Twists of Fate

Some of you may have heard me complain about this before, but it bears repeating - it really bugs me when people disappear from the family tree. It happens more often than I'd like, too. People are there in one census and then poof! 10 years later, they're gone. No newspaper clippings, no death certificate, no marriage records. Nothing. Just...gone. Some of these people can eventually be found through a lot of hard searching, diligence and patience, but others will never be found.

I recently came across some startling information about just how close we came to having yet another member drop off the Hogan family tree. I've exchanged a few emails with a wonderful new cousin of ours, the daughter of one of Grannie's cousins, and she shared a newspaper article about the death of Frank Hogan, the brother of her grandfather, Harry Hogan, and my great-grandfather, Joseph Hogan.

Joseph and Harry had two older brothers - Frank and George - and a younger sister. Sadly, both brothers died at a relatively young age (24 and 26, respectively), and within a year of each other. I had found death certificates for both brothers, so I knew that George had died of pneumonia/meningitis and Frank had died in a railroad accident. Not much of a mystery here...or so I thought until our cousin shared the newspaper article.

As it turns out, Frank was very nearly another large question mark on our family tree.

In the early morning hours on May 1, 1912, Frank was struck by a train in Ashland, Ohio and killed instantly. Frank was not local to Ashland, so he was not known to the local authorities. Without any identification on the body, Frank was sent to the local funeral home as an unidentified body.

According to the article, a steady stream of people came through the funeral home to view the body over the next few days. With no identification, though, preparations were under way to bury Frank's body in the local "potters field" - the poor man's cemetery, where he would have been just another unidentified grave - on Sunday.

Fortunately, on Saturday afternoon, an unknown man arrived at the funeral parlor, according to the newspaper "drawn by curiosity," and identified the body as being Frank's. Ashland police contacted Mansfield police, and the Hogan family was notified.

The newspaper article further states that Frank's father, Michael Hogan, and his two brothers traveled to Ashland and identified the body. In 1912, Joe Hogan would have been 20 years old and Harry would have been 22. Frank's body had to have been horrific to see - according to the article, "the right arm and leg was cut from the body and internal injuries made death practically instantaneous." I can't even imagine what it must have been like for Joe and Harry to have to see their brother like that at such a young age.

Which brings me to another interesting possibility raised by this story. Grannie told me that it was her understanding that she had been named Frances after her mother's favorite brother, Frank, who had died in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. After researching the Fagan family, though, I am positive that none of the 11 Fagan children died during the Spanish flu - and none of them were named Frank.

Reading the article about Frank Hogan has me thinking, though - what if Grannie had assumed only been given an approximate year of death and had just made the assumption it was the flu epidemic? It wouldn't be the first time someone made an assumption about our family history, that's for sure. And what if she had the wrong side of the family? Her parents named their first son after Grandma Hogan's father, and their second after Joseph himself. Seeing his brother in the condition he must have been in after his death had to have been traumatic for Grandpa Hogan, so it's certainly possible that he chose to name his third child in honor of his late brother.

If that unknown man hadn't wandered into the funeral home, Frank Hogan's fate might never have been known. His family would have spent the rest of their lives wondering if Frank had simply run off, not knowing where he was or what had become of him. And maybe, if that had happened, Grannie Frannie wouldn't have been Frannie at all...

What's that they say about a butterfly flapping its wings?

Mistaken Identity

Today, while sorting through some of my family pictures to find one I wanted to send to my cousin, I noticed something odd in a photograph that had been labelled "Catherine Hogan & John"...namely, that the woman in the picture didn't actually look much like my great-grandmother. I had scanned and filed the picture last November, and must have been in a hurry when I did so, because I had never noticed this before. I had another picture of Grandma Hogan from a similar time period, and a comparison confirmed what I thought - this woman was not Grandma Hogan. Just to be sure, I had my dad take another look at the two pictures, and he agreed - the woman in question was definitely not his grandmother.

It was then that I actually looked at what she was wearing. The woman in this picture was wearing a uniform which I quickly recognized from my research into another member of the family - a World War I Navy uniform. Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed that I just glanced over this picture and didn't notice the uniform earlier. There's really only one woman this could be - Marie Hogan, sister of my great-grandfather Joseph Hogan, who served in the Navy in World War I as a part of the first group of women ever allowed to legally enlist in non-nurse roles.

So, here's the picture with the correct information:

Marie Catherine Hogan with her nephew, John Hogan, circa 1918/19; probably Bronx, New York.

One Puzzle Solved...

In an earlier post, I briefly mentioned the "mystery" of the sixth child of Michael and Sarah Hogan, my great-great grandparents. In the 1900 and 1910 censuses, Michael and Sarah are listed along with six children - Patrick, George, Frank, Harry, Joseph and Marie. These two censuses, however, were also the only two censuses to pose the following two questions to all women - "Mother of how many children?" and "How many children living?" In other words, how many children have you given birth to, and how many are still alive. These questions can be very useful in genealogy - in many cases, they are the only clues to point us toward children that were born and died between census years.

For Sarah Hogan, the answer to both these questions was '5' in both censuses, in spite of the fact that there were six individuals listed as 'son' or 'daughter' for Sarah and Michael. A closer look at the ages of the children showed that Patrick Hogan was born around 1979, a good three or four years before the estimated date of marriage for Michael and Sarah - a good clue that Patrick was the "extra" of the six children.

My first thought upon reading this was that perhaps Michael Hogan had been married before Sarah and that the oldest son, Patrick, was the result of that marriage. Unfortunately, shortly after coming up with that hypothesis, I located Michael in the 1880 census - living with his sister and mother, and listed as 'single,' with no sign of a son. So, scratch the first marriage theory.

That was a few weeks ago, and the discovery of a very extensive new line on my mother's side of the family (look for a post on that soon) put this mystery on the back-burner for a little while. Then, this past weekend, I started doing a little internet research on what sorts of records were available for Mansfield, Ohio (where Michael and Sarah lived). All I have to say is this - God bless the good people of the OhioGenWeb project and, more specifically, the volunteers who put together the Richland County, Ohio site. This amazing resource is full of records on Richland County - of which Mansfield is the county seat.

A quick search of the site for the surname 'Hogan' turned up a handful of promising looking resources - among them, an article on the opening of the new county Children's Home, dated June 6, 1883. The article included a list of the twenty-odd children currently in the home, including...you guessed it...one 'Patrick Hogan'. Then, just a few records later, another article, this one entitled "Children From The Children's Home Indentured," listing several children from the Children's Home and the families who had taken them in. Second on the list: "Patrick Hogan...to Michael Hogan, policeman, Mansfield. June 31, 1883."

So, I now knew that Patrick Hogan was indeed adopted by Michael Hogan. The question remained, though, of why Michael and Sarah would have adopted a child. That's not to say that adopting a child isn't a wonderful thing, but at that time, it generally wasn't done unless the couple couldn't have children of their own, or unless there was some personal connection to the child. The fact that Sarah and Michael would have five children of their own over the next ten years mostly rules out infertility, which leaves a personal connection - even more likely because Patrick's name appears to have been 'Hogan' even before the adoption.

Last night, I finally had a chance to take a close look at the baptism records of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Mansfield. As I was looking for my direct relatives, I came across the entry for the baptism of one 'Patrick Hogan'. His parents are listed as 'Cornelius Hogan and Mary McCahill'. And the biggest clue of all...Patrick's godfather, none other than Michael Hogan. There was the personal connection I'd been looking for!

I know absolutely nothing about Michael's family, so right now, I can only speculate on his exact connection to Cornelius Hogan. Were they brothers? Cousins, maybe? More research will be needed to figure out their exact connection.

Other questions come out of this new discovery, too: What happened to Cornelius Hogan and Mary McCahill? There are four other Hogans in the 1883 Children's Home list - John, age 11; Cornelius, age 5; Ellen, age 7; and Catherine, age 2. The article that lists Patrick's adoption also lists the adoption of Cornelius, John and Ellen by a 'Cornelius McCahill' - perhaps a brother of Mary's? Are these Patrick's siblings? If so, what became of the youngest of Cornelius and Mary's children, Catherine?

Joseph Leo Hogan

Joseph Leo Hogan was born in Mansfield, Ohio on February 12, 1892, the fifth of six* children born to Michael J. Hogan, an Irish immigrant, and his wife Sarah, the Ohio-born daughter of Irish immigrants. Joseph's father, Michael, worked as a laborer in a boiler shop - with six young children, one can probably assume that money was tight for the Hogan family at the turn of the century.

At the young age of 7 or 8, Joseph took a job walking dogs for the owner of the Ohio Brass Company, which had its headquarters in Mansfield. By the time Joseph was in his mid-teens, he was working full-time in the offices of Ohio Brass. Within a few years of his eighteenth birthday, sometime between 1910 and 1917, Ohio Brass transferred Joseph to their Northeast regional office in New York City, where he became Chief Clerk. The rest of the Hogan family - Joseph's parents and five siblings - remained in Mansfield, Ohio.

Shortly after his move to New York, Joseph met Catherine Margaret Fagan, the daughter of Irish immigrants, who lived with her family in Westchester County, New York. On October 9, 1917, Joseph and Catherine were married at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Scarsdale, New York, in a ceremony officiated by Rev. William C. Rourke. Catherine's older brother, Edward Fagan, served as Joseph's best man, while Catherine's maid of honor was Kathryn Callery, who four years later would become Catherine's sister-in-law when she married Edward.

After his marriage, Joseph brought his widowed father, apparently now blind and in poor health, out from Ohio to live with his new family in Manhattan. On July 28, 1918, Joseph and Catherine welcomed their first child, John E. Hogan. By 1920, Joseph had also been promoted at Ohio Brass, this time from clerk to salesman.

After the birth of his second son, Joseph, in 1921, he and Catherine moved their young family out of the city to the town of Teaneck, New Jersey, where they purchased a home at 583 Wyndham Road. In 1925, the family expanded again, this time with the birth of a daughter, Frances. Two years later, Joseph and Catherine welcomed their fourth and last child, another daughter, Rosemary.

Joseph's career with the Ohio Brass Company continued to flourish, as he eventually rose to sales manager (or some similar title - his exact job title is unknown) for the entire Northeast region. This stable career allowed the family to remain relatively sheltered from the economic woes of the Great Depression. In fact, throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph and Catherine opened their home to a variety of friends and temporary lodgers.

On January 20, 1950, Joseph died in Teaneck, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife, Catherine; his four children, John, Joseph, Frances and Rosemary; and several grandchildren. When he left Ohio, Joseph left behind five siblings: four brothers, Patrick Arthur, George M, Frank J, Harry Thomas, and one sister, Marie. At least one brother, George, preceded Joseph in death, and he was survived by at least one brother, Harry. At this time, I don't know exactly what happened to the remaining three siblings after Joseph left Ohio, but hopefully research will turn up something eventually.


Next steps: Thus far, the majority of my research on the Hogan family has been focused on census and birth/death records. To go into further depth and better trace Joseph's parents and siblings, I would like to start looking at church records. Fortunately, there is only one Catholic church in Mansfield, St. Peter's, founded in 1844. St. Peter's has also had its own cemetery since sometime in the 1860s. Given the fact that our Hogans did not arrive in Mansfield until the 1870s, it is highly probable that they will be found in the records of St. Peter's, and that those who died in Mansfield will be found in the Mansfield Catholic Cemetery.

St. Peter's is part of the Diocese of Toledo, which according to its website has microfilmed all parish records up to and including the year 1930. The diocese maintains a copy of the microfilmed records, as do two libraries in Ohio. Most importantly for my research, the diocese website says that it also provided a copy to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. If this is indeed the case, I should be able to request these records be sent to my local Family History Center (sort of like a little branch of the main library) and have access to them there.

*Quick note on the Hogan children - there is some confusion as to whether the oldest child, Patrick, is actually a biological child of Michael. He is almost certainly not Sarah's biological child. It is possible that he was either adopted or fostered by the family, or that Michael was married before Sarah and Patrick is his son from that marriage. I am hoping that something in church records will shed light on this little mystery.