Walter Claude Cridlin - Escapee

Walter Claude Cridlin – he may be tough to track down but it turns out he had a good reason to hide. 

Walter (b. 1/11/1900 Md. – d. 2/12/1995 NC) was the son of Thomas Clifton Cridlin, the grandson of Mary Regina Giesrehn (her spelling) Cridlin and the great-grandson of Frederick Gisriel (Gießenregen).  Other than his vital dates, I knew little about him until today.  His 1930 census record said he was divorced and the NC death index said that he was a widower but I had not found who he married.  With some more digging, I found a little about his tough life and a fortunate divorce.

Walter was born in Baltimore, had moved with the family to Richmond by 1910 and by 1920, he was serving in the military as a fireman, stationed in San Diego.  When he moved back to Richmond after being discharged, he ended up boarding in the home of Stella Collier.  Stella’s husband was disabled so the Colliers took in boarders in order to keep food on the table for their children.  One of those children was Mozelle Collier and here is a timeline of her story.

17 Jun 1911 – Mozelle was born in North Carolina, the third of four children of Claude and Stella Collier.  By 1920, the family had moved to Bibb, Georgia and shortly after that they moved again to Richmond.

Late 1926 – when Mozelle was 15 years old, a 28-year-old travelling salesman named Harry E. Bordenstein “committed a statutory offense against” Mozelle.  When he was caught, he promised to take her to Washington DC to marry her.  He did take her there but never married her.  She made her way back home and her mother was not happy.  She pressed the police to prosecute Harry but she also arranged for her daughter to respectable.

15 Jan 1927 – Mozelle, at 15 years and 7 months old, married Walter Claude Cridlin who was 27 years old at the time and a salesman living with the family.

25 Oct 1928 – Mozelle and Walter divorced without any children.  Let’s call that #1.

4 May 1929 – Mozelle finally finds true love and married Charles L. Mansini in Richmond.

11 Feb 1933 – in anticipation of Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Mozelle was granted a divorce against the adulterous Charles.  #2

8 Jan 1935 – Mozelle met and married the man she could not live without.  Or “with” either.  Troy Webster Ringer, a 40-year-old widower and father of a 12-year-old daughter, became the third husband of 23-year-old Moselle.  This could finally be THE one for Mozelle.  Troy was a farmer and part-time coal miner living in Terra Alta, West Virginia.  Mozelle was working there as a nurse at the time but the new family soon decided to move to Richmond and the lights of the big city.  Troy was able to land a job selling insurance.  In the middle of the Great Depression, it was good to be married to a hardworking man with a job.

11 Apr 1935 – this divorce set a record.  Barely three months after the wedding, Troy Ringer’s bell tolls that he is #3.  He should have taken the hint.

17 Aug 1935 – Mozelle tried a new tactic to break her bad luck.  She married in Washington DC instead of Virginia and she married an even older man.  46-year-old Joseph Lawrence Hill became the fourth husband of 24-year-old Mozelle and he would certainly have the maturity and patience for a long, happy marriage.

Sometime in 1936 – old Joe Hill went over the hill and became Mozelle’s #4 ex-husband.  Oh well… (stay with me; it gets much more interesting)

15 Oct 1936 – guess who is back?  Mozelle rolled the dice and married Troy Ringer once again.  It was magic this time.  This marriage lasted almost ten years.  Sure, there were the times that the police were called to the house when Mozelle was stabbing Troy with a knife but what is a passionate relationship without a few hiccups? 

1 May 1946 – Troy and Mozelle finally threw in the towel.  The marriage was beyond repair and the two just couldn’t be together anymore.  The only question was whether I call this #5 or #4½ or #3a.  I’ll let you decide.

3 Sept 1946 – after a respectable period of courtship, Mozelle married John McGuire Trice.  By now, you know what is going to happen.  John was 64 years old at the time they were married.  Mozelle was 35.  The problem was that every time Mozelle heard her new last name “Trice”, she though she heard “Thrice” and thought “yes, why not marry Troy a third time”.

30 Dec 1947 – John got the hint and divorced Mozelle on the grounds of abandonment.  He was #5 or #6.  I don’t know; I’ve lost count.  Mozelle had moved in with Troy about six months earlier and was later described in the newspapers as “a housekeeper and fiancée”.  The next entry still might surprise you.

1 May 1948 – on the second anniversary of the end of their second marriage, Troy and Mozelle had a “family squabble”.  It must have been a doozie.  Mozelle shot Troy at point blank range in the face with a rifle.  Troy died immediately, aged 52.  They had been expecting to be married quite soon.  They had even already taken their pre-marital blood-tests and as soon as Troy got his syphilis treated, they were going to get the marriage license.

23 Nov 1948 – This was a good day for Mozelle; she was acquitted of murder.  She had claimed self-defense and with no fancy CSI, NCIS, CSI: Miami or CSI: NY evidence, she was cleared of all charges.

24 Nov 1948 – Mozelle celebrated her victory in the only way she know how.  She married Eddie Nelson Sharpe, a divorcee who was only ten years her senior.  Other than another stabbing incident in 1950 and a subsequent observation period in a mental hospital, I don’t know how the marriage went. 

13 Feb 1973 – Mozelle passed away from natural causes in Glen Allen, Virginia.  Her death certificate says that she was a widow of Eddie Sharpe who had passed away in 1969. 

I hope Mozelle has found peace. 

I am glad though that cousin Walter escaped early but was his brief marriage to Mozzelle the reason that he was listed as a widower when he died in 1995?  I guess I have more work to do.

The children and grandchildren of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon

This tree, showing the children and grandchildren of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon also shows the number of children that were born to each of the grandchildren.  After an impressive start of ten children and 36 grandchildren, the following generation produced only 55 children.  As of May 2020, only four of that generation of direct descendants survive.

Things picked back up by the time of James and Catherine's great-great-grandchildren as there were 137 in that generation, as well as 262 in the next generation.  So far, there are 265 great-great-great-great-grandchildren and 44 more children born to them.  That is a lot of direct descendants and these are just the ones that I could find.
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This is a photo of the original parish registry for St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Philadelphia showing the entry for the 1 January 1849 wedding of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon.  As you may expect, it is in Latin.  The witnesses were John and Joan Devlin and the priest was Fr. William Loughran.
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The gravestone of James and Catherine McGovern in Baltimore's New Cathedral Cemetery, also know as Bonnie Brae Cemetery.

The initials after the death date in the tree above tells where the person was buried.
NCC = New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore (followed by plot number)
LPC = Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore
SPC = St. Peter's Cemetery, Baltimore
BNC = Baltimore National Cemetery
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham, Pa.
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The Dixon Family in Ireland....

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A letter from Emma L. Smith, a granddaughter of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon, to her niece which was written in 1975.  In it, she writes about the McGovern and Dixon families in Ireland.  Note that she had incorrectly identified Archbishop Dixon as a cousin of her grandmother, rather than a brother.  The biography of the Archbishop contradicts this.

Who was Margaret C. O'Neill Brennan?

I started this post as somewhat of an electronic worksheet.  A DNA relative on Ancestry.com had a tree that showed some ancestors Nicholas T. Brennan and "Margaret Ella".  There was little information about them but one thing was clear, they lived in Baltimore.  Although I could not know for sure which branch of the Ancestry member's family I was related to, I thought this was the best place to look as my family goes back five generations in Baltimore.

From the list of DNA relatives that we shared, I knew that the member was connected through my McGovern / Dixon branch and she was estimated to be my 4th to 6th cousin.

It took three hard days of work but eventually, I was able to build this tree around Margaret and Nicholas:

nc - no children

nm - never married

c - had children but not named here for confidentiality reasons

SMG - St. Mary's Govans Cemetery

NCC - New Cathedral Cemetery

BNC - Baltimore National Cemetery

SAE - Saint Augustine's Elkridge Cemetery

Some of the pieces of evidence to prove the family, with notes from when I found them)  include:

This is the index card from the Maryland State Archives where wedding licenses and weddings were recorded.

This is the 1900 census form showing Margaret O'Neill and Nicholas Thomas Brennan family.  Note the last name in the home: Jane O'Neil, born in August 1823 in Ireland.  She was listed as "mother" but it is most likely Margaret's mother, rather than Nicholas'.

This is the obituary for Margaret C. O'Neill Brennan who died on 29 September 1911 in Baltimore.  Note that she has a sister named Ella O'Neill.

Nicholas Thomas Brennan appears to have died in Baltimore around early August, 1939.

Interestingly, Nicholas appears to have married again after Margaret died.  I am willing to bet you a dollar to a hole in a donut that his second wife was Margaret's sister, Ella, based on the following obituary:

The sister shown as "Mrs. Christopher Maddox" in Margaret's obituary was Catherine Alice O'Neill (12/1862 Md. - 9/26/1934 Md.).  Christopher died on 2/22/1907 in Baltimore and is buried with his wife in New Cathedral Cemetery.  They had three sons, only one of whom appeared to have married.

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The obituary of the mother of the three girls leads me to believe that she is the link to my family.  My great-great-grandmother was Catherine Dixon, the sister of Joseph Dixon, the prelate of Ireland.  I knew from Joseph's biography that their mother's name was Jane Casey and that they also had a sister named Jane.  This sister though was born about 1815 and she had married James Magill and stayed in County Tyrone, Ireland when her sister Catherine came to the US.  Based on the name and date of birth, I suspect that Jane Dixon O'Neill  is most likely a cousin of my great-great-grand mother Catherine Dixon.  That would make the Ancestry member my fifth cousin.

The obituary of the father of the three girls was easier to find after finding Jane's.

One surprise popped up while I was looking for the father though.  Margaret, Catherine and Ella had an older brother that died, unmarried, many years before the girls did.

Is this John Galvin "our John Galvin?

I think I found another Galvin family member, a brother for William, Patrick and Honoria (as well as Mary, Michael and Ellen).  I was 100% sure until today but now I am down a few percentage points because I do not have any DNA relatives in Ancestry that match any of John Galvin Jr’s descendants.  It’s possible that none of them have done the Ancestry test but I sure would prefer to have that confirmation. [edited to add: I have since confirmed some DNA matches to this branch.  It IS "our" John.]

From Uncle Herbert O'Conor’s biography, I knew there was a brother named John but I could never find anyone who knew even an estimated birth year for him, much less any spouse or offspring.

I was looking through the Irish Civil records (https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp) for any Galvins in the Loughrea district when I stumbled on a “John Galvin” married to Margaret Heavey who were having a bunch of babies in the village of Attymon during the 1870’s.  I checked google maps and Attymon is in the Kiltullagh parish, less that 4km away from the cottage where John Galvin and Honoria Connaughton raised their family.

That looked like something interesting to investigate further but while searching for John and Margaret’s children, I found another “John Galvin” who was married to Anne Hurley.  They had five children around the 1860’s and their village, according to the handwritten civil records, was Gortakeeran.  I checked where that was and after I got back up off the floor, I smiled a lot.  Gortakeeran was the very small cluster of farms exactly where John and Honoria raised their family.  According to the Griffith’s Valuation records (http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/), John Galvin Sr. AND John Galvin Jr. were tenant farmers on several plots of land in that village.  Irish relatives have also confirmed the cottage on one of those plots as their ancestral home.

I have shown below the documentation for this branch of the family.  Let me know if you see any error or hiccups in my thinking.

Incidentally, while I was putting this together, I noticed that the land next to the Galvin cottage was farmed by Patrick Hurley.  I wonder if he had a daughter named “Anne”? 

Fingers crossed, I will try to contact some of John Galvin Jr’s descendants on Ancestry to ask if they have done the DNA test.  I sure hope John wasn’t adopted.

This shows the nearby Thomas Connor lands mentioned in the O'Conor biography

Mary Foley & James Connaughton

James Connaughton's (b. 12 Nov 1820 Co. Galway - d. 10 Jan 1896, Baltimore, Md.) first wife, Mary Kelley, died about 1875 when their surviving children, John and James were about 16 and 11 years old, respectively.  According to the Maryland State Archives, James Connaughton married Mary Foley shortly after 10 May 1877, when their marriage license was issued.

There are many notices in the papers that James Connaughton was the Executor of the will for Michael Foley who died in Baltimore in 1871.  Michael Foley's wife was named Mary according to some of the estate notices.  I had assumed that James Connaughton had married Michael's widow after James' first wife died.  Unfortunately, I could not find any census data for Michael or Mary to confirm this.  Also, many of the details on the Maryland State Archives marriage index cards were not completed. I did know from the 1880 census, however, that James' new wife was supposedly born about 1858 in Maryland.

Again, Michael's census data did not seem to be indexed in the Ancestry.com database and searches for him turned up no results.  Newspapers.com didn't help much either although Michael Foley's name is found many times.  All I knew for sure about him was that he was in the liquor business, occasionally had trouble with the law and died between mid-December 1870 and mid-December 1871. 

A clue to solve this mystery came several years later though.  I found a 13 Aug 1882 death notice in the papers for Annie Foley, "daughter of Michael and Mary Foley".  When I searched Ancestry for Annie to see if she was related to "our Mary Foley", I thought I disproved the theory that James married Michael's widow.  I not only found Annie's 1880 census report but that also linked to her 1870 and 1860 census, showing her parents.  Her father, Michael, died sometime between the 1870 and 1880 census years and was in the liquor business.  It looked pretty likely that I found the right family.  Michael's widow, Mary Foley, appears to have been born around 1835 in Ireland though, rather than the 1858 in Maryland.  Also, Mary Foley was still listed as a widow in the 1880 census and obviously did not marry James in 1877.  

In summary, James Connaughton did not marry Michael Foley's widow.  

That's it.  Case closed.  At least, I thought so.  

As I looked at the Foley census data, something else struck me.  Michael and Mary Foley had other children, in addition to the Annie that I had stumbled upon.  They also had a daughter named Mary.  Born in 1858.  Born in Maryland.  Hmmmm…. 

Some of the documentation

A Family Pretzel - the life and times in a small Tennessee county in the mid-19th century.

You already know that Harriet Jane Carson was our great-great-grandmother, the wife of Hayden Gentry.  Jane’s father was Daniel Atkins Carson and he was a first cousin of Reuben Atkins.  Reuben, like many of the Atkins family, moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in the 1830s and married Lettice Mullins who just happened to be the young sister of Frances Mullins, the wife of Reuben’s older brother, David.  Two bothers marrying two sister was not uncommon at the time and certainly not uncommon in our family.  It’s not the subject of this story but it does set a bit of a precedence.

Reuben and Lettice had twelve children but this story involves only three: James Thomas Atkins (1838 – 1851), Martha Frances Atkins (1830 – 1859) and Susan Amanda Atkins (1844 – 1927).  So far, so good.

In October 1848, James married Luvurnia Elizabeth Chambers (1834 – 1865) and had twin sons, John Chambers Atkins and Reuben Lafayette Atkins twelve months later.  Sadly, James passed away in July 1851 before the twins’ second birthday.  For a while, I could not find out what happened to them or the mother but I eventually found them all with a new family and a father who gave the twins a new last name.  Luvurnia married Wiles Cooke Meeks (1834 – 1918) in early 1853.  I don’t know if the descendants of the twins, John Chambers Meeks and Reuben Lafayette Meeks, know that Wiles was not their blood ancestor but it appears that no one on Ancesty.com has figured it out yet.  Still, that is not the point of this story.

The twins’ mother, Luvurnia Elizabeth Chambers Atkins Meeks, died in November, 1865 just after the boys’ 16^th birthday.  Their adoptive father apparently took care of the boys, just like his own children, their half-siblings.  Wiles Meeks wasted no time in finding a new mother of his children and in January, 1866 married Rebecca Jennie Chambers (1849 – 1929).  Wait!  What?  Was Rebecca Chambers the sister of Luvurnia Chambers?   The answer surprised me greatly.

The answer, technically, was “no”.  Rebecca was the daughter of Cyrus Lafayette Chambers (1829 – 1892) whereas Luvurnia was the daughter of someone named John Chambers.  A little more digging revealed some fun facts though when I saw that the father of Cyrus was also named John.  Cyrus was, in fact, the older brother of Luvurnia so, in summary, his daughter Rebecca was now taking the place of her aunt in the bed of Wiles Meeks.  With me so far?

A little more digging brought up the name of the wife of Cyrus Lafayette Chambers and mother of Rebecca.  Her name was Martha Frances Atkins.  Huh?  Yes, this was the sister of James Thomas Atkins.  A new summary is that her daughter was now married to the second husband of her brother’s widow.  Confusing, right?  Remember though, if you look back, Martha passed away in July, 1859, seven years before her daughter married her brother’s widow’s widowed second husband.  She certainly didn’t care, Right?

To round everything up though, I should point out that two years after Martha passed away, her husband, Cyrus took another wife.  Like everyone else in the story, he didn’t look far.  His new wife was Susan Amada Atkins, the younger sister of both James and Martha.  Summarized once again, Susan’s step-daughter/niece married her brother’s widow’s widowed second husband.

All clear?

William Kendrick Carson, my hero

I had fun figuring out a family today. William Kendrick Carson (1832-1936) was a first cousin of our great-great-grandmother, Harriet Jane Carson (wife of Haden Gentry). William married someone six years his junior, named Mary Ann, around 1862 in Nashville, Illinois. William and Mary Ann had five children that survived infancy before Mary Ann died on 27 August 1877.

William, now 45 years old, wasted little time and married 19 year-old Amanda soon enough that she was able to give birth to a boy, Zenas (!), on 2 June 1878. You do the math. Amanda and William had three more children, two dying in infancy (Smiley! and Landy) before Amanda died at 26 years old on 2 April 1884.

Poor William felt lonely at 52 years-old, with small kids to take care of but waited anyway.... for about six weeks before marrying 18 year-old Vienna in the middle of May 1884. Vienna bore three children who survived infancy but William wore her out too. Vienna passed away at 32 years-old on 12 October 1898.

After a respectable mourning period of about three months, William went on to marry one last time in January, 1899 and, tired from all the kids, married 62 year-old Paulina Anna Snead. In all, there were 16 children that William fathered with only ten of them surviving infancy.

Now, do you want to hear the funny part? It took a lot of digging but I found out Mary Ann's maiden name. It was Ragland. Where had I seen that before? Oh yeah, Amanda's maiden name was also Ragland. It turns out that Amanda's father was a first cousin of Mary Ann. What a coincidence! And what about Vienna? Yep - she was Ragland too. Amanda was her older sister. So far, I can not figure out if Paulina was related to the Ragland wife factory.... but I'm still looking.

[Edited to add "The Rest of the Story"]  I was tired of looking at all the Raglands and Carsons after finding this family story almost two years ago.  I was looking at the family again recently and was reminded of this story.  I had another look at Paulina Anna "Polly" Snead.  It turns out that she was not related to the Raglands.  It also turned out that William Kendrick Carson was her second marriage.  She was a widow when she married.  Her first husband was named Robert Huston Carson... William's older brother.  Who saw that coming?

Finally, while checking out Polly Snead, I noticed her mother's maiden name was Troutt. That's interesting.  Robert and William's eldest sister, Lucinda, married a man named Elijah Troutt from the same county that Paulina came from.  Coincidence??  You decide!