Tuesday’s Tip – ReRead Documents – Rereading the Will that lists Catherine (Mullet) Shackford as a “sister” Helps Us Go Back a Generation!! (Blog 406)

In June 2016 we visited Catherine (Mullet) Shackford’s gravestone at the Forest Hills Cemetery and discovered that she was buried in a plot belonging to Edward W Rowland.  We then discovered that Edward had a wife named Anna and her will mentioned Catherine.

Here’s a transcription of that portion of the will:

“Ninth The rest, residue and remainder of my estate I give, devise and bequeath to Mary A. Leman, Catherine Shackford and Frank H Rowland, the first being sisters and the last names a brother of my late husband said rest residue and remainder to go to them share and share alike.”

We originally had read these words to mean that Catherine was Anna’s sister, found Anna’s death record listed her parents as Patrick McCawley and Catherine Quinn.  Then we made the assumption (later found to be incorrect) that Catherine and Mary’s mother was also Catherine Quinn who had first married a Mr Mullett, then married Patrick McCawley.  We searched for such marriages but found nothing and were also puzzled by the differences in ages and birth locations —   Mary Ann born about 1808 in Boston, Catherine born in 1812 in Boston and Anna born about 1830 in St Johns.

Then we discovered the newly shared Historic Catholic Records which were recently shared by NEHGS and the Boston Archdiocese, seached through these rcords and  found Catherine’s baptismal record which listed her parents as William & Eleanor Mullett. Thus we realized that we’d made a major error in one of our assumptions.

We then reread Anna’s will and realized that it was stating that Mary A Lehman and Catherine (both children of William Mullett) were sisters of Anna’s late husband, Edward W Rowland. We hadn’t considered this because Edward’s death record lists his parents as Thomas W Rowland and Elizabeth Rowland. We realized that we were looking at the indexed record, not the source.  When we looked at the actual source, we realized that it was so wrinkled that one can’t really identify the name of Edward’s mother.

We then  reread Anna’s will and noted that it mentioned two other siblings of Edward –  David Rowland, deceased and Frank H Rowland, living. David’s death record listed a father Thomas and mother Eleanor. We found the 1850 census listing all three sons (and two others) with mother Eleanor living next door to William B Shackford & wife Catherine.

This led to our hypothesis that Catherine and Mary Ann’s parents were William and Eleanor Mullett.  William died and Eleanor married Thomas Rowland who then died leaving Eleanor a widow raising two daughters and five sons.

We went back to the Historic Catholic Records and found a marriage record for Thomas Rowlands to Eleanor Mullett dated Sept 8, 1818 with a Daniel Dulley listed as the witness.

We then found William Mullet’s marriage to Eleanor Dulley on Oct 6, 1806.

We then broadened our hypothesis to state that William Mullet married Eleanor Dulley on Oct 6, 1806, and had two daughters Mary Ann (1808) & Catherine (1812).  He died sometime before Sept 1818 and Eleanor Dulley Mullet then married Thomas Rowland on Sept 8, 1818 and they had five sons.

To check this hypothesis we took a look at the parents listed for each of these seven children:

Mary Ann Mullett Leman (1808-1900) – death record not yet found but her baptismal records written in latin mentions parents Gulielmia Mullet it Eleanorae (Gulielmia translates to William)

Catherine Mullett Shackford (1812-1902) William and Eleanor Mullett

William B Rowland (1821-1855) Thomas and Ellen [could be shortening of Eleanor]

James S Rowland (1823-1872) Thomas b. Wales, Eleanor, b. England

Edward W Rowland (1824-1873) Thomas W Rowland, b. Wales, mother unclear

Frances H Rowland (1827-1898) William Mary E Dully [Catherine or her children most likely reported this death and used the names of her parents]

David F Rowland (1827-1876) Thomas b. Wales, Eleanor b England

We then found the death record for Eleanor (Dulley) (Mullet) Rowland on May 18, 1876 and discovered that it stated Eleanor Rowland m n Dully.  This record connects the dots of the original hypothesis and also lists her parents as Daniel and Mary which takes back this family lineage back another generation!

As far as we can tell, we’re the first to piece together the connection of these families in FamilySearch or Ancestry – these individual were not yet in Family Search and there are no Member Connections to this family line in Ancestry.  In the future we will try to put our conclusions together in a proof standard format and also go back to our original post on this family and correct our first incorrect conclusions we made from the will.  We’ll also summarize the family lineage adding the names of the spouses of these Rowlands.  Our next step will be to see if we can learn more about the Dully’s mentioned in the Catholic Church records.

All posts on this website are a work in progress.  We’d love to learn of any corrections or additions to the information shared.  Also we’d love it if  you’d like the post here or at http://www.facebook.com/shackfordgenealogy) as that helps share the post with others. Thanks!

SOURCES:

Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, , Anna McCawley Rowland, 21 August 1893; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 August 2016); Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts..

Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, , David F Rowland, ; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 January 2017); Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts..

Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, , Eleanor Dully Rowland, 18 May 1876; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accesed 27 January 2017); Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts..

“Massachusetts: (Image only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900,” digital images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 25 January 2017), Catherine Mullet.

“Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900,” digital images, NEHGS (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 6 July 2017), Mary Ann Mullett.

“Massachusetts: (Image only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900,” digital images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 27 January 2017), Thomas Rowlands m Eleanor Mullet; Holy Cross (Boston) Various v.2 1810-1823, Image 223 of 354.

Copyright 2017 Joanne Shackford Parkes  (sharing a link to this post is appreciated but please do not copy this material and paste it elsewhere)

Updated 12/23/2017 to add Mary Ann Mullet’s baptismal record

Treasure Chest Thursday – New NEHGS/Boston Archdiocese parish records include Baptismal Records for Joseph Edward Shackford & His Mother Catherine Mullet (Blog 405)

NEHGS Announces release of new Catholic Records Online

We’ve been searching through the newly released Boston Archdiocese Parish Records  on the New England Historical Genealogy Society’s WEB page and have found some wonderful records related to Thomas Edward Shackford, my great great grandfather and his mother Catherine Mullet:

Joseph’s baptismal record reads:

Joseph Edward Shackford
Dec. 26th I baptized Joseph Edward born 22d October
of William Shackford & Catherine Mullett
Sp Edward W Rollins & Catherine O’Brien
N Y ‘Brien

We had this same birthdate for Joseph but didn’t have a source so this baptismal record now provides us with a document and adds to his marriage record documenting the names of his parents, William Brown Shackford & Catherine T Mullet.  We’re hoping to learn if there is any relationship to the Edward W Rollins & Catherine O’Brien who were the sponsors of this baptism.

We also believe we found Catherine’s baptismal record.  From the 1900 census we know she was born Oct 1812 and from her 87th birthday celebration we learned that she was born in Boston.  This leads us to believe this baptismal record may belong to her:

1812
…
Catherine Mullet
November 1st
Catherine born the 10th. Daughter of William & Eleanor
Mullet. Sponsors James Devereaux & Catherine Dulley
+ John B P of Bn

This would be the only record we’ve found giving the names of Catherine’s parents but we want to check other records to be sure — last summer we learned that Joseph’s mother Catherine Mullet and her daughter May Kate (Shackford) Loughrin were buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in a plot belonging to Edward W Roland and discovered that  Edward’s wife Anna J Roland had left a will mentioning sisters Catherine Shackford and Mary A Leman.  We still have to do some research to better understand the relationship of Mary Ann, Catherine and Anna J — while Mary Ann’s marriage record lists the last name of Mullet, Annais much younger and her marriage record and death record lists a last name of McCawley and her death record lists parents Patrick and Catherine Quinn.

We’ll take a deeper look in these wonderful catholic church records for other source records to help us learn more about this part of the Shackford family line!

Do you have any Catholic Shackford descendents who might be listed in these records?

All posts on this website are a work in progress.  We’d love to learn of any corrections or additions to the information shared.  Also we’d love it if  you’d like the post here or at http://www.facebook.com/shackfordgenealogy) as that helps share the post with others. Thanks!

SOURCES:

1900 United States Federal Census, Onondaga County, New York, population schedule, Syracuse City, Ward 19, enumeration district (ED) Supervisors District No 12, Enumeration District No 161, B, Sheet Np 6, House No 210, Dwelling 121, Family 128, Joseph E Shackford head; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 July 2013).

“Massachusetts: (Image only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900,” digital images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 25 January 2017), Joseph E Shackford; Image 191 of 345

“Massachusetts: (Image only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900,” digital images, American Ancestors (https://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 25 January 2017), Joseph E Shackford; Vol 6, Page 529, December 1849

“Spry as a Girl,” Evening Herald (Syracuse, New York), 23 October 1899; Fulton History (http:// : accessed 14 July 2013), http://fultonhistory.com.

Copyright 2017 Joanne Shackford Parkes  (sharing a link to this post is appreciated but please do not just copy this material and paste it elsewhere)

Why Catherine Shackford Was Buried in Edward W Rowland’s Plot — What We Can Learn by Visiting Cemeteries!!! (Blog 349)

NOTE:  Information regarding relationships described in this blog have been found to be incorrect and are corrected in Blog 406.  Keeping this blog as it is to show how we’ve learned from our initial errors in reviewing Anna’s will.

In June 2016 we wrote about visiting my great great grandmother’s grave site at the beautiful  Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston and discovering that Catherine and her daughter Kate May Shackford were buried in a plot belonging to Edward W Rowland.  We had no knowledge of any connection to a Rowland family so started searching and discovered that our visit to the cemetery was well worth the trip as we’ve learned some possible new clues about our own ancestry from this visit.

While at the Forest Hills Cemetery, we first visited the office to learn where Catherine was buried and were given a map and a copy of a cemetery plot card which let us know that she was buried in Edward Rowland’s plot and that Edward had been buried on January 2, 1873 and his wife, Anna J Rowland had been buried on August 25, 1893.  We used this information to search in Ancestry.com for a couple with these names and approximate death dates. This search gave us a link to Anna’s will which mentioned a sister Catherine Shackford and another sister Mary A Lehman !!!  This was a totally new family connection only discovered because we’d visited the cemetery!!!

We also discovered that Anna appointed Charles H Isburgh and Charles F Donnelly to be her executers, stated that she is to be buried in the burial lot in Forest Hill Cemetery with her husband Edward W Rowland, gave large sums to multiple charitable organizations in Boston, to the Catholic church, to relatives, and  to two sisters (Mary A Lehman and Catherine Shackford), and her husband’s brother.  The section of the will mentioning my great great grandmother is shown below:

Part of Anna J Rowland’s Will

Ninth  The rest, residue and remainder of my estate I give, devise and bequeath to Mary A. Leman, Catherine Shackford and Frank H Rowland, the first being sisters and the last names a brother of my late husband said rest residue and remainder to go to them share and share alike.

It appears that Anna was quite wealthy – from the 1870 census record, we see that Edward worked at a carriage depot and had real estate valued at $8500 and personal estate valued at $20000!  We’ve also recently discovered that Edward died of smallpox and that his carriage company was called Isburg & Rowland.

We’d always thought that Catherine’s maiden name was Mullett based on her marriage record but Anna’s marriage record reflects a maiden name of McCawley.   Anna’s marriage record and her death records list a birth location of St John, New Brunswick and a father’s first name of Patrick.  Her death record lists a mother named Catherine Quinn.  This means that we need to do some further research to see if perhaps Catherine was previously married to a Mullet who died before she was married to William B Shackford or perhaps her mother remarried someone.

So from our cemetery visit and resulting research, we learned that Catherine had two sisters, Anna and Mary, that Anna’s parents were Patrick McCawley and Catherine Quinn.  This is our first indication of Catherine’s mothers last name!!! [Note:  This assumption has since been found to be incorrect – see blog 406.]

Here’s our research plan to learn more about these relationships — hopefully we can possibly learn more about Catherine Shackford’s (and my) ancestors:

Search for any other information about Edward W Rowland, his obituary, the company Isburg & Rowland.  Since he was wealthy, perhaps there were newspaper articles about his death.

Search for any other information about Anna Rowland and any associations to church organizations.  Look for her obituary.  Also research the many names listed in her will.

Search for a possible first marriage for Catherine to a Mullett.

Search for any information about Mary McCawley m. a Lehman.  Also in 1865, Catherine and her children were living with Thomas and Mary Christian – is this the same Mary mentioned in Anna’s will (perhaps a first marriage?) or is this a different Mary.

Review all sources for Catherine and Anna and eventually Mary to see if can determine where they and their parents were born – list this in a spreadsheet with each source as the data seems to differ between some of the sources.

SOURCES

“Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 August 2016), Anna Rowland.