Rev. Fr. Kennedy and AI

It has been a while since there has been a blog post. In that time, I have been working on my newest presentation, Mining Morning Reports for Genealogical Gold. You can read a review here: https://aweekofgenealogy.com/comments

In addition to getting ready for other presentations, I have also been experimenting with the NARA Catalog API to get an alternate way of searching the catalog.

I did spend some time with AI offerings in my research into the Rev. Fr. Thomas J. Kennedy.

First, I uploaded the sketch that I have of him from the newspaper to ChatGPT and prompted it to: Change this line drawing into a picture

A few liberties were taken by the built-in DALL·E image generation system when creating this image. In the sketch it does appear that he is probably wearing a cassock of the time, but the details of buttons and the notch in the collar are not evident in the sketch.

I may need to try this process again with a stricter prompt to rein in ChatGPT’s creative vision.

I looked up his eye color recorded in a Civil War roster and asked in a follow-on prompt asked: can the image be changed so that his eyes are more grey

The resulting image looked less like the sketch.

Since the Rev. Fr. Kennedy was dying at the time of the column in the Brooklyn Eagle, it finally occurred to me that there must have been a photo of him that was used as the basis of this sketch. I have not located one yet. This image also looks like that of a younger man. My focus has been on the data, but it seems I may need to be searching for the original photo of him. Does the original photo still exist? (Although the Archivist at the Diocesan Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn was very helpful, they did not have a deceased priest personnel file for him at in their archives because he had died in Kentucky and not in Brooklyn.)

Using the original sketch, I did a Google Image search at https://images.google.com, adding the search terms: Kennedy Brooklyn

Naturally, our blog posts showed up, and data about the life of the Rev Fr. Thomas J. Kennedy extracted from the blog posts appeared in the AI summary. Many of the photos that were returned in the results were of men religious of all different faiths.

The “Dive Deeper in AI Mode” button that appeared at the end of the AI Summary made me curious, so I clicked on it. Gemini let me know the number of sites it was searching, and informed me about two sites: our blog and the New York Times. There was an article from the NY Times dated Oct. 5, 1901: “Rev. T.J. Kennedy Said to be Dying.”

Our county library has a subscription to the ProQuest Historical Newspapers, which includes the New York Times, so I logged in and searched for the article using these search terms:

Rev. T.J. Kennedy Said to be Dying 1901

There were three results, two of which were ads from the 1970s.

The New York Times article was succinct and did not offer more information than the article in the Brooklyn Eagle. It was actually published several days after his death in Kentucky. It mentioned that he retired about a year ago, and that his ill health for the reason for his pension. He was in Kentucky, at a Trappist Monastery. He was well-known in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) circles.

Of course I downloaded a pdf file with the article, a pdf file with the whole newspaper page, and a (brief) citation in Chicago style: “Rev. T.J. Kennedy Said to be Dying.” 1901., Oct 05 New York Times (1857-1922), 9. https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/rev-t-j-kennedy-said-be-dying/docview/96159883/se-2. (Further reproduction of New York Times articles is prohibited without permission.)

There is certainly more to do to fill in this ancestor’s story, but the use of the AI tools ChatGPT and Gemini inspired both my creativity and my next steps in the research.

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!

Travel to Where Your Ancestors Worshipped (Virtually)

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The pandemic has affected every part of our lives, including how people are able to attend religious services. Many people are attending virtual religious services on the web. That means that many places of worship are uploading videos of religious services to the web.

This may be a way that you can attend a religious service where your ancestors worshipped! The services might be hosted on a variety of websites for video services. They might be found on YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook.

Use Google, or your other favorite search engine, to locate the place of worship that your ancestors attended. You may know the place, or may find it on marriage or other records of events. If you are still unsure, a Google search around their residence may shed light on possibilities. When you visit the homepage for the place, there should be a link to services, or other information leading to how worship is being shared.

It is worth learning some of the history of this place of worship. You may find that it has been renovated since your ancestors worshipped there. It may also be that parts of building were preserved and have remained unchanged.

Last week, I attended Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, RI. This is where my great-great-grandparents were married, where their children were baptized and where their funeral Masses and that of their oldest child were held. It is also where John F. Kennedy wed Jaqueline Bouvier. Being able to virtual attend a Mass there was a virtual trip to a place that is definitely a future destination. The homepage for St. Mary’s has a link to where you can view “Mass Online at St. Mary’s.”

Book Review: “How To Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records”

I was excited at the opportunity to review “How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide” by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, CG. The book contains specific resources for researching ancestors in major Christian Denominations before 1900 in the United States. That excitement lasted throughout the whole book.

While censuses are great for providing us with a backbone of an individual’s or family’s timeline, Church records can help us learn the web of connections between family members and those who were close to them. The choice of Church may also give us the underlying motivations for major stories in our ancestors’ history. At the very least they provide us knowledge of the important institution and tenets with which our ancestors allied themselves.

This book is a game changer for religious research. Up until now, genealogists may have or may not have known the importance of church records, but conquering them was a hit-or-miss effort. These skills were usually taught by an experienced genealogist. A genealogist would learn a little about whom to contact and what to ask for, and that could still be a hit-or-miss effort. Experience was the only teacher.

In Section 1, Chapters 1 through 5 take the genealogist through the basics of researching Church Records. Section 2 addresses specific Christian denominations in the United States: Anglican/Episcopal, Baptist, Congregational, Dutch Reformed/Reformed Church in America, Latter-Day Saint (Mormon), Lutheran, Mennonite and Amish, Methodist, Quaker (Religious Society of Friends), Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. Each chapter contains a short history of the religion, important facts about it, followed by information about the records and how to find them. Every chapter also includes a section with resources for learning more.

One unexpected hidden gem in this book is that this approach may prove useful for those researching enslaved African-American ancestors. Some church records for them may exist in the Anglican/Episcopal Church, covered in Chapter 6.

I read this book from cover-to-cover, impressed by the amount of research put into each topic. The authors were clearly focused on putting useful and actionable information into genealogists’ hands. The authors are knowledgeable researchers, but put forth the additional effort of having experts in each religion review their material.

If you are thinking about trying to find your Christian ancestors in Church records, and you should be, this book is for you. This is an invaluable reference for those researching Christian Churches in the United States.

“How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide” by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, CG, is available from the Genealogical Publishing Company.