BS: genealogy of towns

Subject: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,genealogy of towns
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 05:32 PM

There is an expert genealogist doing a presentation this week near me..I can't make it..but she has done a genealogy of the local families named Wirkkala..and believe me..there are a ton of them here. She also traced them back to the area of Finland..they tended to take the name of the town in this case, which is why there are so many.

I am doing something similar, in the most amateur way, of a town in Iowa where my relatives settled after the potato famine by way of working on the canals. A number of families seemed to travel together and they were from the Dingle area of Ireland. I hope to find enough married names that I can trace families back to Ireland..some seem to also be from Waterford and Cork, but County Kerry seems the most numerous..and once you have started doing genealogy of Dingle, you recognize a pattern of names that I am not sure is really duplicated elsewhere in Ireland. There were a lot who settled in Chicopee MA and also Butte Montana.

County Kerry vital statistics are online and I have found a few links already.

If anyone does genealogy in County Kerry I am looking for an Eliza Crehan born around 1840, immigrated around 1847 as an orphan, we thought..but her obituary says she traveled with relatives, which could have been Garvey or Lyons or others...lots of Cahalans, Murphys, Fitzgeralds in the mix. Also a Bart and Hanora Crehan/Crean/Creehan from County Kerry were there, born around 1830s. Well, Hanora was from Kerry, not sure of Bat or Batt or Bart of Bartholomew.   I would love help on this mystery..lots of Creans from Annascoul and Blasket Islands...

In researching Deverys I find a huge cluster of them in Hennepin Minnesota.

Well, anyway, have other towns done this? I know people immigrated in clusters..from the Azores to ?? on East Coast...whole villages packed up and moved...any other examples? Advice? I have a lot of information, probably including many errors, and at some point need to make this available to others looking for their families. mg

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: Little Robyn
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 05:53 PM

My Mum's maiden name was Hoddinott.
We all thought Huguenot, French, but no - her ancestors came from Hodnet, a little town north of Shrewsbury, England. And when we spoke to the vicar at Hodnet he showed us a book that said Hodnet was named after Odo, who was the Lord of the Manor hundreds of years back - Odonet.
The little town has some really old houses - over 400 years old but when we looked up the records, all of our Hoddinotts had left the place years before they were even built, shifting to Frome, Somerset. So maybe they didn't become Odonets until they left???
It was interesting tho' to find the town my Mum's family were named after.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 06:08 PM

One I knew well was New Braunfels, Texas.
Prince Carl, Solms-Braunfels region of Germany, came there in 1845. The migrants were farmers, craftsmen and professionals, including a geologist. He did early study there, and one of his papers mentions an Indian engagement which he watched while on a bluff studying the rocks. They were not poor, but the Prince assembled a cooperative group to settle in the New World.

When I was at University in Texas, I had to translate German and I found a German grammar, used in bilingual schools in New Braunfels, very helpful as an adjunct to the German classes at University. One professor I remember, Lochte, was descended from original settlers there. I had another in a Geology course, his accent was quite thick.
There is information in the Handbook of Texas, online.

Many other German settlers came to central Texas. Fredericksburg is another of the old German towns in Texas.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 07:00 PM

LR, people are often named after the town the came from, seldom after the town where they live. So your ancestors would have had to move away to be called after Hodnet. (It's a lovely place by the way).

Genealogy man, it's a lot less common for Ireland than it is for Scotland, where whole communities were forced to become Canadians, or Scandinavia, where American land agents would recruit whole villages\ to emigrate to the railway concessions out west (see Dee Brown),

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 07:58 PM

This is rather neat:

World Names Profiler

Look to see where all the world's Cunts and Twats are.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 08:07 PM

In the US, at least in areas where I've lived, it has been a fairly frequent occurance that an "anniversary" of a town, township, county, or even the state, will result in publication of "town histories" or "county histories," frequently containing information written by the then current residents about "how my family came to ...." (and of course with the obligatory fictions about the grand accompliahments of dubiously connected ancestors.)

It's perhaps fortunate that many towns here are only a hundred or so years old, so small anniversaries have still merited some celebrations fairly recently. Kansas is doing it's "150th year of statehood" now. (It probably is less likely that 500 year old setllements would stop to take formal notice as much?)

The histories frequently get discarded three weeks after the carnival leaves town, but can somethimes be found in libraries or museums in the towns involved or in nearby "county seats," or at larger towns/cities nearby. They frequently are not cataloged in the libraries, but a very specific request describing the kind material you want as "town histories" or "county histories" may turn one up. I've even had a small town librarian tell me "we don't have one but Maudy down two blocks in the pink house with the bed of violets out front used to have one." Finding when/where the "elders" have their morning cuppa' can sometimes be productive if you can get a conversation started.

The local histories often were printed by the local newspapers, so their graveyards, where they still exist, might turn something up.

These probably aren't a reliable "primary source" but sometimes can be surprisingly easy to find, other times impossible. Sometimes they are the only place interesting details have ever been recorded by first/second-hand sources.

Iowa, incidentally, is "about one or two generations older" as to settlement dates than the part of Kansas where I was raised, and quite a few here migrated from there. I would expect "similar practices" in both places in the past, but perhaps with about a 50 year difference in when the practice faded, as it appears to have done here now.

John

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 01:25 PM

Where I live in Iowa there was a 100th anniversary book printed in 1938 that contains lots of interesting info about the founding of the town and the goings on up to 1938. There was another book printed in 1976 for the US bicentenial that has little to do with the US bicentenial and much more to do with the town. Then in 1988 there was a 150th anniversary book printed that mostly covers things that have taken place since 1938.

Fortunately these are all available at our local library. When I moved here in 1995 you could check them out and take them home to read. Now they are only available to look at in a reading room. The Chamber of Commerce still has some copies of the 1988 book so I have one of those. Reading them really helped me get a feel for the place. A number of the family names are still well represented in town.

I'm curious what town you are researching g of t.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 01:35 PM

Incidentally the World Names Profiler finds a larger proportion of Deverys in Australia and New Zealand than anywhere in the US. The highest proportion anywhere outside Ireland being in Otorohanga, Gisborne and Southland in NZ.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 03:27 PM

I have been in touch with a Devery of Australia and another one lives in Portland now but was some famous ball player. We are all probably related..they say most Deverys are..they came from France and most settled in King's County near the High Kings of Tara I believe. My sister is always asked if she is French. I however am not. Lots seemed to come to Minnesota. I can not prove relationship to another Devery of my town (Clermont, Iowa), but other Deverys say they are related to Big Bill Devery of New York...not a sterling character I don't think.

Anyway, it is Clermont Iowa. I was told by a locla historian that many came to McGregor Iowa to work digging clay for the brickyards in Clermont..they were so naked that they had to be issued a clothing allowance. Apparently they signed on to ships going to New Orleans, jumped ship, got jobs as stokers going up the Missisippi, jumped ship again in McGregor where they were pretty much assured of jobs.

I am wondering about Postville..same town as had the very sad meatcutting scandal recently. It is very nearby. Anyway, is there not a poem about Postville 9 concerning baseball? There was a famous baseball team..with triplet McGarahan brothers..had a cigar named after them. Wonder if the poem exists and if it is about Postville Iowa, pretty little town. mg

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 03:38 PM

There are many local histories that give information on settlers. I collected books for Alberta, there are about 20. There are also articles in various publications.
"Colonies" in Alberta include Irish, Ruthenian, Polish, English, French (not from Quebec), Icelandic, Ukrainian, American Negro and others.
The Ruthenian-Ukrainian group is especially strong, as many took up homesteads, beginning in the 1890s and continuing into the 1930s. The towns are easily identified by their Orthodox churches.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 08:18 PM

A couple of things have struck me. Despite all we have heard about the huge number of women dying in childbirth, these women did not seem to. Of course they survived a famine and life on coffin ships. They lived to ripe old ages, as did their husbands (I am talking about the original immigrants, probably born 1830 and immigrated around 1850), unless they were involved in accidents involving quite often farm animals. Their sons who worked on the railroad were quite often involved in awful train accidents. There also seemed to be a trend for young women to die, like at 18 or so..of things like typhoid..perhaps more than other age groups. There also seemed to be more twins and one set of triplets than I would be expecting. From Clermont sometimes groups of young men or couples moved to South Dakota, MOntana etc. Many of the men worked on the railroads, as did quite a few in my family. This truly has the makings of a great American novel or drama or reality TV or whatever. I am only doing the Irish..there were subsequent waves of Germans and Norwegians, and of course preceding Sioux and Winnebago and I hope someone does the same for them. mg

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 05:07 PM

I have not been to Clermont or Postville but I have gone through McGregor. Went to Pike's Peak State park and then through McGregor to get to Effigy Mounds National Monument.

I see that Arcadia Publishing has a book on Clermont. Doubt if there much info you could use for genealogy but it is probably still interesting. The Arcadia books I have seen have all been pretty good.

Available here along with some other Clermont related items.

BTW - Pike's Peak was named after Zebulon Pike, same as the mountain in Colorado. Before he went to Colorado he led an expedition up the Mississippi. He saw a bluff along the river that he thought would be a good place for a fort and it was subsequently named after him. No fort was ever built there, it was built across the river instead.

Effigy Mounds is an amazing place.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 06:28 PM

Were not the local Native Americans mound builders around there? mg

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 11:06 PM

I have a friend whose last name is De Vries...I wonder if that's just a different spelling?

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 11:29 PM

It could be related. It is spelled many ways like Devereaux..it was originally something like DeVries because they came from the villege of Vries I believe. There is a big grave monument in King's County with lots of Deverys on it.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:17 PM

Were not the local Native Americans mound builders around there? mg

It is now called the Woodland Culture but yes, that is who built the mounds. There is a set called 'Marching Bears' along with several birds and any number of conical and linear mounds. I just checked the officail website and it says there are over 200 mounds in the park.

From ground level some of the bears are difficult to see as bears but I thought no less of them for it. The oldest mounds are large conical ones right on the edge of the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. They were magnificent. It was easy to find views that showed little if any modern human activity.

On a different note - there is an American Football player named Jared DeVries from Aplington, Iowa which looks to be about 75 miles southwest of Clermont. He played college ball at the U of Iowa and is now in the NFL playing for the Detroit Lions. Maybe a long lost cousin.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:39 PM

De Vries is a very common Dutch name. Very unlikely to have anything to do with Ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 01:15 PM

Devereaux   French D'Evreux = Of Evreux Eure, Normandy
Deverell   English Deverel = the Slope or Nook of the River Dever
Devereux   French D'Evreux = Of Evreux Eure, Normandy
Deverill   English Deverel = the Slope or Nook of the River Dever


That is from a genealogy site..

But I think I have seen it also spelled differently. I have also read what caused them to leave France but I can't remember. There are lots in what is now COunty Offaly but was King's. mg

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 02:16 PM

From what I remember of my friend's background, what she'd mentioned, was lots of relatives whom she has visited in Wales; also in Australia. I'll have to ask her sometime if there is any French, but I think she would have mentioned it because of my link vis a vis Roger's last name, La France.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 07:55 PM

I actually am not doing what anyone would call genealogy..it is just using family tree maker 16, which is wonderful, to cull stuff quickly from ancestry.com. A genealogist would not be impressed at all..but family members might find out something they would not otherwise..and if enough are done, and someone (else) plots where they had children born on the way, it can give a very good idea of migration, and at some point I hope to be in touch with people in COunty Kerry and give them names of couples to see if there is a match. Easier now that county kerry is on line.

Also what I just figured out is how to use newspaper access through my library card..and get it into a word table or spreadsheet. I just give it a name of a family and a town. I mostly do Clermont, so I give it the name of Murphy and Clermont..get some obituaries, some basketball stars, some terrible accidents involving farm animals, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: KB in Iowa
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 11:55 AM

some terrible accidents involving farm animals

You intrigue me with this. Seems to me that most of the terrible accidents involve farm equipment, not farm animals. Then again, I have never lived on a farm so perhaps there is a dark underside of which I am unaware.

Subject: RE: BS: genealogy of towns
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 21 Apr 11 - 01:03 PM

Oh they got kicked in the head and gored by rams and things like that.

I shall report on Colliton family. Apparently came from Northern Ireland, at least one. Three men of approximate age, Thomas, Patrick and Ned..probably brothers. I knew about THomas and Pat but not Ned. He was in the civil war. THomas was a foreman at gravel company and was apparently a pillor of the community for a long time. Ned had worked for the governor. A child of Tom's was killed from playing iwth matches. Tom and his family visited and hosted a lot of people. Others were not heard from too much. Some of the children moved to Minneapolis.