Carrow and Faunt family tales

Was This a Defining Moment for the Faunt Family?

2011-02-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Our Faunt family has connected on several levels in the past two years. Cousins from the siblings of my Patrick Faunt who share William and Ellen as progenitors are sharing pieces of what we know. Two weeks ago the 1885 New Jersey census index was online and I found our family in somewhat different configurations than I saw in the 1880 census.

My Patrick , married to Mary Dugan and listed as "Patsy" is listed in two separate places, although both are him. William and Ellen and younger children are joined by Louisa Faunt.Louisa I had previously found in the 1900 census with a baby named Helen ( another variation of Ellen).I did not know who she was but her place in the 1885 census as a child less than 5 must signify she is a child of the family.

I have never been able to find Ellen Faunt's death but after William dies in February 1889 she marries Charles Schneider a Prussian born baker. Her daughters Jennie and Nelly are married in that decade. Is Ellen deceased by 1900? I think she may be and surely in 1911 when her son Michael passes away as his obituary so states.

Now I go on to look at the events posted here and wonder if the commitment of William Faunt to the state hospital signified in 1887 the end of the family living together? Did the deaths of the two children above cause a crisis in the family? They lost at least 4 children, one a first William in Belfast before they immigrated.Does the peace bond against Ellen Faunt predict or tell us anything?

Patrick Faunt married Mary Dugan in 1883.They lost at least one child also and Mary Dugan passes away in 1902. Edward Faunt my grandfather was less than 4 and Jesse was 2. Patrick as a single parent leaves something to be desired or maybe the times were just very tough. Grandpop told me nothing of those years except that evictions were constant and that the children often needed to run home from school to save their possessions which were at the curb.

He never said he was motherless but that surely played into his inability to cope with his own 4 children when Grandmother Retta dies at 25.

Was this a family in trouble between 1885 and William's death in 1889. What did "dementia " mean in this case? Did he have a stroke or was he a very heavy drinker? He was only 47 years old. Did his children take sides? Children of his younger brother William, who was affluent, know nothing about our family. William Faunt's children visited with Jennie and Nelly's families over the years.

Was my "Patsy " a drinker or a gambler? He marries again possibly twice and has two children Helen born in 1915 and George Patrick 1918. George Patrick Faunt is killed in WWII.

I don't know, maybe he just remained tied to Old Country ways because the Dugans, his in laws visited in Beverly and were know to us.. Surely poor Patsy was not successful. His wife Mary and his mother worked as Green Grocers both in Beverly and Philadelphia until their deaths, that part we do know.

Taking a breather and Sullivans!

2010-07-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

It surely has been awhile since I posted.I have been managing 5 genetic genealogy DNA accounts which is very very time consuming.This will be a brief return and I will try to do better.

Two of the biggest mysteries I wanted to solve with autosomal DNA was first to ascertain my Grandfather's identity and that has been done. This week 23andme introduced an "Ancestry Finder" program that is both exciting and informative. It shows the 23 chromosomes and our matches, even those who decline to contact. l It is a bit like a crystal ball and shows my ethnic background in a nutshell as # 1 Ireland and #2 Norway. (well it varies a bit but I said a nutshell)
Very wonderful experience for me.

The number two mystery I wanted to unravel was the family of my mitoDNA ancestor Margaret Lynch of Cork who is born in 1841 and marries Charles Rementer most likely in 1860 in Rhode Island. I have known of her existence for almost 30 years and have gotten no further than that.

Enter DNA and I have a very close match with a full sequence Mitochondrial test which shows 2 of us as being almost 2 peas in a pod with J2b1a1 mutations. Our ancestors both hailed from Cork around 1840. We have hung in THAT spot for almost 2 years..

My buddy and I have tested first our own autosomal DNA and then a host of cousins and siblings ( I have but one).My sister Carol, bless her, spit for the family cause and with that we miraculously got two matches on her DNA.My DNA apparently did not take this excursion.

Having been recently told by a cousin that our Lynch family was said to be cousins with the noted John L.Sullivan, I pounced on both a Lynch and a Sullivan cousin match when they "came in". Apparently my Margaret was born to a Jeremiah Lynch and a Mary or Margaret Sullivan from the Beara peninsula near Bantry Bay.

I definitely have a general location and also know that THIS generation at least came to Newport Rhode Island and stayed in New England for keeps. Later generations of Sullivans may not have done so.

I am content.

Mother's Day for Elizabeth Faunt Carrow

2010-05-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

Your mother is always with you... She's the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street. Your mother lives inside your laughter. She's the place you came from, your first home...She's the map you follow with every step that you take and nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, Not space...Not even death will ever separate you from your mother... love going out to my Mom who I now understand so much better..

Thanks of course to my genealogy efforts and the genetic genealogy which has lately been consuming my time, I do now know so much more about Mom's childhood and her own mother.

I know more most probably than she ever did about Swansons, Faunts and Dugans those folks whose lives made us all what we are.

Madness Monday - How many Duggans?

2010-03-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

Tory Island

Close to St.Patrick's Day it makes sense that the number of Dugan families living in Falcarragh Donegal in 1850 is at least a sense of puzzlement, if not actual madness.

A clue came a year or so ago when my male cousin of this line matched no others in his Y line DNA not even the 'other' Paddy Dugan from that area.

A larger clue came last week when I got a "cousin match" at 23andMe's Relative Finder, another woman and I share a segment on a chromosome. She and I both descend from a Patrick Dugan from Falcarragh Donegal.

So why is this maddening in any way?Well remember the Y DNA? We don't match these Dugans.

New cousin has a Duggan/Doogan marriage, so surely that is where we come in?No, those names and locations do not identity our family either.They are called the 'Bartley' Duggans from the Rosses, still not us!!

Pictured above is Bernard 'Barney' Dugan, my Great Grandma's brother. We have lots of Bernards (aka Bryan) and Denises in our family.Ours are farmers and not the owners of 'The Rosses" a historical pub.

New cousin and I suspect a McFadden or a McClafferty is in fact our common ancestor who passed down our segment of chromosome #12. We are on it and each have another cousin testing.

How about those Dugans? Well my cousins and I are looking into the possibility that we are in fact, 'Tory Island Doohans'. This family was known to marry into the somewhat unrelated Duggan and Doogan families from Falcarragh also. Many records spell it Doohan I have found and we are surely working on it.

Éirinn go Brách

Wordless Wednesday (sort of) - Autosomal DNA,cousins and me

2010-02-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

In addition to testing my autosomal DNA at 23andme in their 'Relative Finder' and finding out my unknown paternal ethnic background I have had two REMARKABLE cousin matches.We each share a segment of a chromosome, part of a larger segment passed on by our Carrow ancestors all three of whom were siblings born between 1814 and 1830 in Duck Creek Delaware.

Family Tree DNA will also begin a similar testing program called 'Family Finder'. I have been a surname group administrator there for a few years.Instead of words today I will include links to what I am talking about. Carrows please join the Ancestry.com group! Also there is a Faunt, Rementer, Swanson and Norwegian group.

http://groups.ancestry.com/signup/respond.aspx?invid=AHgfBfwdUVd484DebDOSiQ

https://www.familytreedna.com/landing/family-finder.aspx

https://www.23andme.com/

A Treasure from Troms Norway

2010-02-18T15:12:00.001-08:00

Bleak and bare in this woodcut, this view of Bjarkoy Troms Norway is from about 1000 AD. It represents a "Peasant Revolution" against the King of Norway King Olaf by the citizenry and in particular one Tore Hund.

Olaf ( also called St.Olaf ) was killed by Hund a native of Bjarkoy on July 29, 1030.I have not yet found Tore in my ancestor file, thank goodness, he looks a bit grumpy.

I am struck by the stark scenery although of course it is stylized.

Tombstone Tuesday - Sadie Kirwan Carrow

2010-02-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

My father, mother and I spent hours one Saturday afternoon carrying a pot of geraniums looking for his Grandmother's grave at Old St.Joseph's in Swedesboro NJ.

Sadie adopted and raised my father her grandson and only grandchild after my Grandmother Elizabeth sent him back to Penns Grove from Baltimore MD when he was about 3.

She died during WWII and all Dad knew is that she was buried next to her mother and 'near the fence'. We were told the graves had 'sunk'. Dad always wanted to get her a headstone.

I was able to find Sadie's grave as well as her mother Lizzie Sweeney Kirwan who died when Sadie was about 3. I purchased her a headstone, poor dear soul. A Boy Scouts Eagle project had righted the graves leaving Lizzie's stone after 100 + years.She died in 1890.

Requiescat in pace et lux perpetua luceat, Sadie, Lizzie and baby Maggie

Norwegian Bygdebok, my cousins and Neil

2010-02-16T06:33:00.000-08:00

I was able to determine through 23andME that my previously unknown grandfather was in fact my stepgrandfather Sigurd Boe a Norwegian sailor from Bjarkoy Troms Norway.

Norwegian records being astonishingly wonderful I was able to find his family of origin and later his extended paternal family in another Norwegian county. My closest Scandinavian matches at 23and me are both Norwegian but both have an adoption. They both have names and locations.

A wonderful man whose passion is the Bygdebok for Laerdal Sogn og Fjordane Norway sent me his work of art..5 books for Laerdal in a genealogical database that goes back to the 1600s. In that I was able to find the families of my 23andMe cousins and it indicates I am related to their family although distantly. A small miracle.

A definition: " Bygdebøker are basically local history books that contain a wealth of genealogy information. A bygdebok will generally cover a small community, perhaps one or two parishes".

I am amazed, thankful. and grateful. My heartfelt thanks to Neil and whatever ancestors guided our efforts to find one another.

Wordless Wednesday - Faces of America

2010-02-03T05:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/

Join me in front of your TV on this date. I discovered so much of my heritage via DNA that it almost is unbelievable.

Sentimental Surname Sunday - Keys of Delmarva

2010-01-31T07:25:00.000-08:00

In preparation for my Carrow and allied families compilation, I wrote this and decided it was both a surname and sentimental. I decided to post it here as my week-end endeavor.

I first became aware of the Keys family when I became acquainted with Mary Keys Carrow as an ancestor. I had hoped in 2005 to establish John Carrow as a Revolutionary War ancestor but his geographic location during that time was in question. Vernon Skinner who has researched large parts of my Delmarva lines for me presented me with William Keys as a Revolutionary War Patriot and I was very happy to have found him.He (William not Vern) and I were easily established into the Daughters of the American Revolution database.

William Keys may have served in the French and Indian Wars as a young man We do know he is born in Queen County Maryland March 23, 1738 and is baptized at St.Luke’s Parish there. His parents were John Keys (Key, Kees) and Anne Sewell daughter of Rev. Richard Sewell of Cecil County. He first appears in our sights in Kent County Delaware when he returns from his Revolutionary War service. He is not found in Kent Co. prior to 1782.

William serves in the Continental Army as a Private 1st Company, 2nd Battalion under, Col. Otho Holland Williams Regiment, Southern Army of the United States. He served in the Delaware Regiment until very late in 1782. He was at or near Yorktown at the surrender surely as his unit served under Gen. Nathaniel Greene.

They then marched to near Charleston SC where at Camp Ashley River they kept the British under surveillance with nightly skirmishes for 2 more years. Records show they (Delaware and Maryland regiments) were extremely poorly clothed and underfed.

Did William return to Queen Anne Maryland and marry? This is a possibility as although he had property in Murderkill Hundred Delaware in 1782 we find him not living there and either unfound or delinquent until 1786. In 1786 he is head of household and we find him there until 1794 occasionally as William Kus and Kees. He marries Mary who may be a connection of Nathaniel Wilds wife Mary so is possibly an Ebtharp, Numbers, Tilton or Alleband from Queen Anne Maryland.

Did William have a prior wife or children? This is unknown although there are two William Keys’ mentioned in Maryland in prior years in Dorchester. It is surely possible although we do know there is at least one other William Keys living in Maryland.

We do know that our William with his growing family is in Dover Hundred in 1793. In 1792 a Bounty Land grant was applied for by William although it is not obvious whether it was used for this or sold for cash. Did William sicken at this time due to his years in the swamps near Camp Ashley River SC? He is not found in tax lists until his Probate accounts in 1796.

Children born to William and Mary during those years are Mary, Elizabeth, Ann ,Priscilla and lastly his only son William in 1795. Timothy Lister who marries Mary Keys present accounts in 1796. He is stepfather to the children and Mary Keys Carrow names her first son Timothy surely in his honor. Elizabeth Keys who marries John Cook names her first son William Keys Cook after her departed father.

John Keye is the first man bearing the name that I can link with a paper trial through the generations. In 1665 he is listed as a Headright and by 1669 he is a servant on the plantation of William Parrott on the Choptank River Talbot County at “Seventh Heaven”.
He must have been successful during this time as he next comes into view in 1696 as John Keye, witness to the will of John Pennington. He has two sons John and Richard born between 1688 and 1696.

He is a member of St. Stephen’s Parish, Cecil Co where in 1696, a John Keye he witnessed the will of John Pennington. He is widowed at some point and makes the acquaintance of Henry Pennington who dies 1702 Sassafrass Neck MD.It is possible that his first wife could have been a relative of John Pennington but what we know for sure is that Elizabeth as wife of John Keys, filed administration accounts as widow of Henry Pennington in 1702. Another witness to Henry’s will is Thomas Ebtharp and this family that will follow us into Kent County.

Elizabeth Boyer Pennington Keys as widow of Cecil Co., deposed her age as 57 in 1721. She dies 25 April,1738 and is buried at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, in Cecil County. Elizabeth and John Keys have a son Thomas who is born about 1706 who signed inventory of Richard Keys as next of kin in 1748 and with wife Esther, filed administration accounts on estate of John Irons the same year.

Many of the Keys family either precede William into Kent County Delaware and Dorchester County Maryland around the pre- and post Revolutionary years.

Reverend Richard Sewell grandfather of William Keyes is a player in all of this as he was sent by the Bishop of London, and appointed by Governor Nicholson to serve as the rector of both North and South Sassafrass parishes of St.Stephens' Church in Cecil County Maryland.He married Jane Ellis there in 1699 and was the father-in-law of John Keys the younger.

Treasure Chest Thursday

2010-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

John Swanson and Rebecca Spencer

John Carrow and Mary Keys

Two sides of my family in records.Without these marriages and these people who came before me and lived simple and honest lives, I would not exist.

Without these records handed down sometimes absentmindedly, my family history would be nowhere.

I am grateful for everyone who came before me and everyone who has helped in my search.

(Belated) Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

Probable birthplace of Sigurd Ole Boe and home of his grandfather Ole Larson Boe.

Bjarkoy Troms Norway

Sentimental Sunday - Line Street in Penns Grove

2010-01-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

A sentimental journey back in time to the first house I remember, 35 East Line Street Penns Grove NJ. In addition to the house ( which I actually dream about sometimes ) I want to visit in my mind's eye my first real playmates who were not family. Joey Vanderslice lived next door to me and his cousin Jerry Howard lived down the street.

In recent times I have come across genealogy records for their families also and realize they and others in their lines were very "Old Salem County" families. Of course we did not talk about those things being children with more immediate issues. Joey and Jerry came to my first birthday party in this new house built by my parents in the Post WWII era, I am sure.

Jerry being somewhat older than I was was my escort for a first outing, to movie at the Grove a few streets away.My mother wrote this is my baby book in May 1950.Why then, I wonder was Mom surprised that I dropped her hand and went into kindergarten myself 3 months later?

Joey V. tried to teach me to shoot marbles but I had definite fine motor issues. I tried to interest him in my Bobbsey Twin books which I began to read at 5 and 6 but Joey was not a big reader.I am not sure what we had in common except the neighborhood.I called his mother "Aunt Mae" and liked to hang in her kitchen where she was quite the cook.

East Line Street was on the boundary line between Penns Grove and Carneys Point, then called Upper Penns Neck. An old sewage ditch ran along the back property lines and behind that was a woods.Joey was allowed to explore, I was not but am unsure I would have ventured there anyway. None of that exists now.

Joey's parents had chickens in a coop as did Jerry's. Jerry's family also did a bit of farming, I remember corn growing so surely they had more than the two acres we did. Others on the street had truck gardens and we were the last block in town before actual farms started.

Several years after that my mother went to work as school nurse and we moved to a big house on the river, their dream house.They never looked back,but in my minds eye and sometimes in my dreams I revisit that house and climb the steps and Joey calls me "Yo Kath-ee" and off we run.

Tombstone Tuesday - The Sweeneys from Ireland

2010-01-19T16:04:00.001-08:00

James Sweeney and his wife Mary Jane Huey rest at St. Mary's RC Cemetery Salem NJ. Mary Jane was from County Tyrone daughter of James and Letitia who were farmers. James and Mary Jane were also farmers in the Quinton/Alloway area in Salem County NJ. They were among and early group of Catholics farming in South Jersey and James was a founding member perhaps of the Grange.

Their children moved into Gloucester County near Swedesboro and attended St.Joseph's.Their daughter Elizabeth married Patrick Kirwan also from Ireland. Lizzie dies young and tragically leaving young children and a newborn who lived one month.

Lizzie Sweeney Kirwans' daughter Sadie Kirwan Carrow raised and adopted as her own my father William Charles Carrow. Sadie was only 2 when her mother died and she was interred with her in Old St.Joseph's in Swedesboro.

Follow Friday - Whatever gets you there

2010-01-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

I have been really immersed in my Norwegian DNA and have concluded that my step grandfather Sigurd Boe is actually my biological grandfather which he indicated at least twice to me. Norwegian records are awesome and free and I now have several generations of my paternal ancestors in and around Bjarkoy Troms Norway. A cousin, son of my father's half brother has been located thanks to a wonderful native of that small island, and I have exchanged pictures with him.

I tried to do the same for our Swansons but it is very difficult.I paid for a trial subscription on Genline but so far it is an uphill struggle without knowing the parish.Norwegian records have something called ' bygddebok' which are family pedigrees for certain lines. Bless them!

The Genline US specialist tells me ( as I knew ) that very likely our Swanson men were Anders and Carl son of Swen and from Gothenberg which can mean the city or the county. She sent some other possible places to check but our men came too early for them.

One new thing was said however: "While they would not be part of the original Colonial Swedes or included in what is defined as the Colonial Swedes, they may have become active in the Swedish community at the time and joining some Swedish organizations. However, they may have known someone or been related to someone and that is why they emigrated to Philadelphia "

So possibly we are actually some kin to the Colonial Swedes or were known to them. That could be a clue and I will follow it.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

Oh My Gosh! Happy 101 Award!

2010-01-12T16:56:00.000-08:00

Oh My Gosh! Here I am doing my genealogy and DNA intensely and not even Blogging and to my surprise I get an award. Linda McCauley, thank you! I sure did not get it for promptness.

Now 10 things that make me happy and 10 Bloggers who get an award.

1. My four adult children. ( 3 sons and a daughter)
2. My six grandchildren. ( 3 girls and 3 boys)
3. Jim who shares my life.
4. Finding Family ( if you read my blog, you know!)
5. Genetic Genealogy ( includes all those I have met doing it)
6. Reading ( Mysteries both historical and foreign)
7. Our Beach House ( Outer Banks 4 wheel drive)
8. Retirement ( always and every day I marvel at it.)
9. My New Jersey roots ( small town girl)
10. Blogging and sharing genealogy

Now for 10 awardees, and this is hard (and late)therefore I absolve them of some of the second ten requirements (Waving my Magic Wand about). Some new ones who are very exciting and also my old favorites and some who have recently inspired me.

Gone But Not Forgotten
Ancestor Tracking
Of Trolls and Lemons
Nordic Blue
My Genealogy Blog
A Light That Shines Again
Small-Leaved Shamrock
The Genetic Genealogist
The Spittoon
Be Not Forgot

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-06T10:32:00.000-08:00

Surname Saturday - Boe and Olsen

2010-01-02T06:22:00.000-08:00

Several new ancestral surnames have bubbled to the surface for me in December.Most important for me I believe is what I have now deduced to be my paternal surname.
In November I wrote about my "Search for My Grandfather" an event which actually had propelled me into both genealogy and DNA in retirement. 'Holes' in a pedigree is what many of my genetic genealogy compatriots have in common and surely understand and I have written about that already.

With 209 current cousin matches on "Relative Finder" at 23andme, my closest matches are turning out to be from Norway. On this, the second exploration of my autosomal profile, but the first of the full genome ( all 23 chromosomes) a Baltic area native element like Saami continues to be evident.

Dad's stepfather Sigurd Boe twice alluded to being Dad's father in my hearing.My Dad, although he referred to his mother and stepfather as "my parents" was less sure of this fact and he legally was named Carrow after his Grandparents adopted him. Four years ago for the first time I received Dad's birth certificate naming "Louis Saybold" as the father but the document was stamped "illegitimate" and also gave his name as William Charles Carrow.

Yesterday I found a link from another Blogger of the Digital Archives of Norway. Grandpop Boe's death certificate as reported to the Norwegian consulate called him "Olaf Boe.His given name was Sigurd Boe and sure enough I find Ove Sigurd's birth and his confirmation as Ove Sigurd Boe in Bjarkoy Troms Norway.Thrilling to me of course!

His father is indicated as Oskar Ludvig Bremer {Oleson} and his mother Lorentse Sofie Kristiansdotr. His paternal grandfather is listed as both Lars Oleson Boe and Peder Oleson Boe which I suppose points to the patronymic of Olesen or 'son of Ole' and a place or origin name of Bo/Boe? I am not at all sure of that but I am sure it is him as he is born in Bjarkoy Troms as found in his first visa to the US in 1920.He seems to have retained his Norwegian citizenship although I know he received Social Security and a pension from a Philadelphia bank building where he was their operating engineer.

Rounding out this found information in 2010 is the place of residence of my Great grandparents
of Slagstad Troms Norway which is either part of or near to Bjarkoy. My paternal GGrandmother ( can you believe this!!) is Elisabeth Martinsdatr also of Slagstad Troms Norway.

Follow Friday 2010

2010-01-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

A new decade has arrived and with it my determination to continue discovering what I can about my ancestors. I use a multi-disciplinary approach for most things and genealogy is no exception; a favorite expression is "when the tide rises all the boats will float".

Who do I follow and what are my tools? A thoroughly modern 'baby boomer' I believe in shortcuts which include: genetic genealogy aka "DNA", the use of experienced and trusted researchers and my own anthropology education which highlights customs and traditions of each culture.In addition, I am grateful that I live in an age where I can find a birth record in the old country which will link me with another cousin.

The end of the past decade allowed me to find cousins in New Zealand and Donegal Ireland who are now friends using all of the tools I just described. I also know the path of my family in this country from 1643 forward to the present day.

Susan Carrow and Don Carrow whose ancestors left Accomac Virginia and went to Bath North Carolina, David Font in New Zealand and Manus McClafferty from Falcarragh Donegal as well as my Quinn/Doogan cousins are folks I now communicate with routinely thanks to this great age I live in.

In the coming decade I am vowing to illuminate my ancestors paths in even more detail. Online records some for free and some for a nominal amount of money will make that possible.

As my cousin Manus says "Le grá agus beannacht " for 2010.

Advent Calendar - The Christmas Tree

2009-12-01T08:12:00.000-08:00

Bill and Betty Carrow and grandsons Peter and Ronnie Morrison

Carneys Point NJ 1969

Sister and I in 1953 ( below) and Christmas with my cousins in 1955 ( right).Just two of us but they had four more siblings after this.

My genealogy of my family has illuminated many things for me.Two generations of my family before me had a bumpier ride through life. I don't know how their Christmases all were, just a few sad anecdotes from Depression years.

My Grandfather lost his mother when he was only four. He never told me that although we were very close. He did tell me they were evicted often and their possessions scattered over the years from being tossed out at the curb. My first memory of Christmas was the bubble lights on his post WWII tree and my rag doll "Buttons" that he bought me.

In turn his wife Margaretta died when his oldest son was eight and the youngest of the four, My Mom was only 3.The three boys were for some years in St.John's Orphanage and must have spent Christmases with his family in Kensington.

Christmas in my family of origin was somewhat festive and our tree was picked out by us shortly after Thanksgiving and rooted.

My parents did the same when the grandchildren came.

Kreativ Blogger Award - who me?

2009-12-01T03:53:00.000-08:00

I am very surprised and honored this morning to find I was nominated for the Kreativ Blogger Award by Mary Beaulieu from Ancestor Tracking. Mary was and always has been my inspiration to Blog about my 'folks'.

My task this morning is to tell 7 things about myself and then to nominate 7 other Bloggers for this award. I definitely need more coffee for this.

1. I began doing my family's genealogy upon my 'early retirement' in 2002 , quite possibly to keep my mind occupied. It has answered many questions for me, including why I need to keep my mind occupied.

2. The 'holes' or 'empty spots' in my family tree have played a role in how I lived my life. If I had had more information life could have been a bit less bumpy, both for myself and for my four children. This is my gift to them.

3. The more I uncover the more I want to know about those who came before me.I am absolutely positive that we are the sum total of all of these people. I have as Mary indicated in my nomination 'jumped the pond' and have contacted relatives in Ireland.

4. I believe that DNA is an amazing shortcut to our 'Brick Walls' in genealogy and that I am perfectly willing to use whatever is necessary to achieve success.This includes paid researchers, DNA and contacting perfect strangers here and abroad.

5. Partly for me and partly for my children and grandchildren I am thrilled to know that my unknown grandfather was likely Norwegian.There is a good possibility that it was my step-grandfather or at least someone he was acquainted with from his ship or his country.

6. My second great passion, books and reading reflects my need to unpuzzle things.My cousin Francis told me yesterday I should have been a detective and I missed my calling.Mysteries and specifically those from other cultures are what I immerse myself in.

7. My roots and my family's roots are in Southern New Jersey and across the Delaware River in Delaware and Philadelphia. I lived in the same small town for 56 years until moving to North Carolina in 2002 with my incredible husband who I have been with 9 years ago this week. He supports me in all of this,without him I would still be a social worker at a prison. I am blessed with him and my three sons, daughter and six very talented and beautiful grandchildren.

My nominated Blogs are those who have inspired me of course and Ancestor Tracking would always be first. Our ancestors trod distant paths together in both Delaware and Maryland in a time when others had not yet arrived.

Honorary award to Ancestor Tracking

1. Becky's Grace and Glory

2. The Genetic Genealogist

3. Trace My Origin

4. Of Trolls and Lemons

5. Genealem-genetic genealogy

6. Searching for the Lost Colony

7. Canada Genealogy

Surname Saturday Doohan/Dugan of Donegal

2009-11-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

Another generation has been documented of the Doohan/Dugan family of Crossroads Donegal.

Mary Dugan Faunt and Rose Doohan Coyle, first cousins died young and left young children with no clear story of their origin.

A very small group of cousins have connected in this electronic age and are piecing together the family.

My Grandfather Ed Faunt who was 4 when his Mother died belonged to the "Sons of Donegal" and often sang a song about it. His cousin Jimmy Coyle has a memory of walking up Broad Street with his mother at 3 or 4 and no other recollection of her.

Norah Doohan McFadden of Crossroads sold Irish Sweepstake tickets to her cousins until her death after 1965. Her sister Catherine Doohan worked at Mt.Carmel Rectory 3rd and Snyder when she immigrated in 1928 and later moved to Norristown.

Rose Veronica Coyle granddaughter of Rose Doohan Coyle was Miss America in 1936. Everyone in our family has always been aware of this astonishing fact but not one of us could figure out how Rose Coyle is related to us. Now we do.

Patrick, Denis, Bryan(Bernard) and John Dugan/Doohan were brothers in Ireland. Just past Crossroads (now Falcarragh) is the 'Bridge of Sorrows' that took them out of the valley toward the port at Derry and left their families behind.John Dugan and his newly married wife emigrated to Philadelphia in 1865.They had no children and he prospered and one by one many of his nieces and nephews joined him there.

Search for my Grandfather

2009-11-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

When I did the post on the search for 16 Great Greats it may have been obvious that there is a hole in my ancestry.Genetic Genealogy is pointing me to a place if not a name. That post indicated that a fair size chunk of my autosomal profile points a man who came from the Baltic region.

I was offered an opportunity to participate in the Beta test for 'Relative Finder' at 23andMe and jumped at the chance.I had wanted to test the full genome autosomal but balked at the price. Myself and hundreds and hundreds of the group of genealogists who believe that DNA is a short cut over big brick walls took the plunge.

Anecdotally I am convinced this unknown man was a merchant sailor who came into Baltimore.My teen aged Grandmother never gave up an identity as I understand it and Dad himself professed not to know who he was. We were told that his birth certificate was 'sealed' through his adoption by his grandmother.

Grandmother married a Norwegian sailor, Sigurd Boe, who many years later indicated he could be his father.He repeated this after Grandmom passed away but my father said " you're not my father, I don't know who my father was". Dad and Stepfather however, had many similarities; coloring,shoe size and both were very soft spoken.

I currently have 187 matches on 'Relative Finder' most of which are distant cousins.All of these persons have not yet made contact with me and none are closer than 3rd cousin.Most if not all of them seem to match my know Irish connections.

The genome wide autosomal allows for a more uniform look at who I inherited my DNA from.
Prior testing like mitoDNA and X markers and X strs pointed to my female to female lines.The X markers by their nature exclude anything of a paternal line and is sometimes referred to as the 'paternal grandmother test'.Dad as a male inherited a Y chromosome from his father and his other chromosome, the X, from his mother.

One of the advantages of a large testing group is the availability of population samples for geographic location. Dr. Doug McDonald is working with Scots and Irish populations and compared my genome with his model. He indicates that I am very very Irish in my ethnicity!

A small but clear subset of my genome looks different and from the region across the North Sea .

The conclusion falls right in line with what I have been told previously which is both Native and Baltic.The first look at my genome in 2006 was said to be a Northern Native American which fairly quickly resolved itself into Polish or Russian tribal.

He( McDonald) feels it points to somethings like Swedish or Finnish Saami or Lapps. That fits with everything else.I asked him if it was from the unknown grandfather or my known Swedish Swanson great grandfather and he feels it is likely both of them.

This makes absolute sense to me.Dad's birth certificate which I was able to acquire after his death notes a Louis Seybold as the father.The ethnicity there also points to the Baltic region perhaps.

Dad was quite blond and blue eyed and a great sailor also although his Carrow uncle was a ship captain and he grew up directly on the Delaware River banks.

Saami.Let me try it on for effect.

Destination - Chestertown Maryland

2009-10-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

Destination Delmarva at Washington College in Chestertown Maryland was an event I am glad I attended this past Saturday. Sponsored by Colonial Roots, Delaware Genealogical Society and Maryland Genealogical and attended by at least 100 avid researchers, it was definitely not-to-be-missed.

My cousin and I traveled together and so thoroughly enjoyed driving past important markers in our ancestors lives.We are probably lucky it was cold and rainy or we would have stopped several times and been late both going and coming. Who knew that we would pass the Queen Anne Courthouse and St.Luke's Church? Someone did, of course but not these two from Salem County NJ and St.Georges Delaware who were enthralled at our proximity to our family history.We plan to drive up to the area on a non-rainy day and inspect "the road past where Henry Carrow lives" which has been memorialized in Queen Anne records.

Equally exciting for me was spending the day in the company of Mary Beaulieu my fellow blogger and compatriot in uncovering elusive Delmarva ancestors. The entire assemblage was so like minded as we scooped up newer publications like "Dorchester County Marriages" like they were gold nuggets and excitedly met others researching the same folks.

Russ McCabe is to be thanked for requesting as his "gold watch" at his recent retirement 100 copies of "East of the Mason-Dixon Line" and giving one to each attendee. I was awestruck when he told us how our ancestors traveled up from Accomac VA via the waterways which illustrated why they settled where they did. Russ told us of narratives like " my parents and I left Accomac in 1683 " which I must now go and find. His talk was absolutely one of the most exciting I have heard.

Sally Deakyne Burke and Peggy Deakyne Mealy, wonderful researchers and authors most impressed me with their interest in a common tie between my Carrow ancestors and their Deakynes. We mutually agreed to explore that tie in detail and I personally vowed to make sure my research is as accurate as it can be.

Ed Wright's Church records are always enlightening but he has shared much of that with me on other occasions. Rebecca Kolford gave a breathtaking talk on our female ancestors and how to illuminate their lives through their vital statistics and those of their family members. I won't soon forget her Whitman forebears.

Besides the rain and chill the only downside was that we had to make choices on which presentation we would attend. My gratitude to all those at the Delaware and Maryland societies who underwrote the workshops and provided the delectable bakery items that were ever available and were always ready to chat.

How They Came

2009-10-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Ellen Lynch Faunt and infant son William came to America in June 1969 on the ship City of Paris ahead of husband and older son Patrick. Ellen presumably had relatives to live with near New Jersey where we find the family in early 1870. but they have proved elusive.

A couple named Michael and Ellen Lynch are in Pennsylvania around the same time and the occupation, Greengrocer, fits with what I know of Ellen and William in Beverly NJ around 1880.
A big question mark for me is did the family "split up" or safety reasons or was it purely economics? Many Irish couples worked and saved and came one at a time but I am not sure this is the case.

William Faunt has a British Army pension and did not fit into a more typical profile of 19th century immigrants. The couple lived in Belfast after William was medically discharged from duty and he could do little heavy lifting so I am not sure he stayed behind to work his passage.
A second son also named William is born , and presumably dies in Belfast.Possibly Ellen is fleeing Ireland or the smoke of Belfast with her second William,her third son.

William Senior first is found as caretaker of Wall Rope Company in Beverly NJ and soon enough he and Ellen are listed as greengrocers.The family lived in rooms above the rope factory. Their oldest child, my great grandfather Patrick was not five when they came.Eventually he works in the rope factory and possibly helps his mother with the family greengrocer endeavor.Family lore indicates that Patrick's wife Mary Dugan is also a greengrocer.

Mary Dugan's uncle John Dugan comes to America first with his wife Rose Coyle.They are thought to have been childless and brought Mary and her brother Bernard to America one at a time.He seems to have been an entrepreneur although it is a little unclear in what capacity.A livery stable is a strong possibility. Possibly this is how the couple met as Patrick surely took the ferry to Philadelphia from the New Jersey side for his mother's produce.

The ship Alsatia when it sails in 1878 has a Sarah Coyle, possibly a cousin from Donegal on it so Mary does not come alone. Her brother Bernard comes several years later.Our speculation and that of an Irish researcher is that father Patrick Dugan is deceased by this time. Catherine McClafferty Dugan and the couple's last child James as well as other unknown siblings of Mary and Barney are still alive in the 1911 census.

William Faunt and his son Patrick do not live to grow old in America, victims of early heart attacks in 1889 and 1921. Ellen Faunt marries Charles Schneider, baker, in Beverly in 1890 and disappears from records after her American born daughters marry well.

Mary Dugan Faunt dies in 1902 of what sounds like a strangulated hernia possibly for the heavy lifting entailed in the produce business. Patrick raises six young children although tales abound of almost monthly evictions.The older siblings delay marrying until the two youngest boys have left home. Patrick fathers a son from a second marriage in 1918 but is dead in 1921.His son from that marriage George Patrick dies in Italy in WWII.

Don't we all think our family's emigration narratives unique and their struggles in America poignantly difficult? I surely do, but I am very grateful for their journeys.They did it for me and mine.

Tombstone Tuesday

2009-09-23T07:43:00.001-07:00

These actually came to my attention last night which was Tuesday. My Great Grandfather Patrick Faunt was born in Limerick Ireland and is last found in records in the 1920 census with wife Florence and children Helen and George.

I failed to find a death for him after numerous tries.I believe this to be him and have records being searched this week. There is another Patrick living in the area but they spell their last name differently..Font.They are not sure they are related.I am sure they are as I have pulled about 50 Irish records including their Patrick.

Patrick's father William (1840-1889) is also buried in this cemetery St. Peter's in Riverside New Jersey as well as some infants born in America. William Faunt and Ellen his wife brought their two little boys to Beverly New Jersey in 1869, William had a military pension from the British Army.Pat's sisters Jennie Faunt Cooper and Nellie Faunt Hutchins who were born in America lived nearby in Burlington City.

Find A Grave has had both of these added since I last looked.George Patrick Faunt was killed in WWII and apparently was orphaned young. This was a fact of life for my Patrick as his first wife Mary Dugan died in 1902 leaving him with six young children to raise.Edward my grandfather had just turned four.

George Faunt's draft record indicates he supports his widowed mother.Poor dear.So many motherless and fatherless children in my immediate family.

Rest In Peace, Patrick and George and may perpetual light shine on you.

Early Delaware Edenfield family

2009-09-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

The trusty and accomplished researcher who assists me with my Delaware and Maryland family lines has brought back an amazing amount of data.It is still a work in progress and maybe always will be but much of it is entrancing. In the Carrow family there are other lines and relatives, of course, including Edenfield, Maloney and Jones.

William F.Carrow who is a Civil War Veteran married Margaret Edenfield.Actually both he and Margaret married others during the war but were both widowed. They married in 1878 and she brought a child to the marriage.

I was hoping to find a way back to the first Edenfield, John who comes from Yorkshire and marries in Kent County Delaware by 1702 without hitting a minefield. The minefield comes in the person of Jonas Edenfield who has been called the"Pirate of Bombay Hook" for his enterprenurial efforts with the British warships during the Revolution and the sale of beef and rum.

However it seems at this point that the line goes from Thomas Edenfield who is father to my Margaret Carrow through another Thomas and then..guess what..Jonas and then another Jonas before the immigrant.

Good news here is that the first Jonas seemingly marries Tabitha Stedham who is of the "Old Swedes" Stidhams which is a plus. Another upbeat bit of news is that Jonas Sr.'s niece Lydia marries William Clayton which is the family of Caesar Rodney.

Jonas Stidham's partner in this endeavor on the marshes off Delaware was a Lucas Stedham who went on to "take the Oath" of allegiance to the new country and thus got off the hook.Jonas however may have only paid a minuscule fine which probably speaks to conflicted loyalties in the area.

There are a couple of decades of tax records to be scrutinized before my Thomas Edenfield who is orphaned quite young is officially in the Thomas, Thomas,Jonas, Jonas line but it is looking like a sure thing.The mists of time are being penetrated slightly for me to peek in.

More cousins in Beverly New Jersey ?

2009-09-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

The daughters of Richard Swanson and Mary Agnes Rementer Swanson have by and large had happiness elude them.One notable exception was Bessie Katherine , youngest child,who married Dan Ulmer and seems to have fared very well.Of the six daughters three are dead at an early age leaving motherless children.

Margaret Swanson sister of my grandmother may have had another child before she passed away in 1923. Recently we found that Margaret had had a whirlwind courtship in 1906 which ended at some point in divorce.Her bridegroom was a Baseball player and local legend John Westley Reasnor and they eloped to the chagrin of his fans.

My cousin and I have been trying valiantly to unearth details.Margaret's son John Westley Reasnor, also a Baseball player of some renown goes by the name of John Westly. He and his two sisters are found in a children's home in 1920. Newspaper clippings of 1918 that reported that John Rasnor died in WWI in France were possibly inserted by him or a friend as he is found alive afterwards. Another news story in 1920 indicates his mother had a "Dream" that he was still alive and asked the local police to try to locate him. Is it possible she wants her grandchildren properly cared for and knows he is shirking his responsibilty?

Family stories are that the couple divorced and that Margaret is deceased by 1920. Imagine our surprise to find a cemetery record for Margaret Swanson Gorgand while other relatives interments were being searched. The spelling was very wrong but it seems that Margaret Swanson remarries by 1922 or at least by her death Feb. 7, 1923 to one Orest Gorgana or Gargana.She is buried in a Swanson family plot in Monument Cemetery in Beverly NJ .

The 1930 census shows Orest Gargana and a second wife Florence with Evelyn and Anthony.Evelyn does not seem to be a child of that new marriage as she is seven and they are married in 1925.

Our faithful Burlington County genealogy buddy researcher has found that Evelyn , if she is daughter to Margaret Swanson is raised in Beverly NJ as a daughter to Orest and Florence Gargana. Her obituary names them as parents and names Anthony,Rosemarie and Raymond as siblings.We await a birth record from NJ Archives to know for sure who Evelyn's mother was.

Questions that always linger for me is how in such a tiny town were such large secrets kept?
Why was life so hard for these girls in this family? Only one of the sisters lived to raise their children as one lost her only child and one lived with a man for many years without marriage or children. A last question would be poignant,did Margaret marry to try to provide a home for her children or did she place them in a home to try and salvage a life for herself?

UPDATE ~ Birth records show Evelyn Gargana is not the daughter of Margaret Swanson so this one time at least I can not be upset at the Swanson family lack of cohesiveness.

My Journey to find 16 Great Great Grandparents

2009-08-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

Is it as good as it gets? I don't know but I continue to work at finding all 16 great greats despite the missing pieces. By utilizing both paper records and DNA I am getting pretty close to a full picture although my "head count" is down.

My father's father was unknown to us, and I believe, to him.His grandparents adopted and raised him and we were told his birth certificate was sealed. Six years after his death I was able to find his birth data and there was a name.

(1 and 2). Great Great Grandfather Seybold may have been born in North Germany or Poland.My Autosomal DNA and my X markers as well as Sister's( my only sibling) indicate that this man may have been from that area. POLISH
(3 and 4)Great Great grandmother ( same unknown group of folks) may have been from Russia or Estonia( or else we reverse this).Initially my autosomal profile was said to be Native American but it eventually has come to look more Siberian tribal. POLISH or RUSSIAN
(5)William F. Carrow's Delaware family was in America (Accomac Virginia) by 1643 and the immigrant was from the north of Ireland very likely Portglenone Antrim. IRISH
(6) Margaret Edenfield from Delaware also had early immigrants ( 1680)ENGLISH
(7)Patrick Kirwan emigrated to South Jersey in 1880 from County Wexford IRISH
(8)Elizabeth Sweeney's parents were from Tyrone. IRISH
(9)William Faunt was born in Fethard Tipperary where his Anglo-Norman line ( Walter L'Enfant) lived since 1270. IRISH
(8)Ellen Lynch was born near Bruff Limerick, not so far from where the Faunt family lived for centuries.They came to Beverly NJ in 1869.IRISH
(9)Patrick Dugan lived and died in an area of Donegal where Gaelic is still spoken.IRISH
(10) Catherine McClafferty also still spoke Gaelic in the 1911 census in Falcarragh Donegal.Patrick was deceased by then.IRISH
(11) John Swanson 's father Captain Charles Swanson was born in Gotheburg, served in the Swedish Navy and very likely fought in the Russian War before he emigrated to the Delaware Valley in 1813.SWEDISH
(12)Rebecca Spencer's family is most likely English or Irish.
(13))Charles Rementer's grandfather Peter came with other Palatinates and settled in Southwark, Philadelphia.He is thought to have been from Alsace-Lorraine.His children said he was from Germany ( Alsace was both German and French)GERMAN
(14)Margaret Lynch was from Cork Ireland.She emigrated during the famine to Rhode Island.
Mitochondrial DNA almost exact match indicates it is likely near Bantry Bay.IRISH

Since I have an approximation of DNA that "looks like" a reference population and since my paternal grandmother eventually married a Norwegian sailor I believe unknown Grandfather (and his forebears) was Polish/Russian.

Drumroll! This was fun.
IRISH 50%
POLISH/RUSSIAN 25 %
ENGLISH 12.5 %
GERMAN 6.25%
SWEDISH 6.25%

Captain Charles Swanson and his brother Andrew

2009-08-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

Two men named Swanson are in the Southwark Philadelphia area in the 1830 census.

Andrew Swanson and his presumed brother Charles come in 1813 according to records.These same records indicate that the men are from Goteborg Sweden. Charles Swanson at least very likely served in the Swedish Navy in their war against Russia : "While the War of 1808-09 is not to be considered being of world historical proportions, it certainly was an important event in both Swedish and Finnish history" as when the war ended 110 ships were delivered into Russian hands as was Finland after 600 years the Swedish-Finnish union was dead.

Since Charles Swanson as well as Andrew were born in Goteborg they surely were Swedish but possibly had ties to Finland.To me the men of the family appear more like Finns as they are short and dark a trait that goes on for generations. ( see attached pictures of Richard Johnson Swanson and youngest son Addison)

Andrew Swanson identifies his birthplace in his death certificate in 1862.He is a merchant.

Andrew may leave only one child Catherine B. who marries Cyrus Wilson Foss a merchant who is born in Maine.Catherine B.Foss has two children and memorializes her parents with their names I suspect, Andrew Swanson Foss and Annie Waterman Foss. Andrew and Annie and their families remain in the Delaware Valley for generations.

Charles Swanson dies August 1850 of cholera and that document describes him as a pilot on the river.Posthumously at least he is called "Captain Charles Swanson" in his daughter Hannah Swanson Jackson's obituary.

His sons who followed his career continued to live in South Philadelphia and later Camden NJ these were James and Andrew.

The three men who are found in Beverly NJ seem to be involved in transportation and merchandising perhaps and this combination of occupations may reflect their origins.

The ship type listed in their 1813 passport is "Angare" which means steamship although that is surely not possible?

Civil War records for the Beverly NJ brothers are confusing.From what I have read many men from the Burlington County area went for the bonus money; some actually went to PA for the larger bonus( Bob Knoll has information on that). All three brothers, Edward, William and John may have served in some capacity in the conflict as records exist for all. although not an actual Civil War packet.I have ordered one for each of them from NJ Archives which is offering vouchers for a very reasonable sum.

I continue to try to piece together the Swanson in America tale.

The Time In Which They Came

2009-07-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

I firmly believe that we learn a great deal by paying attention to and helping others with their genealogy. While trying to find some Dehortys and Sillivants for my genie and blogging buddy Mary at Ancestor Tracking I gained some knowledge that may affirm a privately held hypothesis.

Although some excellent researchers indicate that the Western Chesapeake shore was the stomping grounds of Catholics and that Accomac VA was mainly Protestant and English, since I believe my Carrow line was from Ireland I keep some opinions to myself.

The first Carrow I can definitely point to is in Virginia by 1643 when land is claimed for his transportation.That very likely means he came 2 or more years earlier in the throes of the British Civil War. A deceased researcher,named Sheehan, felt that John Carrow(Caroon/Carron) was of the line of Bryan Carragh a chieftain with ties to both O'Brien and Mac Donald clans near Portglenone Antrim Ireland, which was called "Bryan Carragh's Country".He stated that he fled Ireland under penalty of death for his part in the Civil War and that he went first to Bermuda, possibly under his own sail.

I cannot substantiate that and think it more likely that John takes ship in the usual way and we find him and at least two Thomas Carrows in very early Virginia. A Thomas Carrow (Carew) goes into the Carolinas via Isle of Wight area and the Blackwater River again very probably before he is found in Headright records in 1664.We know now that at least one North Carolina Carrow matches at least one Delaware Carrow in their male Y DNA exactly. Paper records indicate both lines firmly entrenched in their respective areas by the 1680s.

While pulling Dehortys and Sillivants out of their hiding places in first Accomac,Virginia and then Dorchester and Queen Anne MD I found some parallels and ties to my men. Dermon Sellivant and Mary Carrel are fined for "breaking the Sabbath" 22 May 1663 and Thomas Carrel and Dennis Sillivant are mentioned together also in Court records.

I later find Sillivants in the same places that were thought to be Catholic on the Wye River.Henry Carrow lives there both before and after his marriage to Mary Harris Ringgold. His brother John Carrow we believe is married to Elizabeth Hinds daughter of Thomas Hinds/Hines "Merchant of Drogheda Ireland" of Spread Eagle on the Chester River near the Wye. Mary Hinds leaves property to Elizabeth Carro and Rebecca Dear in 1739 and very specifically calls them her daughters.

A John Sullivaint and wife Sarah are affiliated with St.Joseph's Mission,Cordova and John is buried from this Mission at "Seth's graveyard" 15 March 1768.Where is Seth's graveyard?
When I did a little research I find this at "Catholics in Colonial Delmarva" on the St. Dennis church website " by 1662 the Wye River Basin had become a safe haven for the largest..Catholic populations on the eastern shore at that time" and " in Dorchester County, Raymond Staplefort a Catholic became High Sheriff in 1669" and " Jacobus Seth who made his home at 'Mount Mill' a Mass station where Jesuits visited" on Back Wye.

Although Thomas Hines himself belonged to the Church of Ireland, and neither Henry Carrow nor John Carrow have had any Catholic records surface, many of their life choices lend itself to affirming at least to me that the time of their coming points directly to religious strife.

A fine researcher has told me that the affiliation with Thomas Hinds indicates to him that the Carrow family also could have served as merchants. The only land owners for sure are John Carrow who inherits "Tackett's Lott' in Dorchester in 1734, Henry Carrow on the Wye River in 1750 and Timothy Carrow by 1692 in Duck Creek DE yet they are affluent enough.

The time in which they came..may have cured them of large land ownership as the family of Bryan Carragh in North Ireland lost their "country" or territory c. 1640 and began (so I have been told) to affilate themselves with the maternal grandmother's line and carry that name Carew or Carron to the New World.

Shortly before my Dad Bill Carrow died in 1998 we spoke of his family , one of our few conversations about them.He spent some months there in Londonderry during WWII and did some research."They were from the North of Ireland" he said "not England". I asked him if that meant they were protestants and he said "I don't know that". He told me that it was exactly like the book "Chesapeake" and "they were all up and down the Shore".

The time in which they came.

Swanson in Philadelphia and New Jersey

2009-07-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

I did not know my Swanson grandmother, Margaretta, as she died when her children were small.What little I knew about the family was passed down orally and somewhat inaccurate.

The hole that Retta Swanson's passing left in my life was huge in my estimation.In addition to not knowing her personally was the absence of pictures and stories of her family. Some things filtered through over the years but it has only been the last few years that I have developed contacts to help me flesh out the family.One of these is another Swanson grandchild whose memories were even more scarce, so some of this is for Marge.

My research is sort of circular beginning in the middle with three Swanson men in Beverly Burlington County NJ. Edward, William and John Swanson do not interact in any way in the records but the tiny town of Beverly as home for all seemed to verify relationship.All three men indicated a father born in Sweden and possibly a mother also.

I first thought that there were also three Sweden born men in the vicinity in the prior generation but realize now there were likely only two.John Swanson who came in 1813 on later inspection had claimed he was English which left Andrew and Charles.

Charles Swanson and Andrew are both found in census documents in 1840 in Southwark Second District. Andrew is found additionally in the same area in 1830.Charles is naturalized 24 March 1827 and Andrew 6 July 1818.

Charles dies in August 1850 of Cholera after being ill only 1 day and his occupation is listed as "Boatman, pilot on river". An infant Sarah M.Swanson dies in July of the same thing, an epidemic perhaps in Southwark? Charles Swanson was married and Leticia or Lettice seems to be his widow who is found shortly afterwards in the household of her daughter Elizabeth and husband George Coffee also in Southwark.George Coffee seems to have lived nearby in the 1830 census.

Leticia lives until 1870 when she and Elizabeth Coffee are both widowed and living with another Swanson daughter Mary McDevitt. A young son/grandson George Coffee is later found living in Burlington County NJ .Letitia Swanson sometimes states she is born in Sweden and sometimes in New Jersey so perhaps she came as a child.

My circular research now takes me to Monument Cemetery in Beverly now online at interment.net.Shortly after the cemetery is established in 1865 Edward Swanson buries Margaret a teenager and baby Edward.All the Swanson men have plots adjacent to one another except John Swanson who had buried his first wife at St.Stephens in 1847 and will eventually rest there himself many years later.

James Swanson now pops into view, a seaman in South Philadelphia with children Letitia, Charles,Mary, Sophia and Georgianna living in the same neighborhood as Mary Swanson McDevitt. James is surely a son of Charles and Letitia and baby Sarah who dies of Cholera shortly before Charles did was their granddaughter, I think.

Records are being searched today at New Jersey Archives and if they exist may substantiate what has been found so far

Carrow men in early Colonial America

2009-07-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Today I posted this at a semi-private DNA website for the Carrow family.I think it has relevance so I am copying it here also.

We have 2 lines currently looking like a possibility both in Delaware and North Carolina in their Y (male) DNA. This leads me to look back at some men we have "tucked into" the family of John Carrow (Dorchester and Queen Anne) and John Carrow the Patriot for convenience sake actually.

Possibly more than one of the men in Accomac lived long enough to father a child.That was NOT always the norm in early Tidal Maryland and Virginia when the life expectancy was short.

We had these men early on:

Evan Carrew/Cariow who is found in records between 1666-1683 in both Accomac and Maryland.He is an educated man and worked as an accountant.He is last found in Cecil County MD very close to Kent Island as Under Sheriff. He does not seem to have lived in the household of John Carrow Constable.He is in Maryland by 1672 but defintely in Accomac records where he served as Deputy Constable between 1666-1669

Thomas Carrow who goes to North Carolina in 1663 and his descendants match in DNA ( in 2 cases) to Delaware Carrows. The line of John Carrow.

Also found in Accomac or at least Virginia records are these men:

Rowland( 1666) and Allen( Sept 1664 are each found once.

Henry Carrow serves in the Maryland Militia in 1678 and lays claim to 350 acres in St.Mary's.
He is NOT the Henry Carrow from Kent Island who lives 1685-1762 and leaves money in his will to John the Patriot of Kent Delaware as his "cousin' which denotes a blood relationship such as nephew.

Nor is he the Father Henry Carrow who is in St.Mary's in 1672 and is superior of the Maryland Mission and dies enroute back to England 5/16/1677.

James Carew sailed October 1678 from Waterford Ireland on the "St.George of London" into Maryland.

None of these men is linked to John Carrow Constable of Accomac but could surely be ancestor of a later generation of Carrows in the Chesapeake area including Delaware and North Carolina.

Not to be forgotten either is Timothy Carow/Cariow who is in Kent County Delaware in 1680 or before.He has cattle earmarks in 1686 is listed as a titheable for Richard Willson in 1693 and serves as Constable in Duck Creek in 1698.He dies in October 1700 and leaves his personal property to the children of "Widow Clifford": Thomas,John,Mary and Parnell. He did not leave his "real property" so possibly had issue.

There were others of course like another Thomas in Accomac, Andrew who is likely a brother to John in Dorcester and a family which includes another John ( Carrel), wife Eliza and children John , Richard and Mary in Isle of Wight county shortly after Thomas Carrow goes to Carolina.

Of the possible patriarchs here besides John Carrow whose line ends up in Delaware and Thomas Carrow who seems to have gone and stayed to the Carolinas (specifically of the Hyde/Beaufort border)two more appear significant to me:

Timothy Carrow Constable in Duck Creek Delaware and Evan Carrow who traverses from Accomac to St.Mary's to Cecil County MD north of Kent Island. Both of these men are alive long enough to amass property (cattle and land) which would enable them to marry and procreate.Neither seem to have lived until a child reaches adulthood.

John Carrow who is at Tackett's Lott in Dorchester County MD seems to be owner of that land for a reason on the Chicanicomico betweeen 1722-1734 when Thomas Tackett dies without an heir of his body.

DNA continues to add to the story and illuminate dark places.

1911 Irish Census and Kate Doogan

2009-06-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest rewards of Genealogy as a hobby is finding relatives you never knew OR having them find you. Two years ago this post was forwarded to me by a great genie buddy from a list we belong to dated back to 2004:

"My first post here. Saw your postings on the name FAUNT in theBeverly, NJ area and am hoping you are still posting.I am researching the DUGAN side of my family but my father remembers a cousin named William Faunt who lived in Beverly, NJ"

What a thrill it was to be "found" and our Great grandparents Mary Dugan Faunt and Barney Dugan were brother and sister.

I am sure I have mentioned and will do so again that in my family of origin any information about relatives and especially pictures are very very scarce. Our poor dear Mary Dugan Faunt died in 1902 when Grandpop was 4 although he never mentioned that.His own first wife Retta died young and tragically also leaving him with 4 small children, surely a replay of his own childhood.

His father and his six surviving young children reportedly lived a somewhat hand-to mouth existance although exactly why is somewhat unclear. It is quite possible that Mary had contributed to the family income in a very meaningful way as a greengrocer in Kensington.

I know this only because once my mother said as we were passing under the Market-Frankford El in Northeast Philadelphia that her grandmother had been a greengrocer there under the tracks. Later on I found that Ellen Faunt the mother-in-law of Mary had also been a Greengrocer with her husband William in Beverly, so surely that connection is significant.

My Dugan cousin and I have worked together to try to piece the bits and pieces we have into a history that is more complete. His family also were not great sharers of tales of life in either the city or the "old Country" or maybe some of us were too young to take note of it.

We know that John Dugan the uncle of Mary and Barney figures signicantly in their life.My Mary's obituary mentions him as her relative so we suspect he was well known in Irish circles.

Barney lives with him when first he comes to America.

Mary Dugan comes to American in 1876 at 18 and Barney a few years later in 1879.An Irish researcher has told me that what possibly is a last child of Patrick Dugan( Doogan) and Catherine McClafferty ( aka Lafferty) is born in 1873 and Pat Doogan is listed as a farmer in Crossroads,Donegal.

We suspect that Patrick is deceased sometime after that as the 1901 census lists a Kate Doogan as widow living in the home of Ellen McCafferty her sister-in-law. A reason for the children to go to America surely and for John Dugan ( who seems to have been childless)to have assumed a parental role for his brother's children. Katherine Jane (Katie) Faunt is buried in John Dugan's cemetery plot in Philadelphia when she dies at 3 months old.

Are there more Dugans both in Falcarragh ( newer name for Crossroads) and Philadelphia?

Some tales of Dugans in Australia have surfaced as well as a sister Margaret, a name that Mary uses for a daughter.

The 1911 Irish census was inspected by myself, my cousin as well as the Irish researcher.

We are distinctly in favor of Kate Doogan 80 from Gortahork as likely being our GGreat Grandmother living still. This Kate a boarder living in the home of Edward and Sarah Curran as a boarder spoke Irish only as was blind.

Barney Dugan ( pictured above) is alive in Philadelphia although my Mary is deceased by this time.James Dugan and daughter Margaret is she indeed exists may also still be alive to contribute to Kate's board possibly? Barney Dugan and his son had some regular contact with Falcarragh until the 1930s.

Crossroads where Kate and Patrick had their last child is now called Falcarragh and Gortahork is the next town. Gaelic is still spoken, indeed the area is called a 'Gaeltacht' region and in 1911 apparently that is what Kate spoke although at that time most were bi-lingual.

I wish to find out what other family my Kate had and why she stayed there so far from her children in America.

The Trees In the Thicket

2009-06-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

In Honor of genealogy blogger Janice Brown this award was created by Terry Thornton who issued a challange to all nominated bloggers to nominate the ten blogs which have nominated their writing the most.

The definition of a " Puckerbrush" thicket as told by Janice Brown is this:'On any land allowed to go fallow and left untended, a wild assortment of wild plants grow – in some areas, this wild growth results in such a thicket of plants that it is almost impossible to push your way through the growth.So it is with the growth of blogs --- so many that it is impossible to read them all. But in the puckerbrush eventually a few plants/trees become dominant and influence all who view them through the thick surrounding puckerbrush.And it is those outstanding blogs whose influence spreads beyond just the surrounding rabble of puckerbrush that I'm honoring.'

In honor of Janice Brown and in disbelief of finding myself in such an awe inspiring group of folks I want to try to find the ten blogs who have had the most influence on my own. First and foremost to Mary Beaulieu who amazingly included me in her list.Mary's blog ancestortracking was possibly the first I read.I followed her there from another list we both belong to and was truly inspired.Thank you Mary.

Since my focus is often Genetic Genealogy I next want to nominate Blaine Bettinger of thegeneticgenealogist.com for extraordinary devotion to our "newer type" of genealogy and for his help and enocuragement both on and off his blog.

Dienekes 'Anthropology Blog (dienekes.blogspot.com) in always very correct and informative about both DNA and anthropology both my passions.

Next to twobubblesoffcenter who just was nominated for "One Lovely Blog" because it is just that ,"one lovely blog" which provides a vivid depiction of the world many of our ancestors inhabited.

Vickie Everhart's lovely benotforgot. reminds us of our ancestors' existance in a poignant way.Her roots hopscotch across this country in a way I admire.Most of my own ancestors stuck like burrs to the Delmarva coastline refusing to budge.

Two Sides of the Ocean strikes a cord for me as my unknown grandfather may be Polish or German.

I am very short of my challenge of ten blogs to nominate and there are many others that I enjoy and am inspired by.

To those I have mentioned and those I have not Summa Cum Laude !

1911 Irish Census and Margaret Dwane Faunt

2009-06-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

The 1911 Irish census is online for these counties at the National Archives of Ireland: Antrim,Cork ,Donegal,Down ,Dublin,Galway,Kerry,King's and Wexford.

What kinds of things can be found?

Margaret Faunt,widow of Patrick Faunt is found there.She may be the last of my own family remaining in Ireland. My William, younger brother to Patrick emigrates to Beverly NJ in 1869.When he dies in 1889 two of his nephews are also in America. I feel that is when Patrick dies but I do not know.

Margaret who marries Patrick in Fethard Tipperary in 1865, soon after he leaves the British Army is matriarch of a small family. No others are found yet but Tipperary and Limerick census is not online until July and August.

James Faunt, widower and his 9 year old daughter Mary M. and 8 year old son Patrick live there also. James (Vincent ) Faunt's older sister Mary ( Denhan?) also a widow live there also.
The address is Little Cross Street in Cork City which is in the Cornmarket District of Cork West.
James Faunt is a Confectioner's Baker.The house has 3 rooms and 3 front windows.

Blounts Creek North Carolina

2009-06-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago hubby and I went on a day trip to Bath NC and Blunt's Creek NC which are near each other.My North Carolina Carrow "Cousin" and wife were the tour guides.

What we have deduced using both DNA studies and extensive paper records supplied by both of us is that our common ancestors were either father and son or brothers born after 1643 possibly in Accomac Virginia.

A Thomas Carew is in Carolina when Records begin in 1663.John Carrew (aka Carrow) is Constable in Accomac Virginia c. 1667 and is found in records in 1663 there.

A John Carrow is in Colonial America by 1643.

DNA has matched a NC Carrow and a Delaware Carrow 37/37 on their Y (male) line.

I am very grateful to have been part of this discovery process.

The "Carrow House"in Bath is pictured on this Blog also.

Patriot Ancestors and Patriotism

2009-05-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

A Memorial Day week thought that has circled about is that Patriotism and Patriot Ancestors are not synonymous. I was born in the last month of WWII and belonged in actuality to the "Baby Boom". My generation had much anger in the 60s and many boys from my small Delaware Valley town did not return from Vietnam.I was very anti-war as a young adult.

My Irish ancestors who most recently immigrated were those I knew most about, although still not much it seems. I understand or thought I did the reason for their coming, Ireland's Gorta Mor. It seems I was incorrect in some ways.

To start with William Faunt who emigrated to New Jersey in 1869 had a British Army pension to live on.He was almost immediately living in Beverly NJ with his young family so may have had a job prior to his departure..They did not come because of hunger or any particular discrimination except the usual anti-Catholic bias.He and his wife lived in Belfast and lost an infant there ( two infants named William born in Belfast).Did so many tensions in Belfast began in 1867-8
?
When I began to do my family genealogy a few years ago I learned much more about all of them.
In their way many if not most of them were happy and grateful to their new Native land.The new Irish immigrants were eager to assimilate and did not seem to suffer greatly from anti-Irish sentiment. They had saleable skills for the most part and relatives who employed them.Ellen Lynch Faunt and William were Greengrocers in Beverly NJ and apparently she employed Mary Dugan her daughter-in-law.Mary's uncle John Dugan was also an entrepreneur.

And so it went. I have two lines who were not recent immigrants and there I have discovered both Patriot status and my own Patriotism. I am proud of these folks who appear on both my Dad's side of the family and Mom's.

Peter Rementer has been established as a new Patriot in the D.A.R. just this year.I am working now on two other men who are related to him. What a grateful, faithful group they were to the new land.

John Hunneker( Honaker) was wheelwright who served in the Philadelphia City Guards under Captain Jacob Bright.His family may have been Swiss. His daughter Catherine married a Rementer.

Adam Mayer's daughter Mary Magdalene was the wife of Peter Rementer.Adam also served in the Philadelphia Militia.

Henry Norbeck was Grandfather of John Honaker and his patriotic service included paying a Supply Tax which fed and clothed local soldiers and the general war effort.He may have come from Norway via Rotterdam.

John Swanson and his brother William from Beverly NJ served in the Civil War .
William F.Carrow and most of his brothers from Delaware did also. James Sweeney a farmer from Quinton NJ has an ornate headstone that looks like other Civil War monuments and he likely served the war effort in some way.

On Dad's Carrow side both William Keys and John Carrow, a younger man, served the cause.John Carrow's son married William Keys' daughter Mary.

Tomorrow ( still Memorial Day week) I will go to the Delaware Archvives to try to find if John Jones can join this exalted group.I have tried to find Harriet Jones Carrow's actual line for some time and now it is confirmed.I will look for records that will confirm this line and the Maloneys who they intermarried with.

My father William Charles Carrow and my Faunt uncles served very honorably in WWII.
Dad told me in later years that he would not fight again unless the enemy was "landing at Atlantic City". I have moved much more to the center in recent years and have great pride in my family patriots.

Michael Faunt, Blacksmith

2009-04-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

A genealogy buddy who is from the very small town where my Faunt family emigrated to in 1869 found me a funeral record on Michael Faunt.Michael was the baby of the family and the only surviving son born in America. A son William ( there were two) died in Belfast prior to their coming and another son Edward died within months of his birth in 1885.

Michael, unlike his infant brothers lived to adulthood and died of consumption at the age of 31. Nine children were born to the couple and four died in early infancy.I have speculated that they immigrated after the death of their second son the first William in Belfast. Ellen and baby Willliam Joseph emigrated first before William and my Patrick.Was it a reaction to the infant death or just because? I wish I knew.

Michael's funeral expenses paint a picture of the man and the family enclosed on a ledger sheet.His older brother William received the bill as both parents were deceased by 1911.
He was single and a Blacksmith like his father, grandfather and his Uncle Patrick who remained in Ireland.They needed three carriages and Michael wore new patent leather shoes to his eternal rest.

My own Grandfather Edward Faunt had a fixation about new shoes and death.To this day I cannot set shoes on a bed or a table as it is bad luck and a death will follow. After seeing "Far and Away" I can only assume it is due to having the deceased "Waked" on the bed or table in the old country. Grandpop would have attended this funeral in one of the three coaches and at 13 he was already in the workforce.

Who then is the Michael Faunt who has a child, Walter decease in June 1901 of cholera? Walter is a family name in this line and there are still Walter Faunts( William Walter) living in New Jersey.Cousins perhaps?

I have long wondered who Ellen Faunt and baby William lived with when the came, 6 months before William Sr. with his military pension which they surely used to live on. Six months is not a time span long enough to track them as the 1870 census is taken within a year and they are in Beverly.

A George Faunt lives in Philadelphia and according to the Census I find him in he is born in America and surely not related to my family? That is what I have thought for several years.Patrick my great grandfather names his son from his second marriage George Patrick; he is killed in Italy in WWII.

I have indicated to other Faunts that it is one very small family descending from William born in Fethard Tipperary.Some have not been so sure. Maybe they are right.

1940 and 2010 Census Musings

2009-04-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been waiting for the 1940 census for a long, long time.In actuality, I've been waiting only since I have been "doing" my family history in mid 2002 when I early retired.

I have done remarkably well finding relatives on many continents and learning the rudiments of DNA research since then.

Possibly in an effort to "hurry" the 1940 census public release, I begin tomorrow training for a medium term job with the 2010 census.Employing magical thinking, perhaps, I am willing the new set of data to arrive faster by collecting something for posterity.Likely I am just occupying myself gainfully while marking time.

In actuality I have probably used Census data through my career as a Social Worker/Sociology instructor since 1985.In New Jersey census and other social and criminal data collections has historically been employed in grant writing where a large part of agency funding is derived from. I personally wrote and administered two long term Children's Trust Fund and at least two Violence Against Women ( VAWA) programs.

Extracting information from past data collections has worked well for me in my genealogy hobby also. I am able to derive meaning from how my relatives conducted their lives during the Great Depression and how families split into "Haves" and "Have Not" factions. How some of them were able to erase any memory of their very recent Irish roots and be very American and the brother's family kept to old habits and patterns.Social data sheds light on such behavior.

In Ireland the years prior to the British Civil Wars and just after the Great Famine were years of social change. My Faunt family used military careers and guild memberships to keep afloat in the anti-Catholic discriminatory centuries.They did not live within city walls like the Protestant English but close by due to their hereditary occupations.They were largely literate and lived in the same Valley for 600 years since they came with the Normans.

In 1867 and 1868 my William Faunt and family lived in Belfast prior to immigration and after his discharge from the British Army.How much of the decision to go to America had to do with rising tension in that area? I know that two sons were born to them there, both named William and surely one died young. Ellen Faunt and baby Will came first in the Spring of 1869 and William the elder and my Patrick came in the Fall. Contrary to what I once thought they were not "Famine immigrants" and came for another reason. Social data in the old country and the new country paints a picture of the time in which they came.

Beverly New Jersey, a tiny Victorian town nestled on the banks of the Delaware seems like an unlikely destination for them.In actuality it was a melting pot and very friendly as a newly established town to immigrants. A Catholic ministry flourished and a new church sprang up.My William Faunt either came with a job promise due to his military service or was hired immediately at Wall Rope where he was caretaker and his family lived in "rooms above the factory".

I have followed the family with my eye on the past through the lens of past census.I left them in 1930 in the Depression years and early glimpses of 1940 census fragments at ancestry.com show them flourishing near Penns Grove NJ as DuPont employees. Two of my great grandfathers, Patrick Faunt and Grover Carrow as well as many of their brothers and siblings are there also early in the century from both Burlington County NJ and rural Delaware.

Other lines in my family had immigrated to South Jersey from Ireland as farmers in a Garden State.Patrick Kirwan and his father-in-law James Sweeney both farmed and drove teams of horses to markets.

Mary Dugan who married Pat Faunt as well as my Ellen Lynch Faunt were greengrocers both in Beverly NJ and into Philadelphia where the family lived also, traveling to the city on the same type of ferries I knew as a child.The Dugans were builders as well as entreprenours there as John Dugan, Mary's uncle may had had both a livery stable and a saloon.

All of this I have learned through government collections efforts now available to family researchers. With the tantalizing new 1940 "census fragments" I have already learned of other marriages, divorces and children born.

Tomorrow I will be training for a new look at populations but will not and cannot leave my family genealogy passion behind.I have new Carrow and Faunt cousins who I am busily fitting into my tree.Look for me at odd times but I will be around.

A poem about some Faunts

2009-03-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

Doing genealogy can be therapeutic I believe. This week I contacted a cousin of my cousins in Ohio.I have not been able to contact them for a long while.We shared photos and information back and forth and I was very happy to understand that my uncle had had a very happy but short life which we did not always share.

My other 2 uncles lived nearby and they were close with my Mom.Closer than I was I am sure.Their mother died when they were quite young and I knew that.What I did not know was the many tragedies that piled up on top of one another led to a family style of relating that was at times not functional but which apparently worked.

We all have our quirks but we also have many great strengths which I now believe we are still passing down...As it says in scripture " the greatest of these is Love".

My Sister and I were talking about our Uncle Joe and she reminded me that when he passed away at the young age of 46 this poem below was read in his eulogy. I looked it up today and realized that it really could apply to both Joe and his brother Franny both of whom passed away by their 47th year.Their mother died when they were tiny and they were in an orphanage for a lot of their childhood.That fact touched all of our lives..But they did SHINE while they were in this world ~!

Abou Ben Adhem ~ A poem

by Leigh Hunt

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An Angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the Presence in the room he said,“What writest thou?”

The Vision raised its head,And with a look made all of sweet accord

Answered,“The names of those who love the Lord.”

“And is mine one?” said Abou.

“Nay, not so,”Replied the Angel.

Abou spoke more low,But cheerily still;

and said, “I pray thee, then,

Write me as one who loves his fellow men.

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,

And, lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest!

Faunt,Fant and Font in Ireland~ A Family

2009-02-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

DNA is the short cut to the reconstruction of this family.I personally have "found" a genetic cousin and tracked him down, much to his surprise I believe.He told his family that he was "found", they little knowing they were lost very likely.

My Grandfather Edward Faunt ( born Edmund a Faunt family name) was the first generation of our immigrant family, or so we thought.Pop-pop told us that we were "Norman French" and that his mother was born in Donegal.He told us little else and what we now know has been pieced together in a retrospective perusal of records.

Grandpop's own mother, Mary Dugan Faunt apparently died when he was very young and left 6 young children to his immigrant father Patrick's tender mercies. No pictures or paper records except for one of him and his brothers. He told me that they often came home from school to find their belongings at the curb and that one of them would stand guard while the others were summoned. He sang a song "Me Mither came from Donegal..she eats potatoes skins and all" which presumably was something that he, as a member of "Sons of Donegal" sang in their meetings.

So this small oral tale of Normans and "Black Irish" and Donegal was passed down to us.
Grandpop married very young and was left a widower very young with 4 young children.
My mother the youngest and only girl was 3. No information about our Grandmother or her tragic death or her family were passed down until we ourselves were adults.

"We" is my Cousin Francis Faunt Jr. and I. Each of us had a few scraps of information which we pooled in very recent years.Some of it was inaccurate and led us on a few wild goose chases.
Except for our first cousins we knew of no other Faunt families.

Francis did a DNA test for the Genographic Project and I (in early retirement and a little bored) was doing paper records. We found cousins of our grandmother's family and discovered her resting place, which I marked with a stone.We had a small Memorial and there was a writeup in a newspaper from Beverly NJ where it seems both sides of our families came to as immigrants.

Franny's DNA matched a man who was part of a family named Fant. This family had been in the US ( Virginia) since between 1674-1708 and was firmly established.Our William Faunt had come from Ireland to this very tiny town on the Delaware River in 1869. When contacted, this family had similar origin tales and both knew of the French spelling of L'enfante.

What did this mean? I contacted a first rate Irish researcher while we furiously tried to get more men to test their DNA. I found my Faunt family living in a Norman walled town called Fethard Tipperary with at least one other family nearby. Church records spelled it Fant. Our William Fant and his brother Patrick were in the British Army and received military pensions.

William Faunt retires at 10 years from the Army with a shoulder injury.Patrick Faunt has malaria after years in India. William comes to America in 1869 with wife Ellen Lynch and two sons Pat and Will.Patrick Faunt has two children in Fethard where he marries and the last 3 baptized in Mitchelstown Cork.

My Irish researcher indicates that he believes that a Patrick Fant who lives very near to Mitchelstown Cork in Kilbehenny Limerick is the father/grandfather to the men in Fethard.They are Nailers by occupation all of them and with that hereditary occupation they live in a certain area, Cashel Road near Fethard. This is a few miles from Mitchelstown Cork.

In the meantime we had some men test.One man with a clear paper trail to a Faunt family in Westmeath did not match. Another man who also descends from that family indicated that the men of that family who did not immigrate move in the mid 1800s to Cork. We now find them in Mitchelstown Cork. They are also a Military family.

Just before the holidays last year I started a group at Ancestry.com for both the Faunt family and my Carrow family as DNA was now being added to pedigrees. What did I find but two men who had done DNA.They matched the majority with the unusual pattern of markers that is called Sardinian I2a. One of them was a Fant of the Colonial Virginia line and one was a Font who lived "Down under".

I rooted around in Cyberspace until I contacted him and announced that he was "Found" and surely shocked him out of his shoes.He had taken a "free test" that produced a few markers finally after a lot of years and he had quite forgotten that. He thought I had mistaken him for another, after all his family was spelled Font and were not from Ireland.

We persevered, he and I, and discovered he had doubts about his family's whereabouts prior to 1802.Ireland was likely he thought. He decided to test the rest of his markers and I tried to get a special deal at Family Tree DNA the company of my choice which many researchers use. After Christmas he sent in his Dad's test kit and it got in on New Years Eve.

His test came back last week and he matches 25 out of 25 markers with Francis Faunt. indicating a closer relationship even than those of Francis and the Virginia Fants. I was absolutely over the moon and so I suspect was he.

So here were are~! 9 men have tested ( one is from Finland so likely is not "us") and all but 2 match each other. A family of Faunt/Fant/Font men who came from the same area nearby to Mitchelstown Cork and Kilmallock Limerick.

The Glen of Aherlow is a valley on the Limerick/Tipperary/Cork border bordered by a mountain range. My researcher tells me that current information in Galway is that the Fontt family there is "of the Kilmallock family". William de Braose founded the town of Fethard and Sir Walter L'enfant, Justiciar of Ireland,is possibly in his entourage and associated with that small walled town.

We have some mysteries to unravel and my new Font cousin needs to be linked to a place in Ireland. Check out our DNA website and consider testing but ask me first! I am trying to get some special pricing. and in the interest of the family a Faunt from Cork gets special treatment from James,Joe and me.
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/fant

Heart Shaped Cake Pans

2009-02-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

The first time I remember these is my Sister's first birthday.Do I really remember that or did I see a snapshot?The heart shaped cake pans came in graduated sizes.Sister had the smallest one for her birthday and had it all to herself. I think I remember.White icing.

Today on Valentine's Day I remember other Valentine's treats, some made with the cake pans and some without. Pink icing and sparkly red sprinkles on the cakes. Mom liked to bake it seems, at least she did it fairly often.Most definitely more than me.My daughter and youngest child said I never baked her a birthday cake.However I might add that since I thought store bought cakes were wonderful, she always had a cake~! I did not realize that I had not baked a cake for her birthday until this summer at my Beach House. Sigh.

My Mother worked outside the home for a good part of my childhood having gone to work when I was 11.She was a school nurse and usually was home when we were for vacations.Dinners were rushed and Mom invented if not perfected the 20 minute spaghetti dinner. It was fine but her 25 minute beef stew was not so good.She did make cakes though and tons of cookies at Christmas.

I also worked outside the home and had 4 kids.There were times when I was a single parent.Crockpot frozen meatballs were my specialty along with Tuna Casserole and Meat Loaf ( 4 kids, remember?)They were well nourished although we did not eat gourmet style. I also finished college( Grad school also) while they were still in school. I overused a warming tray or rather a sucession of them over those few years.

Valentine's Day always always will remind me of my Dad Bill Carrow. He never forgot Sister and I on Valentine's Day with a heart shaped box of candy. He adored my mother and had done so since third grade when he presented her with a ring.She promptly threw it in the river.Dad moved back to Delaware City and when Mom was a senior in high school he took her to her prom.

Picture is Bill and Betty Carrow and daughter Kathleen at a wedding in the Carneys Point Methodist church next to Dunn's Park. Sister Carol obviously was not yet a twinkle in Dad's eye. Grandpop Edward Faunt Sr. is next to white post.

The Hiding Places

2009-02-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I have had people tease me and ask if my Carrow family was "Shy" since in early times they are not found in records. I call the whole group the "Witness Protection Family" again mostly in jest.

They are there but seem to have been good hiders and not joiners of organizations, at least not in America. Trying to figure the "whys" of their hiding and the "wheres" of their hiding has taken me far afield. I have learned a lot and what I learn makes me understand them better and of course understand myself better. You KNEW I would go there, didn't you?

Peter Rementer came from an undisclosed location to Philadelphia by the mid 1700s.He marries into what appears to be a German Palatinate family and actually may have spoken German. It could have been Alsace-Lorraine ( in German, Elsass-Lothringen) which was completely annexed in 1766 but was being bit by bit eroded prior to that. Did Peter affirm his German affiliation and affinity through marriage in America or did he just happen into a neighborhood where he was accepted? We don't know nor do we know if he came alone.

A baptismal record of my Great Grandmother Mary Agnes Rementer was sent to me more than 20 years ago but the family stated that her father Charles Rementier was French Canadian.When I began to do my own research 7 years ago, small wonder the Rementers I stumbled across shooed me away as not being of the Philadelphia family. I perservered and found them in census and other records and piece by piece and bit by bit I had a tree which was not Canadian in origin.Bless the Catholic Archdiocese and their records as Peter the Pere was a pewholder at Old St. Joseph's in Phaildelphia.

The Daughters of American Revolution tell me that my records are excellent and that with one more small proof Peter Rementer, Patriarch and Patriot will be established for all generations.
Well! The one small proof was a census and the required family member was Francis Rementer and the year was 1850.He is not there nor is the son he lived with that year, Henry. They ARE however in the 1810 census spelled Francis Romento and the 1820 census where the abstracter decided his name was Ivan Remender.

The organization today got my packet with 9 proofs , none of which are the census but which will surely suffice. What I wonder is this..was the language a barrier or was the family reticent in some way that had it's origins in the flight from Europe?

My succession of John Carrows were much the same. My belief is that this family fled from Ireland during the English Civil Wars under threat of treason. John Carrow the Constable of Accomac ( or his father) is in Virginia by 1643 and at least one researcher has stated they were cousins of "the O'Neill" of Ireland.They match in their DNA the McDonald clan more closely and Bryan Carragh chieftan of Clan Donald of Port Glenone Ireland was cousin to both the O'Neill and McDonald on his maternal line and may have been Grandfather to the earliest immigrant.

A researcher who has done work for me describes that they "Live under the radar" of the times.They seem not to own land although we see them as planters on their wives Dower estates, are affluent and possibly in trade. They move up from Accomac VA to Dorchester and Queen Anne MD where they straddle both state and County lines between Queen Anne /Kent counties in Maryland and Kent County Delaware. A second Carrow family moves down from Virginia across the Chesapeake when lands in the Carolinas open up for settlement in 1663.DNA proves them to be the same family and very closely related.

John Carrow has just this month been also established as an American Revolutionary War Patriot for his service which encompassed both Maryland and Delaware.It was a tough record to prove although it is very clear that John served in the Queen Anne County Militia. His residence in Duck Creek Delaware is on Nathaniel Wild's plantation but in Queen Anne MD may have been on James Ringgold's land as his Uncle Henry Carrow was married to the widow Mary Harris Godman Ringgold. It seems to have been a good hiding place which served for more than 100 years.

DNA conclusively tracked my Faunt family to the Fants of Virginia and Fonts of Liverpool England and New Zealand whose 15th,16th,17th century ancestors were laying low in the Glen of Aherlow on the borderland of Counties Cork/Tipperary and Limerick. Cousins of all of us surely were in were in Galway City as one of Cromwell's 14 merchant families designated as " Tribes of Galway", an afternoon's hard ride from Limerick and the ancestral Castle until the Civil Wars.

I am not sure that my William Faunt knew he and his recent ancestors were in hiding as they worked as "Nailers" and "Smiths" and served in the British Army as family members had done for many centuries. When they left the Fantstown Kilmallock, Limerick area late in the 16th century they surely only knew that they had to make a living and were being forced out of common lands. One of their cousins another William Fant, a lawyer was jailed for helping members of the White Boys a precurser to the IRA.They moved up into "Horse Mad Tipperary" doing what they had always done riding and taking care of horses

They too came to their adopted countres with some cash either in their possessions or available to them when necessary.None of this small group seem to have been destitute nor deprived.They lived fairly well and left oral traditions that gave some clues to their origins.

It is up to us to piece together the "wheres" and "whys" of their patterns and pathways to make a narrative that we can follow.

Mom's Cousin

2009-01-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

An amazing tale~!

My Mom, Betty Faunt, and my Dad retired to a seaside community in NJ in 1985.They were happy years for them and surely would have fulfilled the dream of both of their immigrant Irish grandparents.

Thanksgiving was when we found our Faunt cousin and shared tales. Cousin, in turn shared with an Auntie her mother's sister. Imagine our incredible shock to find that her Auntie and our Mother were friends and Church group members in this small seaside town.

They traded books back and forth, both of them avid readers. Sister and I knew of this lady who now we know was Mom's own 2nd cousin, all of us sharing the great-grandparents who came from Ireland to Beverly NJ in 1869.

Mom's cousin went to her funeral in 2003.She left with a Mass Card as good Catholics do and the Mass Card gave Mom's full name..Elizabeth Faunt Carrow. Mom's cousin and my new cousin's Auntie describes herself as stunned but did not know what to do with the information as her "Friend Betty" was now deceased.She herself did not know who to ask.

When our new cousin shared all of our new information with her Aunt she found out about their friendship.What a small world but how much they missed!

I called my new "Cousin-Aunt" this week and what a great talk we had. She and I both had always wondered why we did not know more cousins. She said she asked her Mother before about "Irish Customs" and dances and maybe relatives in the old country. She said her Mother told her "We are American not Irish".

She was so excited about the new family information that her son gave her a computer for Christmas and she is anxiously waiting a computer class scheduled for March for a "how-to".
I sent her a huge letter complete with pictures yesterday. I can't wait to see her "online".

I am more than ever committed to meeting and knowing any and all cousins I can find. Fran told me that he has had a feeling recently that all of them gather together. We both feel that it is our heritage from Retta..some of our siblings have that capacity from time to time. He is right, I am sure.

Our Thanksgiving Gift - Two Families

2009-01-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

Shortly before Thanksgiving a message that Franny posted on Cousin Connect in 2005 came to fruition.. " My great grandfather Patrick Faunt and my great great grandfather William Faunt left the Limerick area in 1869. I know nothing of the family beyond this point. William was married to Ellen Lynch who I presume is from the same area. If anyone has any related information, it would be appreciated." Fran said this to me "I have had the phrase 'casting your bread upon the waters' bubbling up in my mind".

I will tell you that Fran and I both had a healthy respect for and possibly a small genetic heritage of our Grandmother Retta's ability to know things others do not always know.The Irish call it 'the sight', or at least that is what it was called in our family as it related to Retta. What was told to me was not always in a flattering sense, some described Retta as a witch.What consistantly was told to us is that she foretold her funeral and said that the snow would be up to everyone 'backsides' ( not her term) on the day she would be buried. I was told by several people that a blizzard blew in on that day and the ground was frozen and interment was not possible for several weeks. Poor dear Retta.

Some of the ancedotes about Retta I believe were told to relieve my Grandpop of his great grief for her loss and also to help him carry his great burden of 4 small children. His sisters I know who raised him after he also was left Motherless at 4 were very protective of him.He was said to have seizures if he was stressed so everyone went out of their way to spare him any emotional discomfort. I knew him as a happy-go-lucky and loving grandfather.

Fran got this response from our cousin:
I was looking for information on the name Faunt and found your query. William Faunt was also my great great grandfather and Patrick's younger brother William was my great grandfather. I have some additional information. Our new cousins , when we spoke had a different experience in the early years of the 20th century. Our Patrick's younger brother did not lose his wife to death leaving his children motherless.They sadly lost children in infancy as did many other children but raised two children together as a couple.

Apparently not for them was my grandpop's tale of coming home from school to find possessions of the family 'at the curb' due to eviction and having to stand guard over those possessions until a new place to live was secured. Grandpop Ed Faunt had few if any family heirlooms.I have one picture of his brothers and him.

The 1910 census shows this William Faunt with wife and children and his younger brother Michael, youngest surviving child of our immigrant family.Michael is deceased by 1911 and his newspaper obit indicates his parents are deceased. From this we know that Ellen Lynch Font,( as she spelled it) who remarries in 1890 after her husband's early death, possibly the glue in the family is now gone.

Did the poverty and fractured living conditions of Patrick and his children drive a wedge between the brothers? Were they possibly never close? We have no information about this.
Grandpop went to work at an early age and married when barely 18. Possibly his family lied about his age as he stated for most of his life that he was born in 1897. His birth certificate acquired when he was of Social Security pension age indicates that he is named "Edmond" not Edward and is born in 1898.

Edmond is a name found in the Fethard Tipperary family going back to 1730.Patrick's uncle and a maternal grandfather were so named. Did our Pat live life in a manner more reminiscent of the Old Country? His wife and his mother both worked as Greengrocers outside the home. He never owned a home and seemingly had endless residence changes as census records show.

Our new cousin tells us that her grandfather, William Faunt's son-in-law was affluent.He had an invention that lifted the family into another Social Class. In 1927 a home was built in Phildelphia costing $10,000 which was a great sum in those days. Was there more time and emotional energy for visiting family also?

Shortly after Retta's death in 1926 Grandpop Faunt placed all 3 of his young sons in an Orphanage and took my Mother, his baby with him to several states on his Depression Era search for employment.

Grandpop purchased his first home in 1953 or 1954 and by then his children all owned their own home and may have provided an example for him. He did however live in the same rented house for all the years he raised his children after they were reunited around 1931, again in Penns Grove. Grandpop Faunt worked as a Rigger foreman for DuPont until retired from there about 30 years later. His sons worked there after him

Patrick may have been deceased by then. but we know he is remarried in 1920 with two more young children, George and Helen. Fran has an oral tale of Pat working at DuPont as a guard in WWI and sleeping on straw in a barn. We do find Jesse, Ed and Pat in Penns Grove NJ in 1917 for the first time.

Seemingly the family had little contact during these years and most of us knew nothing of each other. Was the contrast too great between them? Did that drive a wedge between them or was the difference between the first and second child already there? William Faunt's children had contact with the younger daughters of the immigrant family, Jenny and Nellie in Burlington County.

Our great Thanksgiving gift, in addition to learning of our cousin is the added information we now have.We can begin to build on our family knowledge base by combining what this cousin know with what we know to form a clearer history of life in this country.

For the first time I have seen pictures of men in my Faunt family.
I am thankful for that also as well as my new Cousin.

Northwest European and I2a1

2009-01-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

A small but significant group of posts yesterday on the Rootsweb DNA Genealogy group discussed "Age of Sardinian M-26". Many of my Faunt/Fant/Font family is in that group which has now been divided into 3 somewhat small groups of individuals who may be linked 7,500 years ago to a single small group of men..what is called a "Clade".

Speculation and at least one person's educated conclusion is that this group, not now dominated by Sardinians, was among the group that repopulated extreme Western Europe.

What does that mean? What is extreme Western Europe actually? The definition of that varies but some DNA population experts feel that is Western Scandinavia, Ireland, Scotland and the Germanic area which faces the UK.

DNA Tribes who has done my autosomal include Celtic speaking area of the Atlantic facade and the Northwest area of the Continent including the Germanic speaking areas of Scandinavia and lands and territories invaded by the Vikings. Lands that are linked by the North Sea and the Irish sea.

Our Faunt family as typified by Walter L'Enfant as early as 1290 in Ireland here:
John de Saunford, Archbishop of Dublin, on July 7, 1288, was appointed by the King's Council 'Keeper of Ireland until the king should otherwise decide ' : Cal., vol. iii, no. 559. William d'Oddingeseles and Walter l'Enfant were his deputies in 1290 in some operations against O'Melaghlin of Meath : ibid., p. 270.( from Ireland Under the Normans)

Irish records that I have pulled indicate to me that at least my one line back to 1730 married predominantly of the same "Cultural group" as themselves..Anglo-Normans.Cunningham, Slattery,Lynch,Hannon,Butler,Hickey.

Curiously, Joe Wearing a Fant cousin whose Grandmother descends from the Faunt family in Westmeath is very close to us ancestrally on this I21a haplogroupeven though on different lines.

Joe's Wearing ancestor (actually Waring or Berry) on his Y line side as well as his Faunt side share this hapoltype although a variant. Here is a link to a goup that Joe and Fran and James belong to:http://www.familytreedna.com/public/I2aHapGroup/default.aspx

The Clade is divided into smaller groups here:
I-M26-A.................30

I-M26-B.................7

I-M26-C.................9
Joe Wearing on his Waring/Berry ancestor is in I-M26C..almost as small as ours is.
There is a predictor that was used to place us there..
http://members.bex.net/jtcullen515/haplotest.htm
Here is a predictor by Ken Nordvedt on the estimation of age of this group:
_______________________________________________P37.2 West
P37.2
_______________M423_________________________________Dinaric

______________________________Isles
______M26____________________________________Sardinian

6,000 12,000 18,000 24,000 years
------------/------------/-------/------------------------------------------------------------
200 400 600 generations

Since we are M26 which apparently arose 7500 years ago I think that means we ( our men) did not actually live in Sardinia..
we shared an ancestor at that point..Joe's kinsman who later became Berry and our man who later became Fant were brothers or cousins..c 7500 and they at that point in time were founders of the Culture that settled extreme Western Europe

That is how I understand it..

and I am a non-scientist

Land Tenure and Griffiths

2009-01-21T13:46:00.001-08:00

Joe Wearing who is the Canadian "Cousin Abroad" that I was referring to posted this today at our Fant/Faunt/Font ancestry.com DNA site.Please everyone check that out also:
http://www.ancestry.com/ and then looking for the DNA home hopefully will get you there.

Joe descends from the Westmeath Faunt family.His ancestor emigrates to Canada and those who are left behind eventually find them selves in County Cork.
Sometimes they are even near Mitchelstown Cork which is RIGHT on the borderland between Limerick and Cork quite close to the ancestral home at Kilmallock and where my Faunts are found in earlier and later times.

" Kathleen had said in an email that she was under the impression that Catholics could not own land in Ireland. Land tenure in Ireland before the 20th century was quite complicated and very different from what we are familiar with in Canada and the US. There is a very helpful article on "land tenure" in The Oxford Companion to Irish History. The article (very much abbreviated) says that in early medieval Ireland, land tenure was determined by kinship. The Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th C brought a new system based on lordship. Early modern land tenure, as in England, was based on the assumption that all land was owned absolutely by the king and that others held from him either directly or indirectly. Under English common law there were two types of tenure, freehold or leasehold. Freehold was in turn of two types, a fee simple which subsisted for ever, and a fee tail which was restricted to the immediate descendants of the original grantee. Leasehold was for a fixed period, usually years or named lives, over which a rent was paid. A third category of tenancy was "tenancy at will" which could be terminated by either party at any time. The three types of tenancy were a reflection of the social hierarchy. During the 18th century, for instance, the usual tenure for middlemen and the larger tenant farmers was leasehold. (Middlemen held large properties directly from landlords on long leases and sublet them to their own undertenants for shorter periods at higher rents - "rack rents".) Up to 1850 the parliamentary franchise was restricted to tenants holding leases for lives. (Before the Catholic Relief Act of 1793, only Protestant tenants had the vote.) The pattern of tenure change rapidly during the early 19th C. Leaseholds became shorter and the Great Famine bankrupted most middlemen, who were responsible for paying the poor rate on behalf of their own impoverished smallholders. By 1870, 80% of Ireland's 500,000 tenants held tenancies which were just a year in length. With the passage of the various Land Acts (1870-1923) the system of tenurial landholding was abolished and replaced by owner occupation.

There is a lot of interesting documentation on my immediate Faunt relations in the records of the Irish land Commission in 1903 all of which is on Mormon film no. 0592932. The Faunts of Youghal in co. Cork appear to have been "middlemen" - quite a messy story, which I want to write up some time "
This from Joe.

I, in the meantime, pulled these records and found that maybe two of the Fant/Faunt families in Tipperary may also have been "Middlemen".
Patrick Fant in Templemore North Riding at 167 Main Street leased to William Looby and at 168 lived in the property himself. This Pat Fant is an MD but unfortunately I do not think he is my ancestor. He IS however related to others in the line and definitely close kin to Rev. Patrick Fant who was an Archbishop in Templemore. That Rev. Fant was associated with a Fant family chalice, from the castle at Fantstown which is found in his church near Drumm.

My Irish researcher believes that this family which is found near Bansha/Galbally is one and the same with my family circa 1730.Galbally is very near to Mitchelstown.

William Fant does something similar with regard to sub-letting on the Cashel Road in Tipperary, near Fethard but possibly for another reason.He and his cousin( or uncle) also William were Nailers, a hereditary occupation that restricted where they worked and sometimes lived.This is due to Fethard being a walled Market town from Norman time which has laws and customs about who works and lives where.
These two William Fants, one of whom is my direct ancestor sometimes lived in Cashel and sometimes in Fethard but always on the road to Cashel.

More than Self..John Carrow, William Keys,Peter Rementer

2009-01-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.

Today as I watched the beginning of the Inaugural events on television I heard a gospel version of this song, America..
I was struck by the fact that I, a mostly Irish American, had ancestors that loved THIS country enough to stand up and be counted.They loved America possibly enough to think about laying down their life for it.

John Carrow of whose line I come from is a descendant of a man who served as a Constable in Accomac Virginia in 1667.We believe that he or his father were in Virginia in 1643 and quite likely fled Ireland for political and religious reasons.
His descendant, also John Carrow, lost his father in 1776 but in that same year mustered into the Queen Anne County Maryland Militia with a cousin Andrew Carrow.In 1782 he donated corn and rye in Duck Creek Delaware.

William Keys whose daughter Mary married the son of John Carrow enlisted in the Continental Army and served in the Delaware Regiment until very late in 1782.He was at or near Yorktown at the surrender surely as his unit served under Gen. Nathaniel Greene.They then marched to near Charleston SC where at Camp Ashley River they kept the British under surveilance with nightly skirmishes for 2 more years. Records show they(Delaware and Maryland regiments) were extremely poorly clothed and underfed.

Peter Rementer ( aka Regimenter) was of foreign birth.He may have been politically a German as he spoke the language but was believed to hail from near Alsace-Lorraine.He comes to America at least a decade before the Revolutionary War where he lived in Philadelphia in Southwark.He mustered into the Philadelphia Militia and served active duty Sept 1, 1781 in the 6th Regiment of Foot, Captain Warwick Coats Company. His papers are currently in review at the DAR.

Every generation it seems after this had it heroes in this family.Were these the first?Maybe not as William Keys served in the French and Indian War in 1758 and Henry Carrew served in Maryland Militia in 1678.

George Faunt first generation son of Patrick Faunt died in WWII in Italy defending this country.

Joe Swanson and William Faunt both from Beverly NJ served in WWI.

Louis George Carrow son of Grover Carrow and uncle of my father also died in WWII.

My father and all my Faunt uncles served heroically in the same conflict.

William F. Carrow, James Sweeney, John Swanson all served their country in the Civil War.

Today the 44th President of the United Sates said in his address " For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life."

For us they all came.

John Carrow the Patriot

2009-01-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

I posted this in a lot of places last Monday

" I am thrilled to bits to announce that the DAR has verified my Supplemental yesterday for John Carrow as a "New Patriot".It was something that was assumed would never happen as this family straddled the line between Maryland and Delaware for at least 100 years.John Carrow served in Queen Anne MD Militia in 1776 although he lived in Duck Creek DE for part of his young adult life.His father died in 1776 and in 1775 the family was not to be found in Delaware. John Carrow and his mother, in separate households are again in DE by 1782.Two things happen here: one is John's Patriot status and one is that the family indeed is the one that is in Queen Anne MD and Dorchester MD after they leave Accomac VA c. 1675.
Kathleen Carrow Ingram( proud of John Carrow) "

Griffiths, Occupation and the Famine

2009-01-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

Before I began to do genealogy ( 2002) I was of the distinct opinion that my forebears were primarily Irish and specifically famine Irish. My mother was daughter of a first generation Irish men and Dad was adopted and raised by his grandmother who was of a similar family configuration. I have of late discarded that opinion at least for some of them.

My Carrows , although thought to be Irish are in this country since 1643.Not famine surely although Irish "troubles" were evident in 1643 and throughout the centuries.

The Faunt family ( how we spelled it) and their early immigrating cousins the Fants of Virginia as well as Faunt/Fant/Fonts who went to other lands and countries have histories which tell another tale.

How do we know they are related? 8 men have tested their DNA and of the 7 men who have results back 5 of them match each other in a fairly small sublade which was first called"Sardinian I1b", the newer version is called I2a1 or " I-M26"..still matching lots of Mediterranean folks.

Two other men have paper trails to the same families although they do not match on the Y chromosome.

Another cousin had said this today regarding the concept of Famine Irish and Socio-Economic status:
There could very well have been different lines, but this is what I know about mine:
Richard Faunt (my 3xgr-grandfather) held various parcels of land in co. Westmeath near Mullingar - these are recorded in documents in the Registry of Deeds.
- Some of this land was assigned in a deed of Marriage Settlement between Richard's son Henry and Elinor Egan (my 2xgr-grandparents). There was also a bond of £1000 in case Elinor survived the term of the lease.
- Henry and Elinor were married in St. Mary's church in Dublin in 1816. It was Church of Ireland (i.e., episcopal).
- Elinor came from a prominent Catholic family in co. Galway. Her father was a doctor in Dublin and a member of the Royal Society of London. A close relation was Boethius Egan, the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam. Another relation, John Egan of Tuam, died in 1846 leaving an estate of £18,608 (worth over £1,000,000 today).
- The children of Henry and Elinor were baptized in the Catholic church in Mullingar, but in Canada Henry and his family are listed in the various censuses as Church of England and one of their children - Ellen (my gr-grandmother) was married in the Anglican church in London, Ontario.
- both Henry Faunt and his older brother Thomas were officers in the British Army. Thomas held land in co. Cork and left an estate of £6894 (worth about £400,000 today).

from Kath:
I had thought Catholics could not own property during this time so I have not even checked for records but will do so..
My men, in addition to the British Army history were Nailers which was Trade that allowed them to be part of the town of Fethard itself:
"Should the walker turn left at the dance hall rather than right over the bridge leading into the town he would find himself in Kerry St. and on the road to Clonmel. In the days when nails were made by hand in a forge rather than by machinery in a factory, Kerry St. was the place where the Fethard nailers lived and worked. Tradition has it that their workshops were situated on the left side of the street as one goes toward Clonmel. Specimens of their long, sharp produce can still be picked up about the town."John McDermott felt that Patrick Fant who was found in Griffith's Valuation in Knockkrour Kilbeheny Limerick was likely father to William from Fethard Tipperary..
four men are nearby to where I find my folks in 1838-50 one is Patrick one is one of our William others are Robert and Michael
Here :
Patrick Fant: Lessor, Earl of Kingston, Mitchellstown & Kilmallock Limerick
Robert Fant: Lessor Thomas Guiry,Groom,Kilmallock Kilmeedy Parish Lim.
Michael Fant: Lessor Wm.Grogan Kilmallock & Mallow,Ratggoggan Cork
William Fant:Lessor John Gleeson Cashel & Tipperary Fethard Tipperary ( on Cashel Road )

None of these men owned the land..Alfred Fant in Galway did not own his land...although he may own the land in Westmeath..if that is him

It is very interesting to me to look at this now as we know so much more..
My William's brother Patrick goes to Kilmallock in later years..

If Patrick Fant who is in Kilmallock in 1852 but gone in 1855( likely he dies) was father to my older William then that could be a reason..
he surely is NOT the oldest son because of the naming patterns..

William who is on Cashel Road in Fethard was there because of his occupation as Nailer..as likely was the "other" William who is surely a cousin..

their cottages may have been hereditary also..the occupation was..

DNA Genealogy

2009-01-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

My family lines have been being researched with DNA since late in 2005.( Thanks Cousin!)
These families: Carrow,Faunt/Fant/Font,Dugan/Duggan,Rementer,Keys.

I also help with other's lines at Family Tree DNA like the Lower Delmarva surname group which is inclusive of many surnames and both mtDNA and Y DNA.

Check them all out at Family Tree DNA :
http://www.familytreedna.com/

Cousins Abroad

2009-01-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share with you that my Sister Carol, also a Faunt, said she was so fascinated with Joe's perspective on our Revolutionary War ancestor..she said what we consider good is really relative for sure.

Our conversation pertained to my happy post to surely everyone in the world regarding our ancestor John Carrow's acceptance into the DAR Patriot Index as a "new Patriot". As an American I thought this was a great feat but it sure is relative.

Before I started my genealogy hobby when I retired in late 2002 I was sure that the majority of my ancestors were fairly recent "Potato Famine" immigrants. Many were of course but my Faunt family it would seem had a much greater depth to it. My loving Cousin Fran was quite sure I had made a big mistake when I told him that our William Faunt and brother Patrick were in the British Army. He felt they were more "Whiteboys" material or pre-IRA.

We did not know of course that the record would lead us to our roots in Fethard Tipperary nearabouts where our family lived since the 13th century.What we DID think we knew, that they were Norman French in ancestry seems accurate.

Sister Carol's point that we have Cousins "abroad" who might differ with what we think is a cool thing."Abroad" could also be a relative term..what do you think?