Aunt Eleanor Almost Didn’t Come Back

30. May 2009 by Tim.

In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.  At 11:15 AM on September 3, 1939, England declared war on Germany.  In between those two world-changing events, something happened that went unnoticed by almost everyone in the world: the SS Athenia left Liverpool, England and sailed for Montreal, Canada.

The Athenia had departed Glasgow, Scotland a day earlier, stopping at Belfast, Ireland and Liverpool to pick up more passengers.  One of those passengers was Eleanor Crowley.  Eleanor had been married to Daniel Crowley for less than 10 months and was in England to fulfill family obligations around the death of her aunt.  She had managed to work in a visit or two to see other relatives — with the impending war she didnt know when, or if, she would see them again – but now it was time to head home and be reunited with her new husband.  News of the invasion of Poland had certainly caused him some concern for her safety.

By the evening of September 3, the ship was about 250 miles northwest of the island of Inishtrahull, Ireland.  Word had reached them of the declaration of war and the mood was somber.  At about 4:30 that evening, the Athenia was spotted by a German U-boat, U-30.  The captain of the U-boat, Fritz-Julius Lemp tracked the ship for three hours.  He recorded that the ship was sailing without its lights on and sailing in a zig-zag course.  Based on these factors, plus the location - which was outside typical shipping lanes - Lemp concluded the ship was a troop carrier.  Lemp fired two torpedoes at the Athenia.  One struck home.

The torpedo ruptured the bulkhead between the engine room and the boiler room.  The engines stopped immediately as icy ocean water poured in through the enormous hole.  The Athenia was dead in the water and began to list.  The radioman began to broadcast SOS messages giving their location and situation.  Several nearby ships altered course to help.  The crew began to load passengers onto the life boats, but it was not an orderly process.  Panic gripped the ship, passengers and crew alike.  They had no idea if there were more torpedoes to come; how long the ship would remain afloat; or even if there would be enough lifeboats for everyone.  About 50 people had been killed by the explosion and many more were injured.  Later, reports were filed by some passengers that members of the crew were looting cabins after they ordered the people to the lifeboats.

Aunt Eleanor was put in a lifeboat along with about 50 other people.  But even that did not go smoothly.  One man fell out of the lifeboat and hit the water next to Aunt Eleanor.  She reached over and grabbed hold of him but she was not strong enough to lift him back into the boat.  Afraid that she might lose her grip, or worse, get pulled in too, she screamed for help.  Even as the men near her reached out to help she clenched her fists tighter so as not to let him slip away.  Finally, he was in the boat and she relaxed her grip.  They both survived, but unfortunately, Aunt Eleanor’s nails did not.  She had gripped so hard into his clothes that her nails were broken!

Their lifeboat drifted near the hulk of the Athenia for a couple of hours until a Norwegian tanker, the MS Knute Nelson, arrived and transferred the passengers aboard. 

The Athenia sank about 14 hours after being struck by the torpedo.  The Knute Nelson picked up a total of 450 survivors and dropped them off in Galway, Ireland.

Uncle Dan did not learn Aunt Eleanor’s fate until a list of survivors was published on September 6.  I can not even imagine how long those three days were for him.

Aunt Eleanor finally made it back to the US on September 27 aboard the SS Orizaba.  She had lost everything except the clothes she wore, but she survived.

Posted in Crowley Side | 1 Comment »

Timothy Crowley and Theresa Brady

10. May 2009 by Tim.

In going through some of Mom’s things, Mary came across these pictures of Timothy Crowley, my great grandfather.

The first is of him taken on his wedding day, April 24, 1913.

This one was taken years later, obviously, and shows him in his police uniform.  I don’t know yet what the numbers on the uniform mean.  I am hoping the Providence Police can help me with that.

This is his wedding photo, with Theresa Brady, and was given to me by Mom’s cousin Ann Marie.

Posted in Crowley Side, Progress | 1 Comment »

2 Funerals and No Weddings

8. May 2009 by Tim.

I have been absent for quite a while, obviously.  This wasn’t due to lack of interest or a pause in research - well, actually, there was a pause, but not a voluntary one.  My parents passed away. 

Mom died two days after Christmas; Dad died the day before Easter.  Both had been ill for a while.  Mom had Alzheimer’s and Dad was just sick - believe it or not, they still don’t know what was wrong. 

Both lived with my sister in Virginia, so the issue of services for them became problematic.  Mom told us she didn’t want anything, but when we told family members in Rhode Island that we planned to honor her wishes, there was quite an uproar.  We decided we’d wait until Spring and have a memorial Mass at that time.  Mom’s Mass was March 21, 2009 at St. Rita’s in Warwick, RI.  Dad’s was 6 weeks later.

There was a slight mix-up at my Dad’s Mass.  The priest who had said my Mom’s Mass, Fr O’Hara, got called away at the last minute.  He arranged to have someone else say Mass for us.  Fr. O’Hara is an old family friend. He and my folks were extremely active in St Rita’s “back in the day,” as they say.  Well, the priest who filled in for him forgot that I wanted to say a few words about my Dad after the Mass.  He just dismissed us and we left.  No eulogy.

I had spoken at my Mom’s Mass and wanted to do so again for my Dad.  Many of the people who were there for Mom were back again and they were, no doubt, expecting it as well.

Not having had the chance to say it then disrupted my grieving more than I realized.  After speaking about Mom, I had a sense of closure.  Not so with Dad.  So, for a purely selfish reason, I’m posting his eulogy here. 

____________________________________________________________

When I started thinking about what I was going to say today, a few words popped into my head right away: Happy, Supportive, Intelligent, Funny.

But there is one word that – for me – sums Dad up à Teacher.

Dad wanted to be a school teacher, but he never had the opportunity to become one, so he became Life Teacher.

Dad Taught me many things at every stage of my life. Some I’ve outgrown, others I will remember forever and hope to pass on to my kids.

When I was little, he taught me how to throw a football, the rules of baseball, why I shouldnt hit my sister.  As I got older, it was things like how to start a camp fire, how to fish, how to spit watermelon seeds in a race across our back yard after a cookout.

And, it wasn’t just me.  Dad had many students. He was a Scout Master for years at St Rita’s.  Troop 1, Oakland Beach. 

He taught the scouts a lot besides orienteering and camping: Perseverance, Charity, Volunteerism.

I remember one December.  He volunteered the Scouts to set up the Nativity Scene on the lawn out front.  This was back in the days when Christmas season began after Thanksgiving, not the Monday after 4th of July weekend.  Anyway, Dad forgot to get the key to the storage room downstairs and, of course, the priest (Fr. Gillooly) was not home.  So…. Dad taught us to Improvise!

With great care and precision and skill I didn’t know he had, Dad taught 8 Boy Scouts how to use a credit card to jimmy a lock open!

Dad also taught his grandchildren many positive lessons.  Some were the very same ones he taught to me – others were different.

When Amy and Sean were young, we took them down to visit my folks. Amy had just started to play soccer.  Dad told her it was great that she was excelling in school and sports and that a woman can do anything a man can do.  If you know my daughter, you know she took that lesson to heart immediately!

Not every lesson was so deep.

One time when my folks came up to visit – again when the kids were young – Dad took the time to sit down with Sean and teach him the “PROPER” way to put ketchup on a hot dog.  Sean does it that way to this very day!

One of the most powerful lessons Dad taught me is that it’s OK to admit when you’ve made a mistake.  So long as we learn from it, correct it, and move on.

And there is one last lesson Dad has to teach. 

I am now in the process of learning that nothing in this life is permanent.  The ones we love cannot stay with us forever.  Each moment is so fragile and so precious.  I have to learn to live without him being just a phone call away.

Dad taught a lot of people a lot of things.  I am proud to have been his student, and his son.

_________________________________________________________________________

This was taken at my sister’s wedding.  This is how I will remember them.

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment »

A Memorial

30. March 2009 by Tim.

In the newspaper clipping describing Joseph Lamont having been killed, it mentioned that he graduated from St Rafael’s Academy in Pawtucket, RI.  Someone suggested I try to contact St Rafael’s to see if they had any information they could share about him.  That seemed a good idea, so I did.

 I sent an email to their Alumni Director.  A couple of days later, I received a reply.  She told me that Joe Lamont had transferred into St Rafael’s and had been “about a C student” both before and after he transferred.  She said he had left school early to enlist, but had completed enough coursework to be graduated that June.  She said the school was pretty forgiving with young men who left to enlist, so whether he actually did finish enough or they just said he did, he still graduated.  By that time, though, he was in basic training.  He never got to see his diploma.

On the way back from a recent visit to RI, I stopped by the grounds of St Rafael.

There it was.

A close up.

It gave me a good feeling to know that even if I hadn’t “rediscovered” him, he would have been remembered somewhere.  Still, Im glad he’ll be remembered by family and not just his school.

Posted in Progress, Lamont Side | No Comments »

Lt Col Richards, A 549th Comrade

29. March 2009 by Tim.

I just hung up the telephone after a conversation with retired Lt Col Fred Richards.  His name and contact info were given to me by a relative of a former 549th member.  Mr Richards knew Joe Lamont, though not well.  He remembered him from flight school and still cant figure out how my uncle finished Night Fighter Training before he did.  They were separated at that time and Mr Richards followed my uncle to Hawaii, lagging some 2 or 3 months behind.  They were not reunited again until many months later on Iwo Jima.
 
Sadly, the only time Mr Richards remembers my uncle from Iwo was hearing that he had been killed the day before.  He regrets not having found him sooner.
 
Still, the validation of meeting someone who actually KNEW my great uncle is a wonderful feeling.  Mr Richards and I had a great conversation covering most of his career in the military.  He has many, many stories!  I’ll be in touch with him again, I have no doubt.
 
I did learn that night fighter training was purely voluntary.  And that the wash out rate was fairly high.  I asked if he knew Earl Kovara and he said Yes.  I told him I was in contact with Max Tomassini (Earl’s son-in-law), and would pass Mr Richards contact info to him.  Mr Richards said that would be great.  I think he really enjoys talking to people who are connected to one of his old units, the 549th.  That seems to be a common trait among the WW2 veterans I have met.

I’m very glad and very fortunate to have met Mr Richards.

Posted in Progress, Lamont Side | No Comments »

The Crowley Side

2. March 2009 by Tim.

I know it seems that I’ve been ignoring this branch of the Tree.  I’ve made some progress on my maternal grandmother’s side (Saucier and Pichette), but virtually no progress on my maternal grandfather’s side (Crowley and Brady).  This is mainly due to my great-grandparents having come to this country from Ireland in the early 1900s and me having no way to trace them back beyond that point.

All I had to go on were things my mom had told me and a few random things I remembered from when I was very, very young.  Obviously, my mother’s memory would be no use - after all, her affliction with Alzheimer’s is what prompted me to start this project in the first place.  In other words, there wasn’t a lot.

I had hoped that some of the things my parents had found during their trip to Ireland would be useful, but we can’t find anything from that trip.  It may be buried in storage or it may have been packed by my sister, Suzanne, before she left to go back to South Dakota.  In any event, I recalled a few things from their trip, but not a lot, and, of course, any documents they had found are missing.

About all I know for sure is my great-grand parents were Timothy J Crowley and Theresa M Brady.  He was from County Cork and she was from County Roscommon.  I knew from the records on Ancestry that Timothy was born March 18, 1888 and I was guessing that Mary was born around 1886, perhaps 1887 or 89 - there were conflicting dates in the census records.  I also found evidence they came to this country in 1907.  I have what might be a ship’s manifest for each of them, but nothing definitive to tie the people on the manifest to me.  Lastly, I found a record of their marriage on April 23, 1913.  That was it, and that was what I recorded in my Tree on Ancestry.

Then, out of the blue, I received an email from a woman in Ireland named Aoife (pronounced Ee-fuh) who offered to do some on-site research.  Im guessing she got my email from Ancestry.com, but I dont really care.  I took her offer to look into Timothy and Theresa for $20.  I didnt know what to expect, but $20 seemed like a fairly small risk. 

 So far, it has paid off better than I had hoped.

Aoife was able to find a record of the 1901 Census of County Roscommon that listed a Theresa Brady as the son of Martin Brady.  This matches the info on the ship’s register.  The census also listed Theresa’s aunt, brothers and sisters, and Martin’s father Patrick.  Amazingly, this matches a record of Patrick Brady Aoife found in the “Griffith’s Valuation” circa 1852.  No demographic details there, just a list of renters.

Quite a bit of progress, but still a long way to go.

In the meantime, I am still trying to get some info from my uncles on who their uncles’ wives were.  As I said, a long way to go.

Posted in Crowley Side, Progress | No Comments »

The Missing Greniers Found!

20. February 2009 by Tim.

Ancestry.com came through again!

I had been spending a lot of time on only a few people in my Tree lately, so I thought it would be good to go back, take a look at the outstanding threads, and see if there was anything I could add.  Im so glad I did.

Ancestry.com has a number of message boards where people can post their queries for others to read and, with a little luck, respond.  This has worked for me quite a few times in the past (see Orcutts, Curriers) so I thought I would try it again.  I posted a request for information on Mary Anna “Annie” Grenier (b1875 d1923) who married Napoleon Lamothe on 6/30/1896 in Providence, Rhode Island.  About all I know, I said in the post, is that Annie’s mother lived with the couple in Worcester, MA in 1900, was also named Mary, and was born in 1836.  Not a lot to go on, I know.

Not a lot, but apparently enough!

Roland Grenier responded to my query the same day I posted it with marriage details including Annie’s parents names: Maximilian Grenier and Zenaide Despres.  It is still a mystery to me how “Zenaide” got translated as “Mary” by the census taker in 1900, but neither Maximilian nor Zenaide spoke English, and while Maximilian could read and write, he could only do so in French.  I suspect another incident of “language barrier” struck.

The reason I seem to be taking this at face value is because I had earlier found a tentative result in the census of 1880 in Southbridge, MA detailing one Maximillian Grenier, age 47, and his family –> wife, Xener, age 44, and children Joseph, John, Henry, Samuel, Rose E, Albert, Mary A, and Marie (with her husband Joseph).  Note the listing of Mary A.  In 1880 her age is given as 5.  That matches exactly with what I already know of her.  Note too, the name Xener.  If pronounced with a French-Canadian accent, that would probably sound like “Ze-nay”.  Very, very much like “Zenaide” might sound to an 1880 American census taker’s ear!  Again, note that Zenaide could neither speak, read, nor write English.

In the 1900 census, Zenaide is listed as having given birth to 18 children, only 9 of whom were surviving.  Here are 8 of those children.

I now have entire new lines of searches to run!  I will keep you posted on the results.

Posted in Grenier, Progress, Lamont Side | 1 Comment »

More on Joseph Lamont, 549th NFS

18. February 2009 by Tim.

An impromptu visit to Aunty yesterday yielded another priceless nugget!

Aunty had been going through her things looking for a letter mentioning Moses Orcutt she received many years ago.  She found that letter (the topic of another post) but also found a photograph of Joseph T Lamont!

The photo wasnt really a photo, rather it was the picture included in the news item published in the local paper when he was killed.  So, what I have here is a photo of a photo that was printed in the newspaper.  Hence the image quality is not exactly great.  Looking at the photo, though, it appears to be his “graduation” photo taken upon completion of Army basic training.  It is difficult to see, but there is definitely something on his lapel.  And his tie appears to be military style.  It could also be his high school photo, but he left high school early in order to enlist, so Im not sure if he had a graduation photo.

On that topic, the clipping referenced Joseph leaving St Rafael’s Academy in April 1943, 2 months before he was to graduate, to enlist in the Army.  He had completed enough of his senior year to graduate and he was awarded his diploma in abstensia.  Given that he was 20 when he died in 1945, he would have turned 18 in 1943.  My guess is he turned 18 that April and enlisted as soon as he could - not even waiting to finish his last year of high school.

I need to get a picture of the newspaper clipping itself.  Perhaps there are more clues buried there that a thorough reading will reveal.  In the meantime, I have sent the picture off to some of the surviving members of the 549th NFS to see if any of them might remember his face.

More coming on this topic as soon as possible.

Posted in Progress, Lamont Side | No Comments »

Test Pictures

13. February 2009 by Tim.

Let’s see if I can get pictures to post properly

No captions yet, but I think I may go back and insert a few pictures into previous posts.  Just for a little color LOL

Posted in Progress | No Comments »

The Caribou Connection

11. February 2009 by Tim.

Time for a quick “catch up” update.

Thomas Currier, father of Elizabet Currier (wife of Frank Hartwell Orcutt) was born in Canada.  He married Laura Gagnon of Maine, and their children were born in Maine.  I can not find a record of Laura’s birth, but I found the WW1 draft registration card of her brother, Thomas, Jr.  He indicated that he was born in Caribou, ME in November 1891.  Awesome!

 So, I checked online to research Maine birth records.  I discovered that Maine did not pass a law until 1892 requiring local towns to send their birth registries to the state.  Thomas was born 2 months too early to have fallen into that “new” requirement.  Argh!

I looked up the town of Caribou, ME and found they have a web site.  A little while later, I was on the telephone with their Town Clerk and their Librarian (both of whom were extremely helpful).  It turns out that record keeping was, shall we say, somewhat sketchy back then.  There are no records prior to 1892 for the Currier family.

Oh well.  Close but no cigar.  I will have to try other sources and see what I can find.

In the meantime, if any of you out there have any info on the Gagnons or Curriers of Caribou, ME, please feel free to contact me! LOL

Posted in Currier, Progress, Lamont Side | No Comments »