INTRODUCING MY CHILDREN TO THE TOWN OF ISLANDEADY

It was important to me that my son and daughter got the opportunity to visit Islandeady (the home town of my great grandmother Bridget Chambers) while on our trip to Ireland.  So on our first full day in County Mayo, we drove to Bilberry Lake -- located near N5 road, halfway between Castlebar and Westport.  We drove down a narrow country road -- thank heavens for signs!  From there we could see the Old Islandeady Cemetery on a hill, across the lake.  I love how lovely and peaceful this lake is, surrounded by green trees, green hills and green grass.

After admiring the view of the lake and taking lots of photos, we drove over to the Old Islandeady Cemetery.  From the parking lot of the cemetery, you can see Croagh Patrick, where according to legend, Saint Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland.  The four of us walked through the cemetery and to the ruins of St. Eiden's Church, located on the shores of Bilberry Lake,

St. Eiden's Church has been in ruins since the penal times and was restored in the 1990's.  Of course we took photos to commemorate my kids' first visit to Islandeady!

We then drove a short distance to St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Islandeady.  This was my first visit to St. Patrick's.  According to legend, St. Patrick preached on the shores of the lake on his way to the holy mountain in 440 AD so hence the name of this church. The roof of this church was originally

thatched but the church building was slated in 1849.  Other improvements and upgrades have been made since then.  This was a very meaningful visit for me since this was the church that my 2nd great grandparents Thomas Chambers and Ann Kilroy Chambers attended Mass on Sundays and where their children, including my great grandmother Bridget Chambers was baptized. It is so exciting to me when I can actually walk in their "footprints".  It makes me a little sad, though, to think that my Dad and Grandpa never got to visit this place.  I think they would have enjoyed the peaceful lake, the old church ruins and just knowing that Bridget grew up not far from here.

Note:  This is my 200th post in this Home of Sherlocks blog and thought it was very fitting that it would be about Islandeady.

TICKET FROM QUEENSTOWN

I am finally creating a scrapbook of my trip to Ireland in August of 2012.  I noticed that the ticket that I saved from trip to the Cobh Heritage Center had the following wording on it -- see above photo.  It was a reproduction of a ticket from 1892 from Queenstown to New York.  I had never noticed that before.  Of course, it is now going in my scrapbook.

So, if I had taken this imaginary trip in July 1892 what would I have found?  Well, you know what that means, yes, stopping the scrapbooking and doing a bit more research.  And I wonder why my scrapbook is not completed!  In my research today, I found 2 more documents for my great grandparents Edward and Bridget that I hadn't seen before.  Good thing I did the research!  

According to the documents, Edward Sherlock actually left from Liverpool, England and not Queenstown, which makes sense since he was in County Meath at the time. He departed on 21 Oct 1891 from Liverpool aboard the ship Majestic, headed for New York.

Bridget Chambers left Queenstown, Ireland in 1892 aboard the ship Samaria and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on 10 May 1892.  Her brothers were already living in Chicago so I am guessing she decided to join them there.  Why Edward went to Chicago vs. going to Boston (where his brother was) is a mystery to me, except perhaps since Edward was a butcher he thought there would be more work there.  It is a good thing he did go to Chicago because there he met Bridget and as they say "the rest is history"!

LEAP YEAR BABY!

          According to an old Irish legend, Saint Bridget made a deal with Saint Patrick that would allow for women to propose to men on Leap Day (February 29^th).  A man had to pay a penalty if he refused a woman’s proposition of marriage on this day. Now, I don’t know if any of the women in my family took advantage of this Irish legend, but I do know that we had a Leap Day Baby among my ancestors. 

          My paternal grandfather Charlie had a half brother named Joseph Gary.  Joseph was born on Leap Day in 1912 to Bridget Elizabeth Chambers (Charlie’s mom) and her husband Joseph Francis Gary.  At the time of his birth at their home (located at 310 Huron), the father Joseph was 28 years old and employed as a caulker for the city of Chicago and Bridget (his mother) was 35 years old.  Joseph was Elizabeth’s 5^th child but only her 2^nd living one. 

          Joseph Gary married a woman named Jessica.  I haven’t had any luck finding out her maiden name, where she was born, etc.  However, I did have the opportunity to meet her several times as a child.  She was a very nice woman.  I can’t find Joseph in the 1930’s census so I am definitely hoping that I have much better luck with the 1940’s census.

          Joseph and Jessica (or Jesse as she was known to us) lived in Glendale, California.  I found them in several city directories of Glendale in the 1950’s.  In the 1953 directory, it listed Joe as an “armature winder”.  Okay, definitely needed to look up that one and found that it meant his job was to locate the broken part of an electric motor (and more specifically its coils) and to repair or replace it. In the 1954 directory, his job was listed as electrical repair and then machine operator in 1955.    Then from 1958 to 1960, he was a gardener for the Board of Education.  

          Joseph died on March 6, 1974 in Glendale, California.   His funeral was held at the Holy Family Catholic Church.  He was buried at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood. 

          In the above photo, Uncle Joe is the man sitting at the bottom of the photo, while his wife Aunt Jesse is the hair with the white hair in the rear left.   I remember my Dad and Grandpa Charlie always making a big deal about Uncle Joe’s birthday.   They thought it was utterly fascinating that he only had a birthday every 4 years.   So, even though in 1972, he was 60 years old, he really had only celebrated 15 birthdays.  

          Happy Birthday, Uncle Joe, who if still alive, would be celebrating his 100^th birthday today and only his 25^th actual birthday celebration! 

MORE OF BRIDGET CHAMBERS' SIBLINGS

         

          As I discussed in my last post, my great grandmother Bridget Elizabeth Chambers was born in Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland.  She was the youngest of 9 children.

          Her older sister Ann Chambers was born in 1864 in Islandeady and married Hugh Feehan.  Ann and Hugh lived in Rossow, County Mayo. Rossow is west of Islandeady and very close to the coast. The Feehans had 8 children: Maria, Bridget, Thomas, Jack, Patrick, Nora, Hugh and Elly. Ann and Hugh lived in Ireland their entire lives and their grandson Hugh now lives in the old family home in Rossow.  However, Ann and Hugh did manage to help some of their children and some of James Chamber’s children immigrate to Chicago. 

          Another sister Barbara was born in 1866 but died as a baby in 1867.  A year after Barbara’s death, James Chambers was born in 1868 in Islandeady.  James married Mary Malley and they had 3 children: Thomas, Maria and Kate.  Bridget’s (and James’) mother Ann Kilroy Chambers lived with James and Mary after the death of her husband Thomas Chambers in 1889.  James and Mary, though, died in the early 1900’s.  Ann Kilroy Chambers then immigrated to the US to live with her daughter Bridget in 1905. 

          Bridget’s younger sister Nora was born in 1873 and married Patrick Murray in Ireland.  Nora and Patrick immigrated to Chicago in 1906 and had a son named Thomas. As a child, I remember Tommy Murray visiting my Grandpa Charlie (who was his cousin).  Tommy wore white pants to church and my Dad and Grandpa used to tease him that he was the “ice cream man”.  Once I started researching Tommy, I found out that he was a driver for a laundry.  No wonder he had a lot of very clean white pants!

BRIDGET ELIZABETH CHAMBERS AND HER SIBLINGS

           Grandpa Charlie’s mother was Bridget Elizabeth Chambers. She was born on 3 Oct 1870 in Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland to Anne Kilroy and Thomas Chambers.  Bridget was the 2^nd youngest of nine children. Five of her siblings immigrated to the US.  

          The oldest sibling, Patrick Chambers, who was born in 1857, immigrated to the US in 1879.  He worked as a foreman for city services in Chicago.  Patrick never married or as one of my dad’s friends used to say “never made the same mistake once”!

          Michael Chambers, the next oldest brother, was born in 1858 in Islandeady, Mayo, Ireland and immigrated to the US in 1880.  He married Winifred Callahan and they had 4 children.  Michael owned a saloon in Chicago and was possibly also a butcher at a meat market (located at 161 N Market, Chicago). 

          The oldest sister and 3^rd in line was Marie Chambers, who was born in 1860 in Islandeady, Ireland.  She immigrated to the US with her brother Michael and married Thomas Lynch.  They lived in Chicago and had 6 children: Anna, John, Mary, Thomas, Columbus and James. 

          Next in the sibling line is Charles, who was born in 1862 in Ireland.  Charles either immigrated in 1880 or 1885.  Charles married Ellen Ruane in Chicago.  He owned a grocery store/meat market, which was located at 678 Orleans Street in Chicago.  That building is one of the only wooden buildings to have survived the 1870’s Chicago fire.  It is now called “Green Door Tavern”. 

          I will talk more about Bridget and her other siblings in my next post but a quick note about the above photo.  The photo was taken in Islandeady, County Mayo, Ireland by my cousin Kevin on his pilgrimage back to the homeland with his wife a few years ago.

Charles Zola Sherlock -- More on His Childhood Years

          In 1906, after Charlie’s return from Ireland and before his grandmother’s death, Charlie’s mother Bridget Chambers Sherlock remarried after being a widow for 5 years.  Bridget married Joseph Francis Gary, a man who was 13 years her junior and who worked as a laborer at the Pipe Company. 

          Charles’ death of his maternal grandmother in February 2, 1908 was only the beginning of more tragic times for Charlie (who was also known as Zola) and his family.  A mere six weeks later, Charlie’s older brother Edmund Bernard Sherlock died on 14 March 1908 at the age of 10 years old after suffering from acute bronchitis for only one day and from weeklong cold.  Edmund was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day.

A few months after Edmund’s death, Charlie’s mother Bridget got pregnant – whether it was purposely done to wipe away the grief of Edmund’s death, whether she thought Charlie needed a sibling or whether she wanted to have a child with her husband Joseph, no one will ever know. Bridget gave birth to a daughter, Anna Margrette Gary, on February 13, 1909.  I am sure it must have been a wonderful Valentine’s Day that year for the entire family.   The joy was short-lived however, due to the death of baby Anna almost 7 months later on September 6, 1909.  Poor baby Anna died of infantile atrophy and inanition due to gastroenteritis. 

At this point, you may be wondering when would Charlie and his family’s luck change.  The luck of the Irish was definitely not on their side! Is there more heartbreak in store for Charlie, Bridget and Joseph? Well, three years later, Bridget would give birth once again in the month of February – this time on February 29^th, 1912.   Joseph Thomas Gary was a leap year and day baby. I remember how Grandpa Charlie always made a big deal of Uncle Joe being born on February 29^th and how in 1964, Uncle Joe had only celebrated 13 birthdays when he was really 52 years old.  Uncle Joe is sitting in the front row in the center in the above photo.

After discovering the story of Grandpa Charlie’s childhood, I felt like I finally understood him.  He was always a tough guy with lots of wild stories, but now I understood that he was a SURVIVOR.  How does one carry on with their life when almost everyone you know dies around you?  Does it make you think that you must be special – that there is some specific reason why you are alive and your brothers and sister and father aren’t?