I am excited to be invited to present in person and online!
On Friday, I will be presenting Ancestors, AI, and Prompt Engineering.
On Saturday, I will be presenting a Crash Course in Researching Ancestors in the US Military.
There are great speakers, and great talks, Friday and Saturday. There is also an optional Beginner Day on Thursday, featuring four lectures just for beginners!
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.
St. Malachy’s Home, [190-?], postcard, POST_0487; Brooklyn Eagle Postcard collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History(permission for Internet use granted)
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!
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.
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.
The first thing that intrigued me about this book was how such a thin tome was titled “complete.” It is a thin book that packs quite a punch! I learned that in this thin volume, Dr. Nagy provides readers with information about lineage societies, how to find them, how to learn about their missions, why you might want to join one, and how apply for membership. Rather than a detailed how-to about how to join one society, the book shares general information appropriate to any type of membership application, for any type of society.
Even though I have researched and successfully completed applications for the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), which was formed by the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) as its successor, I admit to dragging my feet on a more involved membership application. I have been concerned about the quality of proof that I have gathered to document a couple of links in the generations of that application. This uncertainty has made me reluctant to begin the formal application process, so I was interested in reviewing this book.
An important part of applying for a society is understanding the eligibility requirements. The book gives general information about beginning membership application process, then documenting lineage or an ancestor’s qualifying service, and finally completing the application. There is also information about the types of membership that may be available in these societies. At the end of the book is an appendix with selected societies and a brief bibliography.
At the core of applications is the documentation of lineage or service. We are cautioned that applications for lineage societies may require updating the documentation of existing applications lineages to meet current genealogical standards. A valuable part of the book is a summary of documentation to seek when preparing an application: vital records, their substitutes, and qualifying service information. Each entry in the documentation categories might easily be the subject of a course or a book, but having a list of sources to examine in one place is helpful. Some of the valuable advice was to use online family trees as clues.
Dr. Nagy offers valuable advice, as she is a former Registrar of several lineage societies. In the preface, she tells us that compiling an application for a lineage society will use sound genealogical principles, but that it will employ skills that usual genealogy lectures do not cover.
Case Study 1
A family member of mine previously attended an annual Moby Dick Marathon in New Bedford, Massachusetts, so I decided to use the information in the Selected Society Listing Appendix to check out the Descendants of Whaling Masters. Their membership categories include descendants and relatives of masters and crew, but there is also a contributing membership level for interested individuals and youths who are not descendants. The website had a lineage outline form and an application for membership. The application contained information about the sources the society uses for verifying the Whaling Master Ancestor.
Case Study 2
I have been researching ancestors and collecting documentation for a membership application for a large hereditary society, with the intent that I will be well prepared to submit the application. I must confess that I have been uncertain about the quality of “proof” of the collected documentation links between a few generations, which made me hesitant to dive in and begin the process. Interestingly, while researching one of the challenging links, my work was able to provide documentation of a missing link for siblings of that ancestor. Sadly, that record did not explicitly state that the ancestor was linked to the siblings. Given that newspapers may be considered a substitute for vital records, filing that application may be in my near future.
While I know there are always people within a society willing to support applications, I have always wanted to ensure I enter any process on firm footing. Having someone to offer guidance on finding societies, seeking out sources, and navigating the application process can be invaluable. This book fulfills that role and helps you understand what to expect.
The Department of Veterans Affairs offers a useful and interesting resource that can be downloaded. It is titled “America’s Wars.”
As the title suggests, it contains a list of US Wars, as well as the years of the conflict. It goes beyond the dates to include the number of service members who were involved and the number of battle deaths. For most wars the number of non-mortal woundings is also reported along with other statistics. Notes that document estimated values are included.
The second page of the reference includes dates of death for the last veteran, the last widow and the last dependent of earlier wars. The U.S. Veterans and Dependents on the VA Benefits Rolls as of 2023 is included. There is also predicted estimates of the number of living WWII veterans until 2039. This is a reminder to interview those who are still among us!
