Aug 31 3:32 AM GMTHi, My name is Scott Glanzrock and I found your tree as a potential link to mine through Cornelius Mahoney, my great-great-great grandfather. I am logged in under a cousin and a resaerch partner for another branch of my family. If you would like to contact me, please email me at_________. I cannot message you on my free membership because it won’t let me find you. I am interested in collaboration about the Mahoneys, as well as the Lanigans. It appears that we are cousins. My great grandmother was Kathleen (or Catherine) R Mahoney. Jeremiah Mahoney and Catherine Lanigan were her parents. I am hoping to hear from you. Thanks, Scott
Scott was a descendent of one of my grandfather's sisters, Kathleen. I vaguely remembered the name Kathleen Dooley from the cache of material for my Aunt Virginia's shoebox, and went back to look through it. Sure enough, one of the funeral cards there was for Kathleen:
I sent Scott a copy of the funeral card, as well as a copy of the picture of Jeremiah Mahoney and Mary (Lanigan) Mahoney, our common ancestors, that I had.
As we began to correspond, it became clear that Scott and I had been traveling many of the same roads independent of each other. But, let Scott tell his own story:
My Irish-Catholic Family History in Brooklyn
I grew up knowing that my grandfather, Joseph Michael Dooley was born in Brooklyn, his parents were Frank Dooley and Catherine Mahoney, and he had a sister Kathleen Dooley and a brother Jerry Dooley. However, I did not know anything about Frank Dooley and Catherine Mahoney and where their parents came from, or where they were born. When I was at a family gathering, I spoke of my interests in family history with my cousins, children of Jerry Dooley. John Dooley, Jerry’s son told me that my great-grandmother was actually Kathleen Regina Mahoney, while Frank Dooley, Jerry’s other son told me to research two additional names: Lanigan and Joyce.
As I initiated finding out about my roots in Brooklyn, I looked for a connection between the names. Through ancestry.com and other family history sites, I had found a Kathleen Mahoney in the census, whose parents were Jeremiah Mahoney and Mary A Lanigan. Thus, it seemed to me that Jeremiah Mahoney and Mary A Lanigan could be my great-great grandparents. When speaking with John Dooley again, he believed that Lanigan was the maiden name of Kathleen Regina Mahoney’s mother.
My next step was to travel to the NYC Municipal Archives to look for records. I knew that I could not easily find death records on Frank Dooley or Kathleen Regina Mahoney because they likely died after 1950. (My mother knew her grandfather and she was born in 1950) Death records after 1950 are held in the Department of Health and must be ordered and findings will be mailed in 6 to 8 weeks. Therefore, I was forced to search on Jeremiah Mahoney and Mary Lanigan before I was even sure that they were my great-grandmother’s parents.
I found the death records for Jeremiah Mahoney and Mary Lanigan which listed each of their parents and showed that they were both buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. When I went to Holy Cross Cemetery, I began looking for the grave of Jeremiah Mahoney and Mary Lanigan. It was actually easy to find and the grand stone clearly showed that I found it which also included Jeremiah’s sister, brother and father. (Where was his mother?) Meanwhile, I was not sure, but really hoping that this was my family.
My next mission was to see if there were a Frank J Dooley buried in a plot with a Kathleen R (Mahoney) Dooley. With common names as Dooley and Mahoney you cannot be sure that different people with same names got married. However, with exact middle initials, there is less of a chance that I would find the wrong people. I was given the plot where Frank J Dooley and Kathleen R Dooley were buried. This plot was a little more difficult to find, but another stone marked the location. Again, I am still unsure if this was my great-grandparents.
When I went back into the cemetery office, I asked them if there were more people buried in the plot where Frank J Dooley and Kathleen R Dooley were buried. They provided about a dozen names, most with the last name Meehan and a few with the last name Dooley. I decided that I must return to the NYC Municipal Archives to research the new findings.
However, before I left I wanted to search for a plot owned by a Jeremiah Mahoney, where a Catherine Mahoney and Edward Mahoney were buried. I believed that this Catherine could have been Jeremiah’s mother, but I did not know why she would be in a different plot and I could not find her in the 1880 census. Regardless, I could not be sure of the plot because there was about 6 -12 inches of snow on the ground, and I did not find a stone.
After searching the census and returned to the archives, I developed a theory that Michael Dooley and Ellen Meehan Dooley were the parents of Frank J Dooley, and the other Meehans were Ellen’s parents and her siblings. Of course, I obtained all the pertinent records, still without knowing if I had truly found my Frank J Dooley and my Kathleen R Mahoney.
On the last day of my trip, I went to the Department of Health to place my order. Although it seemed like everyone in Manhattan needed to go there that day, I decided to wait in line, as it turned out, close to three hours. And about two months later, the death records arrived in the mail. I was very excited with the long wait, and I was nervous because I could not imagine that after all this research, I could be completely off. After all this time, my trip was meaningfully complete, the death records confirmed that I found the plot of my great-grandparents Frank J Dooley and Kathleen Regina Mahoney. And now begins the search from Brooklyn to Ireland……..
Nothing eases the burden of a long, arduous trip than having a companion to share the load. Scott and I had found one another along the road, and found we shared a passion and a dogged determination to find our way back to our ancestors' home in Ireland. And we also found that even though we had been traveling many of the same roads, each of us had picked up bits and pieces of information that the other had not. As we began to share information and pool our research, the picture began to get clearer, and the goal seemed ever more closer.
