After Many Years

 

Buffalo Courier Express, 6 Mar 1899.

In September, I shared an 1899 news clipping on the reunion between Agnes Atherton O'Brien Gillette and her father John O'Brien. Above is another article, appearing in the Buffalo (New York) Courier Express, which has a slightly different telling of their meeting, and mentioning a few points that did not make it into the Shelby County News-Gazette article. This answers a question I had back then, wondering if she reconnected with her brother John and his family.

My great-grandfather Harry O'Brien would have been about 14 then, and likely met Agnes during her visit with the family in Shelbyville.

Another version of this reunion appeared in the Chicago Inter Ocean on 5 March 1899.

Inter Ocean. 5 Mar 1899.

Seattle Skyline

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Seattle, 27 July 2024.

NYC Street Art 2024

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. William Wegman, NYC. 18 July 2024.

Last week we were in New York City to see the Foo Fighters, and caught some bonus street art in subway stations and around the East Village area where we caught lunch last Thursday (go, run & eat at Superiority Burger, it's so good). Above is a mosaic panel as you walk down the steps into the 23rd Street Station. I really wish I had been more aware and captured shots of the other dog murals in the station. That will have to wait for our next trip to NYC as we seem to really like this area as a base for visiting the city.

I really love NYC. It's a city I've been fortunate to visit many times over the years, and experience it in different ways both for work, visiting the UN, or for fun family visits to museums and concerts.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Fish mosaic, Delancey Street Station.

Photo by Patrick Jones. NYC, 18 July 2024.

Photo by Patrick Jones. 18 July 2024.

Tree Consistency

 

Message from MyHeritage.

MyHeritage has a helpful tree consistency checker. One issue with this checker is it keeps sending me messages on issues I've already cleared. The one above is for Agnes Atherton O'Brien, who I've already validated as accurate. Yes, her father really was around 64 when Agnes was born in La Salle, Illinois.

Foos in NYC

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Foo Fighters, NYC. 17 Jul 2024. 

On Wednesday, Allison & I rode the train up to NYC to see the Foo Fighters kick off their summer tour at Citi Field. We had high hopes for the show. In 2022, we had tickets to see the Foo Fighters, before that tour was cancelled after the untimely death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. Foo Fighters tickets have become notoriously difficult to get for shows in the DC area, so we opted for a mid-week excursion to NYC.

Allison & I had seen the Foos in concert once before, to play an epic show at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana in April 2000. On that tour their opener was Muse, and the headliner was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but we agree the Foo Fighters stole that show. So we were really looking forward to seeing them play live again.

Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us, as the concert was called off early due to severe thunderstorms. We think half a Foo Fighters show was still an amazing show, but it is disappointing our show was cut short after reading reviews about Friday's encore performance at Citi Field. Wolfgang Van Halen's Mammoth and rock legend Chrissie Hynde & the Pretenders were great openers to see for our concert.

We made the most of Thursday in NYC, taking in a visit to the Museum of Modern Art & a wonderful dinner at the Gramercy Tavern. Superiority Burger may have the best vegetarian burger and fries we have ever tried. I was also able to get some bonus street art photos during our visit, which I'll share in another post.

On Friday as airlines and others in the IT sector were hit by a global software outage, we caught Amtrak back to DC for a comfortably quick ride home.  

Terminology updates on AncestryDNA

 

AncestryDNA results for my Dad.

Ahead of the annual update to AncestryDNA's pages, some naming changes are starting to show on the DNA section. The top heading used to be called Ethnicity Estimate, now says Ancestral Regions.

DNA Communities is now called Ancestral Journeys. The DNA Community page for each parent, now says "DNA by Parent" and "Your journeys by parent - beta". Interesting changes, maybe also a sign that the larger update to region results will be coming soon.

AncestryDNA updated FAQs.

Back to NYC

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Murals in Brooklyn. 16 Aug 2017.

Alexandria 275

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Alexandria, 13 Jul 2024.

On Saturday we took in the fireworks over the Alexandria waterfront, viewing from the steps next to the George Washington Masonic Memorial. Above is a shot of the building illuminated in red, white and blue, just prior to the start of the fireworks. Alexandria is celebrating its 275th anniversary. 

Another performer in the family?

 

Walt Kuhn. Young Woman.

For Isabella O'Brien, sister of my 2nd-great-grandfather John O'Brien, I only have a few records. I previously shared these in a post back in October 2023. There is a long gap in the records between her appearance in the 1860 US Census in La Salle County, Illinois at the age of 7, and her death record in 1893. Her younger sister Agnes was a noted performer and actress who spent quite a bit of her time in the Chicago theatre. 

While I do not have verification of this, there is a possibility that Isabella, or known as Belle, was also acting in the Chicago theatre in the mid-1880s. A Belle O'Brien appears in the obituary for a notorious actor who committed suicide in Chicago in February 1885. This Belle is listed as his wife, although it is not clear they were actually married.

Extract from Chicago Tribune, 7 Feb 1885.

According to the lengthy biography for Edward Arnott on the website for the historic New York theatrical club The Lambs, in early 1885 Arnott was living "with actress Belle O'Brien; she was billed as Belle Arnott. The couple told everyone they were married." His story is crazy, and reads like a mini-series. Arnott lived a life full of experiences. 

The newspaper entries on this Belle are very limited and she is only briefly mentioned in the articles about Arnott's death. I'd like to think Isabella and this Belle may have been the same person, but it's impossible to know.

Resting Places

 

Archdiocese of Chicago. Mt. Carmel Cemetery. 

The burial plots for Agnes Atherton O'Brien Gillette, and her sister, Isabella O'Brien, can be found on the Archdiocese of Chicago's Catholic Cemeteries website. Agnes is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery, while Isabella is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Agnes' entry is misspelled as Agnes A. Guilette.

Catholic Cemeteries of Chicago. Agnes' plot.

Memorialized in cartoon form

 

Ripley's Believe It or Not. Indianapolis Star.

A sketch featuring the tombstone of my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien made it into Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoon (undated in the clipping above appearing in the Indianapolis Star, perhaps sometime around 1979 given the copyright in above the Jogger rock drawing image). My Gumpy included this in the short story describing his painting of John O'Brien.

From Findagrave, below is a photo of John's headstone, located in Glenwood Cemetery in Shelbyville, Illinois, just as described in the cartoon.

Source: Findagrave.

Inspiring Stories

 

Cover of book by K. Jones, 2008.

In 2008, my Gumpy put together a collection of short stories based on some of his paintings titled "It's Nothing BUT Personal". One of those stories described a painting he made in 1960 of my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien. I included this painting in my second post on this blog, back in 2012. The copy I have was signed by Gumpy and the chapter on John O'Brien includes a special reference to the work I had done up to then to uncover what we knew about John's life (even if Gumpy did get some of the facts slightly wrong in his written version).

Introduction & dedication.

Listening to Crista Cowan's excellent new podcast Stories that Live in Us, episode 1, I couldn't help but recall the inspiring stories left behind by my Gumpy, and how those have spurred my own genealogical adventures. My Gumpy was curious about the life and story behind John O'Brien's journey to America and settlement in Illinois. John was my grandmother Blanche O'Brien's great-grandfather, not his direct ancestor. In 1960, Blanche was sick with ovarian cancer. Gumpy used painting as therapy, and recreated an original painting of John made by noted Illinois artist Robert Marshall Root. I do not know when in 1960 Gumpy completed his version of the painting, but Blanche passed away on 1 December 1960.

Root is most famous for his painting of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate, now on display at the Illinois State Capitol. He painted portraits of influential people in Shelby County. Root "met John O'Brien later in life and found him to be an interesting character and as the story goes he thought John would be a great subject to paint so he made a painting of the old man." 

The original painting had passed down to Blanche's father, Harry O'Brien. Gumpy wrote that "he had always admired the picture of John O'Brien so I borrowed it and spent a great amount of time to copy it in detail. The completed painting looked identical to the original [by Root]. I was proud of the results but wanted to do something to make it a Keith Jones painting so I added the water scene that is now behind John O'Brien."

Gumpy finished the short story by writing "Now this is the end of my story and I am satisfied that we know a little more about John O'Brien. Still, there is more we do not know and may come to light yet still in my lifetime. Ah, the great mystery of life." We know more today about John's life than we knew in 2008, but there still so many gaps. However, we're incredibly lucky to have an image of John, that Root made the original, it passed down to Harry, and my Gumpy took an interest in making his own take on it.

Painting by K. Jones of John O'Brien, 1960.

Marriage Records

 

FamilySearch. Shelby County, Ill. 1861.

Above is the entry in the register of marriages for Shelby County, Illinois, showing my 3rd-great-grandfather John O'Brien's marriage to second wife Margaret (spelled Haney on the record) on 29 July 1861. She had previously married Martin Heary in Shelby County on 23 September 1857, her maiden name is shown as Fegan.

FamilySearch. Shelby County, Ill. 1857.

Mount Fuji

 

Mount Fuji. Prince Hotel, Kyoto. 9 Sep 2023.

Tomorrow our daughter is flying off to Japan with a school group for her first international solo trip. It is an amazing country, one I've been fortunate to visit twice, in March 2019 and September 2023. Her trip may be more epic than mine, and they are planning to see many major sites, including Mount Fuji seen in the painting above (captured from my hotel in Kyoto in September 2023). We're excited to hear how it goes and hope it is a wonderful trip.

New mural in Old Town

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Alexandria, VA. 6 July 2024.

Fireworks

 

LOC. Carol Highsmith, 4 July 2007. Fireworks over DC.

Happy 4th. Today is likely a quiet day in Northern Virginia as we look to avoid the heat & mosquitos. 

Updated MyHeritage DNA estimates incoming

 

MyHeritage DNA 

I last looked at the ethnicity estimates on MyHeritage DNA back in April 2022. It seems they are introducing an update, and some users are already seeing the revised estimates. I'm interested to see how their "new, improved" estimates line up with my AncestryDNA estimates, which will also be updating again sometime in the months of September/October. 

In the month of July

 

Paul Gabriël. 1889.

We've arrived in the month of July (which is the title of the painting above). Summer is sailing by. School starts up again in eight weeks (!), with one off to college and the other starting sophomore year in high school. For now we're trying to stay cool, planning some back deck coverings to provide some shade from sun, and looking ahead to some mid-July adventures.