Treasure Chest Thursday: My Oldest Things

There's just something about holding something old in your own hands. You wonder who else has held the thing you hold in that moment. How did it come down through so many years to land in your hands? How many eyes have passed over it? Who bent over to write upon it? What was your ancestor thinking about the moment the camera captured their face? Were they thinking about you, their descendant, who would one day end up with their photograph in your possession?

I am writing a book on the history of the Mulry family in Indianapolis. I have had the pleasure to meet so many distant relatives in my research for the book, and have had priceless things loaned to me to contribute to the book. Just the other night I met with my grandma's cousin, who she never really knew, and she gave me a funeral register for my great-great-great uncle, Matthew Mulry. Inside were the signatures of so many relatives, including my great-great grandmother. I just ran my fingers over them and thought about how she had stood over this very book to write her name. Living history, right there.

This record, below, is what I believe to be the oldest thing in my possession. It is a very fragile handwritten record of the children of Thomas Coen and Phoebe Randle, my great-great-great-great grandparents. I found it in the old family Bible, which dates to the 1860s, given to me by my grandmother. Just think of all the hands it's passed through, and now it's sitting in my desk drawer.  Now that's a treasure chest.

What about you, genealogist? What's the oldest thing in your collection?

New Year's Eve 1932

Tonight I want to shine the spotlight another writer in my family: my great-great aunt, Elsie Bishop Mulry. I never knew her, but I was blessed to read her narrative of the night she met her husband, my great-grandfather's brother, John Mulry. Without further ado, Elsie Mulry:

New Year's Eve, 1932 was a magical night. My future husband happened to be walking by The Club and saw me working behind the counter. I was wearing a dark red dress and when he saw me he said to himself, "There's the girl I'm going to marry!"

He came in and sat at the end of the counter. I waited on him and then went about my business, but every time I glanced at him he was looking right back at me. Something was nagging at me, and I finally realized I'd seen those eyes before, but where?

Then it struck me! In my daydreams about descending a staircase and looking into the adoring eyes of my escort, I had always pictured the eyes that were looking at me now!

It was nearing midnight and The Club was deserted except for the two of us. I walked over and refilled his coffee cup and we began talking. We talked about the weather, the basketball tournament, and of course about Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had recently been elected president and was promising to do so much to ease the pain that had gripped America.

As the horns and whistles began to blow, and the bells of St. Patrick's began to ring out the old and welcome the new year of 1933, a strange thing happened. Maybe it was because I was feeling sorry for myself for having to work while others were out whooping it up, or maybe it was the familiarity of the eyes I had seen so many times before, or maybe it was plain old Fate, whatever it was, I kissed a perfect stranger!

But John wasn't a stranger. Our kiss was as natural as if we had known each other forever. What should have been a casual kiss, wasn't. It was the start of something mighty sweet, and we both knew it. It was the start of the love and commitment to each other that would last the rest of our lives.

I'd had my share of proposals and propositions, but I'd never had a real romance, and that's what we had. There were love notes everywhere! We had a special way of holding hands, and a secret code. We had "our" song, "our" movie, "our" favorite radio program, and all of the other silly and sentimental things that memories are made of.

We were together as much as possible. We liked all the same things, the same food, the same movies, the same politics, everything! He even shared my belief in no sex before marriage, or at least he was smart enough to say he did! We were marvelously, outrageously, completely in love!

So, on May 30, 1934, the beautiful princess married the handsome prince. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

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Surname Saturday: My maternal line

For a woman, there's something extra special about discovering your female ancestors. They are the most elusive, aren't they? How many of us do a little happy dance when we find a maiden name. (Come on, you know you do.)

I've always been particularly interested in my direct maternal line. Just think how much we have been influenced by our mother, our mother's mother, our mother's mother's mother, and so on? It gives me the warm fuzzies just thinking about it. Now, I'm not saying that our mothers were perfect, but that's what makes them beautiful. They faithfully raised their children despite all their flaws. So, as a part of Geneabloggers' Surname Saturday, I am going to highlight each woman of my direct female line.

1. Eliana Grace Potter


This is my daughter. She's part of the direct female line, too! She was born in September 2008 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

2. Kathryn Suzanne Andrews

That's me. I was born in September 1985 in Indianapolis, Indiana. I married Ben Potter in 2007 and we have two children, Eliana and Micah.

3. Laurie Jo Lutz

My mother, Laurie Jo. She was born in August 1963 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She married my dad, Todd Andrews in 1982. They raised three children, myself, my sister Kristin, and my brother, Nicholas.

4. Jacqueline Ann Mulry
 
 My grandma, Jackie, was born in March 1945 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She married my grandfather, Robert Lutz, in 1962. They raised four children. She died in a tragic car accident in 1993.

5. Mary Ann Fox

Mary Ann was born in March 1918 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She married James Mulry in 1938. They raised four children. She died in 1975.

6. Katherine Margaret Garrity

Katherine was born in October 1889 in Connersville, Indiana. She married Arthur Fox some time around 1915, and they raised three children. She died in 1966.

7. Anna Walsh
Anna was born in August 1859 in England. She immigrated to Indiana when young and married John Garrity in 1879. They raised eight children. She died in 1905 in Connersville, Indiana.

8. Winifred
Winifred (surname unknown) was born in 1837 in Ireland. She immigrated first to England, where she married Edward Walsh. He died and she immigrated to Indiana in 1868 with her two daughters. She died in 1877 in Connersville, Indiana.

I do not have any information beyond Winifred. Someday perhaps I will. But I just love that my maternal line is only in Indiana and Ireland. It makes me feel so Irish, and so Hoosier. Love it. So, to sum up, my maternal line is as follows:

Andrews, Lutz, Mulry, Fox, Garrity, Walsh.

What's yours?

an excerpt from The Mulry Family History

The following is an excerpt from my work in progress, the Mulry Family History, which chronicles the descendants of the Irish immigrants to Indianapolis, John and Mary Ellen Raridan Mulry. This excerpt is the section on their son, my great-great grandfather, Lawrence Mulry (1882-1950). I love this section in particular, because it includes some wonderful memories of Lawrence and his wife, Nellie. (Shared memories are the best part of any family history!)

The information the first Mulry history has on Lawrence reads:

                   Born 1882. Switchman, Conductor, Yardmaster Big 4 Rwy. Married Nellie May Hitchcock 1902. They had six children. Died 1950 Dec. 28, buried Washington Park Cemetery East at the age of 68

          Of all of John and Mary’s children, Lawrence has by far the most descendants. In 1966 it was known that he and Nellie had 32 great-grandchildren. Who knows how many exist today? 

Lawrence and Nellie’s children were:

                   Lawrence A. Mulry, Jr. 1903-1993 (who wrote the history)

                   Raymond Charles Mulry 1904-1905 (pneumonia)

                   Louise M. Mulry 1906-1907 (malnutrition)

                   Mary Elizabeth Mulry 1913-1985

                   John Edward Francis Mulry 1914-1992

                   James William Mulry 1915-1975

           Many fond memories still exist of Lawrence and Nellie. Great-granddaughter Patty Mulry Shaffer has vivid memories, one of her favorites being the story Nellie told when asked how she met her husband. Apparently, she had been looking out her window when she saw him and said to herself, “I’m gonna get that man!” She succeeded!

          Other memories of Patty include her living with them for a time when she was young. She would always play Solitaire and cheat (a memory shared by great-grandson George Hayes as well) and shoo them away when they called her on it.

 Patty Mulry Higginbotham remembers “Mom Mulry” playing cards and Spoons with them, and also making “the best fudge.” Kathy Mulry Schmidt recalls: “[Grandpa] died when I was only 5 so I hardly knew him, but I was pretty close to Grandma. We used to play 500 Rum for hours and watch The Lone Ranger together on her 12 inch black and white TV.  She lived with us for awhile when I was about 11 and 12 and she would take my side when my mom yelled about something I had done.  Imagine that! What's a grandma for?”

The following memories are written by Patricia L. Mulry-Shaffer, who was cared for in many ways, by Nellie May (Hitchcock) Mulry and did spend a great deal of time with her while she was growing up until around 1957 then from the early part of 1960 or 1961 until she returned to Uncle John’s to live. “This is how the narrative of how Nellie May saw & won the affections of Lawrence A. Mulry, Sr. Nellie May was a card player, she played piano for ‘The Lodge’ women’s league (I think the Moose Lodge) and was saucy gal! While I was growing up she mostly lived with Great Uncle John & Aunt Elsie. She did live with me and daddy in the early sixties when my father bought a house in Southport and had custody of me. He needed the help of someone to care for me while he worked at night. By that time she was in her 80’s but still spunky and full of it. She finally went back to Uncle John & Aunt Elsie’s and remained there (I believe) until her longevity ended.

“Some of her antics and ways are well known to some of us older Mulry children and cousins. She could pound a piano’s keys with determination, mash potatoes with vigor & a cigarette hanging from her mouth (“don’t mind the ashes…. They look like pepper and won‘t hurt you!”….. Ha ha ha) and cheat at solitaire till “who tied it” as she would say.

“She had a sense of humor and a no nonsense way of doing things. She had been a very heavy woman at one time and had wattles under her arms…… when she talked she would use her hands and those wattles would swing back and forth. Look at the pictures of her and pop and you will see what I mean. She was short to Pop’s height but I don’t think she took any crap from anyone!

“Fat Grandma would tell me about when she had food on the table………… Pop would always say “more meat Ma” even when there was no more to give. Even working on the railroad for all those years, the depression did not let people afford much for their tables. Aside from that, I do not recall much more about my Great-Grandmother, Nellie May.”

               Mary Ann Fox, James’ future wife, wrote in her diary while she was dating him in 1935:  Went over to Jim’s home for supper and had a sweet time. Met a lot of his folks, all lovely. Mr. and Mrs. Mulry are grand. Played cards and made lemonade.

               Lawrence died in December of 1950. According to granddaughter Emma Mulry Prange, he and Nellie were living with their daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Ralph Bland, in Beech Grove at the time of his passing. Nellie passed several years later in 1966. They are both buried at Washington Park East Cemetery in Indianapolis.

            In conclusion, the first Mulry history tells of Lawrence: “The best story of all that I ever heard of all of them was the one about Grandma wanting to make a priest out of my father Lawrence. As you can plainly see, it is a good thing that she did not succeed because none of us would be here now as he was the only one to have any children to carry on the name.”