I have a family record written in 1942, from the perspective of my grandmother, ten years before her death. That record was hand copied, mimeographed, and passed down to my generation. It’s my guide in research for research about my great-grandmother and her siblings. So far, the information recorded there has been verified through documents that I’ve found, in particular, census records from Chicago. Some records from Ireland also align with my grandmother’s record, but more often than not, I find myself using the record to scrutinize, think carefully, and put aside a tempting link found online. 

The record has taken a bit of deciphering. I’ve included one page of it, titled “Ancestors”  at the end of this post. Let me briefly walk you through the Golden section, which encompasses the lower third of the page.

This  page is structured like a tree with the trunk on the left and branches on the right. In the leftmost column: “All born in Ireland.” Moving to the right: “Grandparents – Mother’s parents.” The third column from the left lists two people: “John T. Connelly – only child, died about 80 yrs” and Catherine Golden Connelly, died 82 yrs.”

In the final column on the right,  gathered together in a bracket on the left that points to Catherine Golden is a list of names, which I infer from the organization of the document, would be a list of my great-grandmother’s siblings. The names are followed by dashes with a further list of names. Those, based upon census information I have found, are the children of my great-grandmother’s siblings. Spouses are not included.

This list encompasses the following names

Ned – in Eng. navy

Anthony – John, Annie, Molly, Tony, Sadie

John – Annie, Edward, John, Lizzie, Joe

Pat – John, Nellie Collison, Willie

Maria – unmarried

Anthony, Patrick, and John, and their families are found in Chicago census documents, I believe, with pretty high certainty because the names of the children match those listed above. The census records also indicate that the children of my great-uncles are listed above in birth order.

I have found census records for Maria, but with somewhat less certainty except for the year 1900, in which Maria (“aunt”) is found living with head of household John Golden (born 1875) and John’s sister Eleanor and brother William. As the reader can see, that maps exactly unto the list of Pat Golden’s children in the Family Record.