs is where users can try and test new tools that are under development.

Go to https://www.familysearch.org/labs, and Sign In. There are several ways you can sign in, and if you do not already have an account, select CREATE A FREE ACCOUNT.

Once you are signed in, you will see the available experiments that users can try and offer feedback.

Scroll down until you see “Expand your search with Full Text.”

Select “Go To Experiment.”

The Full-Text Search page gives reasonable cautions given that this is not a fully released project. Among them are that the experiment may not always be available and that there may be errors.

My recommendation is to begin by using the search box.

The search seems to yield better results when the name between is entered as a keyword and put within quotation marks. You can leave the name field blank.

Since this search is done by matching patterns in the text, try different searches using women’s maiden names and married names.

Keywords: “Amelia Matier”

Keywords: “Amelia Small”

Be prepared to search using variations on place names, or different places where your ancestor may have lived.  

Keep in mind that records that were not created in Brooklyn may appear in the results. This means that Brooklyn appears in them.

For comparison, when I searching by putting her name in the Name field, there were 99,842 results. In the search results, you get the name of the record set and a preview of the parts of the record that match the search terms. Currently, the maximum number of lines appears to be four. This helps to see the context of how the search terms appear.

Clicking on MORE will give all the parts of the record that match. Clicking on the name of the record set (Steuben, New York, Marriage Records 1821-1923) opens a new tab where the record is accompanied by a transcript. The words from the search terms are highlighted in the document and the transcription.

Select “Summarize the document” for an AI-generated summary of the transcription. This may be helpful to assess the usefulness of the record, but I did not use it.

Use the Download arrow for options of what you would like to download. Choose if you want a PDF version with or without the highlights. You can also use the check boxes to include the Transcription and the Citation in the PDF document. The transcription and/or citation can also be downloaded without the image. (I downloaded multiple versions of the record including PDFs with and without highlights as well as JPG only.)

When you download the image, a pop-up box may appear offering the option to attach the record image to the Family Tree.

In another blog post I will show you one of the finds that I made, and the search that it commenced.

Give it a try and let me know what you find!