Vierling Sisters

As we know, I try to do an annual sweep of our family tree to see if anything new can be found with regard to my open questions, and at the top of that list is the question of whatever became of our 2nd g-grandparents, Peter Schaefer and his wife Maria Magdalena Vierling. There's still nothing new about Peter Schaefer --- it's almost certain that he died in Murray, Iowa and was likely buried in an unmarked grave there. But maybe a few more clues have popped up about Maria (aka Mary), who returned to Brooklyn and was last seen there in the 1900 census.

When reviewing yet again Maria's family, we know that she came from Dorndiel in Hesse, her parents were Georg Vierling and Maria Magdalena Boll, and that several of her siblings also came to America. Because the males are always easier to track, I've already spent some time looking at Maria's brothers, Adam and John Vierling. Adam spent his life in Brooklyn, and John eventually moved to Rhode Island. I thought surely that if Maria came back to Brooklyn as a widow with little kids, not only would her brothers have helped her out, but likely she might have been buried with one of their families when she died. The last time I was in NY, I visited the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery where Adam Vierling's family is buried (Most Holy Trinity is also where Maria was married to Peter Schaefer), but the cemetery records don't indicate any Mary Schaefer buried in that plot. I haven't checked RI cemetery records, but I have my doubts that our Mary would have been there when she died (some time after 1900 census).

This time around, however, I took note of Maria's arrival to NY on 7 May 1866. She was 16 years old, and she was accompanied by her 21-year-old sister, Catharina. I'm thinking if there was a closeness between siblings, it would have been between these two sisters. So what happened to Catharina (also spelled as Katharina)?

Catharina Vierling became the wife of Carl "Charles" Deckelman(n). She had several children, but those who survived to adulthood were Mary Louisa (Schultz), Eva (Fay), Katharina (Ostendorff), Frank J., and Adam. Catharina died in 1891 at the age of 47, and she was buried at St. John's in Middle Village. This was the clue I was looking for --- perhaps our Maria is buried at St. John's? The interment records for St. John's are now online, but whether our Maria is there is not sure (not knowing when she died is a bit of a problem). But this clue still calls for more investigation.

Meanwhile, it's somewhat uncanny how much the trail of Schaefer and Deckelman descendants have in common:

• From 1889-1892, we find Mary Schaefer living at 277 Devoe, just a few doors down from 271 Devoe where the family of Charles Deckelman was found. But Charles was a saloonkeeper, and after her sister died, I think Mary decided she needed to relocate. 
• From 1897-1899, we find Mary at 100 Bushwick. I'm wondering if she got there by way of Charles Deckelman's brother, Philip Deckelman, who lived at 125 Bushwick at that time. But Philip was in the same line of business as his brother, so I think Mary was still looking for a different residence. 
• The last we see of Mary Schaefer is at 895 Grand St. in Brooklyn where she was enumerated in 1900. This is the exact address where her nephew, Frank John Deckelman, lived for over 20 years starting some time just before WWI. Probably not a coincidence. 
• From 1920-1930 (about), Charles Schaefer lived with his family at 401 Seneca Ave. in Queens. After that, our grandfather, George Schaefer, lived at 1703 Palmetto St. in Queens before moving to Avenue W. Before 1940, Charles Schaefer's first cousin, Frank John Deckelman Sr. had moved from 895 Grand St. to 586 Senaca Ave. in Queens, and subsequently moved to 1665 Palmetto St. Up to WWII, these Schaefer-Deckelman cousins were never far from each other.

I've been thinking alot about sisters lately. Their bonds and their impact on their family's direction can be and has been and will always be significant. In this case, our 2nd g-grandmother, Maria Vierling, who was only 16 when she came to America, married at age 20 and traveled half-way across the continent, only to return to NY 10 years later as a widow. Maria had several Vierling siblings in Brooklyn, but it was her sister, Catharina, who Maria sought out. But their Sister Support System could not hold up to the world of grief still ahead: in 1890, Georg Vierling, the family patriarch, died in Germany; in 1891, Maria's beloved sister Catharina died, followed a few years later by Catharina's husband, leaving the youngest Deckelman children as orphans, and in 1893, Maria's oldest son, 22-year-old Louis, also died. How did Maria endure?

I have to close my eyes for a moment of quiet to fully appreciate the strength of our gg-grandmother's character. In 1866, two young Vierling sisters had come on their own to a country where English was not their native language and to a city that was bursting with both opportunity and deadly misfortunes (disease, unemployment, World Wars). Neither Vierling sister lived an easy or a long life in America, but it seems clear to me that in having each other, they together instilled the drive to move forward in the next generation. Without one sister, the fortitude of the other could not have been the same, which, I am convinced, enabled the surviving children of both sisters to find their way into a better future.

Our Clancy Clan in NY

I have often wondered what inspired Patrick Crown to come to NY when he did, thinking there might have been some Crown relations who preceded him there. But as has often turned out true throughout our family history, it was not just the male side of the family that effected change, it was also the female side. Indeed, it turns out that some of Ann Clancy's siblings were in Flatbush, NY before the American Civil War, and the rest of Ann's immediate family, including her mother, Jane Gilroy Clancy, came over after the war in the mid-1860s. In fact, our Ann might even have been the last in her immediate family to come to America (we're not sure when her brother Lackey arrived, some time before 1875).

Learning about our Clancy family is a work in progress, but here's what I have gleaned so far:

• Joanna "Jane" Gilroy, 1814-1894, married to Charles Clancy in Ireland, and was apparently a widow by the time of the 1857 Griffiths Valuation in Barr of Farrow, Cloonclare, Leitrim, Ireland. She probably arrived in NY in 1865 when she was in her early 50s, accompanied by her youngest daughter, Margaret, 18.
• Catherine Clancy, 1833-1892, married an older real estate dealer, Roger Clancy (we don't know yet if he was related); she did not have children who survived her.
• John Clancy, 1837-1898, married Mary Clancy in NY (again we don't know yet if she was related); they had 8 children.
• Mary Clancy, 1840-1903, married in NY first John Collins who died by 1875, they had 4 children; married second Robert Martin. Supposedly Mary's first child, Mary, was born in New York in 1858, which would mean her mother emigrated before that, thus implying the earliest date of our Clancy family in America (so far).
• Ann Clancy, 1842-1888, married Patrick Crown in Ireland in 1860, arrived in NY just before 1870. As we know, they had 9 children.
• Malachy Clancy, 1844-1896, also known as Lackey as well as by his Americanized name of Alex or Alexander, married in NY to Ann Murphy in 1876; they apparently had 4 children, none of whom survived.
• Manus Clancy, 1845-1914, a real estate dealer, never married.
• Margaret Clancy, 1847-1910, married in NY to Thomas Rooney, they had 7 children.

There's a possibility of other children who belonged to this family group, in particular one James Clancy, born abt 1831 who married Catherine Murphy. James died in Ireland, but his children also later came to America and seem to have ties to this family group. Research is ongoing.

Meanwhile back in Brooklyn, in 1881 Patrick Crown purchased property on East New York Ave. from his sister-in-law, Catherine Clancy Clancy, who had just been widowed at that time. Patrick paid $600, and so far, that transaction is the earliest deed record I can find of Crown-owned properties in Brooklyn. There's no question, however, that our Crown legacy in Brooklyn got its start from our Clancy roots.

The Non-Existent Crown Child

I've heard stories about how some genealogies contain names of people who never existed, and I always wondered how that could even be possible. But now I think I just caught myself in the very act! Here's how.

As I have long stated, Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy had six children before coming to America, among them two sets of twins, the last set born just before the emigration to NY. How do I know that? From the 1870 census of Flatbush which shows the six Irish-born Crown children: Richard, 10; Sarah, 6; Charles and Kate, 4; and John and Patrick, 1. Other interesting notes of this census are that Mrs. Clancy, 60, (probably Ann's mother, see previous post) seems to have been head of household, and Ann's husband, Patrick Crown, does not seem to be accounted for.

But now that many of the Irish records are coming online, I've been able to look up the birth records for those six Crown children born in Ireland, and lo, I found only five: Richard, Sarah, Charles, Kate, and John. Especially if John was a twin of Patrick, then the two would have been baptized and registered at the same time. But no, only John. How strange.

Going back to NY, I remembered that the Crown children who died young were named on the family gravestone at Holy Cross. Sure enough, there are the names Margaret, Catherine, John, and Manus "who died young." No Patrick. There is no doubt in my mind that if Patrick and Ann had a son named Patrick who died young, his name would have been included on that gravestone.

So! No birth record in Ireland for Patrick Crown born in 1869, nor mention of him on the family gravestone in Brooklyn. I am coming to the conclusion that there was never a child born to Patrick and Ann named Patrick. In that case, who was the Patrick Crown, age 1, enumerated on the 1870 census? I have no explanation other than error by the census-taker. Patrick Crown, the adult, was probably not home at the time of enumeration, but his name was mentioned. And with so many kids running (or crawling) around, were there five or were there six? The census said six, but there really were only five. Lesson learned: every single genealogical record found needs to be corroborated in some way.

So for our family record, I am removing the name of Patrick Crown, b. 1869, from the family tree of Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy. May this non-existent child RIP.

Discovering Clancys of Barr of Farrow

I'm learning alot about Irish geography in the last month or so as I've been trying to group Crown families by location. You can find some very useful maps of districts, parishes, and townlands in counties Leitrim and Roscommon here.

My research has centered in Drumahaire barony where the Crown's and Travers lived in the 1800s, with most concentration in the the Drumlease civil parish. But records for Crown can also be found in the surrounding Leitrim parishes of Killanummery, Killarga, Cloonlogher, Killasnet, and even though not immediately bordering Drumlease, also Cloonclare. In fact, this last parish is where we believe we located the 1860 marriage record of our ancestors who later emigrated to NY, Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy.

However, two things have subsequently brought my attention back to Cloonclare.

• While looking at Clancy families that were enumerated nearby to our Crown family in Brooklyn, I wondered if they were somehow related. One Clancy family tree I found which seems to connect to those early Brooklyn Clancy families documents them as coming from Farrabar, Cloonclare, Leitrim, Ireland. Hmmmm.
• In a separate exercise, I was looking up the Ireland civil birth registrations for the children that Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy had before they emigrated to NY. The civil registrations give the address where the couple was living when the child was born, and interestingly for two of Patrick and Ann's children, the address of the parents was listed as Farrabar. Hmmmm.

So what about this place, Farrabar? Further investigation has lead me to a place in Cloonclare parish that was called Barr of Farrow (in Irish, Barr Fharaidh) and/or Farrow Barr (Farrabar), located in the D.E.D. (district electoral division) called Glenboy and the PLU (poor law union) of Manorhamilton.

And what about this other family tree? It documented its Irish ancestors as Charles Clancy and Jane McElroy. In searching for a couple with those names in County Leitrim, I did not find a marriage record, but I found several children born in Cloonclare parish to Charles Clancy and Joanna (sometimes Anne) Gilroy. Seems to me that Gilroy is very close to McElroy, and Jane could be the familiar version of the Latin name Joanna.

In checking the 1834 Ireland Tithes records in the Barr of Farrow, there were SIX Clancy men listed, and of immediate interest were Charles Sr. and Charles Jr. In moving on to the 1857 Griffiths Valuations in Barr of Farrow, there was no listing of any Charles Clancy, but lo and behold, there was listed Jane Clancy! Either Jane was a widow by then or maybe Charles preceded the family to NY? Either way, these early Irish documents establish there were indeed a Charles and Jane Clancy from Barr of Farrow!

All of which is very interesting, but even though I have a passing reference to Farrabar in Irish records of Crown, there is really nothing that ties my Ann Clancy Crown to Charles Clancy and Jane Gilroy. Until today. Today I revisited the baptism record of the first child of Patrick and Ann, Richard. Here is my transcription of the Irish baptism record which was written in Latin:

8 July 1860, Richard, child of Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy, 

sponsors Richard Crown and Joanna Gilroy.    

OMG. I always thought that the male sponsor was either Patrick's father or his brother, but I had no earthly idea about the female sponsor.  Now, thanks to the sharing of another researcher's family tree, I do! I now think the sponsors of Richard Crown were his grandparents, Patrick's father and Ann's mother.  Wow.

So there we have it. Happily, we now have a whole new story to explore, and likely more relations to meet! I'm still researching, but it appears to me that Patrick and Ann might have come over to NY with Ann's mother, Jane, who very likely was the older woman enumerated as Mrs. Clancy in the Patrick Crown household in 1870. After that, Jane may have gone to live with other Clancy relations, as it appears that she probably had other children also in NY. Jane Gilroy Clancy died in Flatbush in 1894, after her daughter, Ann Clancy Crown, who died in 1888. Jane was around the age of 80 when she died, and like all our early Crown relations, she was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.

I'm a little stunned. I think about my father, Richard Charles Schaefer. The second son of my grandmother, Peg Crown, my father was definitely named for the Irish. Not only did Nana have a brother named Richard who died young, she also had two uncles, Richard and Charles, who were by all accounts bigger than life and who both died after Nana was married. And now we know something about how the Crown uncles Richard and Charles were named: one for our Irish ancestor Richard Crown, and the other for our Irish ancestor Charles Clancy. Amazing.

Crowns in Manorhamilton & Lurganboy

Imagine my surprise when I came upon a picture of Crown's Bar on Castle Street in Manorhamilton in 1910. Those pictured are Katie Reily, Mary Crown, and Kate Crown. These Crown women are related to the John Crown branch of the family, known as the "Crowns of Manorhamilton". Indeed, my correspondence with one of their descendants describes the Crown's Bar on Castle Street!  Mary, the older woman in the middle, was Mary Rooney, widow of John Crown, the latter having died before 1901. Kate Crown was one of their daughters.  And, according to the 1901 Ireland census, Katie Reilly was a niece of Mary Rooney Crown, and she was born in the USA. I don't know enough about the Rooney side to figure that one out yet.

Meanwhile, in nearby Lurganboy, some similar business was run by those in the Anthony Crown branch of the family. Here is a 2004 article from the Leitrim Observer:

END OF AN ERA IN LURGANBOY

The end of an era in Lurganboy was signalled last week when the former homestead of the Crown family was demolished to make way for a new housing development in the centre of the village.

As well as being the home of the Crown family, the premises also contained a very successful shop run by the family for many years until the end of late '60s and early '70s when it ceased trading.

Afterwards the owner of the building Dickie Crown converted the building into a number of apartments, which provided much needed accommodation for the Lurganboy and Manorhamilton areas for over three decades.

Dickie also converted his loft at the rear of the Crown residence into two apartment buildings in the early 70's and this building was also knocked down last week, to facilitate the new housing development in Lurganboy. Crown's loft was a Mecca for all leisure activities in the village area in the first half of the last century.

As this was before rural electrification gas lighting was used. In the loft classes in woodwork took place (given by Mr McIntyre) while spinning, poultry keeping and cookery classes were also held (taught by Miss Houghton).

Irish dancing classes also took place here when the instructor was Sean MacLiam who later became Brother Pascal in the Franciscan Friary in Rossnowlagh. Music for these classes was supplied by John Mitchell on the accordion and John Thady Rooney on the fiddle.

Dances were also held on Crown's loft where the music was provided sometimes by a gramophone or by Leddy's Band from Killargue. One night when a parochial bazaar was in progress the loft floor collapsed but luckily Dickie Crown had the store beneath full of turf, otherwise everyone would have landed on the ground floor.

The Crown family moved out of their former residence to a new adjacent house a number of years ago. Dickie Crown is currently a patient in St John's Hospital in Sligo and his sisters Betty, Doreen and Florie reside in Lurganboy while another sister, Ita resides in New York and their late brother, Jack Crown after leaving Lurganboy also resided in New York before returning to live in Dublin.

Jack's son, Dr John Crown is one of Ireland best respected Oncologists who has been to the forefront of new treatment techniques for cancer patients throughout the country. Dr John was born in Brooklyn, New York but the family returned when he was ten to Ireland where he afterwards went on to study medicine.

After qualifying as a doctor he returned to New York where he specialised in cancer treatment. During his years working at the world renown Sloan Kettering Hospital he founded and ran a bone marrow transplant programme, to assist in the treatment and research of women's cancer.

However Dr Crown returned to Ireland in 1993 when he took an appointment in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin Oncology Department where he continues his good work. He also lectures all over the world on oncology topics.

After last week's demolition of the former Crown family residence in Lurganboy the landscape of the village will be quite different in the future.

But while the Crown family residence is no more countless people will recall fondly the major contribution that the members of this local family have made to all aspects of life in the village and indeed much further afield, over very many years. 

http://www.leitrimobserver.ie/news/local-news/manorhamilton-community-news-1-2025285

Updated on the 10 November
2004
15:11

Published 10/11/2004 10:11

Meanwhile, across the ocean in Brooklyn, NY, our Crown relations were carrying on in much the same business.  It seems good Irish hospitality was more than a decent way to make a living!

Happy Crown Anniversary

It took awhile, but I finally found the marriage record of my ancestors, Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy in Clooneclare Parish, County Leitrim, Ireland on 9 July 1860.

I almost missed this record for two reasons:

1. the spelling of the Crown surname. As I have suspected, the original spelling was Croghan (see previous post).
2. this particular priest appears to have written what is normally a "C" as a "K" !!! So Croghan appears written as Kroghan and Clancy appears as Klancy. I don't have much explanation for that. Although the record is written in Latin, it wasn't, to my knowledge, a Latin rule to interchange the letters "K" and "C".....

I can't quite make out the witnesses to this marriage. The first seems to be Charles Meehan (Patrick's mother's family) and the second could be a Maria Clancy.

So here we are, 156 years later. Without Patrick and Ann, there would be no me blogging about Crown relations.... Patrick and Ann had five kids before leaving Ireland around 1870, including a set of twins. Only three of those five survived to adulthood:

• Sarah Crown McDermott, who died shortly after giving birth to her first child
• Richard and Charles, both, apparently, life-long bachelors.

Patrick and Ann never returned to Ireland (that we know of), and lived the rest of their lives in Brooklyn, NY, adding four more children to the family, two of whom survived:

• John J. Crown - the first child of the next generation to be born in America, my g-grandfather, and
• Annie Crown Connors, who also left many descendants.

Happy Anniversary to our gg-grandparents!

Claiming McDermotts

In searching through the old Brooklyn Eagle newspaper for something else entirely, I ran across the death notice of a Sarah Crown, died Dec 19, 1894, daughter of Patrick and Ann, and wife of Patrick McDermott! I was surprised by this because we last saw Sarah Crown as single in the 1892 NY census. So she had not been married long, but had she had any children?

The answer is yes, George Patrick McDermott, born on  5 Dec 1894, two weeks before Sarah's death. George's father, Patrick McDermott, later remarried and had more children, and most other genealogies include George as a son of Patrick and his second wife. But no, George P. McDermott definitely had a Crown mother who was born in County Leitrim, Ireland. And George went on to live a full life, joining the service during WWI, then marrying and having five children and a number of grandchildren before his death in 1951. It will be fun to see if we can find some living descendants from this newest Crown cousin.

Note: George McDermott was alive during at least half of my grandfather's lifetime.  Is this where the name George came from?

So this is quite the news for our branch of the Brooklyn Crown's. We have believed that from the nine children of Patrick and Ann, only two of the nine had their own children whose descendants carry on today - namely John J. Crown (my ancestor), and Annie Crown Connors. Ahhhh, but now we know there was also Sarah Crown McDermott who died shortly after the birth of her first child. How sad a day it must have been for Patrick Crown, by then a widower, to lose his oldest daughter who was so recently married and still so young (30). But Sarah's son, George P. McDermott, was the only grandson Patrick would know before his own death in 1903 (two granddaughters would also come along from John J. Crown before 1903). Even so, Patrick's will made no mention of any grandchildren .....

Sarah Crown McDermott is buried in the Crown family plot at Holy Cross with her parents and a number of her siblings.