1910 - 1930 Mary Nolan delving deeper !!

1910 where are we at in the world at this time ?

Here are a few events and discoveries that were happening. Check out the washing machine date.  Thank goodness for Alva I say.

Jan 3 British miners strike for 8 hour working day

Figure 1: the first electric washing machine
called The Thor and invented by Alva Fisher

Jun 2 Pygmies discovered in Dutch New Guinea
Aug 9 Alva Fisher patents electric washing machine
Oct 5 Portugal overthrows monarchy, proclaims republic
Dec 3 Neon lights first publicly displayed (Paris Auto Show)

If you are chasing further information concerning different years, have a look here as its a easy to manoeuvre site. http://www.onthisday.com/date/1910

I sort of wanted to start off like this as to get my head back into that era. It helps me develop a picture and gives me that imagination and enthusiasm to dig further.

As I have previously mentioned our Mary was living with an Italian family in 1910, this was recorded in the census of that year. The address was 261 East St 8th St Pauls. There is mention of 6 children born with 1 now  living, (this being Robert). She is working as a domestic at a restaurant.

The interesting snippet of info that I get from the above 1910 census entry is the 6 children born. I have found no further details regarding other births for Mary, besides Robert at all and unfortunately I feel this might not be able to be verified.

Keeping with the timeline, Mary's only surviving child, Robert marries in 1918 in Missouri.

We next find her in 1920 at 423 East St 7th St Pauls where she is listed as a lodger and gives her occupation as a dishwasher at a restaurant. Her age is given as 50 years.
I have tried to research the street addresses for St Pauls where our Mary was residing but I am having difficulty narrowing down specifics.

Figure 2 : Map of Saint Paul 1903

I did come across this map above of St Paul in 1903 on a great site and felt this gave me an idea of the layout of the city around that period.

There are a series of streets, named 5th, 6th, 7th to name some examples that run parallel to each other.

The shaded  grid area looks to be the inner city area and East St 7th seems to be located on the upper right hand side of this section. You will also notice the Missippi River runs right through the city.

The map is from this site here, which is a great research tool and can be purchased as well.

St. Paul and Minneapolis Maps (click on the blue link to take you to the page).

As a bit of extra information, when Robert, Mary's son filled in his Registration Card in 1917 for WWl he lists his mother as being dependant on him.

Mmmmm interesting,  does that mean Mary was unable to work at that time ?  Going back to the 1920 Census she is working as a dishwasher at a restaurant. 

My next question is where did Mary reside between the years of 1920 to 1930 as in the 1930 US Census we find her having moved to Kansas City. To find further information on this I will have to look in the Directories and see if I can track her down.

Alas that is a job for another time.

Tune it for next week where I will be looking at Mary - from 1920 onwards with her move to Kansas City 

Hope you have enjoyed the read and I am off to have a cuppa :)

Thank goodness for the US Census - finally found some Nolan family data

The plot thickens with trying to get down to actually finding some concrete evidence in regards to the Nolan family and their  whereabouts in Minnesota after the 1880 Census

I finally stumbled across some information from the  1890/1891 St Paul Minnesota Directories 

Here is what I found listed as follows:

Thomas Nolan 240 Sherburne Ave, Labourer.

Not a lot I know but I am pretty sure this is our Thomas Nolan.

The 1900 US Census reveals a little more info on the family, though no sign of my great grandfather John  it seems. I cant make out the address on the actual census form and will need some help from an expert to decipher it. The street number is 334.

 



Household	Role	Gender	Age	Birthplace
Thomas Nolan	Head	M	68	IRELAND
Helen Nolan	Wife	F	65	IRELAND
Mary Logie	Daughter	F	35	MINNESOTA
Robert J Logie	Grandson	M	13	MINNESOTA

Upon studying the image a few more details can be revealed,
Extra details determined are :
Thomas  Nolan
States his birth year and month as being 1832, December.
35 years married
Immigration year to the US 1860
Occupation Labourer
11 months not employed
Can not read or write.
Dwelling is rented  and is a house
Helen Nolan
States her birth year and month as being 1835,April.
35 years married
1 child living
Immigration year to the US 1860
Can not read or write.
Mary Logie
States her birth year and month as being 1865, December, birthplace Minnesota.
Lists herself as a widow
8 years married
6 children with only 1 living
Occupation Domestic
2 months not employed
Can  read and write.
Robert J Logie
States his birth year and month as being 1887, November
Father born Michigan
At school
Attended school 9 months of the year .
Can read or write.

The image can be viewed here https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6W3K-9K?mode=g&i=5&wc=9B7W-CXM%3A1031098701%2C1032507701%2C1034503601%3Fcc%3D1325221&cc=1325221


Wow now getting your head around all these new snippets of information is a tricky business. Once again look at the variations from my previous details.

Ellen is recorded as Helen - that totally threw me but it is more likely an error or she may have just decided to change her name lol.
Daughter Mary records her birth place as being Minnesota. ????

Next time I will endeavour to follow Mary Nolan and her son Robert and see where that leads me.




Hope you have enjoyed the longer read today and as Arnie says "I will be BACK"

A new home - Nolan family to America

Following on from my last blog we now have Thomas and Ellen Nolan and their daughter Mary embarking on their journey to America. As previously stated I believe they arrived via Canada, but that is  only my assumption based on various opinions and views.

Unfortunately no departure lists exist in Ireland or Britain for that period and  authorities were more concerned with people entering the country, not departing it. Therefore no information detailing there departure is available to be found.

Most immigrants arrived in Canada via  the ports of Quebec and Halifax, although many came to New York and then travelled to Canada by way of the Hudson River, Erie Canal and Great Lakes.

There a no comprehensive lists of immigrants arriving in Canada prior to 1865, shipping companies were not required by the government to keep their passenger lists.

Right lets get going with what we actually know from published  documents.



View of St. Paul, Ramsey County, M.N., 1888
Fig 1  
 

Our first actual record in the US for the Nolan family is in the 1880 US Census. 

        

US CENSUS - city of St Paul - county of Ramsay - state of Minnesota.

Enumerated on the 1st of June 1880

Household	Role	Gender	Age	Birthplace
Thomas Nolan	Self	M	45	Ireland
Ellen Nolan	Wife	F	45	Ireland
John Nolan	Son	M	12	Minnesota, United States
Mary Nolan	Daughter	F	19	Ireland
Cornelius O'Conner	Other	M	29	Ireland

The family are living at 8 Chestnut St, St Paul, Minnesota.
Thomas is listed as a Labourer and we also have the first mention of his son, John, who is my great grandfather.
Both Thomas and Ellen are indicated as neither being able to read or write and that their parent's were all born in Ireland.
John is listed as having attended school within the census year and Cornelius O'Connor is a boarder with the family.

The details listed somewhat verify Mary's birthplace as being Ireland and give an approximate birthdate of 1861.

The actual record can be viewed here online at https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBN-B9J?wc=QZ2W-YYH%3A1589406338%2C1589399260%2C1589402393%2C1589394841%3Fcc%3D1417683&cc=1417683

I know I have jumped ahead to 1880 and missed providing the birth details of John Nolan but I wanted to introduce him via the census information as it gives us a date and place of birth and something to work with and its my first actual factual document on the family.

Stay tuned for some more information in my next entry and even some family hearsay gossip.
Everyone loves abit of gossip lol.

Fig 1 - The map here can be purchased here at
http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/1W-MN-SP-1906.htm

Thomas and Ellen Nolan - getting to know you

Ok lets get down to it.

What do we know. ????? I want to build you a picture of him and his wife  and what led to them leaving their homeland.

Thomas was born around 1833 in Ireland, I have no details as to a county at all, as Ireland is his place of birth listed on all documents from the USA.
He married an Ellen in Ireland approximately around the year of  1859.
Ellen's approximate birth year is said to be 1835.

Thomas and Ellen had a daughter Mary Nolan born 23rd December 1860 in Ireland . Mary's birth has not been verified and once again the variations through out all the US census entries just throws it all out of whack.

The family immigrated to America (USA) or North British America (known now as Canada)  between the years of 1860-1861.



 Mahoney's sketch
of the woman and child in 1847
Fig 1

Lets go back to Ireland though and set the scene. We all have read about the horrific Potato Famine from 1845 -1849. Leading up to this period almost two thirds of the eight million Irish people depended on agriculture and the single crop of the potato for their survival. The year of 1846 bought a devastating disease  called Blight which along with unusually cool moist weather and a strain of Phytophthora,  caused the disease to flourish and decimate full crops causing utter starvation to a high percentage of the population. This continued annually for successive years and it claimed the lives of over one million Irish people from starvation.
After successive crop failures over a period of years a mass exodus of the Irish people began.  It is said that one million Irish immigrated to America alone.


At the time of the beginning of the famine in Ireland, Thomas would of been roughly 12 years of age and Ellen about 10 years old. I could not imagine the grief and desperation that they both would of had to endure during this period of their lives.



Sailing Ship Around The Period Of 1860
Fig 2

Next we jump a few years and I will take you to the 1860's era and give you a little information  on immigration to America. There were two directions that you could of travel through.  One being a transatlantic voyage to the East Coast Ports, mainly Boston and New York and the other  by land or sea to Canada, which was then called British North America.
At this time Ireland was still part of Britain and fares to Canada were a lot cheaper than fares to the USA.


I have only surmised that Thomas and Ellen would of chosen the Canadian route as they eventually settled in Minnesota in the USA and that is a border state with Canada. As Canada was not an independent nation and still a British Territory Irish immigrants did not need  to apply for Naturalisation because they were British subjects already.

Well what have we summarised today.

I feel like I have only provided mainly assumptions in this blog however I have tried to build a picture of what life would of been like for Thomas and Ellen in Ireland and why they felt they had to emigrate to the Americas in search of a better life.

How sad it must have been for them to leave all their extended families behind knowing that they might never see them again.

Note : All information is provided concerning the Potato Famine and the emigration of the Irish people has been summarised from reading through some fabulous sites. I have listed a few here if you would like to do some extra reading.

http://www.irishamericanjourney.com/
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/america.htm
http://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/irishfamine.htm

Fig 1 - A sketch completed by the artist James Mahoney who was living in Cork, Ireland. In early 1847 he was asked by the Illustrated London News to tour the surrounding countryside and report on what he saw.
Fig 2 - Picture courtesy of  http://www.irishamericanjourney.com/