PERSISTENCE,,,AND LUCK... PAYS OFF.

It's Sunday and I was catching up on blogposts from the genealogy blogs I follow. One of them is James Tanner's Genealogy's Star. Today's post was "What is going on with Family Search?". Reading it brought the realization that it had been awhile since I'd used the Family Search Record Search, so followed the link from James' article. I took a few m inutes to decide which one of my ancestors I'd run a search on, and decided on my maternal grandfather, Edward F. White Sr. to see if I could find a record of his second marriage. Then I decided on searching for his parents, Edward J.White and Pauliine(Paulene, Lena) Offlinger/Offlincher/Offenger. I knew nothing of their families beyond some theories that Pauline's father was named Charles. So I put in the information that I had, hit search and .....BINGO!!


There from the Massachusetts Marriages 1695-1910 Collection was a transcription of their marriage record. They were married on 27Nov 1895 in Boston. And there on the screen were the names of their parents: Patrick G. White and his wife Mary, and Charles J. Offinger and his wife Johanna C. I'd found the names of my maternal great great grandparents! I also found records of the births of three of their daughters and added that data to my PAF file as well. I decided to push my luck a little and now search the names of the 2x great grandparents,so next I tried Charles Offinger and wife Johanna. My luck held true; I found a transcription and image of Johanna's death certificate. From this I learned that she'd died of cancer on 14Aug 1908 in Boston. She was a widow and died at home at 32 Folsom St She'd been born in Germany in 1844 and,most importantly, her maiden name was Luick!


Another result on the search screen was a record of Charles' and Johanna's marriage on 11Sep 1870 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Ma. and gave his occupation as cabinetmaker. This confirmed my theory that the Charles and Johanna Offingen I'd found on the 1880 Census in Cambridge and their daughter Lena were indeed my relatives. And once again I was l lucky, because the marriage license gave me the names of Charles' and Johanna's parents. His were Jacob Offinger and Christiana; hers were Christian Luick and Christine. (I'm a little bit skeptical about those last two.) I also found records of the marriages of some of their children on which Charles was listed as Carl,and the record of Charles' death on 17Jul 1881 in Cambridge at the age of 33. But a search on the names of Charles' and Johanna's parents came up with too many possibilities to narriow them down to definite people.


The same was true of Patrick White and his wife Mary.


Now I decided to search for these names over on Ancestry.com


The first person I decided to look up was Charles Offinger. On a hunch, I checked the Immigration files, and once more I'd been lucky. Carl Offinger arrived in New York aboard the ship Deutschland on 13Jun 1870 from Bremen, Germany. I looked at the image of the passenger list and couldn't believe just how lucky I was. Listed below "Carl Offinger" was "Johanna Lucke"! Were the two of them already engaged when they came to America, or was it a shipboard romance that led to their marriage in Cambridge in September? I also found a Christian Luick in the 1880 Cambridge City Directory whose occupation was listed as "varnisher". Did he and his son in law Charles work together in the cabinetmaking industry?


All in all, it was a productive Sunday afternoon, and once again it proved that it pays to be persistent. But sometimes, it also helps to be lucky!


And thank you, James, for pointing me back towards Family Search Record Search!

NOTHING VENTURED.....THE ANSWER

Last week I wrote a blogpost concerning my contacting the City of
Boston Archives to find out if they had any records on my two maternal
great grandfathers who had been city employees early in the last century.

I received a reply this morning from a member of that department:

"We do not have individual personnel files for former city employees.
We do have "Lists of City Employees", circa 1888-1960. The lists
include name, address, position, compensation, date appointed and
date first employed by the city. The City of Boston Archives is open
to the public Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. by appointment.
The charge for photocopying is $0.50 per copy."

So now I know there is a list I can search, how much a copy will cost,
and where in Boston the City Archives are located, which is at:

City of Boston Archives
201 Rivermoor Street
West Roxbury, MA 02132

And I know more than I did before!

MY KEYS TO IRELAND

As frequent readers of this blog know, I've been very fortunate in
researching my father's side of the family. Even though I have a
brickwall in my 3x great-grandfather John Cutter West, I've found
a great deal of information on the families of the women who've
married into the West line. It's in my mother's Irish-American line
that I have found very little about the family. Family tradition
says her mother's family came from Roscommon but beyond that
I know very little.


I know the key here has to be my Mom's grandfathers, Edward J.
White and John McFarland. I have copies of the Federal Census
pages they appear on from 1900 through 1930 which lists their
occupations and both had worked for the City of Boston at different
times. Edward's Irish nationality is in question for me at the moment
since his father's place of birth is listed as Boston on one census but
Ireland on the others. My hope is that there are city employment
records for that period and that if Edward and John are on them, there
might be information on their place of birth and their parents names. I
need to find out where such records might be archived.


A second possible source of information might be the records of the
entity that constructed the Boston elevated railway in the late 1900's.
Family tradition says John McFarland was one of the laborers. Does
the present day Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority have
any records on those first employees?


I hope to get into Boston to the main branch public library to search
for both John and Edward's obituaries. And now that the Archdiocese
of Boston's Archives have reopened, I need to go about calling for an
appointment to search for any church records on John and Edward's
family that they might have.

So there are my keys. Hopefully I'll be able to find them and open the
door to my Irish families.

Written for the 11th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture.

LEAPING LENA! IS THAT YOU. GREAT GRANDMOTHER?

As I mentioned earlier, I have some German ancestry but it
lies on my Mom’s side of the family where brick walls abound.
Her father left when she was a child and her mother, my
grandmother Agnes(Aggie)White later divorced him. Edward
F. White’s parents were Edward J. White and Pauline
Offincher (or Offlincher/Offlinger/Offinger) and Pauline’s
parents were born in Germany according to the information
on the U.S. Census.

I was looking through those census images again today and
decided to try searching Ancestry. Pauline gave her own place
of birth as Cambridge, Ma. so I did a soundex search on some
variations of Offincher in Cambridge and came up with a hit for
a Charles Offingen and family on the 1880 census. He was a 32
year old cabinetmaker from Wurtemburg, Germany; his wife
Johanna was four years older at age 36 and kept house at their
home at 11 Vine Street in Cambridge.

Their children were:
Imelia(Amelia?) F age 12 born in Wurtemburg
Albert M age 10 born in Cambridge
Frederic M age 7 “ “ “
Lena F age 5 “
William M age 4 "
Julia F age2 "


So, since Albert was the first child born in Cambridge, that
would put the arrival of Charles and Johanna probably
around 1860.


I then searched the 1870 Census for Offingen and found
Charles under the name Offinger on it as a cabinetmaker
living in Cambridge, Ma. There is no mention of Johanna or
Imelia. Perhaps they were back in Germany waiting for
Charles to send for them? (The change from Offingen to
Offinger appears on close examination of the 1880 Census
image to be a result of a transcriber misreading the “r” at
the end of the name for an “n”)


Now, could their daughter Lena be my great grandmother
Pauline? The age is certainly correct. And two of Pauline’s
children were named Fredrick and Charles, perhaps after her
brother and father if she was indeed Lena. Nor can I find
any other entries for people or families living in Cambridge
named Offincer or Offinger.


So at the moment I’m cautiously optimistic that Lena Offinger
and Pauline Offincher are one and the same, but only further
research will tell me for sure.

THE STREETS WHERE THEY LIVED

Dick Eastman mentioned a new website from Tufts University,
Boston Streets and I checked it out. It has historical maps and
city directories from a number of years and I searched the
directories for my Mom’s family.

The McFarland’s didn’t arrive in Boston until sometime around
1880 so I began with a look at the Sampson and Murdock
Boston Directory of 1885. I had no success with McFarlands or
with the Whites or Offingers from Mom’s paternal grandparents
but they were born in 1873 and would still have been children in
1885.


I had a bit more luck with the 1905 edition. Great Grandfather
John McFarland and his eldest son Mike are listed:

McFarland John laborer h 950 Parker Rox

McFarland Michael E plumber bds 950 Parker Rox

I found only two Offingers listed:


Offinger Albert C upholsterer 338 Boylston bds 23 Metropolitan
av Ros

Offinger Joanna C widow h 23 Metropolitan av Ros


And I found my great grandfather White:


White Edward J teamster h 33 Ridge Ros

The 1925 edition had more. John McFarland had died the
year before and the death is noted by two entries:


McFarland Annie widow John h 950 Parker Rox

McFarland John (950 Parker Rox) died Aug 3 1924

There are entries for three of their sons:


McFarland Michael E shoe cutter h 946 Parker Rox

McFarland Robert J shoeworker h 946 Parker Rox

McFarland Thomas diamond cutter h 7 Dunlap Dor


This might be Uncle Leo who married Peggy McFarland:


McCue Leo motorman h 28 Worcester sq

One of the Offingers remained. Perhaps Albert was a brother
to Great Grandmother Pauline?

Offinger Albert mgr of work room 30 Winter h 23 Metropolitan av Ros

And finally Great Grandfather White and two of his other

sons other than my grandfather:

White Edward J electrician h 41 Philbrick Ros

White Charles W clerk 395 South sta h 31 Philbrick Ros

White Fred E checker res 41 Philbrick Ros

An interesting site that I definitely will spend more time exploring.

MORE ON THE WHITE FAMILY

As I mentioned in a previous entry, the very kind Gayle
Nee found this information for me several years ago.



The information on great grandfather Edward J.White
and his family is all I know of them. One of the things
I noticed right off was the change in the birthplace of
his father from Ireland on the 1900 and 1910 census
to Massachusetts on the 1920. I'm not sure why but I
can think of two possibilities. One might be with a name
like White it would be easy to hide an Irish background
in an era when being Irish was a drawback in some circles.



The other might be because of World War One where the
Irish seemed sympathetic to Germany over the British
and hence to America.



I'm also fascinated by his progression of jobs from a
teamster for Wholesale Flour (and is that a company or
a job description?) to "head teamster" for the City of
Boston. When time, money and car repairs allow I
plan a trip to Boston City Hall to see if I can obtain
any records of his employ.



As I've mentioned before Edward F. White Sr. left
the family and was seldom if ever spoken about by my
mother or my uncle Edward F. White Jr. But when
Gayle sent me this information it explained something
from my childhood. Whenever we were driving across
the Mystic River Bridge and stopped at the toll booth,
Mom would look at the tolltakers and occasionally would
yell "Hey Fitzy!" and wave to one of them before we drove
off. When we'd ask who Fitzy was, all she'd say was that he
was a cousin on her father's side.



So, I suspect it might have been Albert Fitzgerald since as
I recall he was a middle aged man with glasses.

It's another one of those family mysteries waiting to be
explained.


1930 census - ‘Boston, Suffolk Co., Mass. ED # 333,
page IA
#939 Parker Street
Agnes D., White, 31, b. Mass., married at age 21,
father b. Northern Ireland, mother b. Scotland,
no occupation.
Edward F. White, son, 4, b. Mass., both parents b. Mass.
Anna M. White, daughter, 2, b. Mass.

#133 Washington Street, Roslindale
Edward J. White 56yrs. married/head teamster/City of
Boston

Pauline M. White 56 yrs. married/wife

Esther l6yrs. daughter
Ruth B. (White)Fitzgerald age 21 daughter of Edward
Alfred S. Fitzgerald age 25 (son in law)
Ruth J. Fitzgerald age 9 mos.

1920 Federal Census for Boston, Suffolk County, Ma.
January 2, 1920
41 Philbrick Street
White, Edward J age 47 b.MA Father b. MA Mother b. Canada
Occ: Stage builder Government

wife, Pauline M. age 47 b. MA Parents b. Germany

son, Charles age 22 b. MA Clerk RR
son, Edward F. age 21 b.MA Steam fitter RR
son, Frederick C. age IS b.MA Laborer Government
dtr., Pauline M. age 16 b. MA Salesgirl Dry goods store
dtr., Ruth age 12 b. MA
dtr,. Esther age 5 b.MA

1910 Federal Census for ‘Boston Suffolk County, Ward 23
Precinct 5 Enumeration District 1615 Sheet lA
April 15, 1910

White, Edward J. age 35 married 14 years b. MA
Father b Ireland Mother b.Canada teamster Wholesale Flour

wife, Pauline M. age 35 married 14 years 8 children 8 living
b. Ma Parents b . Germany

dtr., Marcella M. age 13 b. MA
son, Charles W age 12 b. MA
son Edward F. age 10 b. MA
son Frederick E age 8 b. MA
dtr, Pauline M. Jr age 6 b. MA
dtr., Elizabeth H age 5 b. MA
dtr., Ruth V. Age 2 b. MA
son, James A age 9 months

1900 Federal Census for South Boston Suffolk County MA
Liberty Street Enumeration District 1387 Sheet 9 Ward 16
June 6, 1900

White, Edward J. b. May 1873 in MA age 27 married 5 years
Father b. Ireland Mother b. Canada 0cc: Teamster

wife, Pauline b. Dec 1873 in MA age 26 married 5 years
3 children 3 living Parents b. Germany

dtr., Marsella b. June 1896 in MA age 3
son, Charles W. b.March 1895 in MA age 2
son, Edward F. b. July 1899 in MA age 10 months