Sunday, May 28, 2006

Happy Birthday Joanie



This is my cousin Joan with my mother. Joanie lurks (wave at Joan). She and mother are more closely related than she and I. They are practically first cousins. Huh? Okay, this gets a little complicated so pay close attention. Joanie's dad and my mother's father were first cousins. Joan's dad was 54 when she was born - hence the huge age gap (Joan is the same age as my brother Howard). Anyway, Joan's father's name was James and my grandfather's name was John (this is important - so I don't have to keep saying her father, my grandfather, etc.). James' mother was Margaret O'Connell Hanlon and his father was James Hanlon. Margaret had a brother named Thomas O'Connell - who, coincidently was John's father. James Hanlon had a sister named Ellen Hanlon O'Connell who was John' s mother. Confused now? Brother and sister James and Ellen Hanlon married brother and sister Margaret and Thomas O'Connell. In the world of biology, this would have made James and John (the aforementioned father of Joan and father of my mother) more like brothers than first cousins. So if you follow that line of thinking, that makes mom and Joan more like first cousins than first cousins once removed. Are we thoroughly confused now? Good - I like to keep you that way so that you won't notice that I'm not actually the Queen of this blog. Joanie and I found each other through genealogy research - her's. I'm not that diligent. She was looking for the Hanlon's with no idea that her grandmother and my gr-grandfather (O'Connell's) were brother and sister too. It has sure made the research a lot easier since she is now researching all of my Irish line without me having to lift a finger (waving more frantically at Joan and including kisses this time). It is really a kind of tragic story - my grandfather John O'Connell was Irish Catholic. He fell in love with my grandmother Daisy who was not only Protestant but of more Scottish ancestry than anything else. Recipe for disinheritance right there - and he was ostracized from most of the family. The Hanlon's never spoke to him again, while only his siblings kept in contact on the O'Connell side. Part of that could be because grandma's sister Golda married grandpa's brother Frank - but she converted - and no, this was Iowa, not Arkansas. (Hi Tori!) Joan grew up just a couple streets over from us in Iowa. In fact, had she not gone to Catholic schools, she and Howard would have been in the same grade. Every winter Drake University would ice down their football practice field for the neighborhood kids to skate on. This was only a little over a block away from us. We spent a lot of time there, as did Joan. How many times had we passed each other on the rink with absolutely no idea who each other was? That's really sad. And it made Joan mad. Anyway, we're close now and I love her dearly. So here's a shout-out birthday wish to my very confused cousin Joan Hanlon. I love you sweetie. And be careful on your drive back from Colorado.

Okay, now that you've gotten a very confusing family history - have a great rest of Memorial Day Weekend.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Family history is such fun! The searching part can get really boring, though. But I love finding cool stories. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, and happy birthday, Joan! :)

Bailey Stewart said...

And I'm sure that there are many of us researchers who have come across these convoluted lines. And the stories are cool.

Scott said...

My goodness, it's easier to understand why a woodchuck could chuck wood. Have a good memorial day!

Denise McDonald said...

Happy Birthday Joan!

make's me think of the song, I'm my own grandpa... kids have been listening to disney songs lately and that was one - LOL!

Lexi said...

Jeez, my eyes are crossed from trying to follow that family line! I hope Joan has a happy birthday and that you have a great weekend!

Bailey Stewart said...

Oh I don't know Scott - I never could understand why a woodchuck would chuck wood.

Peggy - yes, we have since (1998) found another cousin in that line too. It's great.

Dennie - I don't know if I know that one.

Christine - welcome to paint fumes central. It's not always so hard to follow (I heard that).

Busy getting boxes unpacked. I also need to find space on one of the closet shelves for my genealogy stuff - I'm running out of space for books, so I'd much rather just put those research notebooks away.

Anonymous said...

My cousin and I have been working on our family tree for over a year now and have found many amazing things, the foremost being the family surname was changed when when our great grandfather immigrated here from Wales.

I'm glad you and Joan got together.

Happy Birthday Joan!

catslady said...

Whew - sure glad there isn't going to be a test lol. My husband's uncle is into geneaology and has traced back hundreds of years - it's all quite interesting.

Brandy said...

Happy Birthday Joan!!

My SIL did her families history so she could join the DoC. No offense, but Ugh! Your family sounds interesting.(made me think of that song, I am my own grandpa.) Try to relax today, OK?

Toni Anderson said...

Couldn't you have drawn a picture?

LOL--lovely to have found each other. There's a book in their somewhere :)

Bailey Stewart said...

Susan - it's that changing of surnames that gets everyone in trouble.

Brandy - I could join the DoC and the DAR - I just choose not to.

Toni - pictures drawn under the influence of paint fumes could be just as confusing. Finally finished my part of painting yesterday. Susie still has touch-ups to do, so we're not through with those fumes. LOL

Anonymous said...

Yes, definitely confused.

But "Happy Birthday, Joan!"

Anonymous said...

The only vote of approval my maternal grandfather ever gave to "that criminal" Hitler was for having everyone research genealogy. Of course, it was for all the wrong reasons, i.e., to prove you had no Jewish ancestors. But we all had "an ancestors passport". Even I have one. The only problem is that it's only the direct line without any siblings, uncles, aunts, etc. We know some back to my great-grandfather's generation but from there it gets pretty murky. We just know that my mother's maiden name is extremely rare. There was a Rostig in London, ON when I my family first moved here, but they've disappeared. Another Rostig contacted my one cousin. There is just one Rostig in the whole next generation. He's around 10 now. So on him rests all the weight of keeping the name of our branch going. Just like my nephew here is the only Schulz to keep our branch a chance for another Schulz. He's 21 so not yet looking to get married.

We really should get together with some of the other Schulzes that we know of. There were at least 12 children in my grandfather's generation and as many in my grandmother's. Unfortunately, at this point we've lost contact with them. Now if I can find a certain address, maybe I could get back on track.

P.S. Sometimes I wonder if we're related far back somewhere to the "Peanuts" Schulz. Same spelling, anyway.

Michele said...

What an amazing story!
Amazing the things that fracture families. For my DH's side, it was money. He has relatives/cousins he'll never know because of it. And NO ONE makes attempts to rectify it.
Very sad.
I'm glad yours has a happier ending.

Bailey Stewart said...

It was money too. When my gr-grandfather died my grandfather and one of his brothers were also left out of the inheritance (my grandfather was still in the will). So while other members of my grandfather's family lived comfortably during the Great Depression, my grandfather and grandmother struggled.

Oh look - my verify thingy is nudxday - nudistday.

Anonymous said...

Hey there Eve! (and everyone else)...sorry to 'lurk'...as much of a nerdette as I am (programmer by trade) I'm still a bit leary of the whole blog thing...I'll try harder!

Ruby55 - I found some stuff through my subscription on ancestry.com about the ROSTIG family. email me at soytainly at gmail dot com and i will send it to you. And if the rest of you PROMISE not to bury me in requests, I'd be happy to look up a few things to take my mind off our Irish family who thought it was unnecessary to write anything down since it is nobody's business what they did! :-)

Eve - the trip to Colorado was safe (Thank you God and guardian angels!) and I was able to bring back MORE family history stuff from storage!

Family History research is fun, although hitting brick walls where you can't find ANYTHING else out is a bit frustrating. PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE!

And to all the rest of you...there is no 'my own grandpa' stuff going on in this family (that I know of! ha ha)

Eve....you need to talk with Christine (the other 'new' cousin we found) to get the scoop on John Hanlon's will - I thought my grandpa just drank away his inheritance....looks like there wasn't anything there in the end anyway due to unscrupulous caretakers.

Bailey Stewart said...

I was talking about the O'Connell will - Thomas O'Connell.

I'll pass the info on to Ruby - chances of her coming back to this post is low.

Glad the trip went well - yay on finding more stuff!