Coming Around Full Circle - or - Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

I always seem to be going back to my favorite source of family history information - old newspapers. I subscribe to at least four online databases that provide newspaper articles. A recent search on family surnames turned up something I haven't seen in, dare I admit it, 37 years?

What I discovered is an article that I wrote for the Omaha World Herald's Magazine of the Midlands. This Sunday supplement ceased publication several years ago, which is sad. The magazine's editor, Hollis Limprecht, was freelancer friendly and published several of my articles over the years. This was the first and was published February 24, 1974.

It should come as no surprise that the focus of the story is not only history, but history in Cass County, Nebraska, where many of my family roots are. When I visited Elmwood Public Schools on a work assignment, I was pretty excited to see the students getting excited about the history of their community. The inspirational teacher behind the local history project was Mary Skalak. Sadly, Mary died a year ago this month.

Below is what Hollis wrote about me in his preface to this issue of the magazine. Some things never change. I'm still interested in history. I'm still interested in Cass County, and I'm still writing about it.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

More Nebraska Genealogy-Cemetery Events coming up!

Ashland Cemetery Tour - October 15, 2011

The Ashland Historical Society will hold a cemetery walk on Sunday afternoon, October 16 at 2:00 p.m. Participants will meet at the Ashland Cemetery directory and will tour two cemeteries.

The event is free and open to the public.

Judi Schamp, a founding member of the Ashland Cemetery Directory and Improvement Committee, will discuss the history Saunders County's largest cemetery and lead the tour.

People will then carpool to Carr Cemetery; also known as Clear Creek Cemetery, which is two miles north of Ashland. Melanie O'Brien will discuss the history of the cemetery, which is the oldest in Saunders county.

Tour of Young Cemetery near Plattsmouth - October 15 and 16, 2011

"Ghosts of a Pioneer Cemetery Tour 2011" will be given at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. October 15 and 16 at Young Cemetery near Plattsmouth, Nebraska. This rain-or-shine walking tour takes about an hour. Tickets are $10 and must be purchased in advance at Antiques Off Main in Plattsmouth or by contacting Leigh Jean Koinzan at 402-296-2942 or lk11434@navix.net.

To get to Young Cemetery from the Omaha area, drive southbound on US Highway 75 south of Plattsmouth to Young Road. Look for the cemetery tour directional sign. Turn East onto Young Road. Go a short distance, again watching for the cemetery tour sign. Turn left onto Young Lane. You will see another sign. Parking is limited, so carpooling is recommended. Restroom facilities are not available.

Storytellers from OOPS (Omaha Organization for the Purpose of Storytelling) and other "ghost characters" dressed in period costumes will tell stories about the residents of this 1855 cemetery.

For more information visit www.plattsmouthconservancy.org.

A Day at the Museum - Part 2

Deciding that I shouldn't hog the microfilm reader at the Cass County Historical Society Museum yesterday, I moved on to the Portrait and Biographical Album of Otoe and Cass Counties, Nebraska. What is nice is that the Museum has a bound copy of a reprint of this book that was published by the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society in 1977. If a researcher wants any pages photocopied, the museum staff will get the fragile original out of its protective box and make the copies for you.

I didn't locate any biographies of my kin in the book, but I recognized plenty of names. So I marked the pages that had biographies of the names I recognized as the pioneers buried at Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery between Greenwood and Ashland, Nebraska. One of my acquaintances on FindAGrave is a descendant of these pioneers, so I thought I could share the information should he need it.

While the curator was making copies, she recognized one of the names since she had recently been doing some research on Civil War veterans buried in the county. She said she had his obituary and asked if I'd like a copy. Sure! Why not? Maybe my FindAGrave friend could use it. As I mentioned in Part 1, I didn't want to leave empty handed, and it didn't matter if what I found wasn't about my family!

I have gathered quite a bit of information about a court battle over moving the remains of Edward Cagney from the Fitzgerald plot in Calvary Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska to the cemetery in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The case went to the Nebraska Supreme Court which decided his mother had the right to move the remains, which had been interred about 10 years. It's a fascinating story which I will write about in depth at a later time.

The Museum has fairly detailed lists of interments at the local cemeteries and all I had to offer was that it was probably in the Catholic cemetery. This turned out to be Holy Sepulchre. With help of the museum staff, these entries were located.

Cemetery Listings for Edward Cagney and his brother, John J. Cagney

Cemetery Listings to Catherine Fitzgerald Cagney McEntee
and her second husband, Charles McEntee
This also notes that Catherine's information is on the Cagney stone.

Cemetery Directory showing the location of the Cagney/McEntee Lot
Additional information discovered: Charles McEntee's parents, Michael and Bridget,
are also buried here. Confirmation of Bridget's maiden name as Edoff.

My next field trip to Plattsmouth will definitely include a visit to Holy Sepulchre cemetery to photograph these gravestones. No, they are not my direct line, but it certainly makes for an interesting family history story! And I love a good story.

Read Part 1 of A Day at the Museum.

A Day at the Museum - Part 1

For many weeks I've been eagerly awaiting my visit to the Cass County Historical Society Museum in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. It has been a few decades since my last visit and after six years of staying busy with online research only, I was ready to get back into on-site research. 

Both sides of my mother's family - the Kellys and the Bellingers - were early settlers and long time residents of Greenwood, Cass County, Nebraska. My great grand aunt, Mary Kelly, married John Fitzgerald, a railroad contractor, banker, millionaire and they lived in Plattsmouth, Greenwood and Lincoln.

I've been researching the Fitzgerald line of the family for a long time. Because of their 'celebrity' (for lack of a better word), I have more information than I really know what to do with. But it has proven time and time again how important it is to research siblings. From a newspaper article of Mary's recollections I learned of the wagon train journey that my ancestors made from St. Paul, Minnesota to the Dakotas and returning East along the Missouri River until the family settled in Omaha and Council Bluffs, and later, in Greenwood. Researching the Fitzgeralds has given me a wealth of information about my Kellys.

The October 1 workshop sponsored by the Cass County Historical Society Museum provided a unique opportunity that combined two excellent lectures on beginning genealogy by my new friend and genealogy buddy, Gail Blankenau, as well as time to research many of the resources available at the museum. Gail and I first met when we both spoke at the Land Records and Genealogy Symposium in Beatrice, Nebraska in July.

As always, Gail did an excellent job introducing genealogy to a group of relatively new genealogists. She asked how I could possibly learn anything from a beginner's class and I replied, "I've been a beginning genealogist for 30 years." Sorry - not an original line - I heard someone else say that once and thought it fits my situation. As genealogists, I believe we can always learn something new. And with eight pages of notes from Gail's lectures, I certainly did!

This has been a hectic week and I admit that I had not properly prepared for what research questions I sought answers for. But I had brought along my netbook and when it was time for research, I brought up my database on Family Tree Maker. I jotted down some significant dates that matched up with the newspapers available on microfilm at the Museum. I already knew that I would be returning for further research, but I sure wasn't going to go home empty handed.

With the microfilm of the 1896 Greenwood Gazette in place, I was hopeful of finding an obituary or death notice of my great great grandfather, William D. Kelly, the Irish immigrant. It was not to be found. But I'm going to look again when I have more time available. To date, I found an obituary for him in the St. Paul Minnesota Daily Globe. I was hoping to find something in the newspaper of the locale where he was living when he died.

Next on my priority list was to find a newspaper article about the marriage of my grandparents. Here's what I found on page 1 of the Greenwood Gazette, October 9, 1913:

By the Journal we see that Wm. Kelly and Miss Lina [sic] Bellinger are to live as one ... We wish the young people long life and happiness

Grandmother's name was Sina, but at least I found a newspaper article.

Read Part 2: Browsing through the Portrait and Biographical Album of Otoe and Cass Counties, Nebraska - and what I found in the cemetery records.

Related web sites:

Cass County Historical Society Museum

Cass County Historical Society on RootsWeb

Gail Blankenau, APG

Gail Blankenau, Genealogical Speaker's Guild

Cass County Historical Society Museum Fall Workshop

Gail Blankenau will be the featured speaker at the October 1, 2011 Genealogy Workshop sponsored by the Cass County Historical Society Museum in Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

Gail will present Genealogy 101 - help budding researchers to get started on their family history journey and Genealogy 102 - how to work on the next level of your family tree.

There will be two opportunities for participants to make use of resources at the Cass County Museum, such as newspapers on microfilm, family history files, scrapbooks and history books. Gail and the museum staff will be available to help.

Check-in is at 9:45, with the day's activities running from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Subway sandwiches will be provided for lunch and are included in the registration fee.

The cost is $20 for Cass County Museum members and $35.00 for non-members. Deadline for registration is September 1, 2011 and is nonrefundable.

Cass County Historical Society Museum

646 Main Street

Plattsmouth, Nebraska

402.296.4770

ccohsm@windstream.net

With my maternal roots planted firmly in Cass County, I'm certainly making plans to be there!

Cass County Nebraska - web site resources

Plattsmouth is the county seat of Cass County, Nebraska where a lot of my research is focused. The city of Plattsmouth web site is located at http://www.plattsmouth.org/

Once on the page, click on Departments, then select Library for the new web location of the Plattsmouth Library. The library can also be found on Facebook.

Under the Living in Plattsmouth menu item, you'll find a link to the Cass County Museum - an essential research location for anyone doing research in the county.

Also of help is the Cass County web site. Here's a quick look at the history and towns of Cass county.

Another interesting web site is the Plattsmouth Covservancy. Who's up for the Haunted Victorian Ghost Walk? That will take place October 22 and 23. I might be interested if it wasn't after dark! BOO!

Cass County, Nebraska Marriages now online

I'm very pleased to report that the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society (GOGS) has added a site for Cass County (Nebraska) marriages. Once you click on that link, entries are listed in alphabetical order by surname under "Pages."

Right off the bat, I found an entry for my great-grandfather's brother, William D. Kelly, Jr. and Mary "Mollie" Kelleher, as follows:

KELLY, William D.; 22; md.: Mollie Kealeher; 24; C2 Feb 1885 p 433

Mollie's surname was frequently spelled incorrectly in many records, so the misspelling here is no surprise.

What IS surprising is that the couple also took out a marriage license in neighboring Lancaster county to be married on February 10, 1886 [Lancaster county marriage records, Book 7, Page 5 - Lincoln Lancaster County Genealogical Society searchable database]. That record gives William's age as 23 (a year older) and Mollie's age as 22 (two years younger!).


Clearly, the couple took out a marriage license in both counties. The Cass county index site states, "Our site is merely an index to marriages, and we include those who got a license, but did not actually marry (or at least they didn't return the license to indicate they did".


Had the couple planned to marry in Cass county in February, 1885? Did they actually get married in Lancaster county in February, 1886?

According to his tombstone, their first child, Willie Kelly, was born March 4, 1886 and died December 14 of that year. Did they marry a year before Willie was born or did they marry three weeks before he was born? And if they married in 1885 in Cass county, why did they take out a marriage license in Lancaster county a year later?

It's another family history mystery to be solved, but going back to the original source documents for both marriage licenses may shed some light on the mystery.

As it turned out, William died in 1889 at age 38. Mollie married his brother, Michael C. Kelly, a year and a half later, again in February (February 7, 1901).

I want to thank the diligent people at GOGS for adding Cass county marriages to their ongoing list of projects. In addition to Cass county, the Society also has some online indexes for Hall, Rock, Sarpy, Thurston and Wayne counties, as well as the Omaha death, birth and marriage indexes. Nice job!