MY MOTHER'S TRAVELS (52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge)

This story challenge is about Travel, and I'm going to write about my mother's childhood travels. She got to travel to Europe, across the US, to Mexico, and Cuba. All on regular working people's salary. How was this possible during the Great Depression? It's going to take a little explaining... 

My mom, "Peggy" [Maria Margaret Kilgariff McLaughlin], was born in 1928. She was an only child and her parents were older. Her mom, my Grandma (Margaret Charles McCann Kilgariff), worked from about age 14. Grandma had married at age 36 and kept working. She had my mom at age 42. I don't know for sure, but I assume she stopped working while pregnant. After my mom was born, Grandma stayed home till Mom was born...kind of.

I need to digress to explain about their living situation before I can explain the "kind of." They lived in a 4-story, multi-family house: Grandma's parents who were immigrants from Ireland (Joseph McCann and Catherine "Kate" Sherlock McCann) owned the house. I think they bought it brand new. They lived on one of the floors, I think the bottom one that you entered under the stairs. Grandma's sister, husband (Mary Catherine "Mamie" McCann Holzmann and George Holzmann), and five kids they lived on two floors. I think the second and third floors.

Here's a photo of the house at 91 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The house right in the middle is theirs. The top floor windows have awnings. I think that's the floor where my mom and her parents lived. 
 

(NYC.gov/records, NYC tax record images from 1940 for 91 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY)

So now, we can get back to Grandma working till Mom was born. About a year after Mom was born, Grandma, who remember, had worked since she was 14, went back to work! Not back to Manhattan working for Western Union, oh no. She bought a small 'candy store' across the street from where the family lived. The store would have sold newspapers, candy, snacks, cigarettes/cigars, ice cream, soda, and maybe some grocery staples--milk, butter, canned and boxed goods, bread. I don't know much about it, just that she had one and ran it. I don't know if she ran it alone, or had people she employed. She could work because *her* mother and sister were living right across the street, watching my mom. Once my mother was in first grade, Grandma sold the store and went back to work for Western Union in Manhattan. Grandma was a clerk for W.U. Her husband was a fare tender in the subway in Brooklyn.
Below is a photo of a candy store from about the 1940s.

(Photo from Pinterest)

Now think about this. My mom and her family were living in a family-owned house. My mom's parents were both working. They have only one child. It was the depression, but they were set up pretty well. This is how they were able to travel.

 And now, on to the pictures. The first set are from summer 1935 when my mom, her mom, and her parents went to visit Ireland for the 100th(ish) birthday of Patrick Sherlock, my mother's great-grandfather.  [mom-->grandma-->her mom--> her dad Patrick] These were in Northern Ireland.

Top Left: The photo page from my grandmother & mom's passport book. Top Right: Somewhere in Northern Ireland. Bottom right & bottom: In Belfast somewhere. The bottom photo is my mom, her mom, and her mom! Notice my grandmother, in the middle, above, is carrying a movie camera in her right hand. Here is a badly-deteriorated 'video' (it was film) that she took on that Trip to Ireland

Above: Mom and her grandmother in Paris. Below: Mom at a different fountain in Paris

All the photos below, from the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Mexico, were, I believe, all from the same bus trip. Notice how my grandparents are dressed. 

This trip would have been on a bus with NO air conditioning. Can you imagine taking a trip like that in the summer? 

Above & below: My mother at the Grand Canyon, and with her parents. 

Below: At the Lodge at Yellowstone.

Below: In Tijuana Mexico

Below: A 1940 trip to Natural Bridge, Virginia
 

Below: In Cuba, my mom and her dad. It looks like she is wearing the same dress as in Virginia, so perhaps this was a trip down the east coast? And after Florida they flew to Cuba?

I thought I had a couple of photos of a trip to Montreal, Canada, with her mom and a cousin, but I could not find them. At some future point if I find them, I will add here.

All in all, an amazing series of trips for a girl who grew up in the Great Depression. She was a lucky girl. 

The Family "Homestead"

Ok, the title is a bit misleading. My family does not really have a homestead. But during all my growing up years the house my mother grew up in was somewhat of that for me. Not that I ever got to go into it. No, by the time I was of age to remember, the house my mom grew up in was not in the family. 

However, my mom's widowed maternal uncle lived a block away. Two of his daughters lived with him, also his brother-in-law. We visited them regularly. We could step outside and see my mom's house from the front of their house.

I last saw it in 2023 when I was visiting two of the cousins who still lived there. But today, I found out mom's house is gone. Actually, the whole row of houses is gone, from one corner to the other. Here's what the block looks like!

The house was built in 1899. My mom's maternal grandfather most likely bought the house new! He was an immigrant from Ireland. In the 1900 Census my mom's mother, her three siblings (two girls,
two boys), and parents lived there on two floors. People rented out the other two floors. 

(1900 U.S. Census, Ancestry.com)

When my mom was born, she and her mom and dad lived on one floor, and my grandmother's sister with her husband and five kids lived in the two-story unit. My great grandparents lived on one of the other single-unit floors. My grandmother's two brothers, now married, lived nearby. My mom was an only child, but she had lots of cousins in the neighborhood. Here are the relatives in the house in the 1930 census.

(1930 Census, Ancestry.com)

This photo of the house is from the 1940 NYC tax records:

(New York City Tax Records, nyc.gov/records, 1940 for 91 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY)

As I said, above, one block away is a three-story brownstone which my grandma's youngest brother bought in the early 1920s and where his last child still lives! She is in her early 90s. Her sister who had lived in the house with her since being born, passed away last year. They lived in that house all their lives. My mom was an only child and they filled kind of a sibling slot for her. I have always had a love of history, especially family history, thus this blog. When I was in this neighborhood, knowing I was where my family had such roots was always a wonderful thing for me...and now the next time I visit Brooklyn, part of that is gone...

Family Business [52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge]

My mother's paternal grandfather was Patrick Kilgariff (c.1846-1904).  He had his own business having something to do with selling cloth. In various records he is listed as a dealer, draper, cloth dealer, or pedlar (the British spelling). A draper was a retailer or wholesaler of cloth, mainly for clothing. Perhaps he also sold items associated with that such as thread, buttons, ribbons, cording, scissors. I think he may have perhaps been an itinerant dealer?

I think he may have been itinerant for this reason. Traditionally, young people in Ireland in this time would have married other young people from nearby farms or villages, places within walking distance or cart-ride distance. Patrick was from County Mayo, but Mary Mannion was from County Sligo. In the 1850s her family lived in Strandhill, a coastal area west of Sligo town. Patrick and Mary's locations were at least a full day's walk from each other, about a twelve hour walk. So, it's not likely they would have come across each other from their home areas. They certainly could have met if Patrick were an itinerant peddler.

Strandhill, County Sligo to Ballaghadreen, which was in County Mayo in my great grandfather's day, but is now in Country Roscommon.

At any rate, when Mary and Patrick married, their addresses were in the town of Sligo itself.  Of their eleven children, two were born in Sligo (the first and seventh child). The rest of their eleven children were born in County Tyrone, though two different areas of County Tyrone, from 1874 to 1890.

Sligo town, County Sligo, Ireland, Google Maps

From the civil records it seems my great grandfather Patrick could not read or write. He left his "mark" if he was the one reporting the births of his children. It boggles my mind that he could run a business without knowing how to read and write. He must have been able to do some math, at least? However, things did not go well, as you will see further on. Here is his wedding register with his "mark" highlighted. The registrar is a witness to Patrick's mark...but he forgot to write the word "mark," he only wrote the word "his." (Also, interesting--notice his father's last name is spelled Gilgariff)

He is listed as a draper in the Dromore section of the "Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory" for 1892, found on Ancestry.com. This is the town where he and his family lived. Most of his children were born in Dromore, including my grandfather, John, the youngest, in 1890.

Here is a notice of my great-grandfather Patrick going into bankruptcy in 1895. However, here he promises to pay what he owes in three installments rather than actually go through with the bankruptcy.

(The Commercial Gazette, London, pg. 211, 2 Jun 1895. From Newspapers.com)

Here are the people to whom he (apparently?) owed money because this notice was in the same newspaper (or dealer magazine?) on the same day as the above notice.

(The Commercial Gazette, London, pg. 283, 12 Jun 1895. From Newspapers.com)

Coates & Co., is an existing company which makes yarn. Aitken, Campbell, & Co. may have had something to do with textiles as I found an exhibit in a museum from a few years ago which had two pieces of cotton cloth by a company with the same name. I also found online a company by the name of Hamilton & Co., but it seemed to be American-based, not UK-based company, selling women's clothing. I could not find any information about any of the other companies/names. 

On Family Search I found more information which, to be honest, I can't decipher even though it's in English. It's in 'Legalese'. It's a conveyance record, but I'm not sure if my great grandfather is taking out a 99-year lease, or giving one up? This record is in County Tyrone, in 1885, where the family lived at this time, which was five years after my grandfather's birth. If you can figure it out, leave me a comment!

From 1882 to 1896 Patrick was listed (bottom of the page) in the Northern Ireland Valuation Revision Books in Dromore, Tyrone. There's always taxes to be paid.

(Northern Ireland, Valuation Revision Books, 1864-1933, Ancestry.com)

In 1899 and 1900 he is listed as a "dealer" and living at 2 Holmes Street, in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory. So the family had left Dromore by then, and were living in Belfast.

In the 1901 Census, below, the family was living on Silvergrove Street in Belfast. Three of the oldest children had emigrated away from Ireland to NYC where they were staying near a maternal aunt. The next three sons had already left for Glasgow, Scotland, even though the family counted two of them as being with them in Belfast! I don't know if the family had any contacts in Glasgow that the brothers may have been with.

(The National Archives of Ireland)

Notice Patrick says he is clothes dealer. I don't know, though, if he was actually still working in the trade. However, in the Lennon-Wylie.co.uk 1901 Belfast/Ulster Street Directory, snip below, Patrick is listed as being a clothing dealer, so maybe he was still working from the home.

At any rate, in 1904 Patrick passed away. I have not found any obituary which might reveal any further information. He was only 58. His civil death registration is below. Cause of death: "Cardiac disease, 1 month." I am thinking it meant he'd had a heart attack and managed to hang on for a month.  

(Irishgenealogy.ie #4584038, entry #493)