Workday Wednesday - Street Commissioner

The 1900 Atlas of Mercer County, Ohio published by J. E. Hamburger & Co. contains a picture and short biography of my 2x great-grandfather, Henry Niehaus. When the atlas was published, he was the Street Commissioner of Celina, Ohio.

Henry was born in 1854, so he would have been 46 or younger when the picture was taken. This is by far the best picture I've seen of him.

The biography reads: HENRY NEIHAUS was born on the twenty-fourth day of September, 1854, in Amt Wildeshausen, Germany. On the twenty-fifth day of January he was united in marriage to Anna (Rohrer); to them were born the following named children: Katie (deceased), Waldburga, Agnes, Anna, Bertha, and Caroline. He is at present serving as street commissioner of the village of Celina, Ohio.

Another small mention of Henry gives his middle initial as "H" and says that he "keeps clean the streets and crossings". I haven't been able to find out how long Henry held the position of Street Commissioner. The 1900 census is the only one that gives "Street Commissioner" as his occupation.

Do You Need a Genealogy Do-Over?

I've been in collecting mode for so long that I think it's finally happened. Not only do I not know where all of my genealogy resources and data are, but there are probably things I've collected that I don't even know I have! On top of that, my latest family tree is a hodgepodge of my earliest finds that I quickly added to the tree, combined with later finds that I attempted to correctly source and document.

Apparently, I'm not alone! Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers has announced his Genealogy Do-Over, starting on January 2.  Thomas is going to set aside his research from the past 20 years and start over and he's inviting us to join him on this journey. Thomas has set up a 13 week program with topics to focus on each week and a Facebook group.

I haven't decided yet how far to go with the "do-over", but I plan to follow along with the focus for each week.  Along the way, I hope to improve my research skills, verify and document my family tree, and organize my growing collection of genealogy data.

Church Record Sunday - Founding of Catholic Church in Clinton County, Ohio

A 1915 history of Clinton County, Ohio by Albert J. Brown says that the first Roman Catholic mass celebrated in Clinton County, Ohio in August 1852 had ten attendees: Michael Devaney, wife, and daughter, Timothy Coakley, Patrick Creedon, Jeremiah Coakley and wife, Catherine Knaughton, and two young men whose names were not recorded.

Fourteen years later, it appears that some of the same people petitioned the people of Clinton County for donations to build a church there. This excerpt is from a long article published in the Wilmington Clinton Republican on April 15, 1864. It lists the names of those making the appeal as Michael Divany, J. Coakly, James Monaghan, W. Maher, Jno. Kiefe, James Doyle, J. Miller, P. Credin, John Durkin, I. Egan, Jos. Strotman, B. Senton.

My guess is that this is the same Michael Devaney, Jeremiah Coakley, and Patrick Creedan that were at the first mass in Clinton County in 1852. Patrick was my 3x great-grandfather and my Creedan family had ties to the Coakley and Keefe families.

This gives me a few more names to investigate in Clinton County. I believe my Creedan/Creeden family may be related to the Coakley and Keefe families, but haven't found definite proof yet. So far, I know that Patrick Creedan was married to a Mary Coakley and that Timothy Keefe was the trustee for Patrick's estate. Timothy was the son of Johannah Creedon.

Wordless Wednesday - Father and Son

This photo of my grandfather Robert Creeden and great-grandfather Charles Creeden was probably taken in 1914 or 1915. The photo was taken at the G.A.Boosz studio in Celina, Ohio.