Taking a break from Ireland and searching for my GERMAN ancestors

It begins with the following email from my Great Aunt Betty who has been searching for our ancestors for 20+ years.

according to Aunt Sissy:  the one that was killed in a mine explosion  was:
John W. Schweinsberg    aug. 1839 or 1840     Germany    died,24 apr. 1867  (his wife was)
Catherine Elizabeth Lindeman,,,24 oct. 1843  /14 oct. 1912    Hesse Cassel   Germany
her father::: Conrad Lindeman
her Mother:::Dorothea Coleman
after John was killed she married a Manus Boyle,,   he already had several children and his wife died, then togeather they had children... he was quite a bit older than she was, maybe it was a convienince marriage???
children:::
1, Ludwig Schweinsburg:::::4 aug.1861   Hazleton   
2.Henry Philip Schweinsberg:::13 Jul. 1863 HZL.
3. Lewis Schweinsberg:::-------Humbolt
4.Maria (Mary) Schweinberg:::  Nov. 1865    HZL.
5* William Schweinsberg::::28   Dec.  1870  Harwood, Luzerne, Pa.
some where in there the name was shortened to Swinesburg, also Swinsburg

do you have these people already?     aunt betty


Unfortunately, my aunts are not big on saving "documentation" to back up the family connections.  A lot is by stories that have been passed down.  At their ages 70+ 80+ they have a lot of "old" memories that I will never have and that is a wonderful thing.


I guess this is where I need to come in and find the "proof" needed for our family line.  I hope to find something to connect and fill in all the holes that we keep tripping in.  I feel my dog Maxwell has hit our family line like my backyard and keeps digging up holes as I am filling them in.  Bad dog and Bad lack of records.  


I will be searching  Pennsylvania newspapers, cemetery, mine company and court records trying to hunt down any clue to John William's parent's and so on maybe find more on the family in Germany even.  I will also search message boards hoping for a connection that is also on the search for facts and truth in the family stories.  


Happy hunting for all of you who are lost in family stories and mysteries. 

A "NEW" ancestor name found in Michael McKenna records.

The next public record I can find on Michael McKenna is a treasure. that helps us to get back one more generation on this family line.


Form for a Naturalized Citizen to apply for a passport.

• Michael applied for a passport May 17, 1922.

• He was planning to board the Cedric June 17, 1922 and visit County Monaghan, Ireland for a period of two months. Seeing this tells us that he must have went to Ireland to get Thomas Leo Corr prepared to join the family in America. I think this because, Tom arrived a few months after he was planned to return in October 1922.

• Michael lists his home address as 496 8th Avenue, New York, NY.
• His occupation is Hotel Proprietor.
• Date of Birth stated again as January 6, 1886. By now you see you see the birth date varies from record to record, this is typical for that time in many countries. Here in the US it didn’t become a law in many states until the age of Social Security and the draft held for World War 2, when many men had to go back and get a delayed birth certificate.

The most precious piece of evidence this form gives us is the name of Michael’s father. It says, “My father, FRANK MCKENNA was born in County Monaghan, Ireland and resides at dead.” Well that explains what happened to dear dad who wasn’t with the family in the 1901 census and gives us one generation back in the family line. Now we just have to find mom. Another wonderful thing is this application includes a picture of Michael himself. As you can see government ID pictures have not gotten any better of the years.

This passport application also indicates that Michael had a passport before. The former passport was issued at the Custom House in New York City in 1920 but has since been cancelled. I wonder if he encouraged another family member to come over during the last visit he had. It also means there might be another brother or sister that emigrated from the homeland.

Now on to find more clues about the last passport and look at the ship manifest for the Cedric he mentioned in his application.  Look for the ship he may have been on in 1920 see what other information may be found.  Maybe I will be able to find more information on his father.  I am also very interested in finding the moms name. 

Lets go back in time -- Michael McKenna and family back in Ireland

This posting I hope to uncover a little more about Mike Mckenna and his 2 sisters.  Since Mike and Maggie didn't immigrate to the US until 1906 they should be in the 1901.  I am not sure of the arrival of Sarah,  I guess we will see if she is in Ireland as well in the census.

Check out the http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ which is the Archives for Ireland site. I am able to see the images of the 1901 census. It is quite easy to do a search on this site. The following fields help narrow down the search a great deal; name, age at census, religion, county and parish.


I found the family with only a bit of effort. The family is living in the townland of Tullylone in the County Monaghan. Interesting thing is no parents are listed in the family.

• Parents not with children, probably passed away.
• Head of house was a single brother named - Peter McKenna. Peter was listed as a Cattle Dealer.
• Two sisters listed – Margaret and Sarah both seamstresses.
• Two brothers listed – Michael and John. both scholars
• Everyone was born in County, Monaghan, were Roman Catholics and could read and write.
• They lived in a small 3 room house. They had a Cow house, Calf house, Piggery, and Barn on their property.

Looking at the census records just a few doors down is a sixty-one year old Patrick McKenna and his wife Mary who is fifty-five years of age. Patrick is listed as a farmer. I wonder what relation they are if any relation at all. I will look into that couple at a later time.

We at least can narrow down the years Sarah immigrated since she was in the 1901 census.  We still have no idea who the parents were.  Perhaps while looking at more US records we can hunt down and discover their names and where they were from.

Where do we look now and for what?
1.  Parents names
2.  Sarah McKenna passenger records
3.  Michael, Sarah and Maggie in US Census records
4.  Did the other brothers immigrate as well and if so when?

Just in... Records for Michael McKenna the Uncle that met Thomas Leo Corr in NY

Who is Michael McKenna?  Why was Thomas Leo Corr listed as meeting him when he arrived in New York?  Was Tom going to live with him?  Was Michael providing him with a job or education?  What was Michael’s story?  Did any other family members arrive earlier than him or was he the first of the family to move to this land of oppurtunity?

I started off knowing a few things about this mystery man.   He had to be the brother of Anne McKenna the mother of Tom.  He was in this country before November 4, 1922 when his nephew arrived.  Having his address which was listed on the Passenger list as 196 Eight Avenue, NY in 1922, I start searching New York City directories to see if he can be found.  The following was discovered:

1920 New York City Directory

McKenna Michl (McKenna & Ginnity) 196 8^th Avenue

1916 New York City Directory

McKenna, Michl. (McKenna & Ginnity) h496, 8^th Avenue

I found an interesting article in the 

New York Tribune, Wed July 21, 1920.  

"Physician Wins Point In Liquor Permit Fight"

After reading that article you may scratch your head thinking what happened.  This is what happened to make such an event occur.

At the stroke of midnight, on January 16th, 1920, America went dry. There wasn't a place in the country (including your own home) where you could legally have even a glass of wine with your dinner without breaking the law. The 18th Amendment, known as the Volstead Act, prohibited the manufacture, sale and possession of alcohol in America. Prohibition lasted for thirteen years.  Source: http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/speakeasies/

I have more to say about that topic and what I believe may have happened to the McKenna’s during that time.  I plan to cover unproved theories in a later posting.

What I do know from the about City Directory information is that Michael McKenna arrived here before 1916.  This narrows my search a bit for when he came to this country.  It was before 1916. 

Step 2: Look for NY real estate transactions for Michael McKenna.  I searched the Library of Congress website.  They are working on a project called Chronicling America and have access to various newspapers.  I searched all the papers listed in NY.  On June 14^th, 1910 the following listing was found in “Recorded Mortgages” which appeared in the New-York tribune . 

6^th ave, 852; Saloon lease; 4 stry brk; June 11; demand 6 per cent:  Michael McKenna to George Ehret; $4550; attorney, Edward M. Burghard, 129 Broadway.

I have a feeling that could be the Michael McKenna I am looking for.  I check the 1908, 1909 & 1910 City Directory again and this is what I see for the address listed in the newspaper.

1908 New York City Directory

McKenna, Michl   beer 852 6^th ave, h503 W 52nd

1909 and 1910 New York City Directory

McKenna, Michl  liquors 852 6^th ave, h854 6^th ave

Both directory listings show us that Michael McKenna was the same guy written about in the Real Estate transactions section of the newspaper.  His business address is the same.  He lived at two different addresses between the years 1908-1910. The question that needs to be answered is this the same Michael?  Now we will check public records to help us prove this is our guy.

Step 3:  If this is our Michael, he arrived in America before 1908.  With this date it will be easier to search for ship passenger records because it narrows down the time period needed to search.  Perhaps, we could also find out who his father was from such records.

Try to find a Michael McKenna from Monaghan, Ireland and I am guessing his birth year to be close to his sister Anne which would make him born 1880-1890.  I did a passenger immigration search at www.ancestry.com 

Wow, Michael McKenna is a popular name.  I narrowed down the long list  by entering the following information; Birth year 1885 +/-5, Birth place Monaghan Ireland, and arriving before 1908.

A ship record of the Caledonia, which on April 21, 1906, departed from Liverpool.  It arrived at the Port of New York on April 30, 1906. 

Among the passengers was a young man by the name of Michael McKenna, who was 20 years old he was traveling with his sister Maggie. 

Michael was listed as a farmer his last residence was Monaghan, Ireland and his final destination was New York.  Michael and his sister Maggie paid for their own passage to America.  Michael and Maggie were planning to meet their sister Sarah McKenna who lived at 18 W. 10^th street, New York.

This record gives us so much information to find Michael and his sisters back in the homeland. 

The next posting I will uncover Michael McKenna and his sisters in Ireland to get a better idea of who they were and find out about their parents.

Corr Family from Ireland

Here they are the couple that started this quest for family history knowledge by their boys.

Well, after a few weeks again of not hearing anything and just about giving up on the Corr family I was contacted once again. Debbie Corr, Matt's wife ran over to my home with an old family bible in hand. She turned it over trusting me to take great care of it since it is falling apart. She tried to photocopy it - but it just didn't work. I took the Bible and promised to be careful.

The first thing I did after was sit it down on the table and take digital pictures of the opening pages that let us know when and where it was made. I then turned to the family info pages and took pictures of each page. Then the family treasure was closed up and placed it inside an archival storage box I had. I figure it should be safe in there till I get it back to the family. I plan to give them the box to help keep it safe.

I am posting the pictures of some of the family pages just incase someone reads this and can find a link to help share history with me and other members of the family.

After entering all the names and information into my FTM program, I started a quick search on Thomas Leo Corr who was the Corr family known to have immigrated to good old USA. It didn't take very long for a ship passenger manifest to come up. There he was the first name on the list Thomas Leo Corr, last residence was Managhan, Ireland and his father is James Corr just like the family bible said. I quick saved that to a file and shot a quick email to both Matt and Joe Corr telling them about what I did with their bible and the attached first bit of information I was able to find on their Corr family.



I will update more on my searches in the morning. Have a wonderful genealogy dream filled night.

On the Principle "Anything is Better than Nothing"

Home Decorating - by a Genealogist

Well you are probably scratching your head wondering, "How does someone obsessed with family history decorate?"  OK, probably not but I figured I would show you anyway. 

Lets start with the dining room.  Some people might think it a bit strange to have pictures of tombstones hanging up near a dining table.  I believe tombstones are "art" in a way and a lasting memorial to all the ones we love.  The small collection of gravestone pictures are from both my family and my husbands.  The heart shaped stone in the middle is for my father-in-law who only lived to be 26 years old before he was taken away from his family to be with our heavenly father. You will see him in the top left picture playing with his train set.  That is one thing my husband remembers about him.  His love of trains. He shares the stone with his father who passed away eleven years later. The young man in the picture below my father-in-law was his older brother Michael Reilly.  Mike passed away at a young age also.  He was only 19 years old when he died.  I just couldn't imagine being their parents watching their two young sons die before they really had a chance at life.  I pray all the time that I will never have to deal with that heartache.

The next spot is my "reading area"  it is in the room next to the dining room.  I picked up this wonderful "FAMILY" picture at Boscovs for only $17 and thought it would be a perfect addition to my reading room.  Yes, on the floor next to my chair is the doggie bed.  They just have to be by me at all times so they get their own little spot.  You say, "What does a genealogist read?"  Well, reference books on genealogy, of course.    also have a good amount of history books to help place my ancestor in certain time periods.  My imagination sometimes runs wild thinking about how gg-grandpa or ggg-grandma fit in to certain eras.  That side table is also a file cabinet.  I keep all the "Ancestors" I am researching at the moment in that drawer so I can pull them out and look over the notes and sources I have on them.

The rest of the wall displays are throughout my house.  On top of the piano you will see pictures of my son and nephew along with pictures of me and hubby when we were little.  Oh yeah, can't forget "Hamburger" the fish.  Johnny named him, what a silly name for a fish.  I am not very artistic so I use decals on the wall to imitate painting or stenciling.

My "Family marriage" wall ends with present generation with hubby and I in the middle.  Our parents are next up, grandparents and then great grandparents.  I didn't have wedding photos for everyone but dug up the couples pictures I was looking for to include on my wall.  I do have a few more I would like to add.  I am afraid it would overcrowd the wall so I might start another collection of the older generations. 

We have been in this house for 3 years now.  I am still not finished with all the rooms.  It takes me a while to decide on furniture, carpeting, etc.  Every room will be decorated with personal meaning and family.  I plan to decorate my husbands office with a large "Antique" world map.  He travels a lot with business and this way he can mark all the countries and states he has been.  He is also a marathon runner and I plan make a few shadow boxes to display his medals, certifcates, finish line pictures, runners bibs, etc.    We just picked out the furniture we were getting just have to find a truck to borrow to pick it up.  I also have the area rug picked out just need to have it delivered as well.

That is my home decorating for now.  I do have a few other "family" walls and such but I didn't want to completely put you to sleep. 

Thanks for reading.

New family genealogy troubles.

Well, as you know from a few posts back my hubby's cousin is getting into the "genealogy thing."

She emailed me last night saying, "I think you have the wrong Henrietta for my Pop, Joe's mom.  She died in 1985 and her last name was Coffee at the time."  (She had remarried and her new husband was Joseph Coffee.)  She goes on to say that she attended the funeral in 1985 and the last name "Zeigler" was never mentioned.  I thought to myself, She was being buried as a Coffee not as a Zeigler.  Plus, cousin was just a child then, so how much did she remember.  I know I don't remember much of my great-grandma's funeral.

So she was wondering how come I had Joseph Reilly's mom listed as Henrietta Zeigler?  For she never heard that name so it can't be the right name.

She also saw in a 1920 Newark, NJ census a Joseph Reilly married to a Helen and they had one child Edward.  She was sure that had to be the correct family since Pop had a brother Edward.

It took a lot of self control and calming down before I wrote her back.  How dare she question my work?  She is only a newbie. Ok, I know I have to get over that.  I can really be a bratt at times.

I scanned and forwarded a copy of Pop's (Joseph Reilly) death certificate which had his parents names listed.  His mother was Henrietta Zeigler.  The informant was none other than........... dear cousins, MOM.  I said, "Maybe you should ask your mom what she might know."  I then sent her a copy of the 1920 Census page I had from Newark NJ.  The family highlighted was Head:  Joseph, Wife: Henrietta, Son:  Joseph, Son: Edward. 

What dear cousin forgot to remember is, we can't make the family history up from stories and our memories.  How many times are our memories incorrect in some way.  I then had to mention there are probably 50 different Joseph Reilly family's in Newark at that time.  Most of them had at least one son with the same name.  Also we need to keep in mind birth order, Joseph was older then Edward but still a small child and would be with the family.  We need to be more selective at which family we claim as ours.

This morning I got a response email saying, "If the Death Cert. says that is her name it has to be true."  You know me I wrote another long response letting her know Public Records are sometimes wrong.  Records are only as good as the people that gave the information can remember or want you to know.  That is why we should always check multiple records. 

I had to admit I didn't look into this woman very much - I was to busy focusing on others, that happens.   I filled out and mailed a request letter for Henrietta's SS-5 form first thing this morning.  Hopefully, this will clear things up and also give us her parents names. 

That is all I have to say for now.  Helping a friend with a 20 year old Brick Wall.  I remember before I even started researching and was just a kid she was trying to find these people.  I used to tag along.  Yeah, she is 25 years older than me.  I have a thing with having older friends.  I guess, I always related better with people my parents or grandparents ages.  My husband tells me, I am an 84 year old woman in a 34 year old body. LOL.

Next in line please!

Well it has been a few weeks since I was contacted by Matt's boss to do his family research.  I was excited another "genealogist" is being born.  I have gotten a few generations back on his mom's side since she had more information to work with in her obituary.  It had parents names, etc.  I know he really wants me to do his dad's side.  He really wants me to look into those Irish roots that he wants to be proud of. 

Well, I have asked him and his brothers multiple times for their dad's parents names and dates of birth etc.  Heck I would be happy with names at this point.  No response from anyone.  So I am putting this little project on the back burner.

Matt asked me last night if I had done anything on their dad's side.  How can I?  They gave me no information.  I am not good at make believe and writing children's books with fictional characters so I am putting it aside and focusing on my own family troubles.

People just don't understand the hard work it can take to pull together a family history.  My husband and I have been married almost 13 years and he still doesn't get it.  He sees me going to the library, court houses, hunting for old cemeteries, etc. and still doesn't understand.  So I guess, how can I expect others who have no experience with genealogy to get it.

Trusted to take on a New Family Project

I received a phone call the other day and was asked to please help a business partner of my husbands dig out his family tree. His brother just signed up for Ancestry.com and is lost on what to do. Yes, I took on the challenge.

Step one: I have a copy of their father’s obituary, he just passed away a few weeks back. From that I was able to get his full name, James Joseph Corr, birthdate, where he grew up, school he attended, surviving siblings names, wifes name (she passed away in 1999 – have to look for her obituary), all 9 of his children’s names.

Step two: I enter all obit information into my Family Tree Maker Program – I love this program it helps me keep everything organized and prints out great family group sheets, charts, etc.

Step three: Look for Mrs. Corr’s obituary. Found it in the Philadelphia Inq. Archives online. Her name was Jacqueline Perry Corr. She was born and raised in PA. WAIT I have Perry’s in my family from PA. Now I am really excited. Can’t get carried away – just can’t.

Step four: Hunt down every bit of information I can on this couple. What did I find?
• Obituary for both James and Jacqueline
• World War II enlistment records for James
• SSDI index entry for both. Confirms their birth and death dates.
• Checked the High schools that both had listed as attended in their
obits. They are on the lists of alumni. James has a new “in
memory” page on his schools site.
• Checked the alumni list for Manhatten College – found James Corr
on the list.
• Was able to get Jacqueline’s parents names from her son Joe. Will
move on from there. Still waiting for James parent’s names – I
know they immigrated to this country from Ireland.

With Jacqueline’s parents names in hand I will try to move on a few generations back for them. I love that this family is from the area of Pennsylvania I know well. I have spent years researching my mother’s family in the same counties. I will post my finds in a later post. I know I have so many cemetery pictures, town history books, etc. from Luzerne and Columbia Counties in PA – maybe I will find them, crossing my fingers.

Always remember to start with the living first and get all the information you can and then move on to past generations. It is so easy to get excited and jump to conclusions – remember, “Slow and Steady wins the race.”

Genealogy Gems

I have been a listener of Genealogy Gems podcasts for quite a while. I have recently become a premium member of the site. Listening to podcasts on starting a blog I felt encouraged enough to give it a try. So here it is after about 15 years of research I am ready to spread my wings a bit more.


My history.


I became very interested in family history at a young age. In 1994, my senior year of high school, I spent many hours sitting at the local library in front of Microfilm projectors. I was always the only one searching through the local history and biography section of the library. My friends and classsmates at that time just didn't understand my obsession with family history.


I bought my first computer in 1995 when I was 19 years old. The first program I remember buying was a family tree program I got for $5 at Kmart. This opened me up to a world of charts and databases.


Then along came the internet. It was a slow moving hard to manage "monster" in those days. The only information I could find was on message boards posted by other family history researchers. It could take hours sometimes just to "dial-up" those boards and have the pages load.


WOW, what wonderful stories and connections I made in those good old Internet dinosaur days. Today, I am amazed at all the new and wonderful information that is loaded on the Internet everyday. Towns, Counties and States are loading old records, google is scanning and posting more books than I could ever imagine, and millions of people are uploading pictures and stories of their lives every hour.


I hope to use this blog to share my past research along with my new research. Perhaps, together we can break down those brick walls. We could fill in those large holes. Rake up all the leaves that were lost in the wind and find order in the pile we create.


I hope you enjoy sharing my joys, pitfalls, and accomplishments in this wonderful world of genealogy. I look forward to meeting many great new cousins and friends.


Thank you for reading.