The provenance of a hairbrush: Thievery and the family historian

For many, many years I have been collecting documents, photographs and artifacts related to my family tree. I was a young girl when I first became interested in the stories of my forebears. Although I have taken a few breaks from my genealogical efforts due to life getting in the way (in terms of years at a time), along the way I have compiled a nice assortment of items related to my family tree.

One of the events which I entered as a competitor in the 2008 Genea-Blogger Group Games was Cite Your Sources! In the process of going through fifty of my various sources (a small sampling, but the number needed for a "platinum medal"), I have waded through some interesting items and tried to determine how to cite them properly.

Here are a few I've cited:

• A newspaper obituary for a very young child
• An obituary mispelling the name of the deceased
• Newspaper accounts of a train explosion and a mine explosion
• A ship manifest for the family's immigrant ancestor arriving in New York harbor
• The Civil War pension file for my great-great-grandfather
• A gravestone marker for an unlikely three-some
• And more...

Perhaps my most interesting effort at creating a bibliographical reference was when I tried to cite my great-grandmother's ornate hairbrush and mirror set.



In citing my sources, I rely on Elizabeth Shown Mills' comprehensive reference Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. According to Mills' guide, a citation for an artifact (a set of grooming accessories in this case) normally includes provenance. The provenance "will typically include the identity of the current owner and how that owner came to acquire it".

Sounded simple. Until I started out with my citation...

Hairbrush and mirror belonging to Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey, Cowhey Family Collection; privately held by Lisa, [address for private use].

Now things got a little tricky. You see, the example from the book seems to indicate that the next portion, the provenance, would say something like this:

This hairbrush and mirror set was passed from Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey to [her daughter] to [her niece], from whom her daughter Lisa inherited it.

Problem: I didn't actually inherit it, I stole it.

Well, sort of.

Before you lose all respect for my family history methods (not to mention my character), let me explain.

As I child I often admired items around our home that had some sort of historical significance to our family: my grandfather's old business cards, needlework done by my grandmother, etc. My great-grandmother's hairbrush and mirror set was no exception.

One day, as a young girl (I'm not sure what age) admiring the set in my mother's bathroom, I took the liberty of moving it to my bathroom, thus "acquiring" the items for myself. They remained there for many years, until they later moved with me once I grew up and moved out on my own. Thankfully, my mother, who understands and appreciates my propensity toward genealogy, gave me her blessing and never returned the items to her bathroom. (So kind of you, Mom.)

As I set out to create a citation for these family artifacts, I didn't quite feel right about writing:

This hairbrush and mirror set was passed from Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey to [her daughter] to [her niece], from whom her daughter Lisa inherited it.

But this didn't quite sound right, either:

This hairbrush and mirror set was passed from Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey to [her daughter] to [her niece], from whom her daughter Lisa outright stole it.

So, getting a little creative with the art of bibliography, I considered this one:

This hairbrush and mirror set was passed from Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey to [her daughter] to [her niece], from whom her daughter Lisa proactively inherited it.

I felt I might have hit upon something here. Any of you genealogists out there ever "proactively inherit" a family artifact?

Actually, I finally settled on this description of the provenance of these family heirlooms, artfully avoiding the suggestion of my childhood method of acquisition:

This hairbrush and mirror set was passed from Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey to [her daughter] to [her niece], to her daughter Lisa, the current owner.

It looks like Elizabeth Shown Mills might have a new citation format to consider adding to her revised edition of Evidence Explained, if she ever ends up doing one.

Watch for a new listing: "Basic Format, Family Artifacts, Provenance: Proactive Inheritance".

***

This story has been submitted as part of the 55th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The topic is "Show and Tell!". Visit Jasia's Creative Gene for more stories about family heirlooms and other special items in family collections.

A little Pennsylvania Irish Valentine tribute

I've been enjoying the Irish Family History blog's Valentine focus this week. I was interested to learn that I'd done four unlucky things the day of my own wedding (I'm so glad I had two lucky ones on the list!). I've also enjoyed the posts on matchmaking and Irish weddings.

In honor of St. Valentine's Day today I thought I would remember some of the married couples in the Cowhey and related family trees whose wedding dates I know (and some I don't).

Here's to all the loving couples in this extended family (several generations back). Without them there would be no family tree!

Patrick and Anne Cowhey

William and Margaret (Foley) Cowhey
Married February 23, 1878 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Pottsville, PA

Robert & Mary (Cowhey) Warden

Alec & Elizabeth (Cowhey) Brown

Thomas & Bess (Hossler) Cowhey

William & Clara (Cowhey) Rodgers

Charles and Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey
Married September 30, 1913 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Pottsville, PA

John & Blanche (Cowhey) Mokelar

Patrick & Margaret (Graham) Foley

John & Mary (McGonigal) Donnelly
Married May 20, 1886 in St. Clair, PA

John & Anna (Cowhey) McGinley
Married June 1895

John & Frances (Owens) Cowhey

Valentine image thanks to Richard August Neubert Antique Valentine Collection.

Knock, knock...

Two-hundred and seventeen years ago yesterday, on August 1, 1790, census-takers went door to door knocking on homes in the young United States of America and the first official U.S. Census of the United States was completed. If you're old enough, you may remember participating in one or more yourself. (The last U.S. Census was completed in the year 2000.)

The U.S. Census is a goldmine for family history researchers and it was one of the first places I started when I began looking for information about our family. At this time, the most recent census information available to researchers is the 1930 census, and I started there and went back each decade as I learned more about different branches of our family.

Each census year provides a little bit different information, including home addresses, family members' occupations, ages, birthplaces, and more.

Below is an image from the 1920 Census showing Charles & Agnes Cowhey and their young daughter Annie and Charles' sister and brother Blanche & Ambrose residing at 68 Main Street, Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania.


If you are interested in taking a look at original census records yourself, you can access them free via Ancestry.com at most local libraries. If you have a library card, you can access the census records from your home computer via most local library websites' connection to Heritage Quest online. (Unfortunately, Ancestry.com does not allow remote access for library users, and their subscription prices are pretty steep.) Some census records are also available online at the LDS Family Search website. Each site has a different search engine so sometimes you can find your family census records on one site when you can't find them on others.

Family Tree Magazine's website has some easy to use downloadable forms for the U.S. Census and other family history purposes. Print out a stack of these for each census year that you are taking a look at and it will make it easier to understand what you are reading. I hope you'll enjoy trying your hand at a little family history research yourself. Please let me know if you make any exciting discoveries!

A baby girl in the family

Ninety-three years ago in 1914 baby Anne Elizabeth Cowhey was born to Charles & Agnes (Donnelly) Cowhey. She was their first-born child. She was baptized at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Pottsville with the name Anna, and would be called Annie as a child (per the 1920 U.S. census), but later revert back to the more formal Anne.

This beautiful baby portrait is the only picture that I have seen of her as a child, with the exception of a group photo at her First Communion that was kindly sent to me a couple of years ago.

Fifteen years after this baby portrait was taken, Anne married her husband George Roger McCue, a young businessman from Quincy, Massachusetts. She became a mother and grandmother and was affectionately known as Nana.

I couldn't pass up the chance to share this beautiful baby photo of Anne on what would have been her 93rd birthday.

She never liked others to know her age. Hopefully now that she has passed to the next life , it doesn't bother her anymore. May she rest in peace - even though I told her birthdate!

Under the shadow of the Cross

This is the steeple of the third St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, whose cornerstone was laid was laid in 1891. This church (and the previous St. Patrick's Churches) has looked down upon many of my family's days. It watched as they walked into it's church for many Sunday Masses, as brides and grooms walked out to start their new lives together, as they visited again carrying new babies for Baptism, and again and again as they prepared to bury their loved ones.

William Cowhey married his second wife, Margaret Foley, in the 2nd St. Patrick's on February 23, 1878. The wedding was attended by Maurice Ryan and Clara Kitchen. They walked into St. Patrick's many times after that day for Baptisms of their new babies: Ellen (no date recorded), Elizabeth in 1881, Thomas in 1883, Ambrose in 1884, and Lena in 1891 and Isabella in 1892, among many others, whose Baptism records have not been as easy to find. (William had 12 children in all, counting both marriages.)

Sadly, the family would attend both Lena's and Bella's funerals shortly after their Baptisms. Both baby girls died very young.

Charles Cowhey, one of William & Margaret's children, walked through the doors of St. Patrick's in 1913 to wed Agnes Carmelita Donnelly. The couple found themselves there celebrating the Baptism of their baby daughter Anna Cowhey in 1914, who would one day be my grandmother.

Thanks to St. Patrick's for keeping good records so that I could learn a little more about the lives of these family members, most whom I never knew. Thanks also to the kind and generous staff at the church. As the older records become brittle and fragile, the church is protecting them by restricting access to them. A few years ago someone was working on entering the data into computer files, but has since passed away. I'm hoping that someone new will take on this volunteer task sometime in the near future, for the benefit of all those whose families lives passed under and around the steeple of St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Pottsville.

Three's a crowd

This tombstone at the grave of our beloved family members doesn't tell the story, so I'll share the family legend as I've heard it. Charles & Agnes Cowhey, husband and wife (and my great-grandparents) are buried side-by-side in Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania's Calvary Cemetery. It is a beautiful little cemetery at the top of the hill in Mount Carbon - a place that invites introspection, prayer and maybe even a little racing down the hill (depending on your mood at the end of your visit).

Charles died of heart trouble at the age of 69. Agnes died at the age of 89. Nothing unusual about the story so far. What is interesting is the man buried alongside them: Ambrose P. Cowhey, Charles' brother. A railroad caboose man known for eating cereal with coffee poured over it instead of milk, he never married. He is remembered fondly by a grandniece of his, who enjoyed nature walks with him as a little girl. Not so fond of him was poor Agnes, who, because of his bachelor status and brotherhood to Charles, had to accept him as part of her household for many years.

And now, laid to her eternal rest, who must she and her husband share a gravesite with? That Ambrose again. When she married Charles, did she know she was getting Brose along with him?

Source: Calvary Cemetery (Mount Carbon, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania), Charles W., Agnes C. & Ambrose P. Cowhey marker; photographed 2004, privately held by Lisa [address for private use].