Friday, January 25, 2008

Fabulous Friday's Forever Family Featuring...

my great grandfather and mystery man, Jeremiah Crowley.

When I first started researching Jeremiah I thought this will be so easy with an unusual name like that!! Boy, was I ever wrong. There are so many Jeremiah Crowley's it isn't funny and they all have wives named Mary. Okay, not all of them, but enough of them to make it difficult to find the right one!! And by the way, his father's name is Jeremiah. Guess what his mother's name is.....your right Mary!!!

Jeremiah immigrated to the USA from Ireland around 1851 (info from the 1900 census) as a little boy. I don't have any ancestors in the US prior to that time. The first record I can find of him, though is not until 1880, when he is on the census living in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. So there is no information for almost 30 years!! Where in the world was that man!!!

Interesting family stories about Jeremiah are that he was married three times and that he lost a leg in the Civil War. There are 43 Jeremiah Crowley's listed in the Civil War database. I was unable to find one that matched the information I had. I do however have his death certificate. He died in a fire in his bedroom caused from a oil lamp being knocked over.

So, I will keep looking, I know one day I will find out more information about this ancestor!! I truly appreciate his family's struggles in coming to America so I could be born here!!

4 comments:

Katie said...

How come his son didn't know his date of birth? That is definitely mysterious.

Catherine said...

Your post, your researches, your words make me feel we get the same "addiction". Genealogy is not only a family affair, it's also historic studies(civil war for you,WWI for most of us, you know there are in every burg of France a Memorial Monument with the list of the dead men engraved. Each family has lost an ancestor in this awful war).
How can your great grand-father arrived in 1851 have been recruited for the Civil War which doesn't concern him? His life has certainly been harder than any of us can imagine! 1851, how could be his life in Ireland at this period? Many, many questions about him.
and it's also society studies (as you write your family has moved a lot, mine is sedentary, the more they travel is inside our country. Except one of my ancestor who is registred as "leaving in a foreigner country" but we ignore which? Canada, maybe? You know what? His name was "Vermont")
I love this post. I will come again and leave you other comments. I must read your older posts but first, I must look after my younger. see you later.
Goodbye. catherine

Cindy Price said...

Yes, addiction alright!! but I love it!!

In Ireland in the 1850 there was a potato famine. Many Irish people came to the US to find a better life. Life was very difficult at first. I really can't even imagine it. I'm so spoiled.

Catherine said...

I've even read that English authorities have "created" this famine. But was it just a contentious matter during for ages that makes people believe this explanation.
History lacks neutrality sometimes.
catherine

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