Irish Immigration

Those who migrated from overseas to the United States in the mid 1800s, usually did so in entire extended families. Many times, parents with their kids, brothers sisters and cousins were involved in this transnational escapade.  This is also particularly true of those immigrating from Ireland and was so up until about the year 1890.  The mid century Irish Immigrants were fleeing starvation. So, they moved from Ireland in a rather chaotic way. They all just wanted to get the heck out of there! This is as opposed to the 1890 and beyond immigrants who were able to choose a more calculated strategy where individuals were moving to America, getting jobs, and sending money home, thus allowing others to move to the U. S. later.

The Great Potato Famine of Ireland took place in the years 1847 to 1852 but its effects lasted for decades with near famine conditions lasting through the 1860s. This is why many more people were immigrating from Ireland than any other country at this time. Most of my Keating ancestors came to America in the time period from 1862 to 1865.

Some genealogists suggest we look for our Irish immigrants’ names on passenger logs so we can see where they came from and where they landed.  It seems logical that his would be a great first step.   However, I have never had very much success in tracking people down in this way. 

People immigrating from Ireland shared their name with many others.  Thomas Keating, for instance, was a very popular Irish immigrant name.  If you found a Thomas Keating on a passenger’s list, all the information you probably would find would be his name, an age, and his occupation.  I have found the ages on passenger lists to be mostly inaccurate and in the  “occupation” column for men all the rows say “Laborer.” This column for the women and children is always left blank.  Some say they have found their ancestors’ names on passenger logs and what a thrill it must have been, but I have not found mine on them.  It has been said the Irish immigrants were always trying to avoid scrutiny.  Perhaps my Irish ancestor were slipperier than most!   

You might think, because the first place in America I found my ancestors living was Brokenstraw, Warren County, Pennsylvania, their ship must have landed in Philadelphia.  However, in the 1870 census, the family says their oldest child, Michael, was born in New York.  So, maybe they landed in Ellis Island, but then again, maybe not.   I know they came from County Clare because that’s what my father and my aunt Mary told me. I now know, by the way, they were right, but I don’t have any idea how my Keating ancestors got from County Clare, Ireland  to Brokenstraw.  However, since I found a man named Thomas Keating in Brokenstraw in an 1870 census and he was the head of the household of a family that looks similar to mine, this is where we will begin our Keating family genealogical journey.  

Oh Susana

In the clipped out portion of the 1870 Brokenstraw, Warren County, Pennsylvania census below, if we can use our imagination and pretend the name “Kacty” or whatever it says, actually means to say “Keating,” we find a family that looks very much like my great grandfather Thomas Keating’s family would have looked like in 1870.

In 1870, my great grandparent’s were Thomas and Margaret Keating and they would have had a son Michael and a daughter Susana, which was actually spelled with 1 “n.” This name was most commonly spelled “Susanna” or “Susannah.”

In this census, we see Michael was born in New York and Susana was born in Pennsylvania. The fact Michael was born in New York tells us the family may have lived in New York before they came to Pennsylvania but I have yet to find any records of them being there.  

I actually drove over to St Peter’s Cemetery and took a picture of Susana’s resting place. Here is the picture I took. It looks to me like the girl in the Keating family in 1870 in Brokenstraw might just be our Susana. I say this, of course, because of the unusual spelling of her name.  

Age is just a Number

The ages entered into censuses are often inaccurate. Sometimes, they are very inaccurate. For this family in the 1870 Brokenstraw census to be our family, they would have to be very inaccurate. Thomas’ death record says he was 54 when he died in 1903. This would mean in 1870, he would have been about 21 instead of 30. If he really was 21 and had a 6 year old son, you have a story! I say this because, to many people, Michael Keating’s age looks like is was jotted down as 6. To me, it just looks like a 1 with an errant mark next to it. Though he would have turned 2 in march, 1 is close enough for an 1870 census.

The Keatings were consistently errant when making their age assessments.  I say this because in the 1900 census, Margaret (Maggie) tells us she was born in June 1847, so in 1870, she would have been 22 or 23 instead of 32 as is stated in the 1870 census.  Later on in this story we will see Margaret Keating Lathrop’s birth record from 1885.  In it, Thomas Keating says he was 45.  This truly would have made him 30 years old in 1870. However, 15 years later in the 1900 census, Thomas says he was born in January, 1850, which would have made him 50 that year.  Aging 5 years every 15 years is what I’ve been trying to do all my adult life!  Anyway, if Thomas was born in January, 1850, he would have been 20 in 1870.  So, figuring out Thomas Keating’s age is a constant work in progress!  I will go with the date he stated he was born, January 1850, instead of the ages somebody, probably not him, jotted down in the different censuses.  

Poor Susana didn’t live long enough to fill out the 1900 census. Her cemetery records show us she died February 8, 1884 at the age of 15. She might not actually had been 15 yet. It was very common for people of that time to round their ages up to the next year if they were within a couple months of their coming age. It was also common for people to put the number of months a very young child was in the column marked age.

The instructions for the age column in the 1870 census were to write “age at last birthday. If under 1, enter in fraction like 5/12.” People in the early days of censuses, particularly immigrants, were not good at following these instructions. Moreover, no one really cared. If Susana was 3 months old, a “3” written down in the box would be good enough for the householder and census taker alike. She may well, by the way, have been 3 months old when the 1870 census was taken because we don’t know exactly when she was born.

Another thing that made ages so inaccurate in the censuses was the fact census takers had a big job to do and the sooner they finished this big job, the better!  So, there was a lot of guessing and lot of friends and neighbors of families were giving the census takers the information. This means a lot of what you read in censuses is not first hand information. In short, an infant could end up being entered as a 2 or 3 year old in the census.  Stuff like this happened all the time.  

The beauty of the 1900 census, where the month and year of everyone’s birth was requested is that a little more time seemed to be taken to get everyone’s birthday correct. At least, in my opinion, the 1900 census seems to be the most reliable one.

Also notice that in the 1900 census, Thomas and Margaret Keating’s children were said to have been born in Pennsylvania. Margaret was born in Connecticut.

The following is the 1900 Keating family census. The family was said to live in South Bey Limits, Danbury Township, Connecticut. This also shows the Collins household next door. In another decade or so, this would become the Stone’s house.

Notice my Grandmother’s name in this census was “Margarette.”

Mr. Keating’s Neighborhood

With the information we’ve seen so far I can see there could be reasonable doubt that this Keating family in 1870 Brokenstraw, Pennsylvania census, was my great grandfather Thomas Keating’s family. However, we will continue to build the case that they are the real deal!

The following is the 1870 Brokenstraw Census that includes the Keating family and one of the families that lived next door to them.

The next door neighbors are Edward and Bridget Crotty. Now lets look at the 1880 census from nearby Ralston, Pennsylvania and please excuse the fact it is crooked.

The Thomas Keating family has the same neighbors, namely the Edward Crotty family. It is interesting that Bridget Crotty only aged 3 years in the last 10 years but as we have discovered in recent paragraphs, other than clean living, there can be other reasons people sometimes age slowly in the world of genealogy. The Keatings have added a couple of more kids, Edward and Thomas and so, they really begin to look like the Keating family who moved to South Bey Limits.

Lets move on to the 1900 census.

Here we have Edward Crotty, now 56 years old. He was 27 in 1870, so that squares. Also, we see Bridget Keating now 50 years old. So, she got her 6 lost years back. Then, there’s Minnie, now 26. She was 7 in the last census 20 years ago. This very much looks like the family that was the Thomas Keating family’s neighbors for many years. In 1900, they weren’t exactly next door neighbors but they lived on Starr St. in Danbury, Connecticut which did (still does) connect South St to Triangle St. So, they lived about a 15 minute walk away from the Keatings who now lived in South Bey Limits on a road that would eventually become Manion’s Lane.

Kissin’ Cousins

We know Margaret Keating became Keating after she married Thomas Keating but knowledge originally passed down through family records is that her married name and her maiden name were both Keating. Thomas and Margaret were first cousins. We have records that show her maiden name was Keating.  

The Sisters Four

One of the records we have shows that Johanna Keating, who would later become Johanna Naughton, was the daughter of Michael Keating and Hanor (usually an abbreviation of Hanora) Boland.  Later we will show Johanna and Margaret were sisters.  Bellow is the baptism record of Johanna Keating from County Clare on December 23 – 1860.

Actually the “a” at the end of Hanor might have been written down in this ancient document but has simply faded away over the past 161 years. I have also seen the name Honor and Honora in these records but my great-great grandmother’s name, I Believe,  was Hanora Boland.

Above is Johanna Keating Naughton’s marriage record.  It is from August 8, 1883.

The word below Johanna in the baptism record, which I can’t read, tells us the dioceses where she was baptized. Her Marriage notice tells us she was 27 years old in 1883 but her baptism record form County Clare is dated December 23, 1860. So, there seems to be a 4 year discrepancy.  I would think she was 23 in 1883.

Though baptism and birth dates can be considerably different, they are not usually far different when the baptism took place in Ireland. Johanna’s 1910 census says she was 50 at that time and her 1920 census says she was 60. These censuses with the baptism record probably give us a more accurate indication of when she was born than her marriage record does and it was probably 1860.

As you can see, Patrick and Johanna Naughton lived on Great Pasture road, even though it is badly spelled in the census. While Great Pasture road is not in the area now known as Manion’s Lane, it is clearly within the borders of South Bey Limits.

Patrick Naughton was also born in Ireland and, like a lot of Danburians of the time, he was a hat shop worker most of his life. Patrick and Johanna had two daughters, Mary and Catherine. I haven’t found very much information about Mary yet. Catherine married Thomas McCloskey.

Next, we need to confirm Johanna Keating was Margaret Keating’s sister.  The following article I found while scrolling a film strip at the Danbury Museum.  If it looks like it had a light bulb shinning through the back of it, that’s because it had a light bulb shinning through the back 0f it.  Finding any information about Margaret Keating Keating is very difficult.  This is one of the reasons I think this obituary is an absolute treasure!  It was in the Danbury News Times on April 23, 1918. 

In this obituary we see Margaret Keating is the sister of Johanna Keating Naughton.  She is also the sister of Miss Mary Keating.

Miss Mary Keating, the other other sister of Margaret and Johanna is sort of hard to track down. Unfortunately, woman of the day were rarely known as Mary Keating or Catherine Jones, for instance. They mostly were known as Mrs. Thomas Keating or Mrs John Jones. So, if you were a single woman you didn’t have much of an identity. Remember that women didn’t have the right to vote until 1920.

To complicate matters, in the life span of Miss Mary Keating, there were probably 10’s of  Mary Keatings living in Danbury, Connecticut! (slight exaggeration)  I found Mary in a 1940 census where age was written in as 75 year old.  She was actually 77. She was living with he sister Johanna’s daughter, Catherine McCloskey.  Johanna passed away in 1931 and Catherine was already a widow.  Immigration years weren’t asked for in the 1940 census but it is certain she immigrated in 1880. 

I have no death record for her but I’m sure that in one of my treks through St Peter’s Cemetery in Danbury, I will stumble upon her. (Hopefully, only in a figurative sense!)  In the census summary below, her address, Prospect St, is spelled very creatively.  Prospect St is in the neighborhood of Sacred Heart Church.  

Fortunately, I also have her baptism record from County Clare.  Mary Keating’s Baptism was on February 11, 1863

So far, we know both Miss Mary Keating’s and Johanna Keating’s parents were Michael Keating and Hanora Boland.  We also know that Margaret Keating Keating was their sister.

As you can see in both the baptism records above, the parents names are Michael Keating and Hanora or Honora Boland.  It is hard to distinguish an “a”  from an “o” in the style of writing at that time but the name Hanora and Honora seemed to be absolutely interchangeable.  In 1863, in Ireland, or just about anyplace for that matter, spelling was a subjective thing. In addition to this, and I mean it in the kindest way, very few people knew how to spell their names back then.  Still, I lean toward “Hanora” when talking about my great-great grandmother Hanora Boland Keating. 

Just knowing Bridgett Crotty’s maiden name was Keating and that she lived in the same neighborhood as Margaret all her American life should be enough proof these two were sisters. We also know that Bridget’s son Thomas Crotty was THE Toddy Crotty who we all knew was a relative of some sort. We now know he was Margaret “Ma” Keating Lathrop’s first cousin. Bridget wasn’t mentioned in Margaret’s obituary because she died first.  Below is the obituary for Mary “Minnie” Crotty who married John W. Dunleavy.  In this article, we show some proof that Bridget Crotty was Bridget Keating Crotty.  Bridget Keating Crotty’s daughter’s Obituary was  from September 27, 1951

It is my belief the obituary above along with the census records make a very strong case that Bridget Keating Crotty was also a sister of Margaret Keating.  

The bottom line is when you put all these records together, you have a rock solid case that Margaret Keating Keating, Bridget Keating Crotty , Johanna Keating Naughton and Miss Mary Keating were sisters.  

Michael J Keating – Chief of Police

As to how many brothers Margaret Keating Keating had, I am not really sure. The one brother I am sure of is Michael J Keating, son of Michael and Hanora Boland Keating, I can only prove our relationship via DNA. In every record I have ever seen about him, the J is included in his name. This is good because throughout the 1880s and 1890s, a couple more Michael Keatings wandered into Danbury, Connecticut.  However, they never used a middle initial.  Michael J’s father, Michael Keating never used a middle initial either.  However, as will see later,  he never made it to the U.S.

Michael J Keating is my Great Granduncle.  In other words, he was my father’s granduncle and my grandmother, Margaret Keating Lathrop’s uncle.  Generally speaking I say this so as not to confuse him with my father’s uncle Mike, brother of my grandmother, Margaret Keating Lathrop.

We have DNA proof which comes from sharing DNA with off spring of Michael J Keating. Several people share DNA with me who have Michael J Keating in their family tree.  The only problem I have with this is he married a girl whose last name was Haugh and we are related to people named Haugh from County Clare.  So, possibly, it only looks like I share some DNA with Michael J because one of our Haugh relatives from County Clare is closely related to his wife and this alone would make us relatives with Michael J Keating’s offspring.  I think we share too much DNA with Michael J’s offspring for this to be the case, but I did want to make this informal disclaimer.   

Also, I have heard  family folklore that tells us we were related to the Danbury Chief of Police even though this passed down family history didn’t explicitly tell us the name of this Chief,  I was lead to believe it was  my Grandmother Margaret’s father, Thomas or his father, Thomas.  As it turns out, it was neither one of those two men.   

Also, it makes sense Michael J was a relative of mine because he was a 4^th ward Keating. He lived very close to his sister Bridget Crotty for a few years and he even had the rather strange address, for a while, of “South Bey Coalpit Hill.”

I’m sure when those of you who are family members just saw the misspelled representation of the word “Policeman,” you thought, yes, I knew there was something about a policeman in this family. I had the same reaction. The policeman was Michael J Keating, brother of our great grandmother Margaret Keating and her sisters.

I imagine, if you were in South Bey Limits, in 1885 and you were on Coalpit Hill and you walked over the hill, you would eventually end up where Manion’s Lane would be in a few years.  So, actually, this might have been where the Michael J Keating family lived when they were said to be on “South Bey Coalpit Hill.”

A little historical note about why this area was called South Bey Limits:  The “Bey” in South Bey limits was short for Beyond.  Before consolidation occurred in Danbury, Connecticut, there was a town of Danbury and a city of Danbury. The town had it’s own first selectman and a complete government that was different from the City of Danbury. The mayor of the city had no jurisdiction over the town.  This seems bad enough but the city was a circle which was surrounded by the town. South Bey Limits was not at all a part of the city of the City of Danbury.  It was beyond the city limits.  Even worse, the bulk of the town of Danbury was way out in King St and Miry Brook and Pembroke.

However, the little strip of land between Wixted Ave and the Bethel town line and the area of Coalpit Hill between about the top of Coalpit Hill  and the Bethel Town Line belonged to the Town of Danbury.  So, to most of the town of Danbury, it was way out of the way!  They wanted to give these areas to Bethel. In the early history of Manion’s Lane, the mail being delivered to Manion’s Lane was delivered by Bethel postmen.  If you wanted to send mail to Manion’s lane, you had to address it to Bethel. It was a strange setup for sure!  For reasons unknown to me, Manion’s Lane’s address changed back to Danbury even before consolidation, but on January 1, 1965, consolidation went into effect and that took care of it for once and for all.  (We think.)

As you can see by the Danbury directory summaries above, Michael J advanced through the ranks very quickly! At one time, Michael J Keating was the toast of the town. Throughout his tenure on the police force there were several articles, such as the one below from the Morning Journal Courier (New Haven), from June 26,1886 that were written about him. To say he was held in high regard by the local press and the people of Danbury, would be an understatement!

The governor of Connecticut at this time was Republican Henry Harrison. The governor of New York was Democrat David Bennett Hill. He just replaced Grover Cleveland who was inaugurated president of the United States in March of 1886.

Though Michael J Keating tracked down a killer in June of 1886, legend has it his real forte was rounding up horse thieves. By the year 1888 things couldn’t have been going better for Michael! He was now the Chief of Police. However, things took a turn for the worse in 1891.  Since I am his great grandnephew, I believe I should have a chance to say what I think on the matter and what I think is that Michael J Keating was railroaded, BIG TIME!!! Every news paper, in the country, it seems, ran with the story below. Typical of this story was the following two pieces of journalistic malpractice; the first from The Danbury News Times on August 29, 1891 and the second from the Stamford Advocate, September 4, 1891.

.

I looked through every record, event or meeting that could have taken place between the middle of August to the early days of September, 1891. The only thing I found was a letter, a deposition actually, forwarded to the common council or some official body.  It was sent to this body on August 19, 1891 to be read at a trial a couple of weeks latter. A key part of this letter declares that Michael J Keating no longer was affiliated with the Danbury Police Force as of July 13^th, 1891. The Newspapers never reported that fact.

There is a typewritten version of this below.

The above document, I assume is in Michael’s handwriting and he signed it. This is very impressive when you consider most people in 1891 would sign any legal document with an “X.”

Here is this document typewritten:

“I am a resident of said town of Danbury. I have been connected with the police force of Danbury almost continuously since 1877 up to July 13th, 1891 in various capacities, have been constable, policeman and head of the police department. I have known Mary A Waters who married Perry G Newton for about 3 years past. About 2 years ago, her parents contacted me and requested me to take her away from a negro man with whom she was living. I was unable to get her to leave the negro. Soon afterwards she was delivered of a child as she admitted to me afterwards. She told me the father of the child lived in Troy. She continued to live with the negro as his wife. On one occasion she applied to the police for protection from him for beating her. She confessed to me that she had been living in a house illforce in Troy and intended to return there. I believe she returned there sometime afterwards and has not been in Danbury recently to my knowledge. The name of the negro with whom she lived and cohabited was William Selleck and he is now a resident of Danbury. She kept house for him. I have no interest in the case in which this deposition is to be used. Dated in Danbury this 19^th day of August A.D. 1891.”

Michael J Keating

The bottom of this document states that Perry G Newton was the plaintiff and Mary A Newton, who I suppose was also Mary A Waters was the defendant. Michael J Keating was a witness who had no interest in the case according to his statement. Also he made the statement that the witness was not attending the trial because he lives more than 20 miles from the trial and is confined to home on account of illness.

It seems there must have been something going on more than this to have the press run with the story that Michael was canned for drunkenness and extortion. There is simply no record of anything like this happening. Remember, by the date stated as his termination date, Michael had been out of the police force for 6 weeks.  So, there is something very fishy about the whole episode.

I think, if that delivered child was Michael’s you would have have something significant but if that was the case, Michael would have had to have been a defendant, not a witness, I would think. Also, the father of the child lived in Troy. Michael did not. The only other thing I can think of was that the common council thought it was time to send Selleck to the slammer for beating a woman even though they had no proof.  Or the council had some sort of blue law in  mind that Selleck might have broken and they could sent him up the river for that.  I don’t think they cared as long as they could get him on something and lock him up for a good long while.  Michael J just didn’t play along. I get the feeling if he did though, there would be no drunkenness scandal and he’d still be Chief of Police today.  (there’s another one of my slight exaggerations) 

Taking into consideration all of the facts I have been able to gather,  I see Danbury, in 1891, might have been operating under the fractured premise that all men are not created equal. Michael J Keating seemed to be the kind of guy who realized someday he would be answering to a power higher than the common council.  So he quit before the common council could fire him and they told the press they fired him anyway.  As you might expect, the press took the easy way out.

Anyway, if I saw one complaint about Michael drinking too much, I would change my mind but instead, the stories the public was getting was stuff like this from the Stamford advocate on September 4, 1891.

After this sorrowful episode, Michael landed on his feet. He was no longer the toast of the town but he was hired very quickly by a hat factory at job with which he had experience. He probably had to absorb a cut in pay and sadly, he still had to read inaccurate reporting like this article from The (New Haven) Morning Courier Journal on December 1 – 1895.

The names of Michael J Keating’s children were:
Arthur E. who received a doctorate, Michael, Joseph, Jennie, Mary, Margaret, Katherine, Loretta, Robert, and William. He had no child named named James.

I can’t say with any certainty the birth record of the James Keating below is the James Keating referenced in the article above.  However, this is only James Keating I could find in the birth records in Danbury who would have been around the same age as one of Michael J Keating’s children.

This record above refers to the birth of Keating, James, born  March 26, 1880, Father: Michael Keating, Mother: Margaret Rooney.  As we know, Michael J Keating was married to Bridget Haugh.  The Michael Keating who was the father of James Keating had several children with Margaret Rooney.  It is absolutely impossible Michael J Keating had a child with Margaret Rooney.  

I don’t know if any of Michael and Bridget’s kids were actually “bad.” I know that their daughter Mary was married to John Fay who was a big wig real estate guy. I know Robert J Keating’s obituary said he was the proprietor of a billiard parlor, which is interesting. I also know that Michael J’s daughter Margaret Keating was married to John Francis Moran and one of their sons was Joseph Moran but not the Joseph Moran who lived on the corner of Manion’s Lane. This Joseph Moran lived on Houseman St (off Mountainville Ave) for many years. 

Still, it seems there were no bad kids amongst Michael J and Bridget’s children. There was, however, really bad journalism surrounding Michael J Keating and he truly was victimized by it!

The following, which is not bad journalism,  is Margaret Keating Moran’s obituary.

Michael J’s oldest son was Arthur E Keating. He was born in 1869 and died in 1958. He lived most of his life in Queens New York. Though he was an M.D., his claim to fame was that of of Democrat Party Leader.  I guess you could say he was a party boss. Arthur’s Obituary was quite mundane as he had no offspring, but when his dad, Michael J died, Arthur’s New York City friends wrote a real humdinger of an obit for him. I wouldn’t say it was 100% true but it’s really worth reading, that’s for sure, and it really does put a positive light on Michael J Keating!  It is from The Brooklyn Daily Times and shows us how loose with the facts the press used to be.  (I had to have a shot of whiskey before I could type the phrase “used to be!”)

Because it was so difficult to determine Michael J Keating was part of my family tree, I have to wonder if all his bad press caused him to be ostracized by his family.  If so, this would be a sad side note to what should have been a very happy story!  In any event, now we know about Michael J Keating, Danbury Chief of Police, a man whose honesty wasn’t appreciated or even tolerated by the elders of his day.  

Cousin Martin E Keating

At one time I thought there was another brother in this family named Martin E Keating. I had lots of reasons to think so!  Martin E Keating was born in County Clare, Ireland in 1853 or possibly 1852. He lived, like the Naughton family, on Great Pasture Rd. He lived there from the mid 1880s until his death in 1926. Great grandmother Margaret could see his house by looking out one of her windows. After she was buried in St. Peter’s cemetery in 1918, about 8 years later, he was buried in a plot about 100 feet from hers.

The Martin Keating grave is pictured above.

I also have shared DNA with someone who Ancestry says is my 3rd cousin. Ancestry makes this assessment based on how many centimorgans we share with each other. It is my assessment that the only person she has in her family tree that could possibly be the reason she is my 3rd cousin is her great-great grandfather is Martin E Keating who lived in Danbury.  If the young woman who Ancestry says is my 3rd cousin, is indeed, my 3rd cousin, Martin would have to be my great grandmother Margaret’s brother.

However, I can’t find any genealogical records that show Margaret and Martin to be siblings. The baptism records for Kilballeyowen (The diocese our Keating family was from) in County Clare cover the years 1853 through until 1872.  I find no baptism record for Martin E Keating.  Then again, he might have been born before 1853.  While searching his genealogical records however, we find Martin very probably had a brother John and a brother Daniel, who were both hatters in Danbury.  They were both younger than Martin.   So, their records would be available in the Kilballeyowen diocese of County Clare baptism records, but I can find no baptism records for them.  So, probably they were born in another diocese. 

There are several of my 3rd cousins who have had their DNA taken. Some of these people I know and I know they are my 3rd cousins. The number of centimorgans I share with them varies between 25 and 38. The person with whom I share Martin E Keating as a common relative, I share only 20 centimorgans with. So, theoretically, while it is possible the person Ancestry says is my is my 3rd cousin once removed truly is, I believe she is my 4th cousin once removed. Still, this would make Margaret Keating Keating and Martin E Keating 1st cousins and so, they were closely related and I would think, knew one another quite well.  They just weren’t from the same diocese in County Clare and they had different parents.  That’s the way I see it for now, at least.  Also, Michael J Keating did not show up in Margaret Keating’s obituary because he predeceased her. He died in 1916, she died in 1918,  In those days, obituaries didn’t mention predeceased relatives.  Martin Keating was still alive at the tine of Margeret’s death and so, should have been mentioned as surviving her if the two were siblings.  So, brother and sister, probably Martin and Margaret were not.  It’s too bad!  A brother named Martin E would have added a nice touch to this story!  I’m holing out hope I’m wrong about him only being a cousin.  

BUT!!! I hear you say! Couldn’t Martin had been great grandfather Thomas Keating’s brother??? Yes, Theoretically. However, Thomas had a brother Martin Keating who died in Oil City, Pennsylvania in 1890. We’ll talk more about Thomas’ brothers a little later.  

However, there is more to say about Martin E Keating. He was a solid guy.  Martin was married to Mary Halpine. She was the daughter of Michael Halpine. The name Mary Halpine is a tricky one because she has a cousin also named Mary, actually this cousin’s name is Mary Jane and she married Richard Meaney. Halpine is also a tricky name because it is spelled “Halpine” but it is pronounced Halpin. 

Mary Halpine, daughter of Michael Halpine grew up with the name Rosana. I went through her family genealogy and found no other member of her family married to a Keating.  Therefor, her father’s will, below,which refers to her as Rosana, is strong indicator that Mary Rosana or Rosana Mary Halpine was the person from the Halpine family who was married to Martin Keating.

In any event, both Mary Halpines are buried in joining plots in St. Peter’s Cemetery. Next to the Martin Keating plot is the Thomas Halpine plot. Thomas Halpine is Mary Jane Halpine Meaney’s father and Mary Rosana Halpine Keating’s uncle.

I asked AI if Rosana is an Irish name and here’s what it told me.
“While it does not have a Gaelic root, Rosana (and its variant Rosanna) is listed by some genealogical sources as a name frequently found in Ireland and Britain because it evolved from shared religious and linguistic influences during the late medieval period.”

The following will of Michael Halpine shows us he was important to South Bey Limits because he owned a great big part or it!

I have a type written version of this will below it.

Land 1 – 18 acres more or less

Bounded north by land of Michael Wixted and Timothy Manion

East by land of Michael Collins and heirs of John Delury
South by land of Edward Manion and heirs of John Curtin

West by land of Michael Wixted and land of Patrick Lynch

Appraised at $1,000.00

One other piece of land with buildings thereon standing. Contains 6 acres land is bounded:

north by land of heirs of John Delury,

east by highway

south of land by John Kane

west by land of Edward Manion

Appraised at $1,400.00

To see another perspective of land 2’s location, we can look at where many of the members of the Michael Halpine’s family lived after Michael passed away in 1884.

As you can see, it looks like Michael Halpine’s property 2 was right on the main roads (South St and Grassy Plain St) on the Danbury/Bethel town line.

Land 1 seems to be what we knew as the Bernie Dolan property which extended behind the Collins property to Fairfeld Ridge on the west and Wixted Ave on the north.

Hanora Boland Keating and her Daughters come to South Bey Limits

Neither property was said to have bordered any land owned by a person named Crowe or Keating. I make this observation because of this article below from The Danbury Evening Farmer on August 30th (my birthday) 1871.

One thing to keep in mind, in the 1800s, if land was between 1 and 2 acres, even if it was 1.95 acres, it was considered a 1 acre plot.

Before the article above was in the paper, they published the one bellow on May 5, 1870.  The building going on here is referred to as being in Grassy Plain, which is actually in Bethel.  While South Bey Limits is very close to Bethel, most of this building was  happening on the Danbury side of the town line.

In 1875, a gentleman named in the article above, Michael Creagh died. He was born in County Clare, of course.  The court assigned a couple of people to be the appraisers of the property.  In these days, they were always men who were assigned and, since there were no professional appraisers in the 1870s, they would always find men who were familiar with the prices of real estate in the neighborhood.  Needless to say, they usually picked guys who lived in the neighborhood.  The land, and building was here:

So, the land was bordered on the north by land of James Manion and south by land of John Hassett.  Both James Manion’s and John Hassett’s land were on, what would one day be called  Manion’s Lane. So, clearly this land was in South Bey Limits and the men chosen to appraise this land are mentioned bellow.

These two men were Patrick Wixted, who owned a lot of real estate on the south side of town and Michael Keating, but not just Michael Keating, Michael J Keating.  His signature on the document above is the same as the signature on the deposition he wrote when he told the common council to go pound sand.  In other words, this is definitely my great granduncle, Michael J. Keating.

I think the following is quite pertinent, tool.  I am thinking in terms of Bridget Keating Crotty and her family living on Starr St. and it definitely has to have been Michael J Keating who bought this house!

The more we study what was happening with this Michael Keating buying and building real estate on the south side of Danbury, the more we will conclude this Michael Keating  was Michael J Keating, the soon to be, at this time, Chief of Police.  His signature on the Michael Creagh’s property appraisal proves it.  

I am now convinced Michael J’s father, Michael Keating, never made it to the states.  Now that we know the guy who was buying the properties was Michael J, we have absolutely no records of his father being in the U.S. whatsoever! In short, I think Michael, the father, stayed home. He very well may have passed away before his wife Hanora and daughters Johanna and Mary boarded a ship to America.  

Also, now that we know Michael J was putting up house for Bridget and buying land, at least, for Margaret, it brings us further proof that he was Bridget and Margaret Keating’s brother.  

Johanna put down her immigration year as 1879 in  one census and 1880 in another but, close enough!  I don’t have an immigration year for Mary but it has to be 1880.  It looks like we found my great-great grandmother already in South Bey Limits, in June of 1880.  She was living with the Andrew M Collins family.  

The picture above is of a blown up piece of the 1880 census. In it, you will see the name Keating and maybe the first name will look like Hanora if you have a good imagination. However, in the cloud that appears when you hover your mouse over this written name, you see the name typewritten as Hanora Keating. The people who transcribe these ancient hand written documents into typed words are wonderful. It’s a hard job they have and they do it very well. I believe this transcriber got this one 100% correct when he or she typed it out as “Hanora Keating!”

By the way, though you can’t see it, Hanora was listed as 65 years old in the 1880 census.  This means her youngest child, Mary would have been born when she was 48 year sold. Michael J was born when she was 28.  So, she could have children older than Michael.  Also, there is is 4 year gap between Michael J and Margaret.  A lot of Irish families could squeeze in another 3 or 4 births in that amount of time.  My hunch is, though, we have found all of Michael and Hanora’s children, at least, all of those that lived.  There were a lot of still births in those days and lots of woman in County Care didn’t get married until they were 25 to 28 years old.  

For full disclosure; there was a woman named Hanora (actually Honora) Keating who lived in Newtown. Her husband’s name was Bernard. She died in 1896 and is buried in St Rose cemetery. It doesn’t seem logical this Hanora/Honora Keating would have been boarding in the Collins household in Danbury.

What is logical though is my great-great grandmother’s name was Hanora Keating and we did find a Hanora Keating having a presence in the south side of Danbury.  This presence began in 1880 when she and her daughters Johanna and Mary immigrated to the states. 

So, here’s another one.  The transcriber did a great job here too but the person doing the writing was having an off day.  There are many people who go through their life with the name “Keaton” or “Keyten” when their ancestors’ names were actually “Keating” for the following reason, many people will never master the art of spelling.  I know because Sister Luca told me so almost everyday!   Anyway, you can be sure this is our Johanna Keating living as a “Servant” with the Michael Collins family 1880.

Here’s another screenshot just for good measure.

Here you can see the census taker is saying she is 15 .  Seeing that she was born in December, 1860 and the census was taken in June of 1880, she would be turning 20 in about 6 months. Despite the age being off a bit, I completely believe this is Johanna Keating, soon to be Johanna Naughton of Great Pasture Rd.  

We’re not quite sure where Mary might have lived each and every year but, and we don’t even know where she was when the census was taken in 1880.  In fact, I was never able to find her in any of the censuses until 1940.  I think every time the census taker came by, she went to the outhouse.  In 1940, though, they had indoor plumbing.  That’s when they finally caught up to her!  She was definitely one of those slippery Keatings!  At least we know, she lived her final years on Prospect St with Johanna’s daughter’s family, the McCloskeys.  Also, we surely know in June of 1880, she was sleeping her nights away in one of the Collins’ homes in South Bey  Limits.  

Edward and Bridget Keating Crotty and family were living on Starr St, by 1891, at least, that is the earliest I could find them there.  They were still in Ralston, Pennsylvania when the 1880 census was taken and the Danbury city directories didn’t start being published until the late 1880s.  Still, we know they lived on Starr St for quite a while.  The address was actually 7 Starr St.  

Also, it now makes sense the land Michael J Keating bought for $200 was probably the land I grew up on!  Unfortunately, I have yet to find out what happened to Hanora after 1880 but there were no more censuses until the year 1900.  By that time, it is safe to say, since we hear no more from her, she had passed.  

Now let’s un-closeup the 1880 census and see what else is on it.

The following is a list of the families on the 1880 census page.  It is pretty much the entire population of South Bey Limits at that time.  
Carney
Crow, could possibly be Crowe 
McDaniel
Hasset
Lynch
Mabie
Collins (Michael)
Keating (Johanna)  A servant for the Michael Collins family
Barry
Delury
Collins (Andrew M)
Keating (Hanora) lived with the Andrew M Collins family’s
Lynch

I am convinced there was a family connection between the Collins and the Keatings going way back to County Clare.  I have found I have a bit of DNA shared with people named Collins who have family trees.  Though I am not sure it is a Collins  I share this DNA with in every one of these family trees, it is somewhat an indicator because this shared DNA shows up between myself and many Collins family trees.  Though it is a small amount of DNA shared, it might explain what Hanora and Johanna were doing living with Collins families.

The Thomas Keating Family Arrival in South Bey Limits

We know Thomas Keating’s family wasn’t in South Bey Limits in June of 1880 Because they filled out their Ralston, Pennsylvania census there that month, but Hanora Boland Keating was living in South Bey Limits by 1880. So, Johanna and Mary had to be there too. We also know Johanna was married in Danbury in 1883.   The first Danbury City Directory where I saw of my great grandfather Thomas Keating, father of Margaret Keating Lathrop, living in South Bey Limits was in 1890. From then, until his death in 1903, he was listed in it every year.  He probably was living in South Bey Limits long before 1890 but he hadn’t been discovered until then.  Besides, city directories didn’t start getting published until the late 1880s.  

We have to remember though, according to the 1900 census, my grandmother Margaret Keating Lathrop was born in 1885, in Connecticut. This another sign all the Keatings were moved in to South Bey Limits early in the 1880s and probably actually, by the year 1880. 

Looking back at Margaret Keating’s obituary from 1918, it told us she moved to Danbury (“This town,” it said) 39 years ago. That would be 1879. The Keatings were positively wonderful people but math was not their strong suit because Thomas Keating’s family were included the 1880 Ralston, Pennsylvania census.  However, they could have moved to Danbury later in the year 1880. I would think Edward and Bridget Keating Crotty would have made their move at the same time.  So, it certainly looks like all the Keatings were in Danbury, at least, by 1880.  

Speaking of Margaret Keating Lathrop’s birth record.  It is bellow.  It is from the birth records in Danbury City Hall. It shows she was born in Danbury, July 20 – 1885.  

The Collins and The Keatings’ Forever Neighbors!

The Collins’ had a South Bey Limits presence in 1870.  The head of their household then was Bridget O’Connor Collins.  As far back as the 1850 census, we find Bridget and her husband Thomas Collins (1804 – 1870) in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.  The Keatings lived in this same county for a while before they made their move to Connecticut.  Schuylkill  County must be like a minor league people for moving from County Clare to Danbury.  Actually, when Thomas Collins lived there, he was a Miner.  So I guess Schuylkill County was actually a Miner league. This is true, even though my great grandfather started there as railroad Worker.  This is the profession he stayed in after he moved to Danbury.  

Thomas and Bridget Collins’ son Michael Collins didn’t always live in South Bey Limits.  Evidence of this is shown by the fact his oldest son Andrew J was born in Brooklyn.  Andrew though, lived out his life in South Bey Limits after moving in at a very young age.  Also, Michael and the rest of his family were there by 1880, the same year as their neighbors, The Keatings.  

In a genealogical sense, 1880 doesn’t seem that long ago, but it was 33 years before my father was born in South Bey Limits and he never lived anywhere else. My grandfather Edward Starr Lathrop married Margaret Keating on Jan 12, 1910.  Next door to him, Elizabeth Stone married John Stone on Nov 27, 1912 and the forever neighbors continued.  By the time 1920 rolled around, South Bey Limits was “South Street Rd.”  Sometimes, it was even known by stranger names!

My father , Edward J Lathrop, was always very close to his neighbors, the Stone family in particular.  Growing up through the great depression was a whole different ball game.  People needed one another to get through it.  

Mrs. Stone, Teeny, as we knew her, was family to us.  Below, is her her birth record.  In it, is proof you don’t officially give your baby his or her name until the baptism, at least, when you are Roman Catholic.  I say this because it looks like Mrs. Stone was originally named “Kate.”

Andrew M Collins, whose  household Hanora Keating was a part of,  was not Andrew J Collins, son of Michael Collins. In 1880, that Andrew Collins was 2 years old. Andrew M and Michael Collins were almost next door neighbors. There were two houses between them in 1880. In 1900, there were many houses between them. To my knowledge, neither of the families moved to a different house but many houses were build between them and in South Bey Limits in general.

Andrew M Collins lived in his house for many years. All the records I have of him are from 1880 to 1930 and it looks like he always lived in the same house, but surely, at least he lived in the same neighborhood. He was born in 1844 and died in 1939. His obituary said he was 97 when he passed. When he was born, his life expectancy was 40. Whether he lived until he was 97 or only 95, he had a good run! If he really was 97 when he died, he outlived his life expectancy by 142.5%.  When I was born, my life expectancy was 65.6 years.  If I outlive that age by 142.5%, I will live into my 160th year!  That’s a good deal!  I might just be getting started!

Andrew M Collins and Michael Collins both had sons named Andrew J Collins. Michael’s son Andrew was a South Bey Limits Lifer and Danbury hatter through and through. Andrew, son of Andrew M was a businessman in Norwalk. He ran a furniture store and later combined it with a funeral parlor. This was similar to the business his South Bey Limits neighbor, Nellie Delury ran next door to St. Peter’s Church in Danbury.

Andrew M Collins and Michael Collins were not brothers, relatives I surely believe, but not brothers. This is according to another genealogist, probably someone in the family. I will not question their genealogy. It seems well researched.

Another Keating Family

There was a tailor named Patrick Keating. He and his family lived on Cottage St. He was born in 1828. When I first discovered him, I thought he was Martin E Keating’s father. However, it didn’t turn out that way. Martin was a County Clare boy. From the little we know about Patrick, it looks like he was born in Tipperary. Tipperary and Clare border one another. So, even though in this case it isn’t a long, long way to Tipperary, we can conclude Patrick is not immediate family. He was a really cool guy, for sure, but not a great-granduncle or anything like that!

Later we will find out there was another man named Patrick Keating who was a heavy hitter in our extended Keating family but it wasn’t the Patrick above.  

The Keating family move to Danbury seems to have been done upon a collective decision by the Margaret Keating side of the family. Margaret had her 3 sisters, Bridget, Johanna and Mary, lived pretty much in same the neighborhood. Her brother Michael J Keating practically owned the town until he did the wrong thing by doing the right thing.  Margaret even had a first cousin, Martin E Keating, who seemed to be close too, living just a stone’s throw away. Without a doubt, they all met every Sunday morning at St. Peter’s Church, and if they were anything like any Irish family I ever knew, they got together right after mass to have a few beers. BUT… What about my great grandfather Thomas Keating? Was he an only child??? No Emphatically! He was not!

Thomas J Keating’s Siblings

Bridget Keating Brennan

Let’s look at the 1870 Brokenstraw, Pennsylvania census again.

Notice there is a 50 year old Johanna Keating (top row) living with an 18 year old Bridget (2^nd row). It kind of makes you think this that this could well be a mother daughter thing. Therefore, it would probably be wise to learn a little bit more about this Bridget Keating. Well, we’re in luck because we just happen to have her baptism record from Kilballeyowen diocese in County Clare.

Like all these records, it is very hard to see clearly but we have the makings of a name that says “Bridget Keating” on the left. There were so many Bridgets in County Clare they used to abbreviate this name in the strangest of ways. My favorite was “Biddy.” Sometimes they would use the abbreviation “Briet.” This looks like one of those times.

I don’t know what parish it says she was in but in the center column it says Thomas Keating at the top for one of her parents. I know it looks like it has an “e” at the end of Keating, but that’s the writing style lot’s of the Irish used in in County Clare. Below Thomas, I see Joanna, though not Johanna which was her name sometimes. I know it’s a weird looking “Joanna,” but when I magnify it, I can see every letter. It’s kind of a tight “o” with very faint ink on the right side of it and it connects to the “a.” It took a little time to reconstruct the “J” in mind, but I saw it after a while, now I can’t un-see it.

Lastly, we see her last name was Haugh. It looks a lot like Huugh but it is Haugh, which unlike Huugh, was a very common name in County Clare at that time.

This Bridget Keating, as opposed to Bridget Keating Crotty, was baptized on April 17, 1853. So, somebody wrote down in the census she was 18 years old.  That’s close enough! Through all her records throughout her lifetime, this Bridget Keating, who would become Bridget Keating Brennan, used 1853 as her birth year.  This made her easy to track.  

Thomas “Kacty” Keating, who was a railroad worker and said he was 30 years old but we’re not really sure exactly how old he ever was, was on the 5^th row down. We know he is living next door to his wife’s sister Bridget Keating Crotty(4^th row), so this is a strong indicator he is my great grandfather, Thomas Keating. What we didn’t see before, though was Thomas was living in the same building as his mother and his sister Bridget.  Below is his death record from Danbury, Connecticut.

The most important information here is right below the Thomas J. This is where it tells us the names of the deceased’s parents. Here it says Thomas Keating and Johanna Haugh. For what it’s worth, Haugh is pronounced like Hoff. Also, for what is worth, this definitely makes Bridget Keating Brennan his sister.  

While we’re on the subject of Thomas J Keating’s death, he died from a cerebral Hemorrhage that occurred when his foot was being amputated and it had to be amputated because he had gangrene! WOW!!!

Even though the writing of the word “Joanna” in Bridget’s baptism record is fractured, we have all already determined this Thomas J Keating is my great grandfather and now we have established Thomas J Keating and the 18 year-old Bridget Keating Brennan in this census are brother – sister.

Now, let’s go ahead a few years and take a look at this Bridget Keating’s obituary. At the time of her death she was Bridget Brennan or, Mrs Michael Brennan and she lived in Oil City, Pennsylvania.

This doesn’t really add more information to that we already have but it does, at least confirm her father was someone named Thomas Keating.

John Keating

Looking back, once again, to the 1870 Brokenstraw census. In the row where the head of the last household on the page is John Keating. The census infers he was born in 1835 but he was actually born in 1838 and died in 1894. He, too, lived in Oil City.  In later ,years we found his children’s names in Brokenstraw census match up perfectly with his Oil City censuses.  

Here is his obituary.

This tells us he has a brother James, a sister Bridget Brennan, and a brother Bernard from Salamanca, NY.  I thought his brother who many call Bernard, was Barnard because he often was referred to as Barney. Nonetheless, his life span was from 1852 to 1920. Also his wife’s name was Mary Stapleton.  Also, it is important to note that any brother of Bridget Brennan is a great granduncle of mine.  

I know of a person who Ancestry says is my 3^rd cousin because, Ancestry says we share a 3^rd cousin amount of DNA. I have posted his family tree below. I have cut off the lower branches of his family tree in the picture below just to avoid using his name without his permission. Keating is the only name that matches my tree to his. Take a look at whose at the top of this 3^rd cousin’s tree. 

As you can see, the person who owns this tree and I are are 3^rd cousins because this 3^rd cousin’s great grandfather Bernard or Barnard Keating is my great grandfather Thomas Keating’s brother.

Barney Keating

Here is Barney’s obituary. Below that obituary is the obituary of his wife, Mary Stapleton Keating. Notice that her Mass was said by Barney’s brother Jame’s son, Father Joseph Keating

James Keating

This brings us to James Keating, (1843 – 1919) who was mentioned as a brother in both John and Bernard’s  obituary. We have an absolute ton of genealogical proof that James is Thomas’s brother!  James was from from the town of New Kensington, which is a suburb of Pittsburgh. In 1870, he was living in one of the apartments in the tenement building where his sister Bridget Keating Brennan, brothers Thomas and John and mother Johanna, were also living. James was also a Railroad worker. He had a great Irish family! His wife was Mary and she was 10 years younger than he was. His children are below.

John W. Keating
1871–1904

Anna Matilda Keating Allen
1873–1933

Margaret L. Keating Meyer
1875–1946

Thomas P Keating
1877–1905

James M Keating
1879–1953

Mary E Keating
1881–1961

Edward H Keating
1883–1889

Fr Joseph Bernard Keating
1885–1942

Frances Keating
1887–1970

Charles Keating
1890–1971

Jane B. Keating Brown
1891–1957

James’ picture is above!  Also, one of his offspring posted the picture below on Ancestry. He is the second from the left. He was the foreman. I wonder if he looked a lot like Thomas because we have no pictures of James brother, my great grandfather, Thomas J Keating.    

We positively know James Keating is the brother of Thomas because James is the brother of Bridget Brennan and Bridget and Thomas have the same parents. Still, we have lots of DNA that tie us to James.

According to our DNA, the late Roger Morgan and his brother, the late Dr. Peter Morgan are my 3^rd cousins. Their family tree shows us their great grandfather is James Keating (1843 – 1919) and that their great-great grandmother was Johanna Haugh. It also goes back a step further to her father James Haugh. Johanna also had a bother James, a brother, Connor and a sister Mary though these three are not entered in this tree. Like with all Irish families, there were probably a lot more members of it.

The following tree belongs to a 4^th cousin of mine. She is a 4^th cousin because we don’t have a mutual ancestor until we reach our great -great-great grandfather, James Haugh.

Note that the owner of the tree has been cut off the bottom because she is still alive. Also, note we had previously determined Johanna Haugh not only had father named James but also a brother James.

We have now determined Johanna’s mother was Mary Keane. Another version of the O’Rourke tree below, helps illustrate it. 

Martin Keating

Another brother of the brothers of Thomas Keating was Martin Keating. His obituary is below. In it, Mrs M Brennan is mentioned. This, of course, is Bridget Keating Brennan. Also J Keating is mentioned. This is James Keating and Barney Keating is of course, Bernard or Barnard Keating and his wife Mary Stapleton Keating.

These are all the siblings I have for my great grandfather Thomas Keating.  It is possible more records will show up but for now, this is all we have.  Bellow is the family tree of Thomas, his siblings, his parents with a few aunts and uncles and one set of his grandparents.

And .. the following is the family tree showing Margaret Keating Keating, her siblings, parents and the children of Margaret and Thomas Keating

Another Branch of the Keating Tree

Since we know Thomas J Keating and his wife Margaret Keating were cousins, and we know they both were named Keating.  We have then deducted Thomas Keating, the elder and Michael Keating, the elder, were brothers.  This, of course, is not news.  However, there was a 3rd brother, his name was Patrick. He is not Patrick the tailor.  This Patrick was a little older.  He was born in 1803 in County Clare. (of course) His children’s names were Bridget, (of course) Johanna (of course) Bernard (of course) Martin (of course) and Catherine. (of course)  There could be more.  I have not really searched this family. I only stumbled upon them.

Patrick settled down in Newtown and some of these Keatings have even crossed paths with one of my other family tree names, Keenan.  This part of the Keating family even married into the Troy family as did a member of my Lathrop family later down the road, or should I say down  the tree.  

Now that I have completed what I’ve set out to do for the last 45 years, which is to write a story about the Keating Family of South Bey Limits, I will study this Patrick Keating clan a little bit and see what I come up with but I must give a warning, there are a LOT of them and they all seem to live in Newtown. Each member of this Keating branch who is in my age bracket is a 3rd cousin of mine.  So, all you cousins of mine will be adding about a hundred new relatives!  

Also, there is another brother, John Keating and he has offspring all over the place.  I’ll see if I can do any of his genealogy too!  Then, who knows who else I might find?  

Murty Dowd

To end the story, at least, for now, we will once again refer to the 1870 Brokenstraw census.  You will see, listed in between some Keating families, there was a guy named “Murty Dowd.”  The original Irish name for which Murty was the nickname was Muircheartach.  I have no idea how one would pronounce that name!  Thankfully, through the years it was shortened to Murtagh.  Murty was married to Mary Mirthe.  She was  the sister of their next door neighbor in the 1870 census, Michael Mirthe.  We can’t find anything on the Mirthe family.  Maybe the name is misspelled.  Dowd, on the other hand was a very popular County Clare name.  Perhaps the Keatings and Dowds are related somewhere along the line because that would explain what the Dowds were doing on a census page dominated by the Keating family.  In any event, Muircheartach did alright in life.  He ended up in White Plains, New York and I even found his obituary.  

From the White Pains Argus May 19 – 1903 

This Keating family and in general, the people who came from County Clare to the U.S. were amazing people.  They only wanted a chance at a better life and a lot of them did great! They were all respectful people.  After reading what they went through, I’m never going to complain about anything again! 

I can see more being added to this story periodically.  The more people who have their DNA done and upload their trees to Ancestry or Gedmatch or any of the other DNA sites, the more DNA matches we will find.  As y0u can see, a lot of the information that has confirmed who some of my relatives are has come from DNA matching.  There are a lot of 3rd cousins I never knew of who have DNA that matched some of mine and this resulted another entry into my tree.  From here, DNA matching will keep growing and growing and growing! 

The End for now

Genealogy never ends but I’m taking a short break.

It is a beautiful thing that I’ve written this story on a blog, so I can change it or add to it anytime and I surely will.  So, keep coming back!  

It’s also a beautiful thing that I’ve written about something that is very meaningful to me.  Every second I have spent doing it has been a pleasure!

Skipper

Lathrop Genealogy

Who Was Abraham Foote?

Abraham Foote, also known as Captain Abraham Foote, was a Captain in the Connecticut militia during the Revolutionary War. Captain Foote fought in Colonel Andrew Ward’s regiment. He was a Connecticut Minuteman and commanded the local minutemen throughout the state. Connecticut was heavily targeted by the British and Captain Foote kept local Militias all over the state prepared.

One of the many battles Captain Foote fought in was The Raid on Danbury. This was the raid that Sybil Ludington made her famous country side ride alerting the troops throughout Putnam County of the British incursion when they were burning the town. In this battle, Captain Foote worked with Sybil Ludington’s uncle, Colonel Henry Ludington. Colonel Ludington ran a spy ring in New York States and was closely affiliated with General George Washington.

There is no doubt Captain Foote worked tirelessly to help win American Independence and he is widely recognized as a Revolutionary War hero. He is recognized by both The Sons of The American Revolution and The Daughters of The American Revolution.

Abraham Foote’s great-great grandfather, Nathaniel Foote (1593-1644), originally from Shalford, Braintree District, Essex, England, was one of the founders of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Overall, the Foote family is one of the most prominate of the early American families.

To my cousins and I, Captain Abraham Foote is our great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. He was married to Abigail Rogers. He was born in Branford, CT in 1725 and died in Woodbury, CT in 1823. Yes he lived well into his 99th year!

While studying the Foote family, I found we were related to some very famous people. Below is a relationship chart showing our relationship to one of them.

That’s right, it’s cousin Walt Disney. He was my 9^th cousin twice removed, so actually, he was my grandfather Starr Lathrop’s 9^th cousin. “It’s a small world after all!”

Skipper

On February 20th, 1907, my great, great grandmother Mary Lillis Keenan passed away.  The Keenan’s, Mary and Michael and their offspring were known as a wealthy family.  Other than the Hawley family, who owned most of Hawleyville, the Keenans were thought to be the second richest family in Newtown.  Little did anyone know, until Mary’s death, the entire family, in actuality, might not have been wealthy at all.  It looks like it was Mary, herself, that owned all the goods! This included the land, the house, which sounds like a real mansion, the horses, cows, chairs, tables, and everything else.  Everything was in her name.  So, when she died, she left it to whomever she pleased.  this “whomever” turned out to be her eldest daughter Catherine and her husband, the already opulent Michael Delohery.  Michael Delohery was a lawyer and the proprietor of M Delohery and Sons Hat Factory on Liberty Ave, Danbury.  Still, little did he know, or perhaps he did know, when his mother-in-law died, he would become even wealthier.

Here is Mary Keenan’s will:

“To the Probate Court of the district of Newtown, estate of Mary Keenan, late of Newtown in said district deceased. The subscriber represents that Mary Keenan last dwelt in the Town of Newtown, in said District, and died on the 20th day of Feb. A.D. 1907 possessed of goods and estate remaining to be administered leaving a husband whose name is Michael Keenan, and as her only heirs – at – law and next of kin, the persons whose names, residences, and relationship to the deceased are as follow, viz:

Names, Residences, Relationship

Catherine Delohery, Danbury, Conn, Daughter

Edward Keenan, Danbury, Conn, Son

Thomas Keenan. Danbury, Conn, Son

Michael Keenan, Danbury, Conn, Son

Mrs. Anna Lathrop, Bethel, Conn, Daughter

Julia Fanning, Newtown, Conn, Granddaughter

and that said deceased left a will herewith presented for probate wherein Michael Delohery of Danbury, Conn, is named as Executor. Wherefore your petitioner prays that said will may be proved, approved, allowed and admitted to probate and letters testamentary may be granted to the executor therein named Michael Delohery, Executor to the Probate Court for the District of Newtown. The subscriber make return that pursuant to the order of said Court he gave public notice of the pendency of the foregoing application, and the time and place of hearing thereon by publishing the same and said order in the Newtown Bee, a newspaper having a circulation in said District , and by posting a copy thereof on the public sign – post in the Town of Newtown six days before said time assigned.
Michael Delohery Executor Subscribed and sworn to this 6th day of April A.D. 1907 ,

before me William J. Beecher Judge

I, Mary Keenan of Newtown, County of Fairfield and State of Connecticut do make, publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all other wills by me at any time hereto before made.

First, after all my lawful debts and funeral expenses are paid, I give, devise and bequeath to my daughter Catherine Delohery, wife of Michael Delohery of Danbury, in said Fairfield County the Homestead where I now live in said Newtown, being a tract of land containing thirty two acres more or less with a dwelling house and two barns thereon, and being land purchased from James Lake and bounded on the East by land of Homer Hawley on the West by land of Amos Hawley and on the and South by my other land, to her my said Daughter Catherine and her heirs absolutely and in fee simple, subject however, to the life use of my husband and Michael Keenan if he survive me so long as he may live.

Second, all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate both real and personal subject to the life use of the real Estate by my said husband Michael Keenan if he survives me, I give devise and bequeath to my sons, Thomas, Michael and Edward, my daughters Catherine and Annie, and my granddaughter Julie Fanning, share and share alike, to them and their respective heirs.

Third, I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my son in law Michael
Delohery of said  Danbury, Executor of this Will, and that he be required to furnish no bond In Witness.

Whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my seal the 15th day of May, in the  year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and fore (yes, it was spelled ”fore!”)
Mary Keenan Seal Signed, sealed,  published and declared by the said Mary Keenan as and for her last will and testament in the  presence of us , who in her presence in the presence of each other and at her request have subscribed our names as witnesses hereto:
Henry M. Robinson of Danbury Conn
Chas W. Murphy
William H. Cable

State of Connecticut, County of Fairfield

 ss Danbury March 13 1907.

and William H. Cable witnesses to the foregoing last will and testament of Mary Keenan who  being duly sworn , depose and say that they subscribed said will as witnesses thereto in the  presence of said testatrix and the said testatrix signed said will in their presence and  acknowledged that she had signed said will and declared the same to be her last will and  testament, and deponents further say that at the time of the execution of said will they  believed the said testatrix to be of lawful age and of sound mind and memory and do make this affidavit at her request.

Henry M. Robinson

Chas W. Murphy

Subscribed and sworn to William H. Cable before me this 13th day of March A.D. 1907
Eber A. Hodge Notary Public

A true copy of the original on file — To the Probate Court for the District of Newtown Estate of Mary Keenan, late of Newtown, in said District deceased. The subscribers appointed Appraisers on
said Estate having been legally  sworn, have appraised all of said Estate, both real and personal, according to its value, and have assisted in making a true and perfect inventory thereof as follows, viz

(The Following is a Sample of what She Left)

INVENTORY

One House $ 1,200 and
Lake land 32 acres $ 1,000 &
Hawley Land 40 acres $ 1000
Blackman Land 6 acres $180
2 barns 300
1 horse 25. 1 horse 150. 2 cows 50. 4 heifers $ 100, to cast 3. 1 Buck board 10. 1 sleigh S. Lumber wagon .50. Household Goods Range and pipe 15. 1 Tea Kettle, .25 1 tea pot .25, 1 table 1 Lounge 25 kitchen Chairs 1.50, 2 spiders 20 large pots .50 2 small pots .25 10 4 cake pans 1.10 3 bread pans ┃ clock 1. 3 lamps .30 4 water pails & dipper 2 shovel & dust pan .10 20 Broom ..15 Ironing board 15 4 sadirons 40 3 window shades Lantern Pantry 25 plates 25 4 sugar Bowls 20 1 spoon holder 1 Butter dish .10, 2 front dishes large .10 preserve dishes small pitchers $1 glass pitchers .25, 3 platters .10, 5 glasses .23, vegetable dishes .21, cups and 23 saucers .45 3 Bowls .10 small boxes .20 4 Washing machine 25 1 small stand .25 20 Molding board & rolling pen , I preserving kettles .10 pans 2 flour service Work basket Dishpan Bread pant Wash dish towels & 1 window shade 15, 1 feather bed 3 . Bed springs mattress & feather tick 23d 1 sheet. I feather pillows 2 pillow covers bolster & cover white spread .50”

This is a very truncated list. The original one seems to go on and on and on. After everything is totaled up, it amounts to $6,699.55, or about $200,000 in today’s money. Still, even this healthy sum is very misleading when it comes to accessing her wealth because she had a total of 78 acres of land, a house, which sounded extraordinary and also 2 barns, and, I ask, the whole shebang adds up to less than 7 thousand bucks? I’m not a real-estate appraiser but I have to think the property she was sitting on would be sold today for some figure in the multiple of millions.

In one of the other documents I read about this will, it mentioned that one of these properties was bordered by “the highway.” This highway is now RT 25 in Hawleyville. So, what would be the price tag now on an extravagant home on 78 acres of prime real estate bordering Rt 25 in Hawleyville?  3 million? … 5 million? … maybe more? I truly don’t know.  It is amazing Michael and Mary had separate accounts and one way to look at is that in a financial sense, they weren’t really married.

Seeing it in a more positive light, it was a tradition that the women always got shafted in financial affairs. The sons were always the ones who got the big inheritances while the daughters were left looking to marry a man who got one of his own inheritances. In fact, it wasn’t until more than 13 years after Mary Keenan’s death woman were allowed to vote.  So, in a way, we could consider her a ground-breaker, woman’s lib in 1907!

Of course, there were some expenses to be taken from Mary Keenan’s Estate.  Money could not be distributed until her just debts were paid. A copy of the original court document regarding this is below:

Still, Catherine Delohery and family made out well as the probated property was distributed in the manner the will had ordered.

Michael Keenan passed away on October 2, 1917 in Danbury, Ct. I am not sure if he was living in Danbury in spite of his being allowed to live in his own home for the rest of his life, or if the only reason he died in Danbury was that he had been sick in Danbury hospital. The latter is possible because he was 85 years old and we do have proof he was living in Newtown several years after his wife’s death.

In any event, even though it seems like everything was stolen from my great, great grandpa Michael, it seems he did have a bit of a nest egg of his own. Though I have yet to find the actual will, the document below shows he actually did have one and he actually did have something to leave to somebody. The “F” on the card bellow means finalized and “testate” means he had a will. As to the amount he willed to someone; that was $150,000 in year 2025 money.

Though I have no documented proof of whom pocketed this windfall, family folklore tells us it also went to his eldest daughter, Catherine Delohery.

In the final analysis, I can’t see where Michael Delohery did anything wrong. Certainly, he executed the will as his Mother-in-Law had wished and she truly trusted him to do so. Things just don’t always get divided up equally in every will and there are many reasons why this is so. For the lopsidedness of this will, I can in no way assign thievery as the reason. I believe Mary and Michael Keenan simply thought the Delohery family would best carry on their homestead in the way they wanted it to be carried on after they left it.

Skipper

In the name of God, Amen

I Barnabas Lathrop of New Milford in Litchfield County, being infirm in body but of sound mind & memory – blessed be God – calling to mind my own mortality, do make and ordain, this my last will and testament, in manner following: vis

Principally & first of all, I give, and humbly recommend my soul to God who gave it – through Jesus Christ our Lord – my body I leave to be buried in a quiet Christian burial – at the direction of my executer herein after named, nothing doubting but the same will be reunited to my soul at the general resurrection by the mighty power of God.

And as sounding such word by extol with which it hath pleased God to bless me in this life. I will and dispose thereof as follows- vis Imprimis.

I will that my just debt of funeral charges be fully paid.

Item – I give and bequeath to my well-beloved wife Sarah the use and improvement of all my land and my dwelling home during the time she shall remain my widow and also my riding mare and all my household furniture, to be her own forever.

Item – I give and bequeath to my eldest and well-beloved son Joseph Lathrop the one half of my wearing apparel to be his own forever.

Item – I give and bequeath to my well-beloved son Daniel Lathrop half an acre of land at the northernest corner of my homestead and the north half of my dwelling home by a line through the center of the chimney – after my said widow rights therein shall cease, to be his own forever.

I give and bequeath to my well-beloved son Rufus Lathrop the remainder of my land and the other half of my dwelling house – after my said widow’s right shall cease, to be his own forever.

Item – I give and bequeath to my well-beloved daughter Sarah ten shillings lawful money to be paid to her by my son Daniel after end of one year next after my death –

Item – I give and bequeath to my well-beloved daughter Elizabeth Beardsley eighteen shillings lawful money to be paid to her by my son Rufus at the end of one year next after my death.

• Lastly – I do constitute and appoint my afore said Wife Sarah and my afore said son Daniel executioners of this, my last will and testament, declaring this and only this to be my last will and testament.
• Where writing I have hereinto set my hand and seal this 19^th day of July, 1792.
• Signed sealed and pronounced by the executor to be his last will and testament in perennial.
• Of
• Litchfield County 19^th day of July 1792. Personally appeared Ephraim Beardsley, Salley Baldwin & Uvania Everitt above named and on solemn oath declare that they & each of them said above named executor sign and seal above will heard him declare therefore to be his last will and testament and that each of them signed said they will witness in presence of the executor and in the presence of each other, and that the executor in their opinion is of sound mind and memory.Before me –
• Dan Luenill, Justice of the Peace

Skipper

Joseph Lathrop Sr – A Very Important Lathrop Family Ancestor

Though Joseph Lathrop Sr. is in my family tree 9 generations before me, he is one of our most significant ancestors. When I say “our,” I am referring to those of us whom are his offspring. To my sisters, my Lathrop cousins and I, he is our 7th Great-grandfather. Of course, 7th Great-grandfather doesn’t seem very significant, but this 7^th Great-grandfather is quite significant and it has nothing to do with wealth or fame. I’m talking strictly significant from a genealogical standpoint.

First, let’s get a little technical housekeeping done: When I refer to a great-grandmother or great-grandfather, I will just say great-grandmother or great-grandfather. When I refer to a great-great-grandmother or great-great-grandfather, I will just say great-great-grandmother or great-great-grandfather. However, if there are more than 2 greats, I will say 3^rd great-grandfather or 5th great-grandmother, etc. This isn’t a hard-set rule across the world of genealogy, it’s just something I do.

Lathrop Lothrop Lathrope

Also, it is noteworthy that the name Lathrop and Lothrop are the same exact name. Somehow, the name I use, which is “Lathrop” has metamorphosized into a name that is pronounced lay-thrup. It’s my belief that some generations ago, both the names L-a-t-h-r-o-p and L-o-t-h-r-o-p were pronounced exactly the same and that pronunciation was “La”-“throp,” where the “La” sounded like the “la” in do-re-mi-fa-sol-la, and Lothrop was pronounced the same way. If you think about the way you pronounce “lot” or “log” or “lock” or “lob”, you have to conclude you would pronounce “loth” in the same manner. So, you can easily understand the confusion with the spelling, especially in a time where a lot of people didn’t read or write. We have several instances in the family tree where one person was Mr. Lathrop and his brother was Mr. Lothrop. Still, I believe, when Mr. Lathrop said his name, he pronounced it “La” “throp” and when Mr. Lothrop said his name, he pronounced it “Loth” “rop,” which is exactly the same.

Lathrope, on the other hand seems to be an entirely different family. It is tempting to see the name “Lathrope” without the “e” on the end and assume the person wearing the name tag with “Lathrope” on it is a relative of the person wearing the nametag with Lathrop or Lothrop on it. However, as far as I can see, this is not the case.

I’ve seen thousands of names in the family tree started by Rev. John Lathrop (1584-1653) of Barnstable, MA and none of them has an “e” at the end of the name. It is true the Reverend John had ancestor several generations back whose name was Lowthroppe, but in the American family tree starting in 1634, all of his offspring are either Lathrop or Lothrop.

I have done some genealogy of a few families with the name Lathrope and found one the families had immigrated from Germany in 1801. I found another of these families had immigrated from Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands in 1907 and a third family I traced back to 1857 when they sailed to Ellis Island from Southampton, UK. In all three cases, it looks like the name is English in its origin, but from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t appear there is a Lathrope who is a descendant of Rev. John Lathrop.

Lineage to Joseph Lathrop Sr.

Now for technical housekeeping project number 3, here is the genealogy from us to Joseph Lathrop Sr. using only the Lathrop side of our family. This is a small part of our family tree, I realize but right now, we’re only interested in get back to Joseph Lathrop Sr.

For my sisters and cousins and I, our grandfather is Edward Starr Lathrop. Our great-grandfather is Charles Ozias Lathrop. Our great-great-grandfather is Frederick Lathrop. Our 3^rd great-grandfather is Daniel Lathrop Jr. Our 4^th great-grandfather is Daniel Lathrop Sr. Our 5^th great-grandfather is Barnabas Lathrop. Our 6th great-grandfather is Joseph Lathrop Jr., and our 7^th great-grandfather is Joseph Lathrop Sr. Now, that the house is clean, we will continue:

Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s Marriages

The details of Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s marriages are out of the norm for 21st century, the 20th century and even 19th century marriages, but in the 1600’s, people marrying who were already related was very normal. However, I can promise that in the Lathrop family tree, there were no sister/brother marriages. With this out of the way, here is the story of Joseph Lathrop Sr. and his wives.

Joseph Lathrop Sr, was born in 1661 in Norwich, Connecticut and died in 1740, in the same town. His first wife was Mercy Scudder. Her name is sometimes seen as “Mary” but it has been “Mercy” for many years in the family tree. I believe “Mercy” is actually her correct name. The following is taken from the book “New England Marriages before 1700.” I have included some names other than Joseph and Mercy Scudder Lathrop Sr. just to show how people living in same towns and are certainly related to one another spell the name “Lathrop” different.

Mercy was Joseph’s mother’s niece. So, she was his wife and 1st cousin. They had 11 children together. This cousin/wife was our 7th Great-grandmother and 1st cousin 8 times removed. After she died, Joseph married Elizabeth Waterhouse. They had 6 children together. Only 5 survived past the age of 2 years old.

Elizabeth Waterhouse Lathrop died before Joseph, and so he then married Martha Perkins. She was the Mother-in-Law of one of his sons, Solomon Lathrop (1706 – 1733). As you can see, Solomon died very young. He had his will made out and since he died at 26 years of age, it would seem he had some sort of illness as opposed to having died by way of accident. With that aside, it seems fortunate that by the time Joseph Lathrop Sr. married his son’s mother-in-law, his fathering days were behind him. If this had not been the case, I would guess the genealogy of this part of the tree would have been kind of messy.

The following article that talks about “Lathrop Bridge,” which was suspended across the Shetucket River, makes me think Solomon Lathrop might not have an illness of some kind after all. By the way, I haven’t found a Lathrop Bridge still standing in Norwich but there is a Lathrop Lane.

Still, despite “hair-breadth escapes” by his family members and all the anomalies of the husband-wife relationships of Joseph Lathrop Sr., he had and therefore, we have an absolute powerhouse of famous relatives!

President Ulysses S Grant

Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s sister, Abigail Lathrop (1665-1745) married John Huntington (1665-1696). Their daughter Martha Huntington married Noah Grant I. Noah Grant I and Martha Huntington were the great-great grandparents of General and President Ulysses S Grant. To put this another way, Joseph’s sister Abigail was President Grant’s 3rd great-grandmother.

The following is taken from as book titled “Lathrop Family Memoirs”

It is interesting that “Lathrop Family Memoir” was written in the mid to late 1800s and since Ulysses S Grant was President from 1869 to 1877, he may actually had been “President Ulysses S Grant” when it was written.

President Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s son, Joseph Lathrop Jr., married Mary Hartshorn (1701-1757), daughter of Johnathon Hartshorn and Mary Birchard. Mary Birchard’s parents were John Birchard and Elizabeth Robinson. They were the 4^th great grandparents of President Rutherford Birchard Hayes. In other words, Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s grandchildren, since they were the children of Joseph Lathrop Jr. and Mary Hartshorn, were the great grandchildren of John Birchard and Elizabeth Robinson who were the 4th great grandparents of President Rutherford Birchard Hayes. One of Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s grandchildren was Barnabas Lathrop late of New Milford, CT and he is our 5^th great-grandfather, This means President Hayes’s 4^th great grandparents are our 8^th great grandparents since Barnabas is our 5^th great-grandfather and John Birchard and Elizabeth Robinson are in his direct lineage 3 generations before him.

President James A Garfield

One of the daughters of Joseph Lathrop Sr. and Elizabeth Waterhouse was Elizabeth Lathrop. She married Dr. Daniel Davis. Their daughter was Sarah Davis who married Barnabas Lathrop. Barnabas Lathrop was the son of Joseph Lathrop Jr. and Mary Hartshorn and the grandson of Joseph Lathrop Sr. and Mercy Scudder. So, Sarah and Barnabas were cousins. Actually, since first cousins have one set of grandparents in common, Sarah and Barnabas were actually half-first cousins since they only shared a grandfather, Joseph Lathrop Sr. in common. Another way to look at this is Mercy Scudder is our 7^th great-grandmother because she is the grandmother of our 5^th great-grandfather, Barnabas Lathrop, and Elizabeth Waterhouse is our 7^th great-grandmother because she is the grandmother of our 5^th great-grandmother, Sarah Davis, and this means Joseph Lathrop Sr. is our 7^th great-grandfather twice. Therefore, I see him as a very significant ancestor. The bigger issue here though is that Dr. Daniel Davis’s great-grandfather was William Allen (1611-1686) and he was the 6^th great-grandfather of President James A Garfield. It is noteworthy that William Allen is also the 6^th great-grandfather of Frederick Lathrop who is our great-great-grandfather.

Franklin D Roosevelt

Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s father was Samuel Lathrop (1623-1700). Samuel Lathrop is the 7th great-grandfather of Franklin Deleno Roosevelt. Like President Franklin Roosevelt, our great-grandfather, Charles O. Lathrop was the 7^th great grandson of Samuel Lathrop (1623-1700).

Oliver Wendell Holmes

One of Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s daughters, Temperance Lathrop, married Rev. John Bishop. One of Temperance and John’s sons was Abiel Bishop who married Sara Wendell. One of Sara and Abiel’s sons was Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894). Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was a physician. He was also a poet of great renown. He was one of the fireside poets. He was thought to be one of the best writers of his time! In spite of all of this, he is probably more famous for being the father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935). Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, is the 3rd great grandson of Joseph Lathrop Sr.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Joseph Lathrop Sr. is the grandson of the Rev. John Lathrop, who, himself, was a famous person. One of the many famous people the Rev. Lathrop is an ancestor of is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He is the 4^th great grandson of the Rev. John Lathrop. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is the great grandson of Elizabeth Lathrop, who is daughter of Thomas Lathrop, who is the son of Rev. Joseph Lathrop (1624-1702) who was the uncle of our 7^th great-grandfather Joseph Lathrop Sr. So, even though ancestry dot com shows Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to be only our 5^th cousin 4 times removed, he did have a lot of Lathrop genes in him. A couple of Longfellow’s greatest works are “The Village Blacksmith” and “Paul Rev.eres’ Ride.” Another is a poem tittle “Evangeline.” Without any knowledge at the time that they were related to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, my daughter and son-in-law named their daughter “Evangeline.” This, it would seem, was very much a coincidence! Or was it???

Rev. Joseph Lathrop DD

Another Joseph Lathrop in the family tree is Rev. Joseph Lathrop DD (1731-1820). His sermons are still being preached today. There are books written about him and books filled with his sermons. Many are available in bookstores and even on Amazon. The Rev.erend Doctor Lathrop had degrees from both Harvard and Yale. If you google him, you will find him.

Dr. Lathrop was born in Norwich, CT on 10-20-1731 and died in West Springfield, MA on 12-31-1820. The following is an excerpt from “Lathrop Memoirs.”

The Rev. Joseph Lathrop DD was the grandson of Joseph Lathrop Sr.

William Bradford

One of the daughters of Joseph Lathrop Sr. and Elizabeth Waterhouse was Zeruiah Lathrop. Like many in our family tree, she is also said to be Zeruiah Lothrop, or Lothropp (1718-1740). Her first name is often said to be Zerviah. Though this seems like a beautiful name I believe it is a misprint because Zeruiah is truly a Biblical name whereas Zerviah is not. The name Zeruiah is pronounced Ze-ru-ya. Zeruiah Lathrop married William Bradford (1718-1799) who was the great-great grandson of William Bradford (1590-1657), who came over on the Mayflower and was the 2^nd Governor of Plymouth Colony. William and Zeruiah’s daughter, Zeruiah Bradford, never had any children and died at the age of 30.

The marriage of Zeruiah Lathrop to Gov. William Bradford in no way makes us decedents of a Mayflower passenger, however, the fact Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s daughter was married to one, shows us one more genealogical celebrity who was member of his extended family.

The following is from “Mayflower Descendants.”

Samuel Fuller

Jane Lathrop was an aunt of Joseph Lathrop Sr. To put this another way, Jane Lathrop was the sister of Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s father, Samuel Lathrop. Jane married Samuel Fuller who at the age of 8 years old came to the new world with his father Edward Fuller on the Mayflower. Again, this doesn’t make us the descendants of a Mayflower passenger but it does point out that there were Pilgrims in the Lathrop family tree. Jane Lathrop Fuller was our 8^th great-grandaunt. All of the children of Samuel and Jane Lathrop Fuller were first cousins of Joseph Lathrop Sr. and they are our 1^st cousins 8 times removed.

The following is from “Mayflower Descendants.”

Benedict Arnold

This relative comes in the interest of full disclosure.

Benedict Arnold was actually Benedict Arnold V. He was born in Norwich, CT in 1741. Oddly enough, he was the son of Benedict Arnold III. This is so because he had an older brother who was named Benedict Arnold IV. He died at the age of 1 year old and so, his parents simply named their next son, Benedict Arnold V.

During the earlier stages of the American Rev.olution, Benedict Arnold was a hero. He was a superb strategist and because of this he was promoted to Major General. His role in defeating the British in the battle of Saratoga earned praise from George Washington. He was said to be the Colonists’ greatest tactician! It is widely believed if he died in this battle, he would have been one of the most decorated war heroes of all time!

Instead, as the war went on, he felt he was being overlooked as generals were being assigned to lead battles. A complicating factor was that as his frustration grew, his wife, Peggy Shippen, a well-connected loyalist, was able to put him in touch with the British command. Since he was the commander of West Point at that time, they made a deal with him to turn it over to them. If this plot had been successful, it certainly would have greatly hurt the Colonists’ chances of gaining their independence. Whether or not he didn’t have the stomach to do this or he was just unable to, West Point never became the property of Great Britian.

Still, Benedict Arnold had switched sides and even though this is the case, he was never very highly celebrated by his new countrymen. He died on the streets of England in 1801, at the age of 60 without any fanfare whatsoever. In America, his name has become synonymous with the word “traitor.”

Genealogically speaking, Benedict Arnold V’s mother was Hannah Waterman. Her parents were John Waterman and Elizabeth Lathrop (1679 – 1708). Though this is a familiar name, this Elizabeth Lathrop was the daughter of Samuel Lathrop Jr, (1650 – 1738) who was the brother of Joseph Lathrop Sr. Joseph Lathrop Sr. was the great granduncle of Benedict Arnold V and Joseph’s father Samuel Lathrop Sr. was benedict Arnold’s great-great-grandfather. One more way to look at it is that our 4^th great-grandfather, Damiel Lathrop Sr. of New Milford, CT, who also fought in the American Rev.olution was the 3^rd cousin of Benedict Arnold.

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple (1928-2014) was the daughter of George Fransis Temple Sr. and Gertrude Amelia Krieger. George’s parents were Fransis M Temple and Cynthia Fell. Fransis’ parents were Reuben Smith Brown Temple and Jane Durham. Reuben was the son of Robert Temple and Eliza Allen. Eliza was the daughter of Hezikiah Allen and Elizabeth “Polly” Lathrop. Elizabeth was the daughter of Zacheriah Lathrop and Mehetable Cleveland. Zacheriah was the son of Wiliam Lathrop and William Lathrop was the son of Israel Lathrop (1659-1733) who was the brother of Joseph Lathrop Sr. So, Shirley Temple was the 6^th great-granddaughter of Joseph Lathrop Sr.’s brother and therefore, the 7^th great-granddaughter of Joseph’s father, Samuel Lathrop Sr., who is also our 8^th great-grandfather. This means Shirley Temple and my father were 8^th cousins and my sisters and cousins and I are Shiley Temple’s 8^th cousin 1 time removed.

Tuesday Weld

We start off Tuesday Weld’s genealogy by recapping Shiley Temple’s genealogy. Shirley Temple’s 7^th great-grandfather was or 8^th great-grandfather, Samiel Lathrop Sr. Her 6^th great-grandfather was Israel Lathrop, her 5^th great-grandfather was William Lathrop and her 4^th great-grandfather was Zachariah Lathrop.

Tuesday Weld’s genealogy from our perspective, starts with Zachariah Lathrop’s brother, whose name was, believe it or not, Rev. John Lothrop (1740-1816). This is not a Rev. John Lothrop we are familiar with, but another Rev. John. Also, he is a Lothrop, who has a brother who is a Lathrop. Rev. John Lothrop has a daughter, Anna Lothrop who married Thomas Motley and had a daughter Anna L Motley who married Alfred Rodman. A daughter of theirs was Eloise Rodman who married Stephen Weld. They had a son Edward Motley Weld who married Sarah King. They had a son who was Lothrop Motley Weld. With his wife, Yosene Ker, they gave birth to Susan Ker Weld. We all know her better as Tuesday Weld.

Like Shirley Temple, our 8^th great-grandfather, Samuel Lathrop Sr. is her 7^th great-grandfather. So, she is our 8^th cousin 1 time removed and she is my father’s 8^th cousin.

What’s interesting is, since Zachariah Lathrop and Rev. John Lothrop are brothers, their father, William Lathrop (1688 – 1778) is the 5^th great-grandfather of both Tuesday Weld and Shirley Temple. This makes them each other’s 6^th cousin.

Tuesday Weld was born August 27, 1943. Her father, Lothrop Weld, died when she was 4 years old.

The Rev. John Lathrop

Joseph Lathrop Sr. is in the direct lineage of Rev. John Lathrop (1584-1653). Of course, sometimes you’ll see The Rev. John Lathrop as Rev. John Lothrop.

The Rev. Lathrop was born in Elton, Yorkshire, England. Instead of preaching what was dictated by the church of England, his calling was to read the Bible and preach the Gospel. For this, he was thrown in prison on more than one occasion. These prisons weren’t beneath using cruel and unusual punishment. His first wife died while he was in prison. Many of Rev. Lathrop’s followers were jailed just for listening to him. For many years he was harassed for preaching from the Bible. One of his jail terms lasted for more than 2 years. Then, one day he was given the chance to leave the country for a world unknown on a prison ship. He took the opportunity and landed in New England in 1634. While there, he built a massive following! His church was in Barnstable, Massachusetts. History writes that the Rev. John Lathrop was part of the reason America was founded on the principle of “freedom of Religion” and we must thank him for as long as we have it.

Many books, and even children’s books have been written about the Rev. John Lathrop of Barnstable. One such book is “Exiled: The Story of John Lathrop 1584-1653.” It is available on Amazon and all bookstores, though bookstores are dwindling away. Interestingly, the description of the book on Amazon mentions John Lathrop as a direct ancestor of George W. Bush. Indeed, he is. The Rev. John is an ancestor of hundreds of famous people. However, in this short story, we cover some of the more closely related famous people in our branch of the Lathrop Family Tree.

The Rev. John Lathrop was the grandfather of Joseph Lathrop Sr. and he is our 9^th great-grandfather.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the
Son of Rutherford Hayes and Sophia Birchard
Sophia Birchard was the daughter of Roger Birchard and Drusilla Austin
Roger Birchard was the son of Elias Birchard and Sarah Jacobs
Elias Birchard was the son of John Birchard and Mary Baldwin
John Birchard was the son of Samuel Birchard and Ann Calkins
Samuel Birchard was the son of John Birchard and Christyan Andrews
A sister of Samuel Birchard, Mary Birchard, married Jonathan Hartshorn
Their Daughter, Mary Hartshorn, marries Joseph Lathrop (1688 – 1757)
this Joseph Lathrop, actually Joseph Lathrop Jr was born and died in Norwich, Connecticut. Joseph Lathrop and Mary Hartshorn, were the parents of Barnabas Lathrop (1738 – 1796). Barnabas Lathrop was my 5^th Great Grandfather and therefore the 5th great Grandfather of my sisters and all my Lathrop cousins. Barnabas was also the Great Grandson of John and Christyan Andrews Birchard who were the Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents of President Rutherford Birchard Hayes.

Barnabas Lathrop was the Great Grandson of John Birchard and Christyan Andrews
Barnabas’s son Daniel was their Great-Great Grandson
Daniel Lathrop Jr was their Great-Great-Great Grandson and
Frederick Lathrop, husband of Laurinda Palmer, who lived most of their lives in West Cornwall, Connecticut was their Great-Great-Great-Great Grandson
Therefore, Frederick Lathrop of West Cornwall and President Rutherford Birchard Hayes were 5th cousins.

President Hayes was a great man and a brilliant man. He graduated with a law degree from Harvard. He was wounded 5 times in the Civil War. He was the right man to implement reconstruction but he never got the chance.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES Hayes, Rutherford B., brigadier-general, was born in Delaware, Ohio, Oct. 4, 1822. He prepared for college at an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, and at Isaac Webb’s preparatory school in Middletown, Conn., and was graduated at Kenyon college, in 1842, valedictorian of his class, receiving his A.M. degree in 1843. He was graduated at Harvard LL.B. in 1845, practiced law in Lower Sandusky, and in 1849 removed to Cincinnati, where he was city solicitor, I858-6I. At a mass-meeting held at Cincinnati upon receiving the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon, he was made chairman of a committee on resolutions to give vent to the feelings of the people, and upon the president’s call for volunteers he organized a company from the literary club of Cincinnati, and was elected its captain. On June 7, I86I, he was appointed by Gov. Dennison major of the 23d Ohio volunteers, and in July he accompanied the regiment to the seat of war in West Virginia. He was judge advocate of the Department of Ohio, Sept.-Oct., I86I, was promoted lieutenant- colonel Oct. 24, receiving promotion to colonel a year later. Col. Hayes saw active service in the field in I86I-62 distinguishing himself first in the battle of South mountain, Sept. I4, 1862, when, although severely wounded in the arm, he led a gallant charge and held his position at the head of his men until carried from the field. Upon recovering he took command of his regiment in the field, and in the operations against Morgan at the time of the latter’s raid into Ohio, commanded two regiments and a section of artillery, and aided in preventing the escape of the Confederate general across the river, thus compelling Morgan to surrender. He commanded a brigade in Gen. Crook’s expedition to cut the principal lines of communication between Richmond and the southwest, in the spring of 1864, and distinguished himself at Cloyd’s mountain, May 9, 1864, by storming at the head of his brigade a strongly fortified Confederate position. He was conspicuous also in the first battle of Winchester and in the battle of Berryville, and in the second battle of Winchester, Sept. I9, 1864 showed great and unusual gallantry in leading an assault upon a battery across a morass over 50 yards wide. His horse becoming mired in the morass, Col. Hayes dismounted, waded across on foot under fire of the enemy, and then, finding himself alone in front of the battery, signaled to his men to follow. When but about 40 had crossed, the little band charged the battery and after a hard hand-to-hand fight, drove away the gunners. He again distinguished himself at Fisher’s hill, routing the enemy by a skillful flank movement, and his action on the battlefield at Cedar creek, Oct. I9, 1864, secured his commission as brigadier- general at the request of Gen. Crook. He was brevetted major- general of volunteers March I3, 1865, for “gallant and distinguished services in the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia, and especially at the battles of Fisher’s hill and Cedar creek, Va.” Gen. Hayes was elected representative of the 2nd district of Ohio in the 39th Congress, took his seat Dec. 4, 1865, was re-elected to the 40th Congress, and was then for two terms governor of Ohio. He was nominated for Congress in 1872, declined at first, but, afterward accepting, was defeated by 1,500 votes. In 1873 he declined to permit the use of his name for United States senator, and announced his intention of retiring to private life. He was, however, called upon in 1875, much against his will, to take the Republican nomination for governor and was elected by over 5,000 votes, and as an advocate of sound currency and opposed to an unlimited issue of paper money, he became a prominent figure in national politics. When the Republican national convention met in Cincinnati, June I4, 1876, his name was presented as a candidate for president, as were those of James G. Blaine, Oliver P. Morton, Benjamin F. Bristow, Roscoe Conkling and John F. Hartranft, and on the seventh ballot, owing to opposition to Mr. Blaine, Gen. Hayes was nominated. Samuel J. Tilden of New York was nominated by the Democrats, and the election was unusually close, Hayes being, however, finally declared president after a long and bitter dispute. During his administration he favored a sound currency policy and advocated extension of the civil service system. After his term of office had expired he assisted in the inauguration of James A. Garfield as president and then retired to his home in Fremont, Ohio, where he devoted much of his time to benevolent enterprises. He died in Fremont, Ohio, Jan. I3, 1893. Source: The Union Army, vol. 8

The compromise that ended up in Hayes becoming President of the Untied was one where his own party sold him out to the opposing party. In return, their party had the Presidency but his power had become severely limited. Because of this compromise he was unable to use Federal troops to keep The Ku Klux Klan wing of Democrat Party from fighting any progress toward reconstruction from being made. In many ways, this made conditions worse for the newly emancipated population then they were prior to The Civil War.

President Hayes believed in complete equality for all human beings and he had the will and resolve to complete reconstruction during his term if he wasn’t left powerless by those in his party who didn’t care about the recently freed people and those in the opposing party who would take any steps necessary to keep an entire race in servitude.

Rutherford B. Hayes’s Inaugural Address

March 5, 1877

Fellow-Citizens:

We have assembled to repeat the public ceremonial, begun by Washington, observed by all my predecessors, and now a time- honored custom, which marks the commencement of a new term of the Presidential office. Called to the duties of this great trust, I proceed, in compliance with usage, to announce some of the leading principles, on the subjects that now chiefly engage the public attention, by which it is my desire to be guided in the discharge of those duties. I shall not undertake to lay down irrevocably principles or measures of administration, but rather to speak of the motives which should animate us, and to suggest certain important ends to be attained in accordance with our institutions and essential to the welfare of our country.

At the outset of the discussions which preceded the recent Presidential election it seemed to me fitting that I should fully make known my sentiments in regard to several of the important questions which then appeared to demand the consideration of the country. Following the example, and in part adopting the language, of one of my predecessors, I wish now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed away, to repeat what was said before the election, trusting that my countrymen will candidly weigh and understand it, and that they will feel assured that the sentiments declared in accepting the nomination for the Presidency will be the standard of my conduct in the path before me, charged, as I now am, with the grave and difficult task of carrying them out in the practical administration of the Government so far as depends, under the Constitution and laws on the Chief Executive of the nation.

The permanent pacification of the country upon such principles and by such measures as will secure the complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights is now the one subject in our public affairs which all thoughtful and patriotic citizens regard as of supreme importance.

Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has passed over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable benefits which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and generous acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution have not yet been realized. Difficult and embarrassing questions meet us at the threshold of this subject. The people of those States are still impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government is not fully enjoyed. Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the cause of this condition of things, the fact is clear that in the progress of events the time has come when such government is the imperative necessity required by all the varied interests, public and private, of those States. But it must not be forgotten that only a local government which recognizes and maintains inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government.

With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to each other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities which exist in those States, it must be a government which guards the interests of both races carefully and equally. It must be a government which submits loyally and heartily to the Constitution and the laws–the laws of the nation and the laws of the States themselves–accepting and obeying faithfully the whole Constitution as it is.

Resting upon this sure and substantial foundation, the superstructure of beneficent local governments can be built up, and not otherwise. In furtherance of such obedience to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, and in behalf of all that its attainment implies, all so-called party interests lose their apparent importance, and party lines may well be permitted to fade into insignificance. The question we have to consider for the immediate welfare of those States of the Union is the question of government or no government; of social order and all the peaceful industries and the happiness that belongs to it, or a return to barbarism. It is a question in which every citizen of the nation is deeply interested, and with respect to which we ought not to be, in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Democrats, but fellow-citizens and fellowmen, to whom the interests of a common country and a common humanity are dear.

The sweeping revolution of the entire labor system of a large portion of our country and the advance of 4,000,000 people from a condition of servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal footing with their former masters, could not occur without presenting problems of the gravest moment, to be dealt with by the emancipated race, by their former masters, and by the General Government, the author of the act of emancipation. That it was a wise, just, and providential act, fraught with good for all concerned, is not generally conceded throughout the country. That a moral obligation rests upon the National Government to employ its constitutional power and influence to establish the rights of the people it has emancipated, and to protect them in the enjoyment of those rights when they are infringed or assailed, is also generally admitted.

The evils which afflict the Southern States can only be removed or remedied by the united and harmonious efforts of both races, actuated by motives of mutual sympathy and regard; and while in duty bound and fully determined to protect the rights of all by every constitutional means at the disposal of my Administration, I am sincerely anxious to use every legitimate influence in favor of honest and efficient local self-government as the true resource of those States for the promotion of the contentment and prosperity of their citizens. In the effort I shall make to accomplish this purpose I ask the cordial cooperation of all who cherish an interest in the welfare of the country, trusting that party ties and the prejudice of race will be freely surrendered in behalf of the great purpose to be accomplished. In the important work of restoring the South it is not the political situation alone that merits attention. The material development of that section of the country has been arrested by the social and political revolution through which it has passed, and now needs and deserves the considerate care of the National Government within the just limits prescribed by the Constitution and wise public economy.

But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as well as for every other part of the country, lies the improvement of the intellectual and moral condition of the people. Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.

Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my earnest desire to regard and promote their truest interest–the interests of the white and of the colored people both and equally–and to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will forever wipe out in our political affairs the color line and the distinction between North and South, to the end that we may have not merely a united North or a united South, but a united country.

I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of reform in our civil service–a reform not merely as to certain abuses and practices of so-called official patronage which have come to have the sanction of usage in the several Departments of our Government, but a change in the system of appointment itself; a reform that shall be thorough, radical, and complete; a return to the principles and practices of the founders of the Government. They neither expected nor desired from public officers any partisan service. They meant that public officers should owe their whole service to the Government and to the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal character remained untarnished and the performance of his duties satisfactory. They held that appointments to office were not to be made nor expected merely as rewards for partisan services, nor merely on the nomination of members of Congress, as being entitled in any respect to the control of such appointments.

The fact that both the great political parties of the country, in declaring their principles prior to the election, gave a prominent place to the subject of reform of our civil service, recognizing and strongly urging its necessity, in terms almost identical in their specific import with those I have here employed, must be accepted as a conclusive argument in behalf of these measures. It must be regarded as the expression of the united voice and will of the whole country upon this subject, and both political parties are virtually pledged to give it their unreserved support.

The President of the United States of necessity owes his election to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party, the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential importance the principles of their party organization; but he should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves the country best.

In furtherance of the reform we seek, and in other important respects a change of great importance, I recommend an amendment to the Constitution prescribing a term of six years for the Presidential office and forbidding a reelection.

With respect to the financial condition of the country, I shall not attempt an extended history of the embarrassment and prostration which we have suffered during the past three years. The depression in all our varied commercial and manufacturing interests throughout the country, which began in September, 1873, still continues. It is very gratifying, however, to be able to say that there are indications all around us of a coming change to prosperous times.

Upon the currency question, intimately connected, as it is, with this topic, I may be permitted to repeat here the statement made in my letter of acceptance, that in my judgment the feeling of uncertainty inseparable from an irredeemable paper currency, with its fluctuation of values, is one of the greatest obstacles to a return to prosperous times. The only safe paper currency is one which rests upon a coin basis and is at all times and promptly convertible into coin.

I adhere to the views heretofore expressed by me in favor of Congressional legislation in behalf of an early resumption of specie payments, and I am satisfied not only that this is wise, but that the interests, as well as the public sentiment, of the country imperatively demand it.

Passing from these remarks upon the condition of our own country to consider our relations with other lands, we are reminded by the international complications abroad, threatening the peace of Europe, that our traditional rule of noninterference in the affairs of foreign nations has proved of great value in past times and ought to be strictly observed.

The policy inaugurated by my honored predecessor, President Grant, of submitting to arbitration grave questions in dispute between ourselves and foreign powers points to a new, and incomparably the best, instrumentality for the preservation of peace, and will, as I believe, become a beneficent example of the course to be pursued in similar emergencies by other nations.

If, unhappily, questions of difference should at any time during the period of my Administration arise between the United States and any foreign government, it will certainly be my disposition and my hope to aid in their settlement in the same peaceful and honorable way, thus securing to our country the great blessings of peace and mutual good offices with all the nations of the world.

Fellow-citizens, we have reached the close of a political contest marked by the excitement which usually attends the contests between great political parties whose members espouse and advocate with earnest faith their respective creeds. The circumstances were, perhaps, in no respect extraordinary save in the closeness and the consequent uncertainty of the result.

For the first time in the history of the country it has been deemed best, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the objections and questions in dispute with reference to the counting of the electoral votes should be referred to the decision of a tribunal appointed for this purpose.

That tribunal–established by law for this sole purpose; its members, all of them, men of long-established reputation for integrity and intelligence, and, with the exception of those who are also members of the supreme judiciary, chosen equally from both political parties; its deliberations enlightened by the research and the arguments of able counsel–was entitled to the fullest confidence of the American people. Its decisions have been patiently waited for, and accepted as legally conclusive by the general judgment of the public. For the present, opinion will widely vary as to the wisdom of the several conclusions announced by that tribunal. This is to be anticipated in every instance where matters of dispute are made the subject of arbitration under the forms of law. Human judgment is never unerring, and is rarely regarded as otherwise than wrong by the unsuccessful party in the contest.

The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled a dispute in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and the law no less than as to the proper course to be pursued in solving the question in controversy is an occasion for general rejoicing.

Upon one point there is entire unanimity in public sentiment–that conflicting claims to the Presidency must be amicably and peaceably adjusted, and that when so adjusted the general acquiescence of the nation ought surely to follow.

It has been reserved for a government of the people, where the right of suffrage is universal, to give to the world the first example in history of a great nation, in the midst of the struggle of opposing parties for power, hushing its party tumults to yield the issue of the contest to adjustment according to the forms of law.

Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations and individuals are shaped, I call upon you, Senators, Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and everywhere, to unite with me in an earnest effort to secure to our country the blessings, not only of material prosperity, but of justice, peace, and union–a union depending not upon the constraint of force, but upon the loving devotion of a free people; “and that all things may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations.”

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES

Ulysses S Grant A Lathrop Family Member

The more generations a family extends, the more likely it becomes that the family tree will include noteworthy people. My family tree, which is identical for my sisters and all my Lathrop cousins, surely does include some well-known people when the Lathrop lineage is extended back 10 generations.

At the top of these 10 generations is Samuel Lathrop, also known as Samuel Lothrop. (1623 – 1700) He was born in Edgerton, Kent, England and died in Norwich, Connecticut. He has left us a lineage of too many celebrated people to mention. However, in this short article, we will try to highlight the most celebrated amongst them.

One man I would like to talk about is another Samuel Lathrop (1756 – 1821). This Samuel Lathrop was born in Norwich, Connecticut and died in Lebanon, Grafton County, New Hampshire. Though he could have a list of achievements I don’t know about, the highlight I would like to bring forth is the one written about in the family Bible below.

Samuel Lathrop (1756 – 1821) was the son of Major Elijah Lathrop and Hannah Hough.
Major Elijah Lathrop was the son of Samuel Lathrop (1692 – 1753) and Elizabeth Waterman.
Samuel Lathrop (1692 – 1753) was the son of Israel Lathrop and Rebecca Unknown Lathrop.
Israel Lathrop was the son of Samuel Lathrop (1623 – 1700) and Elizabeth Scudder.

So, the relationship between Samuel Lathrop (1623 – 1700) and Samuel Lathrop, veteran of Bunker Hill, is that of Great-Great Grandfather and Great-Great Grandson.

Another offspring of the elder Samuel Lathrop is a man who has about as magnificent a resume as anyone could have. I am referring to President Ulysses S Grant!

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant’s command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America. Grant began his lifelong career as a soldier after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. Fighting in the Mexican–American War, he was a close observer of the techniques of Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. He resigned from the Army in 1854, then struggled to make a living in St. Louis and Galena, Illinois.

After the American Civil War began in April 1861, he joined the Union war effort, taking charge of training new regiments and then engaging the Confederacy near Cairo, Illinois. In 1862, he fought a series of major battles and captured a Confederate army, earning a reputation as an aggressive general who seized control of most of Kentucky and Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh. In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, he defeated five Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union control of the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union victories and conquests. After another victory at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general and gave him charge of all of the Union Armies. As Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1865, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very high casualty battles known as the Overland Campaign that ended in a stalemate siege at Petersburg. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee’s trenches at Petersburg, the Union Army captured Richmond, the Confederate capital, in April 1865. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Soon after, the Confederacy collapsed and the Civil War ended.

During Reconstruction, Grant remained in command of the Army and implemented the Congressional plans to reoccupy the South and hold new elections in 1867 with black voters. This gave Republicans control of the Southern states. Enormously popular in the North after the Union’s victory, he was elected to the presidency in 1868. Reelected in 1872, he became the first president to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson did so forty years earlier. As president, he led Reconstruction by signing and enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. He helped rebuild the Republican Party in the South, an effort that resulted in the election of African Americans to Congress and state governments for the first time.

President Ulysses S Grant is the son of
Jesses Root Grant and Hannah Simpson
Jesse Root Grant is the son of
PVT Noah Grant III and Rachael Kelley
PVT Noah Grant III is the son of
Captain Noah Grant II and Susan Delano
Captain Noah Grant II is the son of
Noah Grant I and Martha Huntington
Martha Huntington is the daughter of
John Huntington and Abigail Lathrop
Abigail Lathrop is the daughter of
Samuel Lathrop or Lothrop (1623 – 1700) and Elizabeth Scudder (1625 – 1690)

Therefore Samuel Lathrop (1623 – 1700) is the great-great-great-great Grandfather of President Ulysses S Grant (1822 – 1885)

Both Samuel Lathrop (1756 – 1821) and Ulysses S Grant are in the Lathrop Family tree on Ancestry dot com

Though the following are not (yet, at least) in The Lathrop family tree, according to famouskin.com, both Clint Eastwood and Tuesday Weld are 8^th Great Grandchildren of Samuel Lathrop (1623 – 1700). I, and my sisters and Lathrop 1^st cousins are also 8th Great Grandchildren of him as well. This makes Clint and Tuesday our 9thy cousins.

At some point, I will add Tuesday Weld and Clint Eastwood into the tree. I am sure “Famouskin” has the facts correct as they have a great accuracy record. Even though this is true, they have also determined that we are direct descendants Charlamagne. Seeing as he goes back 27 generations, I might not find the time to trace out lineage back to him. So, we’ll have to take FamousKin’s word on that one.

This story would not be complete if I did not mention Samuel Lathrop (1623 – 1700) was the brother of Jane Lathrop (1614 – 1683). Her husband, Samuel Fuller (1612 – 1683) came over with his father, Edward Fuller, in 1620 on The Mayflower. Because of her marriage, Jane was 100 percent Pilgrim. Jane and Samuel’s son, Samuel Fuller Jr. is my 1^st cousin 9 times removed.

Skipper

Who Was Jim Mason (1919 – 2020)

James Robert “Jim” Mason was the son of James Patrick Mason (1883 – 1955) and Mary Agnes Lathrop (1885 – 1972) *

Mary Agnes Lathrop

The following is his obituary taken from findagrave.com

Jim Mason

“

”

Mary Agnes Lathrop Mason was the daughter of Edward Palmer Lathrop (1855 – 1925) and Margery McBride (1857 – 1925). Edward Palmer Lathrop was the brother Charles Ozias Lathrop (1860 – 1939), my great grandfather. Edward P and Charles O were sons of Frederick Lathrop and Laurinda Palmer Lathrop of West Cornwall, CT.

Mary Agnes Lathrop Mason was first cousin to Edward Starr Lathrop and James Robert Mason was 2^nd cousin to Edward Lathrop Sr and his brothers and sisters. He was my 2d cousin once removed.

*Mary Agnes Lathrop seems to have been born with the name Agnes Elizabeth Lathrop but is buried with the name Mary Agnes. It looks like she changed her name somewhere along the way.

Skipper

To me, the story of Toddy Crotty begins with a sad ending. The following, rather bland, obituary tells us about all there was to know about him, at least in his final years.

As you can see, Toddy’s real name was Thomas, Thomas Albert Crotty, to be exact. The reason I am familiar with the June 12, 1968 part of the Toddy Crotty era is because I was there. I was a pallbearer for Toddy, along with my father, Uncle Walt, Uncle Howard and two guys who worked for John C Freeland.

Though I really didn’t have a keen understanding of the situation, I now understand the four of us were riding in the hearse together because we were next of kin. Actually, I only gained pallbearer status because I worked for my father in his television shop on 9 Main St.

My father used to help Toddy out all the time. Not only did he fix Toddy’s TV, as you would expect, he also fixed anything else in Toddy’s house that needed fixing.

Toddy lived alone at 16 Stillman Ave for more than 15 years, when the time came that Toddy needed to go to a nursing home, my father made the arrangements that put him there. I do remember that Toddy was in The Keating Nursing Home. I also remember my father was very upset when someone who might have been his cousin called him at the store one day and said, “Crotty’s dead” and then hung up. At this point, my father didn’t have time to mourn but he was truly taken back by this rude call. He rightly was put into a period of grief by Toddy’s passing but the unnecessary bluntness of the phone call greatly exacerbated it!

The funeral wasn’t well attended but my father’s sisters were there. There weren’t many others. It was obvious the Lathrop family was Toddy’s family but anytime I ever asked my father or Aunt Mimi how we were related, they would just say, “he’s some kind of cousin.”

In the few weeks he spent in the home, Toddy knew it was his final days. He told my father, “I would have had something to leave you Edward but the problem is I lived too G D long! Then, what little I did have left, these people took.” He was talking, of course, about the Keating Nursing Home.

Toddy did have a way with words, that’s for sure. For many years he lived on Keeler St. In his final decade and a half, he lived on Stillman Ave which is very close to Sacred Heart Church. So, he started attending mass there. He walked to church every week. My father asked him why he became a church going man when he never was before in his life. “Well, you know, Edward, around here, it’s the G D style.”

Though he walked to church, he drove everywhere else and he had his driver’s license for a long time. I’ve seen probably a couple hundred World War I draft cards. One of the questions they ask on this card is “Can you drive a car?” The overwhelming majority of answers I have seen to this question is “no.” This was 1917 and just not that many people drove back then yet. I know that Toddy drove during my lifetime and he loved to.

I have great memories of Toddy Crotty! He surely was a colorful character. I remember he was a professional wrestling fan and he believed it to be 100% real! At 9 years old, I too, loved professional wrestling! Toddy and I would often compare notes about “The Masked Marvel,” Bruno Sam Martino and Chief Jay Strongbow. For sure, we had a common interest and we were both emphatic about how bad the bad guys were and how good the good guys were! “DID YOU SEE THAT SON OF A B$%#&*” he’d burst out when the villain pulled one of his dirty tricks. My father, a non-believing wresting observer, would just coast with it. To him, Toddy truly was family. It took until about 55 years after Toddy’s passing, but now, I think I know why.

I looked at the 1880 census to find my father’s grandparents and his Uncles Mike, Ed and Tom, and his aunt Susan, who passed away at a young age, all living in Ralston, PA. His mother hadn’t yet been born. Below this family was Edward, Bridget and Minnie Crotty. They lived either next door or probably in the same house, albeit a different household, as the Keatings

The 7-year-old daughter, Minnie, is actually Mary Crotty, who in later years would be Mrs. John Dunleavy of Danbury Ct.

Then we move up to the 1900 census and look at the two households, here’s what we find:

Both families are living in Danbury, Conn. The Crotty’s are living on Starr St and the Keatings in South Bey Limits. There’s a new member, Thomas, in the Crotty family and Margaret, “Ma,” is now a part of the Keating family.

In 1880, since they lived so close together, it would be reasonable to suspect that the elder Margaret Keating and Bridget Crotty were sisters. Remember Margaret’s married name was Keating but her maiden name was also Keating. It becomes more suspicious since the two families moved to the same town at the same time. To raise suspicions even further, the 1900 census tells us both Margaret and Bridget immigrated to the United States in 1864. All these things would make you think Margaret and Bridget could well be sisters but Minnie Crotty Dunleavy’s obituary tells the rest of the story.

Of course, Margaret Keating’s husband was also a Keating.  However, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1863.  Also, Thomas Keating was born in January 1850 and Bridget Keating Crotty was born in March of the same year.  So, the siblings were Margaret and Bridget.  Margaret, by the way, was born in 1847.  So, there is no gestation period conflict there.

Though we don’t yet know the name of the Keating Girls’ parents, it would have to be the coincidence of the century if they were not sisters. We have the genealogical proof the elder Margaret Keating and Bridget Keating Crotty were sisters. This means Margaret Ma Keating Lathrop and Toddy Crotty were first cousins. Toddy was the last of the living Keatings of my father’s mother’s family and it seems the reason my father was so close him is he was holding on to the last vestige of his mother’s family.

The marriage of John Dunleavy and Minnie Crotty never bore any fruit, in a Biblical sense, and Toddy was never married. Minnie passed away in 1951, eleven years after her husband. So, from 1951 until 1968, Toddy was the lone relative of his mother who was still living and all this time, my father was a wonderful friend to him!

Their relationship was first cousins – once removed. This peripheral pallbearer was Toddy’s first cousin twice removed. The same is true of my two sisters and all my Lathrop cousins.

I think about him every now and then, and the memories are all good. I don’t know how many times I’ve repeated his line about the “G D style.” Still, in the interest of being better late than never, now it’s time for us to recognize Toddy Crotty as a true Keating/Lathrop family member!

Skipper

Who was Colonel Lathrop?

In the book, “The history of Danbury, Conn” the authors talk about the hatting industry in Danbury, Ct going all the way back to about the year 1810.

They talk about very tough times in the industry and in the economy in general. They also discuss the wool hat coming into fashion in 1841. When local hatters were in search of a true expert in the wool hatting field, they found Colonel Lathrop of Roxbury. When the authors say, “at present time,” I assume they mean 1896.

So, it looks like Colonel Lathrop set the world straight on the best way to manufacture wool hats. He seemed to have knowledge about the process of wool hat manufacturing that few others, if any others had. With a good imagination, and/or perhaps a healthy supply of Lathrop genes floating around inside of you, you might conclude he saved the hatting industry in Danbury long before it hit its full stride!

So, now we know what Colonel Lathrop did, but; who was he???

First of all, there is no Colonel Lathrop, at least that I could find. However, I found a “Captain” Amasa Lathrop of Roxbury. This man was born in Colchester, Ct in 1792 and died in Roxbury in 1871. He was also known as “Amsie.” Amsie was a nickname, I will assume. Most importantly, Captain Amasa “Amsie” Lathrop was a Hatter from Roxbury as we can see in the 1850 Census.

Amasa’s father was Daniel Lathrop. He also had a brother Daniel Lathrop. His father Daniel Lathrop, however, (b1765 – d1861), at the age of 93, got a lawyer and had just about everyone else in his home town, (his home town was New Milford) vouching for his integrity as he insisted, he fought in the Revolutionary War but signed up under a fictitious name because he was underage. In one of his correspondences with the government he wrote the names Barnabas Lathrop, Daniel Lathrop, (himself) and Amasa Lathrop who everyone called “Captain.” The army wanted to know the genealogy of these 3 men. Whether or not he gave the correct answer is unclear but we know positively, Barnabas, that is, the Reverend Barnabas Lathrop, was his father and one of his sons was Amasa. It appears the reason why he mentioned his father and son Amasa is his father was a minister and ran a congregational Church and he had a son was well known by the title of “Captain!” If the United States Army couldn’t take the word of these men, who possibly would they ever listen to???!!!

What Daniel says about Amasa is demonstrated to be true by his church’s record of his death. So, for whatever it is worth, Amasa was, indeed, known as Captain Lathrop.

So, when you take into account the Amasa Lathrop family was the only Lathrop family in Roxbury between 1820 +/- until 1880 +/- and that Amasa was a hatter, and that his church buried him under the distinguished title of Captain Amasa Lathrop, he was positively the man the Hatters of Danbury went to see when they needed information on how to be a successful wool hat manufacturer. The Colonel title was just an error or a printo (that’s what I refer to as a typo before there were typewriters), or maybe they meant it with the upmost respect when referring to the man who saved their town’s economy!

Here are 2 by the ways: First, Amasa was a Captain in the Militia in his area. This is a far cry from being a real Colonel in the army but it is the top rung in the militia ladder. The local militias were most active before and during the Revolutionary War but hung around even after it was over and Amasa was active in his.

By the way number 2: At 94 years of age, Daniel Lathrop (actually Daniel Lathrop Sr) was denied his claim to receive a pension for serving in the Revolutionary War on the basis he could not prove he had served the minimum required length of time, which was 6 months. Still, they acknowledged he did serve in the Revolutionary War for some period of time. So, when I fill out my application to join the Sons of the American Revolution, I will do so under his name. He was my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather. He was the father of Daniel Lathrop Jr. (Amasa’s brother) who was the father of Frederick Lathrop of West Cornwall who was the father of Charles Ozias Lathrop of Bethel.

To answer our original question Who is Colonel Lathrop? The answer is Captain Amasa Lathrop is my 3^rd Great Granduncle, the man who saved the economy of Danbury, Ct!

From the Lathrop Family Bible. It was partially written by Daniel Lathrop, Jr.

Skipper

The Geography of South Bey Limits

The two maps below are the same map. However, the second one is blown up in the area of and around Manions Lane.

The map was published in 1950 but by 1950, it wasn’t 100% accurate. It is probably a more accurate 1945 map. When looking at Manions Lane, two things stick out. First, the green line shows us the demarcation point between the City of Danbury and the Town of Danbury. You’ll notice the Beginning of Manions Lane was in the city and the rest of it was in the town. The significance of this is that the town and city were two separate entities. The town had a Selectman and the City had a mayor and the rest of the governing bodies were completely different. Also, the Town of Danbury post office was way out in the Star’s Plain section. So, the mail being delivered to Manions lane at this time was coming from the Bethel post office. So, for many years, the mailing address of the houses on top of Manions Lane was “Bethel, Conn.” Actually, the address did change to Danbury after a couple decades of using this false address but the address wasn’t “Manions Lane, Danbury, Conn,” it was “MR19, Danbury, Conn.” It was apparent neither the City of Danbury or the town of Bethel wanted to lay claim to this small strip of land that lied between them. With the Town of Danbury serving areas like King St, Stars Plain and Mirey Brook, it did not seem too wild about South Bey Limits either.

The second thing that sticks out on the map about Manions Lane was that it was a dead end. Actually, by 1950, it probably was no longer a dead end but for many years it was. There was no road that passed by the Gozzi and Dachenhausen houses which was true because there were no Gozzi or Dachenhausen house in the area prior to about 1949. This meant there was no roads that connected Manions Lane to South St on the Bethel side of Carney’s Crossing. I have heard that this part of the road originally was cut in from South St to the Gozzi driveway and no further. Still, by 1950, the road was completed to be how it is now. In other words, there is a road from approximately where the arrow is on Manions Lane to South St.

Manions Lane became Manions Lane in about 1931. Before that it was South St. Rd, South St extension or “Off South St.” At one point, they just referred to all the houses in the area as being on Carney’s crossing. Fortunately, that was not geographically correct! Before “Off South St,” the area was known as South Bey Limits. In those day, there was no road the houses of South Bey Limits sat next to. For part of this era, there simply were no cars and when cars came on the market, the people of South Bey Limits didn’t have any. So those on the top of hill of South Bey Limits walked to their houses through people’s yards taking what was the current path of least resistance, I would suppose. “Manions Lane”, south Street Ext”, etc. were names of roads, South Bey Limits was the name of a place. Before there was a named road, there had to be a horse path or walking path or something similar, it would seem, but there was no city or town road to attach a name to. We can see from looking at Thomas Keating and (Edward) Starr Lathrop entries in Danbury directories, the area was called South Bey Limits for roughly 30 years. In 1889, we see my Great Grandfather, Thomas Keating living in “South Beyond Limits!” It sounds like a place I frequented in the 60’s!

In the first directory above, you will see Thomas Keating, listed as a hatter. Perhaps he was a hatter in his first few years in Danbury. However, he was always a railroad worker or laborer and was listed as an “RR lab” in the 1900 census. So, he made have been a hatter for a while or the Thomas Keating listed was his son Thomas, though he was only 14 years old at the time.

When South Bey Limits finally got a road, the first house on the road, and maybe the only people on the road to own a car lived in the James Manion home. So, it was the Manion family who applied for the permit to construct a private road.  So, the private road, Manions Lane, was built!

For many years, the road was private and the upkeep of it was up to the people who lived on it. It also cost the people money to keep it private and it was up them to keep a “Private Road” sign near the beginning of the road.

At some point in time, I’m going to guess around 1957, the Manion family was no longer on Manions Lane.  The last family member, Albert “Allie” Manion passed away on January 1st, 1956.  The Town of Danbury, in the words of my father “took the road from us!’ Don’t be misled by this quote, he couldn’t have been happier as he continued, “Let them plow the snow!” In fact, when we thought the road was still private, we noticed that a town snowplow had driven through the road and cleared a deep snowfall. We had all thought someone who worked for the town was just being nice to us. After a few more of these serendipitous snow removals, we realized the town now owned the road. Let it snow!

The City of Danbury and the Town of Danbury consolidated in 1965. The only noticeable effect this had on the people in the area formerly known as South Bey Limits, aside from their taxes going up, was that their mailing address became “Manions Lane, Danbury, Ct” and almost immediately a road sign was erected that read “Mannions Lane” and the city has been misspelling Manions Lane ever since!

There are two more things I have noticed after looking at the map. The first is Rogers Park. You can find it by looking at where the green line intersects the misspelled “Mannions Lane” and following it to the left to Rocky Glenn and then looking north a bit. You will notice a short road from Rocky Glenn goes to Rogers Park and that’s it! That was all there was to Rogers Park in 1950.

The reason for this is The War Memorial wasn’t built until 1951. It wasn’t until the building of The War Memorial was completed that a road was cut in from the intersection of Main St and South St. I never remember Rogers Park being very much different than it is today so after a road was put in to allow you to park behind The Was Memorial, the development of Rogers Park as we know today must have happened very quickly, but in 1950, there wasn’t anything there.

Finally, there is one more thing I have to mention about the map. Part of the red line that separates Danbury from Bethel is x’d out. A mistake was made and no white out was available and the map wasn’t drawn with a computer program. So, we have benefited by being able to use a copy right free map. I think the x’s add a lot of charm to it! Ah! The good old days!

Skipper

This story starts with the page of a Danbury phone book. It is a 1932 phonebook. We’re on the page where the names start with L. We’re looking for Starr Lathrop but we can’t find him. However, I do spot a familiar name! It is that of my Aunt Gert!

Probably Starr knew in his heart that a new-fangled contraption like a telephone would ever get catch on. So, the forward thinking one in the family, Aunt Gert, who would have been about 20 years old at this time, signed up for one of those crazy contraptions.

If you’d like to give her a call, her number is 2689. I also see my great grandfather Chas O’s number. Then, below Chas O and Miss Gertrude M Lathrop, I see a Robert Lathrop. Who the heck is he???

Well… He is Robert Alvin Lathrop, a younger brother of Starr’s. as you can see, he lived on Southern Boulevard. As you can’t see but you’re going to have to take my word for it, he was born on August 22, 1896 in Bethel, CT and died April 30, 1976 in Kansas City, MO. He was married to Hellen Elizabeth Murphey. (We could open up a whole entire new can of genealogical wax with her!!!)

Robert Alvin Lathrop moved to Kansas City shortly after this phone book came out. We know this because is son Robert Alvin “Bob” Lathrop, Jr was born there in 1935. Despite being 22 years younger than my father, he is first cousin to Edward J Lathrop and Aunt Gert and all the other Starr and Margaret Lathrop offspring.

So, what’s the story on this Robert Alvin Bob guy? For this answer, let’s let his obituary do the talking.

Robert Lathrop – Nephew of Starr Lathrop Obituary

“Robert “Bob” Lathrop, age 76, of Bucyrus, KS died April 4, 2011 at Menorah Medical Center, Overland Park, KS. He was born on August 27, 1934 in Danbury, Connecticut, the son of Robert Alvin and Helen Elizabeth Murphy Lathrop. He was married to Cecily McConnell on August 9, 1958 at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Prairie Village, KS. They celebrated 52 wonderful years of marriage. Bob attended Rockhurst High School and Rockhurst College graduating with a degree in business and also served in the Army during the Korean War. He was a member of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. He enjoyed fishing, golfing, playing cards with friends and anything to do with electronic technology, especially his IPAD.

After retiring he and his wife traveled around the country in their motor home and going to Mesa, Arizona staying at the View Point RV and Golf Resort. Bob was an avid fan of the KU Jayhawks and the Kansas City Royals. Bob”s career in the food service industry spanned over 40 years and he was viewed as one of the most respected experts across the country by many companies and was employed at Lipton Tea, Continental Coffee, Sysco, PYA Monarch, Edward Don, Food Services of America, White Swan, and retired in 1995 as the President of Kraft Food Service Metro New York.

After his retirement from foodservice he and Cecily moved back home to Overland Park, KS and he worked for St Andrews Golf Course. In the most recent years Bob drove a school bus for the Blue Valley School District for special needs children.

He was preceded in death by his parents and one sister, Helen Mahoney. Survivors include his wife, Cecily, of the home; three sons, Tim Lathrop and wife Sherry, Overland Park, KS; Bob Lathrop and wife Kelly, Gold Canyon, AZ; and Pat Lathrop, Rogers, AR; one daughter, Kelly Ames and husband Roger, Stilwell, KS; two sisters, Joan Hamilton, Sunrise Beach, MO and Mary Stewart, Maineville, OH; nine grandchildren and one great granddaughter. Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. at Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church Wea, 22779 Metcalf Road, Bucyrus, KS. The visitation will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00.p.m. prior to the funeral mass at the church. Private burial in the Holy Rosary Cemetery. Memorials Contributions may be given to Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church or to Support for People with Oral, Head and Neck Cancer www.SPOHNC.org.

Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church 22779 Metcalf Road Bucyrus, KS 66013

Service:

Saturday, April 09, 2011 12:00 PM

Visitation:

Saturday, April 09, 2011 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM”

R.I.P. My first cousin 1 X removed, Bob Lathrop – President of Kraft Food Services

Michael Delohery, Wife and One Daughter

These pictures are from passports issued in 1924. Michael Delohery decided to take his wife and one of his daughters on a trip to see, in his words, “all countries.” It was a 6-month trip. He deserved the vacation as he kept my grandfather employed for many years! He must have known something because three years later, he passed away.

The first picture is of Michael. About all I can say about him is he really did look wealthy! Also, he kind of looked like “My Little Margie’s father.

Picture number two means the most to me because family resemblances can give you a glimpse of what someone who you don’t have a picture of might look like. The picture is of Catherine Keenan Delohery. She is the sister of my great grandmother and now, because my great grandaunt traveled around the world, I have some idea of what my great grandmother, Anna Keenan Lathrop, might have looked like.

The last one is of Mary Bridget Delohery. She looks a lot like her mom! With her comes a little story:

When she was growing up, she lived with her family on 58 Main St, Danbury. As far as I can tell this is where Tom Greene’s Funeral home is. Since our great grandparents once lived in Nellie Delury’s Funeral home, it’s fair to conclude some of our relatives had a strange attraction to Funeral Parlors. BUT! As they say on the radio commercials, Wait! There’s more!!!

When Mary Bridget went on this trip, she was single but she got married the next year, in 1925. Who did she marry?? Well, it was the one and only John Clarence Freeland! So, as soon as they married, she moved in with him to 91 West St, Danbury! Mary Bridget Keenan Freeland was our 1^st cousin 2 times removed. Therefore, John C Freeland must have been our 1^st cousin 2 times removed-in-law. I never would have thought I was related to him in any way shape or form but I am!

 

The following is from the 1949 Danbury City Directory.

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Starr Lathrop and His Dad

Edward Starr Lathrop was born June 29, 1883 in Danbury, Ct to Charles Ozias and Anna Keenan Lathrop. Charles Ozias Lathrop was born on August 14, 1860 to Frederick and Laurenda Evelyn Palmer Lathrop of West Cornwall, CT. (I have seen her name also spelled Lorinda.)

In the 1900 census, Starr’s mother Anna tells us she was born in Connecticut in June 1861 and that both her both parents were born in Ireland. Indeed, Anna’s father, Michael Keenan, was born in Ireland in August 1832 and immigrated to the United States in 1850. Anna’s mother was Mary Lillis, she was born in Ireland in September, 1833 and came to the states in 1852.

Both Michael Keenan and Mary Lillis made the trip from Ireland to Savannah, Georgia. This is where they met and soon after married and had their first child, Catherine, in 1857. Actually, the 1857 date presents a bit of a genealogical road block in the Keenan family tree because in the 1900 census, both Mary and Michael report they had been married for 40 years. Actually, if they weren’t married for approximately 44 years at that time, there would be a problem concluding their first born was theirs. This census entry, by the way, is the only indication I can find of when they might have gotten married. In any event, Mary Lillis’ obituary points us in the right direction.

From The Newtown Bee Feb 2007

Article from The Newtown Bee August 5, 1903

Mrs. M Delury, or Delohery, was the first born, Catherine Keenan.

Censuses are a wealth of information but they don’t take the place of birth, death and marriage certificates. Our ancestors were very bad at math! Often you will find a person will enter into his 1900 census he is 40 years old and then in his 1910 census, he once again enters he is 40. I’ve seen it often! The year in which they were married and their children’s ages are also wild guesses and ages often don’t end up as arithmetic would indicate they should from census to census. The older the child gets, the further off the parents guesses become.

The obituary of Mary Kennan is proof enough to me Catherine is the daughter of Mary and Michael Keenan. The two adopted children never changed their name to Keenan. One is John Creagh and other Mrs. AR or AH Jennings, who I can’t even find. The pallbearers are easy to find. They have all long ago had their places secured in the Lathrop/Keenan Family Tree. The one exception is a new entry, John Costello. I found him to be John Joseph Costello, born in Newtown in 1878. His father was Thomas Costello and his mother was Catherine Brennen. Catherine was the daughter of Stephan Brennen and Margaret Lillis. I have no proof of who the parents of either Margaret or Mary Lillis are but since John Costello is the nephew of Mary Lillis Keenan (Actually, the great nephew), I am assuming Mary and Margaret were sisters. Therefore, Margaret Lillis Brennen is my great-great aunt.

Thomas Costello died in 1885 and Catherine Brennen Costello was married a second time. This time to Stephan Farrell. One of the flower bearers is their son, “Lawrence Farrell of Hawleyville.” So, Lawrence Farrell and John Costello were half-brothers. I have yet to track down Thomas Cullinan.

The “adopted” children were probably not actually legally adopted. In the 1800s, many times generous families would just take in needy people. They would give them homes and a family life but they would not actually legally be family members. When studying the will (below) of Mary Keenan, this become apparent because the adopted children are not mentioned in it. Also, Mary and Michael had another child, Mary Fanning Keenan who was probably not adopted but she predeceased her parents and so, wasn’t mentioned in the obituary. She died at only 21 years of age and is buried with her parents in the Keenan plot. The name Julia Fanning is mentioned as Mary Keenan’s granddaughter in her will. We would have to think Julia is the daughter of Mary Fanning Keenan.

The will makes it absolutely clear that Anna Keenan Lathrop is a daughter of Michael and Mary Keenan. What brought this to question in my mind is where the obituary states Mr. and Mrs. Keenan were married in Savannah Georgia and came north after the close of the war. Catherine is documented to have been born in Savannah, Georgia but Anna has always stated in every one of her censuses she was born in Connecticut. Anna was actually born two months after the war started. So, one option is that Michael Keenan served in the war for a very short time. In this scenario, for him, the war was over before it started. Or, Mary had family in Newtown and took her child Catherine and her child to be Anna with her from Savannah to Newtown. Then, after they made it through all the dangers a trip such as that would present, they waited in their new home, which was not at all known to Michael, for him to show up there four years later. This, by itself, would make an amazing story!!! It’s a lot more reasonable in my mind to go with the deserter story. I don’t know how everyone feels about it but I would not think a man was reprehensible because he fled from the Confederate army. Still, a third option is probably the most logical; Anna was born in Georgia or at least, somewhere below the Mason-Dixon line. At four years old she was too young to remember that part of her life and at nineteen years of age when she filled out her first census, the state in which she was born was the furthest thing from her mind. If her parents had filled it out, it probably would read a different. Truthfully, my money’s on this third option.

No matter what, at one point the Keenans were southerners and our great-great grandfather was called to fight in The Civil War with the confederate army. Any “war is hell,” especially that one! My Great-Great Grandfather has to be greatly honored for making it through and then moving on to the building of a wonderful family tree! The Keenans must have suffered greatly from this war and may well have headed north because they had nothing left! Once again, I’m sure it would make a great story if we knew exactly what happened.

Mary Keenan’s Will

This will makes me think it was Mary Lillis Keenan’s family who had all the wealth in the beginning. She seems to have had family in Newtown which gives rise to the question, “Why did she go to Savannah in the first place?” Or, maybe the whole family landed there after the trip from Ireland. To me, this is how it looks. The Civil War was over in 1865 and the first census available to us after that time was from 1880. So, 15 years would be plenty of time for wealthy people to settle down in a new area and purchase large swaths of land. Is this exactly what happened? To be continued…

 

All his life and even today, Edward Starr Lathrop is always referred to simply as Starr. This is true even in his grandmother’s obituary. There seems to be no records showing us if Starr was born in Danbury Hospital but whether or not he was, it is very likely his first residence was 87 ½ Liberty St in Danbury. This house is shown as the Charles Lathrop residence in the 1888 Danbury City Directory.

1888 City of Danbury Directory

In the middle of 1888 Starr turned 5 years old. Since there is no other record of his family’s residence during his first 4 years, it is reasonable to assume 87 ½ Liberty St was Starr’s early childhood home. If the street numbers are still the same as they were when Starr lived there, 87 ½ Liberty St was across the street from what I best remember as The Old Oak.

If we go back a couple of years before Starr was born, (this is potentially bombshell stuff!) We find Charles, 19 years old, single, living at 111 ½ Main St, Danbury CT. We also find “Annie” Keenan, single, living in the same place. She was listed as 16 years old in this census but actually, she would have been 18. In this census, both Annie and Charles were said to be living in a household of 1. So, it appears 111 1/2 Main St was a boarding house and there were several people living there, each of whom had rented a room. It is also reasonable to assume both Charles and Annie had left home to be on their own, or perhaps actually ran away from home, Charles from West Cornwall (West Cornwall was part of Sharon back then) and Annie from Newtown. As fate would have it, they each ended up living in this cheap boardinghouse and it was there they each met their eternal love. This is of course, a great explanation if you don’t let your imagination run wild. Through his teen years and until he was married, we find Starr living with his grandparents, Mary and Michael in Newtown. This makes it hard to believe Annie ran away from home. To the contrary, this makes it seem Annie and her family had a long-lasting rapport. There are no tell-tale signs indicating whether or not Charles O and his family had a harmonious relationship.

1880 Census

By the way, if the buildings were numbered the same in 1880 as they are today, 111 ½ Main St was right next to St. Peter’s Church. This is a building I remember from my childhood as Nellie Delury’s Funeral Home and furniture store. From the 1927 Danbury City Directory, we see the Delury “block” 111 – 113. I don’t know exactly what buildings they owned or if 111 – 113 was just the building next to St. Peter’s Church.

When I copied this part of the 1927 Danbury Directory, it wasn’t necessary to include Mrs. Ida Delong, employed at The Hotel Green but I did for two reasons. First, The Hotel Green brings back great Danbury memories and second, Mrs.DeLong is a resident of my son-in law’s family tree. Therefore. I just couldn’t chop her out!

To try to make sure the Charles Lathrop living on Main St Danbury in 1880 wasn’t a different Charles Lathrop, I checked his father’s family Census from 1880 and sure enough Charles wasn’t there. Then I checked his father’s census from 1870 and he was there. He was 9 years old. There were 3 differences I noted between the 2 censuses, first, Charles’ sister Laura wasn’t born yet in 1870. Second, our Great-Great-Grandmother Laurenda had passed away between 1870 and 1880 and our Great-Great-Grandfather Frederick had given up being a farm laborer and became a shoe maker instead. (Good move!!! I would think it would be a much better smelling occupation!)

1880 Census

1870 Census

Annie and Charles both worked in a hat shop at the time the 1880 census was taken, so maybe they met at work and then decided… well, the imagination is started to run wild so, I’ll quit there. The point is we don’t have a marriage certificate for them but in the 1900 hundred census they both stated they had been married for 20 years. If this is true, they may had gotten married before they moved to 111 ½ Main St or while they were living there. Either way, it must have been a quiet wedding. In the 1880 census, Charles stated he was born in New York. All his other censuses tell us he was born in Connecticut. So, in 1880, he may have been flying under the radar for one reason or another. Another possible contributing factor to the geographical inconsistency is the fact that for many decades, the borderline between Sharon, CT and Amenia, NY had been a very faint one. This was especially true in the time period Charles lived there.

1900 census

Charles and Annie’s first son, Charles Henry was born in 1882 and of course, Starr was born in 1883. For all we know, one or both of them could have been born in the boarding house on 111 ½ Main St. It seems more logical though that Annie and Charles started their family after they moved to Liberty St.

1890 Censuses are hard to come by and city directories that included Charles and Anna Lathrop were sparce in the years between 1880 and 1900. In the 1889 directory however, Charles was simply listed as living in Danbury Ct. In this same directory, his business address was listed as Nichols St, which was one block away from 87 ½ Liberty St. Of course, this is when referenced by today’s house numbering. In any event, surely Charles worked very close to home and since he was listed as a” Hatter,” there might have been a hat factory or hat shop on Nichols St in 1890. Certainly, there was one close by.

Back in those days, there were hat factories everywhere in Danbury and even Bethel, for that matter. So, there is no telling which hat factory was on Nichols St. It is interesting most Danbury hat factories were close to the Still River and for sure, Nichols St is very close to it.

Down the road a bit, in this time period, at the end of Pahquioque Ave, on East Liberty St, National Hat Factory existed. In the middle 1800s it was a flourishing hat factory! However, in the late 1880s, National Hat Factory started having financial trouble and in a short time it went out of business. It was in 1818 Starr wrote on his WW1 draft card that he was employed by M. Delohery and Sons Hat Factory on East Liberty St.

“M Delohery and sons” or at least, the name “M Delohery” brings us to an entirely new discussion:

As we have seen, the first born of Mary and Michael Keenan was Catherine Keenan (1857-1933). In 1881, she was married to Michael Delohery (1856-1927). He is the M Delohery of M Delohery and sons. Though it was the Deloherys whom inherited most of Michael Keenan’s wealth, Michael Delohery may have married Catherine already being well-to-do. In any event, we know he must have had some degree of financial backing and/or business acumen, because when National Hat went out of business in the 1890’s, Michael Delohery opened up a new hat factory in the same building.

In any event, Michael Delohery, his wealth and the genealogy of his extended family is another topic worthy of story all its own. For this story, we just need to bring to light the fact that when young Starr wasn’t getting along well at home, his grandparents, Mary and Michael Keenan gave him a place to live and important work to do on their farm. Then, after he became a married man, they helped land a job he was very capable of doing while working for people who would treat him well for many years until his untimely death. These people were his uncle Michael and Aunt Catherine Delohery.

I thought I remember my father telling me many, many years ago we had some family relation to “Nellie” Hellen Delury. I though my Aunt Mary told me the that as well. So far, I’ve found no family relationship. That doesn’t mean anything other than I just haven’t found it. Here is more of the 1927 Danbury Directory showing how the names of the Michael Delohery and the Nellie Delury families were spelled.

If you were at St. Peter’s Cemetery visiting the Deloherys and you look slightly into the distance about 45 degrees to the left, you would see the Delury plot. As far as the two families being related though, I don’t know.

 

In the 1888 city directory, my great grandfather Charles was shown to be a hatter while still living at 87 ½ Liberty St. So, it is possible both Starr Lathrop and his dad worked for Michael Delohery at one time or another. Of course, 1888 was long before Starr joined the workforce and by the mid 1890’s Charles O and his family had moved to Bethel. So, it is apparent the two didn’t work at M Delohery and sons at the same time

 

Revisiting Starr’s WWI draft card, there are two other things that pop out at me when looking at it. One is he was registered as being a medium height and his build was registered as “stout.” I can relate to that! The other interesting fact is Starr had blue eyes. To me, as a blue-eyed Lathrop who’s always been told I inherited my eyes from my mother’s side of the family, this is interesting because my mother’s blue eyes were much lighter than mine. So, does this mean I didn’t inherit my eye color from my mother? Not necessarily but in all my life I never knew Starr had blue eyes.

After 1890, we have to move forward all the way to the year 1900 before we see the Charles Lathrop family living on Chestnut St in Bethel. By 1910, the family was living at 115 Grassy Plain St. Bethel. This is where Charles would live for the rest of his life. Charles and Anna owned the house in 1910 albeit with a mortgage.

By the time the 1910 census was taken however, Starr was out on his own. He married Margaret M Keating on January 12, 1910. He moved in with his bride and her mother, whose name was also Margaret Keating, to “South Street Road.” This is the same residence that would in later years be known as 11 Manions Lane. Before it was called was called South Street Road, the area was known as South Bey Limits.

Starr had 5 brothers and 2 sisters. Many of the off springs of his sisters and brothers are friends I’ve known in the area for most of my life. Unfortunately, two of his brothers didn’t live very long. His brother Leo Lathrop was born in 1900 and died in 1910. His brother Everett Lathrop was born in 1902 and died in 1921. In neither case was a cause of death given.

Throughout Starr’s life each census and city directory listed him as a finisher in a hat factory. The finisher was one of the highest paying but most difficult to hold jobs in a hat factory. It was the job most people sought simply because it didn’t require working in a room with fur flying within it all day and there was no need for a finisher to dip his hands in toxic chemicals. It also required no heavy lifting or any type of strenuous work.

On the other hand, it was a high-pressure job! The finisher was the last person to touch the hat before it was put on display. He colored the hat then made any imperfections disappear. Any loose thread or blemish would make the hat non saleable and too many such hats sent to display would cause the finisher to lose his job. The finisher was the detailer of the hat shop and this job called for a meticulous employee.

A good finisher could take a hat in poor condition and make it look stunning by the time he sent it to be displayed. A subpar finisher would send the best examples to display looking drab. The fact he held this position for many years convinces me Starr Lathrop was a superb finisher! I believe this to be true even though he was working for his uncle. I’m not sure if he continued to work for M. Delohery and Sons all his life, but from a few years after he joined the workforce until the time he passed away, he was a “finisher.”

From observing my father and his brothers and sisters and noticing the pride each one of them took in their work and how much attention each of them paid to detail, I now understand they probably all inherited this wonderful trait from their stout, blue-eyed dad, Starr Lathrop.

Charles Ozias Lathrop was the 4^th of 8 children and the 2^nd of 4 sons. His oldest sibling was Edward Lathrop. This Edward Lathrop lived his adult life in East Orange, NJ. Charles also had a sister Mary Lathrop. (Do these names sound familiar?) Mary married Henry Woodruff. Charles’ sister Estelle Abigail Lathrop Married a man named Albert Bragg and after he died, she married a man, Frederick Hartwell, who was 29 years younger than she was. He actually lived to be 94 years of age and so, died in 1982, This is astounding when you consider he was our Great-Grandfather’s brother-in-Law! Charles’ youngest brother was George Lathrop. He lived most of his life in New Milford but died in Danbury. George had a daughter named (are you ready???) Arline Lathrop. Her birthday was August 31st, one day off from my birthday. You can’t make this stuff up! Arline married Thomas Peter O’Donnell. He was a military man. They lived most of their lives in California. Arline died in 1993, in San Diego at the age of 90. Charles youngest sibling was a sister named Laura. She married Lester Pomeroy. They started quit a large family tree. There are Pomeroys all over the Danbury/New Milford area and many of them are descendants of Laura Lathrop.

I often wondered where Charles middle name “Ozias” came from. Then I found out his mom, Leurenda was the daughter of Dr Ozias and Emila Fox Palmer of Cornwall. That answered my question succinctly! Britannica dot com explains the origin of the name “Ozias” like this: “Uzziah, also spelled Ozias, also called Azariah, or Azarias, in the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 26), son and successor of Amaziah, and king of Judah for 52 years (c. 791–739 bc). … His reign marked the height of Judah’s power. He fought successfully against other nations and exacted tribute from the Ammonites.”

I wondered where the name Starr came from, too. It was a very puzzling question seeing as there was no one in the family I could find whose first or last name was Starr. So, it brings me to this story:

There was book published in 1927 titled “A history of Cornwall, Connecticut: a Typical New England Town.” The man who wrote the book was a Yale Graduate and for a good part, though not all of his life, a resident of Cornwall. He was also the pastor of the Congregational Church in Cornwall which the Lathrops and Palmers apparently belonged to. He surely had a knowledge of some of the members of the Lathrop and Palmer family if not a friendship with them. I believe so because he mentioned some of our family members in his book. He referred to Leurenda’s mother, Emila, as a “verse writer” and talked about Dr Ozias Palmer as being a doctor who cured people by using herbs. I would even go as far as to say this man was a mentor to young Charles Ozias Lathrop. The name of this Congregational minister, author and Yale graduate was Edward Starr. More precisely, his name was Edward Comfort Starr. His book is published under the name of Edward C. Starr.

The following are taken from “A history of Cornwall, Connecticut: a Typical New England Town.”

Another quote from Edward C. Starr’s book

Another exsert from “A history of Cornwall, Connecticut: a Typical New England Town.”

Here is a biographical note taken from the book “A history of Cornwall, Connecticut: a Typical New England Town.”

It is more than just interesting Edward C Starr’s first 3 children are named Charles, Edward and Mabel and Charles Ozias Lathrop’s first 3 children are also named Charles, Edward and Mabel. Also, Edward C. Starr was married in 1878 and then he named his first son Charles. Charles O Lathrop was born in 1860. Did Edward C Starr name his first born after our Great Grandfather? This could well be the case. Of even further interest is the absolutely incredible, almost spooky coincidence, if it was a coincidence, that Starr Lathrop and Margaret Keating were married on January 12, Edward C. Starr’s birthday! There is absolutely no doubt in my mind our Grandfather Starr was named to honor the author of “A history of Cornwall, Connecticut: a Typical New England Town,” Edward C. Starr.

Our grandfather Starr died January 29, 1939 of prostate problems. Because of this problem, he couldn’t empty his bladder and this caused his kidneys to fail. Usually, this type of problem is dealt with rather routinely today and has been for the last several decades. Unfortunately, in 1939 they had no way in advance to determine such a thing was happening to a person let alone curing it if they did know. So, we lost a good man way too soon. He was only 55 when he passed away.

If he had lived until he was 66, I would have met him. If he lived to be 87 in even moderately good health, he would have been at my wedding, and if he lived to be 97, as some people surely do, he would have met at least a couple of his Great-Grandchildren.

However, because he died so young, it seems he lived many, many generations ago when really, he did not. His problem was he just had a terrible draw from the gene pool.

On the other hand, his father Charles O did not have this problem. The story Charles’ grandchildren, my father and my Aunt Mary, have handed down to me is at 79 years of age, Charles Ozias was in excellent health but he got hit by a car, actually a Model T, one Sunday morning while walking home from St. Mary’s Church in Bethel. Though he lived through the accident, he never quite recovered and died several months later.

From the draft card above, you note that at 56 years of age, Charles O was still a hatter. It looks like it says he was a hat sizer. It is hearsay I must admit, but my father told me that in the days Charles (Grandpa, he called him) lived in Betel, he worked for Manion Hat Factory. This hat factory was at the beginning of Grassy Plain St, pretty close to but on the other side of the street from where The Sycamore is. My father told me he, himself, worked there for a while when he was kid, too. The other hearsay accounts I have gotten about Charles is that he was tall, thin, bald and quiet and he always carried a Bible. It almost sounds like he came from a different family.

It is a shame there were no videos or even pictures of most of our long-ago relatives. Because of this, we never really get to know them very well. We find out their birthdates and death dates and that’s about it. I do truly believe we will get to know them someday. However, that is a belief that has fueled countless discussions since the beginning of time.

Skipper