Deedy.com Blog

Dianne Dowd sent along another photo from her collection today. The photo appears to be from the 1890's and pictured may be Bartholomew McDonough, Michael Brennan, and Martin McDonough. Seated in front of the three men are likely their wives - Margaret Fay, Bridget McDonough, and Maria Simmonds.

While the photo is not marked, Dianne made the identification after looking at other known photos. I have posted one of Dianne & Tom Dowd's photos of Bartholomew and the shorter man in this photo does resemble him.

Thank you again Dianne & Tom for sharing another great old photo!

Labels: Dowd_Collection, McDonough

THOMPSON, EDWIN L.

Edwin L. Thompson, long time resident of Briarcliff Manor, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his immediate family on December 30th.

Edwin, who was known to all his family and friends as Ted, was born in NYC and grew up in Larchmont, NY, the son of Leslie E. Thompson of NYC and Agnes McDonough Thompson of Worcester, Mass. He is survived by his loving wife of 22 yrs, Helen Murtha Thompson, his brother Leslie E. and his wife Dee Thompson of Cottonwood Az.; his son Robert L. Thompson of Medford, Mass, daughter Rosemary Thompson of Deposit, NY, Step-son Thomas K. Murtha of Bellmore, NY and grandson Michael J. Katen of Deposit, NY. His loving family includes numerous nieces, nephews, sisters and brothers-in-law. Ted was pre-deceased by brothers John L. Thompson of Cohasset, Mass., Bill Thompson of New Rochelle, NY. and first wife Martha Hughes Thompson.

Ted attended Iona Prep in New Rochelle and Cranwell Prep in Mass. He then joined the US Army and served as a corporal in the Pacific in the 624th Field Artillery unit. After Military Service he graduated from Holy Cross College in Worchester, Mass. His career in the Supermarket industry included Personnel manager for A& P food stores and Director of Labor Relations with Gristede's Supermarkets, negotiating multiple contracts during his years of service.

As a retiree Ted worked as a sales representative in the Real Estate Industry for Rae Molinelli and HoulihanLawrence in Briarcliff. Ted was a loyal member of St. Theresa's parish in Briarcliff, serving as an usher in his early years. He enjoyed many rounds of golf with friends and family as a member of Pleasantville Golf Club and then Highlands Golf Club. He was an enthusiastic Yankee fan and will be remembered as a man of good cheer with a winning smile.

Visitation will be at Waterbury and Kelly Funeral Home of Briarcliff Manor on Sunday, Jan. 3rd from 3-7pm. The funeral will be at St. Theresa's Church on Pleasantville Rd. in Briarcliff at 10am Monday, Jan 4th. In Lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the National Kidney Foundation at their website: www.kidney.org. Waterbury & Kelly of Briarcliff Manor 1300 Pleasantville Road Briarcliff Manor, N.Y10510 914-941-0838 914-941-0838

Thank you to Patty Quattrochio for sending this notice to me. My condolences to Ted's family and friends.

Labels: McDonough

Dianne & Tom Dowd recently visited the Worcester Public Library in search of some death notices for their family research when they happened across the Worcester Telegram January 8, 1928 front page story: Miss Marie McDonough, 18, and companion, plunge four stories in elevator shaft at New Rochelle.

The article recounts how Marie McDonough (later Hayes) had a horrible accident her freshman year at college. Marie was the daughter of Patrick McDonough (the only son of Thomas & Mary's 10 children). While Marie survived the fall, finished college (albeit at a different school) married, had children, and lived a long life - she did bear the physical scars of her accident.

Unfortunately, her friend, Frances Covey, was not as lucky as we learn in the January 12, 1928 Massina Observer article: Massena girl killed in plunge down shaft

- Lawsuit articles after the accident

Labels: McDonough

Among the items in the Dowd Collection was this photo of a thatched roofed home located somewhere in the county of Roscommon, Ireland. In 1966 the Dowd family visited Ireland and located the McDonough homestead. Along with this picture were others on 35mm slides. The slides are a series of images of the house, the surrounding views of the countryside from the farm, and images taken along the road leading to or from the farm.

Unfortunately, while scanning the slides I experienced some technical difficulties. I have other images of the home and farmstead to share in future posts, but one image in particular I am missing - a photo of a sign post which must be near the old McDonough farm. While I am missing the image, I do have the information on the sign.

Pointing left to Geevagh 5 1/2 and Drumshanbo 17 and right to Ballygawley 4 and Sligo 10



If you click on the map above to view larger, you will see that I have found and circled three of the four locations from the sign. It appears that the most likely area of Roscommon that the farm is located is in the Northern area and near the Sligo boarder.

The Roscommon riddle that we need to solve is this - given the information in the postcards, the picture, information from the sign, and locations on the map - can we narrow down a specific location for the farm?

As always any additional information or suggestions are welcome either by email or in the comments.

Labels: Dowd_Collection, McDonough

Among the collection of Dowd images, was this photo of Bartholomew McDonough (Father to Mary McDonough Dowd and Uncle to the McDonough children of 1 View Street). As you can see the original photo was not in the best shape. I spent a few hours today fixing the image to the best of my ability.

I wanted to highlight this work to assure anyone out there who has old pictures that are not in perfect condition - these images can be saved!

Labels: Dowd_Collection, McDonough

My Father and I just returned from a lovely afternoon with Tom and Dianne Dowd. During our visit they shared with us their amazing collection of photographs, newspaper articles and other family history mementos.

I brought along my scanner and laptop and set-up "shop" in their dinning room and captured as much as I could. I can't thank Dianne and Tom enough for their generosity in sharing the collection and in their good humor and patience during the hours that we imposed on their hospitality!

Here is my first post regarding the material collected today. I have tagged this with both the McDonough tag and a new Dowd_Collection tag to help me stay organized.



This was one of the first images Dianne handed me. On the back is marked Agnes McDonough Thompson, who was the 8th of the 10 children of Thomas & Mary McDonough and born June 7, 1893. Here she is seen clutching her jump rope and striking a very cute pose. She appears to be about 3 years old. Finding this photo among the Dowd collection of photos provides a clear link that yes - we are definitely connected and belong to the same McDonough family tree.

Labels: Dowd_Collection, McDonough

A new McDonough image has arrived for me to share. Pictured is Mary M. McDonough Dowd with three of her four children - son John Dowd and twin daughters Marie and Anna Dowd. Mary is buried with her parents, Bartholomew McDonough and Margaret Fay McDonough in St. John's Cemetery in Worcester (see cemetery tour here). This photo was provided by Dianne Dowd - Thank you Dianne! She dates the photo to 1911 and I will assume it was taken in Worcester, MA.

Mary Margaret McDonough Dowd was born on July 11, 1882 which makes her about 1 month older than her cousin Katherine McDonough Kennedy (middle row seated last on the left) who is the third of Thomas' ten children.

This photo likely dates to about the same time (give or take a few years) of Thomas McDonough's family in Worcester, MA. Thomas was Mary's uncle and all of his children were Mary's first cousins. It is interesting to click on each photo (to see larger) and compare the faces of the cousins.

Another interesting thing to note that Mary and her uncle Thomas had in common - both had twins! Two of Thomas McDonough's daughters are fraternal twins. Could twins run in the McDonough family?

Labels: McDonough

Among the slew of Christmas cards I received, one from Dianne Dowd arrived containing a copy of Bartholomew McDonough's 1926 Obituary. After a considerable hunt, I managed to unearth that important piece of paper, scan it and now it is attached to this post (link above).

Reading this obituary, I see that between 1913 (Thomas McDonough's obituary) and 1926, brother Bartholomew's obituary, the remaining McDonough siblings remain alive and I assume in their same locations. At least sister Catherine (or Katherine as was the spelling in Thomas' obit) Murphy is still in Ireland.

I would still love to be able to find photos of the siblings, if they exist. Pinpointing their village in Ireland is still another research goal...

Labels: McDonough

The family history search continues. Finding the time to analyze the finds and then post about them is the hard part for me lately. Life is very busy! Enough excuses from me, here is the latest:

You may recall that Thomas McDonough (my great-grandfather) obituary revealed that he had siblings. One of whom was named Bartholomew. I was able to locate Bartholomew's grave in Worcester.

Unfortunately I was stopped at that point. You would think a name like Bartholomew McDonough would be fairly unique. I had hoped that uniqueness would help me locate a Naturalization record for him.

I did find paperwork for the Naturalization in Worcester in 1918 of a
Bartholomew Joseph McDonough born 1887 in Sligo, Ireland. Now this Bartholomew can't possibly be the brother of Thomas - he is far too young. But could he be a nephew?

Labels: McDonough

Unfortunately, I have not found a wedding photo of the McDonough - Ahern wedding, but this photo appeared on the same page as the wedding article. The article has a few typos, but it paints a striking image of the event. The photo of the woman in the hat helps you visualize the fashions described:

Worcester Evening Post
August 19, 1912

AHERN - MacDONOUGH

Miss Sarah W. MacDonough, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas MacDonough of 1 View street, was the first bride to be married in the church of the Ascension. Miss MacDonough was married to Albert J. Ahern of South Windsor, Conn. at 9 o'clock this morning. The Rev. James J. Farrell rector of the church, performed the ceremony.

The bridesmaid was Miss Anna G. MacDonough, a sister of the bride, and the best man was David Ahern of Windsor, a brother of the bridegroom.

The bride wore a suit of white serge trimmed with heavy silk braid and a white felt hat ornamented with two birds of paradise. She carried a shower bouquet of bride roses.

Miss Anna wore a white serge Norfolk suit with a black velvet hat trimmed with two algrettes. She carried pink sweet peas.

The bridal party entered the church to the strains of the wedding march from "Lohengrim," played by Miss Ella McCarthy, who played the Mendelsohn wedding march, as a recessional. Charles J. Hickey was soloist at the mass.

A wedding breakfast for members of the families was served in the home of the bride's parents, after which Mr. and Mrs. Ahearn left on a wedding trip to Canada. They will live in Windsor Ct.

The bride traveled in a blue tailored suit, with a blue felt hat to match.

Mr. and Mrs. Ahearn received many beautiful wedding gifts, including silver, cut glass and bric-a-brac.

I found it interesting that the article mentions what kind of wedding gifts the couple received. I had no idea that bric-a-brac was considered as desirable as silver!

Labels: McDonough

I have posted before about the L.W. Pond company and how that Worcester business played an important role in M. Thomas O'Leary's life and for the McDonough family.

Recently, Mary Kennedy Dean sent me some photos of large cast iron planters manufactured at the L. W. Pond foundry by Katherine McDonough Kennedy for her daughter, MaryJane Kennedy Gaitings' driveway. This reminded me to look again for information about the L. W. Pond company. What I found was the following interesting tale about the founder of the company - one Lucius Wilson Pond:

Lucius W. Pond was born in April 1826 in Worcester and worked as an apprentice for Samuel Flagg - part of a 10 man shop turning out quality tools. After only three years, L.W. Pond rose from apprentice to foreman and then partner. In 1853 Samuel Flagg retired and sold his share in the business. By 1854 Pond bought out the other remaining partners and built a new works on the Flagg site. The new works, covering at least 7 acres had scarcely been completed before it was destroyed by fire. Despite heavy losses by the failure of insurance companies, L.W. Pond was able to pay all creditors in full and rebuild. This action left the company was a remarkable credit throughout the business world. By 1875 the works employed 1,000 workers in Worcester.

The Pond works gained a reputation for producing as fine a quality of tools as any in the country as well as for innovating ingenious tools. To expand the reputation of his company and attract more business, Mr. Pond opened a large store in New York City "where he placed a good assortment of his iron and wood-working machinery. This was the only wareroom in the city where such machinery could be seen in motion and this fact sold quantities of his work."

Beyond being a successful and shrewd businessman, L.W. Pond took an interest in public affairs, serving several years in the Massachusetts Senate. He was also very active in his church and was a well known and well respected man around Worcester and beyond. All of this made the following events in 1875 all the more scandalous:

December 26, 1882
The New York Times
Lucius W. Pond Pardoned
Liberated after serving seven years

The irregularities of Mr. Pond were brought to light by his sudden disappearance. It was announced early in October that he had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and it was reported that a man, supposed to be he, was last seen in the state-room of the steamer Providence, of the Fall River Line on her trip to New-York, where, on the morning of her arrival, a coat, hat, and pair of shoes were found, which were afterward identified as his. The theory that he had been "foully dealt with" was advanced, and found credence. It was several days after before his forgeries were detected. It was found that the faces of notes had been removed and rewritten with larger amounts than the original, while the endorsements were genuine. The original notes were generally made payable at Mr. Pond's office, so that when they were paid they remained in his possession without any marks of cancellation, or anything to show that they were dead paper. It was then a tolerably easy matter to remove the writing on the face with an acid and write in fresh dates and amounts and add Mr. Pond's own signature, while the endorsements were allowed to remain. The arrest of Pond was made in San Francisco [just before he was boarding a ship set to sail for Australia.]

You can click on the title to read the full article, but it appears Lucius passed about $40,000 in bad checks in a six month period in 1875. Knowing that his forgeries were about to be detected, he faked his own death, fled to the West Coast, and attempted to flee the country. The victims of his forgeries ranged from friends, family, prominent business men, to widows, orphans, and his own church. However, in the end, the very friends he defrauded helped him obtain early pardon and eventually re-established him in business in Worcester.

Labels: McDonough, OLeary

While researching Thomas McDonough's siblings, I noticed on Martin McDonough's grave stone a notation about a Martin F. McDonough being just 16 years old when he died (see photo from grave yard tour). Sadly, as I research various family members, I have become accustomed to stumbling across death records for very young children. But the death of a sixteen year old? There must be some sort of a story to uncover here.

First I looked up the death notice published in the Worcester Evening Post on November 7, 1898. That notice contained the bare facts of the event. The next find (1898 Worcester Evening Post long obit)provided many more clues to young Martin's short life.

Worcester Evening Post
November 8, 1898

High Requiem Mass

The Funeral of Martin McDonough This Morning.

The funeral of Martin McDonough, son of Mr. and Mrs. McDonough, of No. 3 Esther street, took place from the parents' residence this morning. A requiem high mass was held at Sacred Heart church. Rev. Wm. Foley offered up the mass. The floral tributes included a pillow and 16 pinks from the Maxwell Football club, a cross marked "Our Son", pillow marked "At Rest" and a bunch of pinks tied with lavender ribbon from his comrades, star marked "Cousin" from Mr. and Mrs. Dominick Sweeney, sixteen pinks tied with white ribbon from Mary and John McDonough, bunch of chrysanthemums tied with white ribbon from Earle W. Ide and Chas. A. Church, pinks tied with white ribbon from Margaret Mullaney, sixteen white roses tied with ribbon from Susan Conlin and bouquets from P.T. and Catharine J. McDonough. The pallbearers were: John J. Brennan, Patrick J. Mullaney, John Sweeney, Martin Murphy, Patrick T. McDonough and Jas. F. Thompson. Services at the grave were read by Rev. Bernard Conaty. The burial mass was at St. John's cemetery.

We now know Martin Jr. lived at 3 Esther Street, was a member of the Maxwell Football Club, and he received many floral tributes from friends and family. It appears his cousins, Patrick and Katherine McDonough attended the service, with Patrick serving as a pall bearer. Patrick would have been about 18 years old while Katherine was 16.

To find out what caused Martin's death, I searched for his death record and found it here. It reveals that young Martin died of pneumonia. It also reveals that Martin was employed as a wireworker. I would have expected him to still be a student.

Labels: McDonough

I recently received a request for some old McDonough wedding photos. In particular, Rae Patria is seeking the wedding photo of his grandmother, Sara "Sadie" McDonough Ahern.

If you have old wedding photos that you can share please let me know. Also, if you have old photos which appear to be from around 1900 - 1920 which could contain some of the McDonough women, I am very interested in them as well.

I am planning another trip to the Worcester Library soon to search the microfilm archives specifically for McDnoough wedding announcements. My hope is that some of those announcements may have contained a photo. We shall see...

Labels: McDonough

I have received another request for help with identifying people in an old family photo. This time the request is from Rae and below is his question:

On the cover of the CD-Rom, there are three women standing above and over to the right of Nana. Who are they? They are obviously McDonoughs' or in-laws. Attached is a photo - circa 1939 - where the woman holding me could be the same person at the extreme right on the CD-Rom. Am I correct? Then who is she and who is the young lad with her who is obviously her son?

As always, you can click on the photo to see larger. So far, in the above photo we have identified:

1. Thomas R. Deedy
2. Louis McDonough McCarthy
3. Rae Patria

Here is the photo Rae mentions from the cover of the CD-ROM handed out at the Sept. 7th Gathering. The photo is from my Grandmother, Grace McDonough Deedy's, photo album and was taken inside 1 View Street.

The people in this photo are as follows:

1. Mary Loftus McDonough
2. Grace McDonough Deedy
3. Thomas McDonough
4. Margaret McDonough Barry
5. Anne McDonough Fay

If you can help with the identification, please leave a comment or send me an email. As always, Thank you for your help!

Labels: McDonough

At the Gathering last Sunday a number of people who brought old photo albums had a common question - "Do you know who these people are in this picture?" If you can help identify people in group shots (as always, click on images to view larger), please leave a comment on the post or send me an email. Here is a photo where we are trying to identify everyone. This photo was submitted by Mary Kennedy Dean and it was likely taken in the yard at 1 View Street in Worcester. Here is who has been identified so far by Mary and Paul Drew-Bear:

1. Marion O'Leary
2. Peggy McCarthy Rafferty
3. Marie McDonough
4. Evelyn McDonough
5. Tom Kennedy
6.
7.
8.

Labels: McDonough

Since discovering that Thomas McDonough had siblings living in Worcester prior to his 1913 death, I have been reviewing the Worcester Directory to see if I could find them. Here are the pages I have found of the
Worcester Directory from 1878 - 1913.

In 1878 there are only two McDonough males listed in the directory. Thomas McDonough and a Frank McDonough (who appears to be moving to Fall River). In 1879 we have four McDonough's listed, and it appears Thomas McDonough's brother, Martin McDonough has now joined him in Worcester. In the 1885 - 1886 we see that Thomas McDonough appears in the business directory for operating a boarding house. By 1887 it appears Bartholomew and Annie McDonough have joined siblings Thomas and Martin in Worcester.

Now that I have some dates of arrival to go with names, I will see if I can find passenger records or naturalization records for the siblings.

Labels: McDonough

Thomas McDonough's obituary has finally been found and it contains some very exciting information!

Worcester Evening Gazette
Monday December 8, 1913

THOMAS McDONOUGH

Thomas McDonough, aged 54, died last night in his home, 1 View street of heart disease. He was a member of the Holy Name society of the Church of the Ascension, and was formerly a member of the St. Vincent de Paul society of Sacred Heart church.

He leaves his wife, Mary (Loftus) McDonough; nine daughters, Mary E., wife of M. T. O'Leary; Katherine J., wife of Maurice J. Kennedy; Margaret F., wife of John J. Barry, Worcester; Sadie W., wife of Albert J. Ahern, East Windsor Hill, Ct; Anna G., Louise M., Agnes V., Eva B. and Grace R. McDonough, and a son, Patrick T. McDonough; also two sisters, Mrs. Michael Brennan, Worcester, and Mrs Katherine Murphy in Ireland, and two brothers, Martin H. and Bartholomew McDonough, Worcester.

The funeral will be Wednesday morning, with a solemn high mass of requiem in the Church of the Ascension at 9 o'clock. Burial will be in St. John's cemetery.

Now I have some names to try and find - Mrs. Michael Brennan, Martin H. McDonough, and Bartholomew McDonough all of Worcester. Mrs. Katherine Murphy of Ireland will be harder to find, since I still don't know where in Ireland the McDonough's originated. Hopefully, Martin or Bartholomew will be easy to find and track.

Labels: McDonough

While gathering documents to help me identify various family members, I noticed something a bit strange in the McDonough plot record at St. John's Cemetery in Worcester. The record lists a Robert Murphy buried in the McDonough family grave on August 18, 1906. As only the second occupant of the plot, he must have had a connection to Thomas McDonough or Mary Loftus McDonough, but what that connection might be was unclear. The last name did not ring any bells with my Father. As far as he knew, we are not related to any Murphy's.

To solve the mystery, I combed the Massachusetts Vital Records database and found Robert Murphy"s death certificate. The few pieces of information contained in the record sheds some light on the Murphy-McDonough connection. Robert Murphy was an infant, and his last address was listed at 226 Vernon Street. We know that home was owned by Thomas McDonough. Robert Murphy's mother is listed as Winifred S. Loftus (married to a Martin J. Murphy). Was Winifred S. Loftus a sister of Mary Loftus McDonough? If not a sister, then a cousin or a niece? Obviously there must have been a close family connection for her to be living at 226 Vernon and having her son buried in Mary's plot. It will take more digging to uncover the full nature of the connection, unless someone else can provide me with the answer?

Labels: Loftus, McDonough

After writing the post about Mrs O'Leary's Crazy Car Ride I became interested in seeing if I could learn any more about the O'Leary automotive business. I found the company L.W. Pond listed in the 1907 Worcester Directory along with the following small pieces of information:

Worcester Directory 1907

McDonough, Catherine, teacher, bds. 1 View
McDonough, Margaret F., stenographer, Assonet c. Gold, bds. 1 View
McDonough, Patrick T., bookkeeper, Assonet corner
McDonough, Thomas, clerk, h. 1 View
O'Leary, M. Thomas, pres. and treas. L.W. Pond Machine & Foundry Co., Gold cor. Assonet, h. 1 View

While Catherine is employed as a teacher, the rest of the eldest McDonough children seem to be employed at the L.W. Pond company. Thomas McDonough does not list his employer, but it is possible he is also working at his son-in-law's company. Another interesting tidbit - it appears, after reading the ad pictured above (click on image to see larger), that at least some of the cars sold at L.W. Pond are electric (when automobiles first appeared on the market they were not all of the gasoline powered variety). After re-reading the crazy car post, I believe that vehicle was also an electric car.

Labels: McDonough, OLeary

I have been searching for other McDonough families in Worcester to see if Thomas McDonough might have had some siblings immigrate with him (who I could then track to see if I can trace them back to Ireland - I am hoping for a more unique first name). In the 1932 Worcester Directory, I see 9 McDonough's listed. Unfortunately the majority are women (it is easier to trace men) and the men's names are very common.

I will have to see if I can find some earlier versions of the directories. Thomas McDonough immigrated in 1873 and before 1900 was naturalized. However, I was not able to find his naturalization paperwork at the National Archive. If I can find that paperwork it would list his village or city in Ireland.

Labels: McDonough