Mary Ryan Brotherton 1866 - 1943

I was tickled to find a picture to accompany this obituary for Mary (Ryan) Brotherton.  Mary was our immigrant Timothy Ryan's daughter--she was born in 1866 and died 1943.  She lived her whole life in Gloucester, Massachusetts (as did many of our ancestors). This Mary appears to have been named after a sister Mary who died when she was 2 a few years before this Mary was born.  It may also have been a tribute to her mother Mary Squires Ryan.  This picture was obviously from later in her life but I see a little resemblance here to her brother William (who is our direct Ryan ancestor).

I recently obtained some new information about Mary after one of those "dope-slap" moments that often occur in life.  The Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters was originally based in Boston after its founding in 1879 by Irish immigrants to provide life insurance for its members.  It soon spread to other cities, so Gloucester Irish were among its target demographic.  In the past, I have found a couple of our ancestor's files in this collection (now being housed at the University of Massachusetts).  Their applications for membership have been scanned and made available.  They are several pages long and provide intimate details of their lives at the time of the application.  They are especially helpful because applications were often made in a range of life span that often lacks detail in normal research.  Often, the applicants are heads of young families with living siblings and parents.  These details are extraordinarily helpful in pinning down the lives of the applicant as well as the life of their families.

And I made the CLASSIC mistake of only seeking the males in these files.  Since the files were recently transferred to UMass, more have become available and it finally dawned on me that I should look for some of the females (cue the dope-slap).  And Mary was my first discovery!

This is one page of the file showing the status of Mary's parents and siblings as of 1913 when this application was made.  This helps establish her life circumstance in a period that is sometimes hard to research: "mid" life.  These policies paid $1000 upon the death of the member.  Mary's Foresters file contains 16 pages all together and they are extraordinarily valuable and interesting.  You can bet I'll be looking for others.


***For some reason, this post did not publish in its full length the first time I hit the publish button.  It was only when I (conceitedly) went to read the post again that I discovered it was lacking the end I had originally written.  Another lesson learned.  The first ending was much better.

Home James!

I thought you might be interested in seeing the evolution of your grandfather's James Coffarelli's chauffeur licenses and getting an idea of his place in New York state history with these.  Recently, the New York Times published the Evolution of the New York Driver's License  and it's an interesting walk down memory lane, especially in light of the valuable collection of licenses left behind and cared for by your family all these years.

According to the article, 1918 was the first year that driver's licenses were issues (without photograph) but you can see this is a chauffeur's license.  I've never been clear on what he did that required a chauffeur's license.  On February 1, 1918, your grandfather was 19 years old and although I think our Ryan James looks pretty adult for his age, this picture seems to be of someone older than 19!  He had yet to go to Italy during his World War I term of service. 

A few years later after the War:

He was 24 years old by now and would be married by the time the license expired on June 30 (they were married June 23 1923).

Fifteen years later he weighs the same!  He certainly looks older now ten years later and was probably ill.  He died in February 1934 a few months after this license expired.  These licenses don't seem to have changed very much in this time period.  Updated New York state licenses are on the way:  (from the article) The newest licenses, made of polycarbonate materials, are laser engraved, not printed, and feature a pair of black-and-white portraits that help make the licenses more difficult to counterfeit.  I hope I look better in black and white ..........

William Gleason Jr. 1925-2015

We we saddened to learn of Bill Gleason's death recently.  Saddened, but not overly surprised since he lived to be 89 years old!  Bless him.  I thought of him frequently, fretting a bit that no one would think to let us know when he died as his children have no idea who we are.  He died March 31 and we were in Gloucester for Easter weekend, so we could have paid our respects in person but we didn't find out until a couple of weeks later after a phone call from cousin George Handran to our aunt Emmy Ryan.

I never got to know his wife very well, but Bill was very kind to us.  He graciously invited us to him home and fixed us lunch.  We brought our young children and he didn't seem the least bit fazed by that perhaps partly due to his own grandchildren.  He generously shared his sister Ann's family history notes for the Pierce side of the family.  I still refer to them regularly in my research.

 This is our dad, Paul Ryan on the right with his cousin Bill.  Just off Dad's shoulder you also see Dad's cousin George Handran.  This was in the summer of 2000.

Later the same day.  From left to right Bruce Pierce, Timothy Ryan, George Handran, Paul Ryan, Billy Pierce, Tom Foley and Peter Ryan.  All cousins of some degree through the Pierce side: truly Gathering The Cousins!

Cousin Bill Gleason's mother was Florence Pierce Gleason, sister to my grandmother Catherine Pierce Ryan of Gloucester Massachusetts.  You may remember a recent post that included some memories Bill shared after our father Paul Ryan died.  Bill's sister Ann was also very generous with her time and information.  I met up with her once or twice at Bill's and corresponded with her frequently.  I learned of her death when George Handran called me from Ireland to let me know.  I was very grateful for that call. 

Rest in peace Bill and Ann.  You are missed.

Disabto Family Update

A while back, Margaret Coffarelli Disabto's great granddaughter contacted me offering some tidbits of information about this elusive family.  Remember that Margaret is your grandfather James oldest sibling.  She was born in Italy in 1880 shortly before emigrating to New York.  She married an older man who'd been married before:  Marco Disabto.  She also used the name Innocencia (these Italians seem pretty loosey-goosey with their first names) They had at least 9 children.  This new "cousin" of yours descends from Marie Disabto Cochrane.  Her name is also Marie.

This is what Marie has to say: "Talked to my mom today and she said that Mark came here through Ellis Island alone. His mother had died and father was remarried. He then was part of an arranged marriage with Margaret. I believe that they were a few years different in age. Margaret lived with my Grandmother Marie and my mom (when my mom was a child) in the upstiars of their house. Margaret told my mom about the arranged marriage and Margaret was told he was a good man. She told my mom you know what they were right he was a good man. Mark died from a possible cancer."

This gives me some valuable information as I pursue this family.  In a previous post about this family, I think I shared with you a newspaper article about Margaret's son Joseph who was killed in action at Guadalcanal in January 1943.  This is what Marie shares about that: 
"As far as Giuseppe/ Joseph death. The story I heard was that he was on duty that night and not sure if there was a party the night before, but everyone else was asleep. Joseph saw, heard the attack coming and single handedly killed/delayed the enemy until help arrived/woke up. He was killed saving and alerting a lot of men to the enemy sneak attack.
My grandma mare had a picture of Grandma Disabato dressed all in black sitting down holding all Joseph's medals. Silver star, purple heart and I thought the Congressional Medal of Honor. After my grandma died we think our uncle Jerry took it....but really don't know."