Frank DEVLIN's Death Certificate

Back on my October 8th blog post I had said that I had received the wrong death certificate for Frank DEVLIN.  Later on in the month, I did receive the correct death certificate.  It confirmed the newspaper story that he died on the bus.  Other things that were confirmed was that he worked as a fireman for the Buffalo Fire Department, his wife name was Julia GAINEY, he was born in Dundas, Canada, he had a son named Frank DEVLIN that lived at 845 Abbott Rd. at the time, and that he was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna.

His Find-a-Grave memorial is here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=217382&GRid=42792900&

Perry J. HARDING

My 3rd Great-Grandmother Ida HARDING had 7 siblings (4 brothers and 3 sisters).  One of her brothers was Perry J. HARDING.  I do not know much about him.  From the book Our Harding Family by Mary E. Baird, it stated that he was born 31 Mar 1857:

The only other mention in the Baird book is:

He is found in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Federal Censuses:

1860 Federal Census

1870 Federal Census

1880 Federal Census

The only other documents I've been able to find him in are newspaper articles.  These two articles are from November 1879 when Perry was 22 years old (one year before the 1880 Census pictured above).  The articles are from the Wellsboro Agitator.

Mr. Perry Harding, of Covington, went to Buffalo recently to enlist in the regular army.

Mr. Perry Harding, of Covington, who recently went to Buffalo to enlist in the regular army, was not able to pass the physical examination.

I'm not surprised by Perry wanting to join the army as his dad was a Major General in the Pennsylvania Militia.  I am curious as to why he was not able to pass the physical exam.  Was it something simple like poor eyesight or something more serious?  If you look back at the 1880 Census above you can see that Perry's sister Emma was listed as sick with a "spinal affect" but Perry did not have any sickness listed.  He was also not checked off as blind, deaf and dumb, idiotic, insane, maimed, crippled, bedridden or otherwise disabled (not included in the screenshot).

Another question I have is why did he travel all the way to Buffalo to enlist in the army?  As far as I know, all of his family still lived in the Covington area at that time - wasn't there someplace closer to home where he could try to enlist from?


The next record I was able to find on him was when he was 29 years old.  The article states that was was recently adjudged insane:

If he was judged to be insane, would there be court records for that?  Where was the County Poor-house and what was that like?

He fought his way out to escape!!??  It says he went over the hills toward his home.  I wonder if he was still living with his parents at the time.

I also wonder why they were going to take him to Warren Hospital instead of back to the County Poor-house.  Was it because they feared he would try to escape again?


The last document I can find was from the Elmira Daily Gazette on 28 June 1892 when Perry was 35 years old.  It lists him as a patient of Warren Insane Hospital but that he was being either removed to the county house or returned to the 'care of their friends.'

I wonder if he had been a patient in the Warren Insane Hospital since 1886 or was he in and out?  Was he put back in the county house or was he released home?  What exactly was his illness?

Here is a movie on YouTube about the Warren Hospital:

Here is a wiki about the hospital: http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Warren_State_Hospital 

This is all I've been able to uncover on him so far.  I do not yet know when or where he passed away or where he is buried.  I didn't find him listed in the Warren Hospital Cemetery which I was glad to for some reason.  I kind of hope that he is buried with his parents and that nobody is aware of it because maybe he doesn't have a headstone.

I am curious to learn more.  Some things I can try:
- Look to see if there are court records from 1886 when he was judged insane
- Look to see if the hospital has archived records
- Contact the cemetery where his parents are buried to see if there are other Hardings buried there that do not have headstones (I should ask about sister Emma too).

Wrong Death Certificate

As I stated on my September 27th, 2015 blog that I was working on trying to find out more information on my 3rd great uncle Frank M. DEVLIN that died on 25 Apr 1943.  According to the news article that I found he had suffered a fatal heart attack on a downtown Buffalo Bus:

I pretty sure that this is my Frank DEVLIN as he lived at 77 East Tupper St.  I think that perhaps the Courier-Express mixed his name all up and that the Maher is the M. that I see in all his other documents as Frank M. DEVLIN.  

The documentation I have that shows my Frank M. DEVLIN living at 77 East Tupper is from him being listed on as a witness on my great grandpa Albert PARKIN's delayed birth record.: 

In case you are curious, click here is a link to google maps for 77 E Tupper.  The address is no longer a residential address, from what I can tell there is now a parking lot across from the City Mission on Route 33.

So in an effort to try to learn more about Frank DEVLIN, I ordered a genealogical copy of his death certificate from the city of Buffalo.  I excitedly opened my results a week later only to find that they had sent me a copy of another person's death certificate with a similar name.  It took me almost a week to get an answer from them as to what to do.  I've sent back the wrong death certificate and now am awaiting the correct one.

Wedding Wednesday - Ida WHITTAKER and Thomas BOFFEY

Ida WHITTAKER and Tom BOFFEY

From L to R: Arline WILLIAMS, Mrs. William H. ROBINSON, Inez WHITTAKER, Ida WHITTAKER, Tom BOFFEY, John MEIDENBAUER, Dorothy WHITTAKER, Winifred PRESTON

For this Wedding Wednesday I would like to share some media that I found for my 2nd great-aunt Ida.

Aunt Ida was born: Ida May WHITTAKER on 17 Jun 1903 in Buffalo, NY.  She married Thomas BOFFEY (who was born 16 Dec 1903 in England) on 6 Aug 1927 in Buffalo, NY.

Lisa Louise Cooke!!!

September 25th and 26th were exciting days for me as I got to meet Lisa Louise Cooke in person!!  I've been following her podcast for years and reading her books - for me, it's like meeting a celebrity!

L to R: Sunny Morton, Jeanette Sheliga, Lisa Louise Cooke

We had brought Lisa in to be a guest speaker for Niagara County Genealogical Society (NCGS).  She flew in Friday night and her assistant, Sunny Morton (along with Sunny's Aunt Judie), picked Lisa up at the airport and met the NCGS Board out for dinner at Mericana.  Great conversations were had all around and we walked across the street to show our guests the locks on the Erie Canal.

On Saturday, Lisa met us at NCCC where 60 genealogists came to hear her talk.  The four lectures that she spoke on were: How to Reopen and Work a Genealogical Cold Case, What You Must Know to Save Your Research from Destruction, Google Earth for Genealogists, and Future Technology and Genealogy: 5 Strategies You Need.

My attention was all over the place that day as I was worried about being a good host to our guests and attendees, live posting of websites onto the North Tonawanda Library Genealogy Club (NTLGC) Facebook page, and still being a bit star struck by Lisa and Sunny.

NTLGC members had a good turn out to see Lisa Louise!

Lisa provided many great resources for the attendees and many were brought to tears in her closing story.  It was a great day of genealogy!!

NCGS Board Members with Lisa Louise

Tombstone Tuesday - Julia DEVLIN PARKIN

Here is a picture of my 2nd great grandmother Julia Parkin's (nee DEVLIN)'s headstone.  She is buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Buffalo, NY.

She is buried next to her husband Albert PARKIN however he does not have a headstone.

Find-a-Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=118023799 

BillionGraves: http://billiongraves.com/pages/record/Julia-PARKIN/4891136#given_names=Julia&family_names=PARKIN 

Sunday's Obituary - Frank DEVLIN

I've been contacted on Ancestry.com by a man named John who is a DNA match to me.  Ancestry says that we are 4th - 6th cousins.  We both have DEVLIN's in our family tree and wonder if that is how we are connected.

To get from me to the DEVLIN surname, it goes like this:

My 2nd great grandmother, Julia DEVLIN, had six siblings. 

I'm wondering if my DNA match to John is through one of the siblings.  So, I've been researching them trying to trace down their lines and find a connection.  In doing so I came across some articles and obituary for my 3rd great uncle, Frank M. Devlin.

I do not know much about Frank M. Devlin yet, but I'm proud that he was a Buffalo Fireman and look forward to learning more.

Back to Blogging!

Hello!

It's been awhile since I've maintained a blog.  Years ago I used to have one through my MobileMe subscription and then Apple got rid of that.  Then I purchased a domain, but it seemed like a lot of money to reach my audience of three people when FaceBook was so accessible so I got rid of that!

So here I am back again to share my family genealogy via blog format so that I may perhaps connect with cousins through the web.  I know from my previous blogs that "cousin baiting" works in that when they search for a name in their family tree that a Google search result may connect them to me via my blog.

Its been an inspiring month as far as genealogy goes as I've had the privilege to listen to two famous genealogy speakers!  The first was two weeks ago when the WNYGS brought in "The Accidental Genealogist": Lisa Alzo.

Here are the members of NTLGC that went to hear Lisa Alzo speak.  I am pictured 2nd in from the left.

Lisa Alzo spoke on two different subjects.  The first was titled "The Write Stuff: Using Non-Fiction Writing Techniques to Write a Better Family History" and the second was "Packrat or Genealogist: Effective Methods for Organizing your Family History Research".  

Some items that I took away from the first session were: 

• publish your family history research! 
• do not include every little detail 
• remember that you don't have to be a "professional"
• and break your writing tasks into smaller, manageable pieces.

The last bullet point really spoke to me.  I've heard this before and have started but haven't completed some projects that I've had in mind.  I love the idea of publishing different volumes or chapters of my family tree.  I think my biggest fear is the "what if" I discover something tomorrow that I would've wanted to include in the printed book.  The thing that I have to realize is that fear will always be the case and that I can always edit in the future and create a 2nd edition of the book later on.  

The first book that I would like to print will be the letters that I've scanned in that my Grandpa Ivo sent home while he was in WWII.  I have it already completed minus the letters that Aunt Linda mysteriously received in the mail last year.  As soon as I get those - I'll add them in and have the book printed!  I promise!  LOL  Maybe I should set a goal date...  I will complete the book and have it sent to the printer's by Veteran's Day, November 11th (which is a fitting date).

The 2nd topic that Lisa Alzo spoke on was Packrat or Genealogist - a topic I'm sure every genealogist can relate to.  One thing that she talked about was being a digital hoarder as well - this is something that I haven't considered.  I wonder how many duplicate items I have on my hard drive that I could clean up.  Something to think about!

Thanks for reading.  As Grandpa Ed says: "more to follow!"

Jeanette