Donahue Family History

David and Mary Donohue actually had 6 children - my dad was the youngest. The others were:
James - born in either DC or Phila. 10-25-1907
William born in either DC or Phila 2-7-1909
John born in Middletown NJ 12-15-1910
Mary " " " " 10-9-1912
David " " " " 9-26-1914
Edward " " " " 10-16-1916

THIS IS MY GRANDMOM!

My Grandmom, Mary Boylan was born in Belmullet according to my grandfather's naturalization papers but I haven't verified that yet. Mainly because I have only once found her in a census. No social security number or such for her. So she's elusive.

BUT she came to America first. She apparently came thru Castle Gardens and somehow got to Philadelphia. That was 1893-1897. Around 1897 her cousin Sabrina Heston came to Philadelphia (I found her on ship's passenger list) and used her as the person she was coming to visit.

Eventually, or so the story goes...about 8 years later, Grandpop came looking for her. She'd been working, I believe as a domestic servant, based on info I found in an extraction from a 1900 census.

David swept her off her feet and married her, in Philadelphia, at Our Lady of Sorrows church, in July 1906. They stayed in Philadelphia at least 2-3 years cause the first two sons were born here, James in 1907 and William in 1909.

They also spent time in Washington DC before moving to Red Bank NJ (Monmouth County). Sometime after 1910 they were living in Red Bank. James and William were followed by John in 1910, Mary in 1912 (everybody called her Polly when I was growing up) David in 1914 and Edward (my father) in 1916.

They are all deceased now and their short stories are in little modules all thru this lens.

My Dad..

Edward Donahue - born 1916 in Red Bank NJ. Drove a truck for a milk company and enlisted in the Army in 1939. He ended up in the Army Air Force and then the Air Force before being discharged in 1950. By then he was married, to Elizabeth Bradley of Phila and had me and my sister was on the way.

Dad served stateside all during WWII in New Mexico, Cheyenne Wy., California and finally at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson Az which is where he was when he got married. So I was born in Tucson Arizona.

When he was discharged, he and mom moved back to Philadelphia. (she grew up here) They lived with my Great-Aunt Frances and my Great Aunt Margaret Forrester until they got a place and then eventually they moved to Chester Pa. (circa 1952).

MY Dad loved the Philadelaphia Phillies (remember they moved here in 1950 when the Phillies actually won the first of their 2 World Series...stop laughing...at least they won 2...they won the 2nd one 3 weeks after my Dad died in 1980. He went to heaven and put the fix in.)
TO BE CONTINUED.......

Born in either Philadelphia or Washington DC (haven't gotten a birth certificate yet to prove which) James became a merchant seaman. My cousin Sheila, "Polly's kid" as we used to say...has a copy of his union card or engineers license or did 5 years ago.

James married Catherine Allen of Oregon and they had a son, Jimmie. I've seen picture of him (Sheila has those too...she's got a lot of stuff cause her mom saved EVERYTHING!). At some point they divorced because it says so on his death certificate. In January 1941, (the 11th to be exact) James was a passenger in a car that went off the road on the Williamette Hiway 8 mil East of Oakridge Oregon. He was thrown from the car and drowned. Apparently, from the death certificate, the car slide on icy or slippery pavement and rolled into the Salt Creek. His occupation was "extra gang 22" SP Company.

My mother, who used to spend hours talking to both my grandparents, told me that Catherine Allen Donohue, divorced my uncle and either had already moved to Washington DC or moved there after he died. She supposedly married again and her son, Jim Donohue, was adopted by his stepfather. I haven't yet worked this out.

If you're Jimmie or his children or grandchildren...please email me cause I've been looking for you for 33 years. My dad wasn't married when your father died. I seem to remember meeting you once when I was about 8 but that's a very fuzzy faint memory.

So Joyce, or Eleanor if you're reading and you want to contribute, email me - still the same email - cougartoys over at aol dot com.

William was the 2nd oldest child of David and Mary. He was born in Philadelphia, I think. He married in 1938 a woman with at least 2 children by a former marriage and had another daughter with her. In 1943, when he died, that child was mentioned in the obituary (which is down below) but we still don't have a name. So if you're the child (we think it was MARIE) please, get in touch with me.

My aunt, was the next to last of the 6 children in the family. And apparently, she played "big sister" to my Dad and drove him nuts even when he was a grown man wtih a wife and family cause they kept in touch but weren't real close.

Well yesterday, exploring a new "resource" I found on line, I finally found some info her daughter and I have been seeking confirmation of for years. Her wedding date and location - and so here is the text of the article in the RedBank Register of September 9th 1943. I haven't done the backwards calendar thing yet to see what day of the week the Saturday prior to Sept 9th was but I'll post that later.

Donohue-Lithco

Miss Mary Katherine Donohue, daughter of Mr and Mrs David Donohue of Oak Hill Road, Middletown Township and George Lithco of Jackson Heights, Long Island, who is stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina were married Saturday afternoon, in the rectory of St Patrick's Church, Fayetteville North Carolina by the pastor, Reverend Frederick Higgins.

The bride was attired in a street-length dress of white silk jersey with matching accessories. The attendants were Miss Mela Page of Fayetteville North Carolina and Private William Barrett of Newark. A reception for the bridal party and a number of guests was held at the Innwood Inn.

The bride is a graduate of Redbank Catholic High School. Prior to her marriage she was employed at the Eatontown Signal Corp Laboratories.

Private Lithco has been stationed at Fort Bragg for the last ten months. Prior to his service with the army, he was employed by Duff and Conger in New York City.

My aunt, commonly referred to as Polly throughout the family, had 3 children. One son and two daughters.

The oldest daughter is close in age to me (I'm 60+) and never married that I know of. No children.

The 2nd daughter is about 4 years younger and has two small children and the son, Jr is married and had two sons. One died of shaken baby syndrome and the other is hopefully growing up happily at this moment.

I'm in contact with the oldest daughter and will add some info she shared with me as soon as time allows.

George Lithco died quite a few years ago and Aunt Polly died about 12-13 years ago.

The Redbank Register for this publication date contains a one-paragraph item mentioning that my grandfather was builidng a house. On pg 6 it says FAIRVIEW NEWS

David Donohue is building a house for his own occupancy on Nutswamp Rd. He is currently living on Thomas McGuire's farm.

One of these days I'll figure out how to post a visible link to the pdf file in the archives of the Register. But meanwhile Iknow that Grandpop and his sons built this house. Both my Dad and my Uncle Jack spoke of it. And I have paperwork showing that he took out a mortgage of $3500 to buy the materials. THAT I can scan and add here shortly

8 April 2009, Vol. 12, No. 4
Table of Contents
Editor's Desk
Using RootsWeb
Genealogy Tip
Connecting
Bottomless Mailbag:
Readers Write In
Advertisements
What's New: Databases, Freepages, and Mailing Lists
The Darkroom
You Found It
Subscriptions, Submissions,
Advertising, and Reprints
RootsWeb Resources
RootsWeb Helpdesk
Check here for frequently asked questions about RootsWeb.
RootsWeb Newsroom
Check here for the latest RootsWeb news.
RootsWeb Store
Check here for the latest in genealogy books, software, photos, and more.
RootsWeb Spotlight
Know someone who has gone above and beyond in the service of RootsWeb? Nominate them for recognition on our Volunteer Spotlight page.
RootsWeb Review Archives
Check here for previous editions.

Editor's Desk
Over the past few years we have seen a few changes to the Review - the loss of our beloved editor, Myra, changing from weekly to monthly mailings, and now another transition of editors. Jana Lloyd has moved on to greener pastures and passed the reins of the editor responsibilities for the RootsWeb Review on to me. I am grateful to have two dedicated writers, Mary and Joan, and a great support team - Gerhard, that's you - who have helped to make this transition go smoothly. I have been a fan of RootsWeb for many years, have worked with the site for the past two years, and I am excited for this new opportunity.

If you have ideas or suggestions that you would like to share for what you would like to see in the Review, what you think we could do better, etc. please email me, anna@rootsweb.com.

I hope you enjoy reading the newsletter!

Anna Fechter, RootsWeb Review Editor

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Using Rootsweb
By Anna Fechter

New RootsWeb Feature - Hosted Site Registry
Have you ever wondered what our staff sits around and talks about, or why we choose to work on some projects versus others? Do you ever wish we would work on something that you feel should be done? Or are you just curious about how our team works? We do get asked some of these questions, although I think they go unasked more often than not, so I thought it would be nice to give you a brief insight into how our team works.

Let me introduce you to the team: Randy Winch, developer extraordinaire, Doug Cortney, another brilliant developer (Doug splits his time between Genealogy.com and RootsWeb), Bill Keating, Systems Administrator, David Graham, Product Manager, Anna Fechter, Community Operations Manager, Ben Tyler, Operations Assistant Manager, and the Operations team, Gerhard Ruf, Michael Rasmussen, and David Coleman. Together we coordinate and work to make sure RootsWeb is a great place for the community to gather.

Each month we meet a few times to discuss high level planning, sorting out what needs to be worked on, how current projects are coming along, what still needs to be done, if there is anything new to be done, etc. We have a list of wishes and needs and we try to balance out what can get done during the month.

So how come you don't see something new every month? Each month a certain amount of time is allocated to bug work, systems maintenance and day-to-day tasks, and in between that work we squeeze in new work, which is sometimes visible and often times not, such as projects like the new servers last year. We would like to have a new feature every month but we would also like to keep Randy sane and happy!

Which brings me to our new feature... Close to a year ago we started thinking about what we could do to enhance the searching of sites hosted on RootsWeb, especially those that are part of larger organizations or societies. We now have a solution - the Hosted Site Registry!

The Hosted Site Registry is a one stop registration for your sites hosted on RootsWeb, taking the place of the Websites Registry. We have improved the functionality and added new features to the registry, including the ability to choose an associated organization.

As you can see, you can choose to register your site in association with an organization, and select whether you would like it categorized as a Regional, Surname or Miscellaneous site. Each category will be separated out and will be searchable based on the information you have provided. We know there is a lot of great information that you have a lot of time compiling and we hope that this new feature will allow others to more readily find your sites.

We are starting out with a set list of organizations based on the sites that we currently host. If you are part of an organization other than the ones we have listed you can choose the "Independent society or organization" option.

Many members host family sites. In this case the form will look a little different as we split out the entry fields so you can enter up to 10 surnames that others can search by to find your site.

And lastly, you can choose to associate your site with one of the Miscellaneous categories. Please choose the category that best fits your site.

Sites will initially be searchable based on key words and associated names. Searching for US GenWeb will return a list of the sites who have registered as a US GenWeb site. Searching for Jones will bring you a list of all of the sites registered with Jones surname. Additional browse features and mother minor changes will be coming soon.

Please visit the Hosted Site Registry, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/hsr , to register your website(s) - as an added bonus for using our new feature during the month of April, we will enter your name in a raffle to win one of two Ancestry Annual World Deluxe subscriptions.

The Hosted Site Registry is in Beta, so we are still working to fine tune the process and would love to hear your feedback! Please email us at helpdesk-post@rootsweb.com with the subject line of "Hosted Site Registration" and let us know what you think.

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Genealogy Tip
By Mary Harrell-Sesniak
"Genealogy is not just a pastime; it's a passion."

Labeling Documents for Genealogical Proofs
Genealogy societies generally require proof and source documents to be labeled - lest the application paperwork should become shuffled while reviewing.

Many require your name, eligible ancestor, and details such as the chapter you wish to join, or generation of the ancestor. In the case of an early American proof, this can result in as many as 70-80 documents - as each ancestor's birth, marriage, death and connection to the next generation must be proved.

Rather than label by hand, create labels.

For simplicity, try a free online service, such as Avery Dennison's Design and Print Online. Prompts are easily followed by clicking next - and after creating a label sheet, print at home or save for later use.

At www.avery.com, select Design and Print Online.
Register if prompted.
Select by product number, description, or category (ex. address labels). This example demonstrates by category, which displays a screen shot showing specifics.

To select a blank label, select Basic Design and click the label graphic to continue.
Try Quick and Simple (or Enhanced Editing for complete control or Mail Merge to import data from your computer.)
As information is entered, it is copied to the next label. Individualize each label, if desired.
Select a font and review for changes.
Select Print or Save, to save in an Avery format. Choosing print displays a pdf (portable document format) file, which offers the ability of saving the file to your computer.

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Connecting
Genealogy Angel
I have learned that genealogy angels do not always come with obvious halos. I was researching in the Meigs County Library and a loud, genial elderly man was keeping up a constant distracting conversation as he monopolized the only copy machine. So I left and went to the Meigs County Historical Association, where I was monopolizing the copy machine when I heard the loud man come in. Darn!

I finished my copying and went out into the other room where the records are kept and the loud man (who had announced in a booming voice that he was "Ted") asked me who I was looking for. Although I was pressed for time (and did not feel too fond of Ted), I politely said I was looking for James Tracy, my 3rd great grandfather, who seemed to have been born under a cabbage leaf because there was NO information about this man anywhere.

Ted said, "You mean THIS James Tracy?" and pointed to the book open in front of him. There was James' handwritten declaration of intent to become a citizen, which listed his birth date (1811), birthplace (Gallen Parrish, Kings County Ireland), his embarkation date (April 1836, from Liverpool), his arrival date and port (June 1836, Philadelphia), and that he had stayed in Philadelphia for a year before coming to Meigs County, OH.

I was flabbergasted. I had just learned more about my lost ancestor due to Ted's kind assistance than I had learned in months of searching. Ted was happy to have helped. He polished up his halo and flew off to hog the copy machine, but I did not mind.

THANKS, TED!

Nancy Schleich

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Bottomless Mailbag: Readers Write In
Mixed Feelings
Several years ago, on a whim, I drove to the part of the country where I knew my relatives had grown up, married and my parents died. I had exhausted Rootsweb.com and Ancestry. So, during my trip I stopped at small little towns and asked the police department where the marriage and death records would be held. At one small town, the gal at the desk asked me casually if I wanted police records too. I thought; sure, why not, not believing for a minute that my wonderful, delightful and pristine family would be found there. Much to my horror ... I found reams of records concerning my great grandfather and his brothers .... and his soon to be wife's brother as well ... all listed on police