Two, four, six, eight!

Remember that "motivating" chant?

Two, four, six, eight!
Who do we appreciate?

I guess it's goal is to remind someone that they are well, appreciated. Along the same lines is today's official "holiday": Ancestor Appreciation Day.

I haven't been able to determine who set today's date as Ancestor Appreciation Day, or even how long it has been on the calendar. But since I'm always looking for excuses to encourage others to dig into their family trees, I couldn't pass up this opportunity to celebrate and mention it to you.

Just what should we make of Ancestor Appreciation Day? Well, according to the National Genealogical Society, working on a family tree is the 2nd most popular hobby in the U.S. (It comes in right behind gardening, which reminds me, when was the last time I put the genealogy aside and did some weeding?)

One website that mentioned Ancestor Appreciation Day suggested taking some online genealogy classes such as Beginning Genealogy at Genealogy.com. For those new to family history, here's my suggestion: start at the beginning with yourself and go back from there. There's no telling what you might learn when you begin with your own history and go from there to your parents, then to your grandparents, your great-grandparents, etc.

We'll just need to change the chant:

Two, four, eight, sixteen...

Little Lena

As I mentioned in the previous post, Margaret (Foley) Cowhey lost two babies in their infancy that we know of. Baby Lena Cowhey was born January 7, 1891. What a large family celebrated her arrival! She must have gotten lots of attention from her many brothers and sisters. The family celebrated her Baptism at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Pottsville.

Only nine short months after her birth, however, the family suffered the sad loss of little Lena Cowhey. Her obituary in the Pottsville Republican newspaper on October 8, 1891 does not list the cause of her death. Here is a copy of that obituary:

It states:

Lena, the infant daughter of William and Margaret Cowhey, of Mt. Carbon, died yesterday. The family have the sympathy of their neighbors at East Mt. Carbon. The interment will take place Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock.

A sad loss for the Cowhey family. Little did they know that the following year they would also lose their father and another baby girl. Tough lessons in life for the many young Cowhey siblings and their heartbroken mother...

Source: Lena Cowhey obituary, “Deaths and Funerals,” Pottsville Daily Republican, October 8, 1891, p. 4, col. 2.