Flynn Family Update

This re-post is in honor of the fact that I've met a new cousin (second cousin technically), Erin, granddaughter of John Flynn (4-5 to us) and his wife Margaret (Fat Aunt Marg as we knew her thanks to our grandfather).  Perhaps she will enjoy this and share it with others.

We took a trip to Boston with our children and niece Jessica in April 1995. I can't remember if Jessica's sisters were with us, but I remember specifically that our entire ride out there was dominated by the radio broadcast updates on the Oklahoma City bombing.  Upon hindsight, we probably shouldn't have had the kids listening to all these stories but you couldn't help yourself.  It was a little bit scary as there was quite a bit doom and gloom speculation as to larger forces at work in this act of terrorism. And we had no idea what terrors were lurking in the future......

One of the stops we made was to visit with Patty Flynn Donohue and her sister Sharon Flynn.  They had never met any of you so it was kind of cool to introduce them to you guys in person.

Patty and Sharon are Weenie's nieces.  Weenie had two brothers:  Charles (Dinty) and John (whom we called Four Five).  Patty and Sharon are Four Five's daughters.  I don't ever remember meeting Dinty but I do remember going over to Four Five's house--a particular treat was to play with the poker chips in their holder.  Poker is apparently how Four Five got his nickname.  One of us ( I think it might have been me) counted out cards emphasizing FOUR FIVE between three and six.  Then he was Four Five.

Weenie called his wife "Fat Aunt Marg".  Though I didn't realize it at the time, she was anything but "Fat" and I'm sure that's how she earned her nickname.  Classic Weenie.  I also think we were the only ones to ever call her that.  I remember a little bit about these girls.  They were older than us and rarely around when we were there but always present in the catching-up phase of the visit.

This is Chris and Uncle Four Five in their yard in Olean.  Those Flynn men were pretty handsome all around.

I think this is the Flynn family in Olean. The young child is probably my mother Anne Flynn. Her parents, Francis "Weenie" Flynn and Paula Nevins Flynn are pictured next to her. The woman behind her is Barbara Lippman Flynn, the Flynn matriarch. Behind her is her sister Anna (can't deny they are sisters!).  I believe the other men are John (Four Five) and Charles (Dinty). 

Pretty odd about the nicknames, don't you think?  One thing I think about a great deal is how we all called our grandfather Weenie--just like EVERYBODY else.  The entire city called him the same thing we did--a little bit different than most grandfathers (and great-grandfathers--which he was indeed!)

So we can bring this right back around to Jess! Francis and Paula Flynn godparents to Jessica.

August 1994

I thought it would be fun to dive back into the photo albums again and see what was going on 24 years ago this month.  Turns out there was quite a bit going on that month!

It was the summer that we got our new pole barn built after the old one caved in under heavy snow in a previous winter.  The clearing of the land for this new barn (we have always called it the bus garage since it was home to the marching band bus) created a large pile of debris which the fire company burned for us in spectacular fashion.  This is Amy and Brad watching that fire:

This is one of my all time favorite pictures and memories. 

The Hartman clan came for a visit that year!

Baseball Hall of Fame

Of course, we went to a Binghamton Mets game.  This is Jeff Barry with Amy and Brad.

I think this might be at Jean's for Mallory's birthday--Drew, Marisa and Amy.  Looks like Drew is showing Marisa the clutch.

Ryan having a catch with your Dad.

Your Dad playing volleyball in someone's back yard.

Sometime that summer, Angela hosted a reunion..what a crew!

James and I went to Chicago that summer and we took Amy and Ryan to stay on Long Island.

I think this is Pat's picture from that visit!

Good ole Harry the famed cat was still around.  We went to Sesame Place where James danced on stage with Burt and Ernie.  It's pretty tough when even Ernie is laughing at you.

 We even found time for a trip to the Syracuse Zoo.  Who knew then what the future held for this pensive little girl?

I guess we kept ourselves pretty busy but when the kids are young, you try to do all kinds of stuff.  It's pretty close to where Jake and Lindsay, Danielle and Ron, Lindsay and Jesse, Brad and Cheryl, and Brian are right now with the upcoming generation. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Be Kind to James Day on Aug 23??

It's a valuable exercise to review old documents for new information, especially when researching family history.  Sometimes you find new and interesting tidbits of information.  Sometimes you don't, but it's still fun to look.  This is one of those stories, except some of it may be news to you.

This is a copy of our grandfather Francis "Weenie" Flynn's birth certificate.  It can be considered an official document because it has a raised seal.  I think you already know he was born in Emporium PA and that his parents were Patrick Flynn and Barbara Lippman.  Though, take note here, that his mother is listed as "Barbetta Lypmann".  It's the only time I've seen her referred to as Barbetta but I need to remember to keep that in mind for future research.  Other than Barbara, I've seen her listed at Betty a couple of times.

One very important item to look at when reviewing such documents is the date it was issued.  In this case, this appears to have been issued June 7 1954, when he was 47.  It is not uncommon to have to round up new copies of vital records for a variety of reasons including marriage, passport application, establish identity to pursue estates and so forth.  Whatever the case, it usually indicates some significant life event and is therefore worth noting.  But I am not sure what was happening for Weenie in 1954 that would warrant the need for his birth record.  We may never know but it leaves a little crumb to follow someday.

More interesting to note is that this is a corrected certificate (see upper right corner).  The corrections are noted on the back as seen here:

Perhaps you already knew that Francis was originally named James Thomas but did you know his birth date was not originally listed at August 24?!?!?!?!  What if BKTF Day was BKTJ Day a day earlier????  What if what we have always known to be true and celebrated .....wasn't?

Traditionally, families would name the first son after his paternal grandfather--whose name was supposedly Timothy so I'm not really certain where James came from, but Thomas is Barbara's father's name.  That James sitting there is another tantalizing clue to follow someday.  Someday........

Peter Grover Ryan 1940-2018

Our uncle Peter died early this morning after a brief hospitalization.  He was our uncle, but of course he was also a father, husband, brother, Elk, golfer and friend.  I have learned a great deal about him during this time we've been able to spend here in Gloucester.  He certainly had his flaws, but as my uncle, he was top rate.  He was so happy to have Colleen and Petey with him in the hospital yesterday.  Witnessing that eases my sorrow immensely. 

He was born March 31 1940 in Gloucester.  He was one day old for the 1940 census! He said he lost his hearing in one ear sometime during the second grade which excused him from the military draft.  He has told stories about his dad getting him a job at the grocery store....unbeknownst to him! He gave his earnings to his mother. She returned the money to him when it was time for him to buy a car.  He hadn't known she was keeping it for him.  He thought he was contributing to the household and he was always emotional telling that story. 

I never could really get good stories about family from Dad, but Peter was full of them! Better yet, he was always right and gave me solid leads to follow.  One example is that I'd been seeking a death date for "Aunt Bud" (Viola Ryan) and Peter told me several stories about her that lead me to find the information I was seeking AND filled out Aunt Bud's life story in a lovely way.

My childhood memories of Peter are full of FUN.  We rarely saw either of our dad's brothers so when we did, it was a great treat for us.  There was a long stretch of time that the Gloucester family was absent from our lives, but that's no longer the case and we've built strong relationships over time. I will miss him sorely but knowing Dad has his brother with him again gives me some peace.

John H. Bentley 1870-1925 Finally Back in the Fold

My research time in Gloucester has been extraordinarily fruitful, but this particular find can only be credited to pure Irish luck.  This was so random it's almost scary.

John H. Bentley is the son of Captain Bentley who went down on the Schooner Paul Revere when young John was only about 12; his mother died a mere 3 years later leaving 4 young children including our great grandmother Catherine Bentley and John H. 

I don't know how the children managed after they became orphans, but I feel certain it was not an easy time for them. In 1892, John H. married and began having children--12 all told though some died as infants.  I have pretty good track of him from the time of his marriage to about 1922.  By 1930, his wife reports herself a widow in the census.

I had been able to track all of his siblings but lost John H. and hadn't been able to find him and bring him back into the fold.  I knew he died between 1922-1930 but even thorough Massachusetts records did not cough him up.  None of the many online Bentley family trees had any clues about his death and I finally came to a conclusion that perhaps he did not die in Massachusetts. I was at a loss as to how to proceed and just put him on a back burner again.

I was doing some work at the Sawyer Free Library looking at Gloucester Daily Times microfilm and had a little extra time to kill so I picked a random microfilm covering a 3 month period to review day by day to see if I saw anything interesting.  Happened to be the Jan-Mar 1925 reel.  Low and behold, on Jan 3 1925 (only a couple of days in)--I see this article on the front page and nearly fainted.

John H. had apparently abandoned his family, ending up in Illinois and dying there is some kind of accident.  I have sent away for his death record, which lists him as Jock or Jack (wouldn't have thought to check under anything except John....duh....).  It was pure serendipity that led me to this magical conclusion.  I don't know why he left his family but my imagination suggests that his difficult childhood probably contributed to these decisions later in his life.  For now, I'm happy to report he's back where he belongs in our little Gloucester family.  What a wild ride this is taking me on!  And there's even more to report soon!!

Happy Thanksgiving Mayflower Descendants!

Happy Thanksgiving! I thought this would be a good time to introduce the Pilgrims in our line--these are from the Ryan line.  I knew it was possible/likely that we had Mayflower connections, but a trip to the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston confirmed it.  And you have to pay attention because it's Thanksgiving and it would be nearly un-American not to pay attention to Pilgrim stories at this time of year.

First of all, part of my hesitation in sharing this with you was kind of stuck in my lack of confirming documentation that we actually descend from Mayflower passengers.  Part of what I learned in Boston was that there's a certain point in family history research at which you can accept what you are given since it's been very well documented by others with much more knowledge, experience and history than you. I don't need to find Richard Warren's birth certificate--that fact is already well researched and accepted knowledge.  The very fact of its presence at this library proves its worthiness.  I don't need to re-prove what's already well proven.  I guess I hadn't really come to that realization yet, though I've had this Mayflower information for nearly 20 years now.

It appears we have (at least) three Mayflower passengers through whom we can claim this honor: Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins and William Brewster.  This is 14 generations ago.

These are documents cousin Ann Gleason possessed and shared with me.  She was working with a couple of other researchers who (I now see) did their work very well.  The outlines above were done by one of them. At number/generation 12 we would have Catherine Pierce (Nanny Ryan) and Paul Ryan Sr.  Generation 13 would be Paul Ryan Jr and Anne Flynn.  Pretty cool, right?  I already had things pretty well sketched out back to generation 8 or so and my time in Boston opened the gates from generation 7 back to the passengers themselves.

There are many many stories about these passengers, their first brutal winter at Plymouth and the first Thanksgiving celebration and it's pretty awesome to think we carry those stories in our very genes.  If you are curious, a really neat Mayflower site is Caleb Johnson's site www.mayflowerhistory.com .

There you will find brief biographies of these people and one of the most intriguing is Stephen Hopkins, who apparently had previously traveled to this new land and spent time in Jamestown VA before coming to Plymouth.  He was quite the rogue it seems, so that fits in pretty nicely with the rest of our story. We actually have 2 connections through him.

Another nice summary can be found at the New England Historic Genealogical website: http://www.americanancestors.org/who-came-on-the-mayflower-pt2/ . I strongly encourage you to check these out.

It's the Pierce family that is our "Yankee" connection.  Who knew? It's interesting to note that our beginnings in Plymouth MA wind their way back through our own ancestry from Gloucester  to Nova Scotia (Nickersons) to Cape Cod and finally back to Plymouth. 

I hope you keep these Pilgrims in mind as you feast this year.  Special Thanksgiving wishes to you all.

James J. Ryan 1864-1937 and his wife Mary A. (Fields) Ryan 1871-1938

James J. Ryan and his fate have been a brickwall for many years.  A brickwall I was finally able to break through on one of my recent visits to the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. A little bit of Irish luck and perseverance helped.

James was our grandfather Grampie's (Paul Ryan Sr.) uncles, so here's our great grand uncle.  He was born in Gloucester, married in Gloucester and 3 of his children were born there.  In the 1900 census, he was listed as a bartender.  SURPRISE! 

Here's an odd little story from the Portsmouth Herald Mar 10 1903 possibly placing him there by then:  Note the "two chooses"

By 1910 he and his wife had added 2 additional children to the family and they were living in Portsmouth New Hampshire where he made a living as a saloon keeper.  I do not know what pushed him out of Gloucester to relocate to Portsmouth, but he was still there at the time of the 1920 census.  Then they drop off the earth, as far as I knew.  I could not locate them in either Gloucester or Portsmouth after the late 1920s.

Here's where the Irish luck and perseverance kicked in.  I made an educated guess as to when they might have died (1930s) and then started searching the Massachusetts Death Index looking for Mary listed with her maiden name Fields.  There were just too darn many James J. Ryans.  God Bless Massachusetts for making records available with extra hints!!!  I found two candidates who died in Boston in the late 1930s (yes, two Mary Fields Ryan!!).  I checked each of them out and found our Mary A. (Fields) Ryan!!!  She was a widow at the time of death so I cross checked James J. Ryan in Boston before her death and found 3 candidates.  One of them is our very own James.  I admit, tears welled up when I looked at the death record.  Finally found and no longer wandering out in there without acknowledgement.   

James' occupation was listed as X Ray orderly at the hospital.  Further inspection of the record showed they had lived in Boston for about 10 years as of 1937, which fit in nicely with my timeline.  My theory is that since their children were all grown and gone, nothing much kept them in Portsmouth and the Depression probably pushed them to Boston to be closer to their children and perhaps employment. 

I have since located James, Mary and one daughter Alice in Boston in the 1930 census, so I feel great relief to have gathered those two back into the fold and "finished" their story.