Great-great Grandfather's letter

Philada, July 14th/65

Transcription of a copy of a letter written by my great-great Grandfather, Patrick Carroll, to his brother, Coleman Carroll, in 1865:

While Patrick’s address is given in the body of the letter, there is no address given for the brother or for anyone mentioned in the letter. According to my best guess, based on the average of the ages given for Patrick in all the available census and death returns, Patrick was born in about 1821 in Middletown, County Cork, Ireland. I did find a baptismal record for a Patrick Carroll in Cloyne Parish, dated 9 February, 1821. I can’t be absolutely that this is the correct Patrick. I did not find a record for a Coleman Carroll, or of a John Carroll (mentioned in the letter,) with the same parents.
Patrick would have been 44 years old when this letter was written. He died in October of 1899, and his death record states that he was then 78 years old.

_______________________________________________________________________


Dear Brother Coleman

I am in
receipt of your letter which gives me
pleasure to hear that you and your
family are well and I am happy to
inform you that I and my family
are well Thanks be to god.

Dear Brother when you get this letter
please forget all my former and I would
say heretofore negligence in writing to you,
for I need not tell you that it was through
no indifference to your welfare that I did
not write to you – and dear Brother
though you made some sharp and
pointed remark to me in your letter
I loved and liked it the better for this
for I know your kindness and affection

I will now tell you a little about how
I am getting along. I have just
returned from the oil regions in
Western Pennsylvania where I have

Page 2 -
been for the last 3 months at work
and I intended to remain there until
November but the children got [sick[i]]
and of [course] had to come home. Now
They are getting well. Business is rather
dull in this city lately but I can [get]
a job any time I have done no work
on my own account for nearly 03 years
but being employed as foreman for other
Builders the man that I was [fore…]
died lately and I think it likely
I shall do something myself very soon.

I done very well by that contract
you wanted to know about – I made
about two thousand dollars clear
and I bought a little property, have now
is worth six thousand dollars to me.
My rents bring me 40 dollars a
month but taxes are very high at [present]
so that if I have my health I can make
a comfortable living for my family and
if I die they will have a little to assist them.

Page 3 -
There was some [gre-----s] [---] [[---]
[lately] and told that Brother John and
Mother were well john had a daughter
6 mo old named Mary. Our cousins
Patrick Michael and John Keefe are well
and their sister Johanna and husband
are doing remarkably well and
David Walsh and his sister are
well they are both married
I think I mentioned in my [previous?]
letter that Owen Keefe[ii] was killed in
the Battle of South Mountain he
was the oldest of the boys none of the
rest listed and David Walsh’s sister’s
son Edmund Lynch was killed at
The siege of Charleston.
As for my part I escaped all the drafts
and I had no fancy for volunteering
still there is hardly any of us [witness] their
kindred blood reddening and their bones
bleeching [in] some or other of the many
battle fields of this war.

Page 4
I have 4 children Coleman is going
in his 14^th year and Kate is
8 years And by my second marriage
I have two boys Joseph and
Charles Joseph 3 years and Charley
1 year old. I am living in the
(word crossed out) that I built for myself (word smudged)
1909 Carlton st. [iii]

I will conclude hoping this
will find you and family all happy
as it comes with it from us our
warmest love and affections for
you and your wife and children
and our best wishes for your
welfare – Your (confusing scribble) Brother
                                                                                Patrick

---

[i] Words in brackets are either unclear to me, or cut off at the edge of a page. Parentheses indicate that I am unable to read the words.
 In this instance, I would point out that Patrick had already lost two children by his first wife, so an illness would have been a very important reason to get home.

[ii] There was indeed an Owen Keef listed among the dead after the battle of Antietam, which Patrick here refers to as the Battle of South Mountain. Other than the fact of his death, and the name of the unit he fought with, nothing more was learned about Owen Keefe.

[iii] Notes later written onto the letter mention 3 later daughters – Mamie Burrows, Maggie Fox, and Lizzie McGonigle; and also that the Carlton st. address is near the Parkway museum and court area. (near 19^th and Vine, and the Logan Circle in Philadelphia.) At the bottom of the page it is noted that Patrick is William B. Lavin’s great grandfather on his maternal side. William was Lizzie McGonigle’s grandson. 

Old Newspapers

I have spent a good bit of time on my new favorite online playground, called Newspapers.com . Initially, I spent the time looking up death notices and other items connected to anyone in my extended family tree. One can search by name, date, or any other phrase one can think of to find anything that might appear in the newspaper. The papers range in some areas from the 18th century (you can find George Washington's 'Farewell Address' as originally published) to 2017 - at least in my local area. There are some gaps in the "searchable" pages, but in many of them you can browse. You can clip and save anything you find.

There was a piece about my Grandmother's house (the house my Mother grew up in) from 1923. It seems they confiscated three 15 gallon stills and a bunch of liquor. Who knew Grandmom was a bootlegger? Or perhaps it was all for personal use. That is, from wha I hear, certainly a possibility.

There were a series of Real Estate transactions whereby my Great-grandfather's brother in law (a real estate agent) sold a property, amounting to a city block, to a man who then sold it to my Great-grandfather's brother who then sold it back to the Brother in law - all on the same day and for a nominal fee. I'm not at all sure who made out on that deal, or how, but I suspect it was the Brother in law.

There was another ad, a few years earlier, place by the fore-mentioned Brother, who was seeking employment as a club pianist. Personally, I was pleased to see this as I am unaware of many musicians in the family tree, and sometimes it feels a little lonely. There are, however, no indications that my Great great-uncle found any musical positions. He later married and moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked as a contractor.

Having exhausted most of the intersting (to me) notices connected to my family, I started looking up various historical things to read the original news reports/ I have read about several 19th century minstrels and popular composers like Septimus Winner. I looked up reports on the Aurora Borealis. I looked up news reports (from London) on the trial or Williams Burke and Hare, and Burke's confession, as well as reports of his execution. I didn't realize his remains are still on display somewhere in London. Nr did I realize that William Hare was released from jail less than a year after some of the murders, and he and his wife disappeared with the aid of the authorities.

I also looked up the history of some of my old favorite bars.

So, while it does require subscription, it is wellworth it. I have been having lots of fun.

Ugh... snow.

Okay. I know that people in New England and Upstate New York have it waaaaay worse than we here in South Jersey, but I am over the snow and cold weather, and I've hated it since I was a child.
I was supposed to go hear a friend playing in the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey today. The program was to highlight with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and would have meant an hour or so of my enjoying the music and whatever childhood memories the piece would have evoked. PLUS I would have had a couple hours of time with my friend afterward at dinner. It was to be a very pleasant afternoon. But, thanks to the snow, the concerts been postponed until next Sunday, and I won't be able to attend.
Well, at least I will make up the time with my friend tomorrow.
Instead of that, I am spending the afternoon copying CDs - mostly classical at the moment - into iTunes on my laptop. Later I will spend a few hours reading while I play whatever music I settle on.
On Tuesday, I have a rehearsal in Pitman for a High School production of The Wizard of Oz. Next Saturday is the first rehearsal with the orchestra for said production. I took the week off from work and there will be rehearsals and performances that entire week.

With a new laptop in my possession, I am pleased to find myself able to do various things I haven't done in about a year. This blog is one of them. I am hoping to find myself entering more here, even if only for my own benefit. Perhaps I should change the title to "Dear Diary..." and hope it stays private for ever.
I have spent a good part of today copying CDs into my iTunes program so that I can listen to them again. Right now I am listening to "Olympia, October 1964" by Jacques Brel. Oddly enough, I had a dream the other morning (hypnopompic?) in which Jacques Brel took me to Paris with him, presumably for a lifetime of joy, bliss, and wild love-making. Of course I remember very little of that dream and I am pretty sure that we never got down to the love-making part.
Tomorrow, I am going to hear the South Jersey Philharmonic Society (if that's the name) perform, among other things, "Pictures at an Exhibition." It's been many years since I've heard that piece, and I know I will enjoy it very much. Happily I was able to get the day off from work. It required losing a shift, but I don't mind. I just got my tax refund this week, and I am doing a show (more on that later) next week. So, I won't be feeling the pinch quite so hard as I might. If I want to, I suppose I can pick up a shift sometime this week, too. But I doubt I will.

Nothing really new... yet.

It's been a while and it is late, so I'll make this short.
I'm hoping to start posting more stuff here and so that will be part of my New Years' plan. I've learned a bit about Henry Uleau lately, and I've also found a little bit on the Carroll side. I've also lost most of my files and records over the last frew years, so I think I will post a lot of family tree type stuff here in the months and weeks to come.
I may also post a bit about shows I'll be working on, but not much of that.

Well, I did see some of the Lauda! crew at an art show featuring one of my friends' work, and of course at the reception after. It was a blast. I recently spent a week out west visiting my cousin, his husband, and some friends. While I was out there, I saw the Colorado Rockies losing to the San Francisco [Giants?]
After returning home, I continued with cardiac rehab. As of next week, I will be on a 3 day per week schedule, and I will be staying at my brother's house. I will also be looking into returning to work when the rehab ends.

Lunch with friends

Today I was picked up by a friend, and we went to a Pei Wei in New Jersey, where we met four other friends. It was a wonderful gathering. We had not seen each other (at least I had not seen most of them) in several years.

We all knew each other from singing an a chamber choir called 'Lauda!' which dissembled about three or four years ago. Several of us have kept in touch through facebook, and I did have dinner with Melanie (she who picked me up) about a year and a half ago. The rest of the gathering (Lori-Jo, Luisa, Patti & Mike) I had not seen since our Lauda! days. It really was most enjoyable.

After leaving Moorestown, Melanie was kind enough to stop at a pharmacy for me. I needed a thing or two. After she dropped me off at my sister's house, I went upstairs until dinner time. I turned off my phone and plugged it in to recharge the battery, thus missing a few calls. Meh... no news there.

Mt nephew showed up for dinner, and that was a very pleasant surprise. I had meant to call some of my friends back, but Matthew didn't leave until it was too late to call teachers. Oh, well. There's always tomorrow.

New phone

Today, I bought a new phone. I was due. It's an LG - Optima, I think.
Of course, I left the charger and the USB cable in my friends car.

COMPLAINT

What is it with blogger?
I have followed a series of blogs - among the gay and atheist oriented blogs - and every once in a while I will take notice of the top of the page where it says, "next blog." One would think that Google would direct a person to pages that match their previous viewing, but no. Every page I am directed to is either a jesus page, or some woman's blog about her christian spawn.
I am sensing a little bit of corporate bias here.

Laze

Today, I woke up after 11 a.m.

Actually, I woke up many times throughout the night (as I do every night) with nary a 2 hour stretch of sleep. The reason for this is that  am taking lasix, and this causes me to pee almost constantly and it also makes me very thirsty. So, when I woke up at 7:30 a.m., and did not feel like getting up, I used the toilet and went back to sleep. It was practically the first 3 hour (+) sleep I'd had since Thanksgiving.

I had to make a phone call, and I went downstairs for breakfast, but I've been catching up on my facebook notifications since. Now it's 2:30, and I have to make another phone call, and I need to take a shower and get dressed. If I were in my own home, I would love this, but being in my sister's house makes it a pain in the ass - mainly because she'll get home and I'll have to hear about it from her.

Asus

It took some doing, but I got a new laptop today.

When I was in the hospital, my brother told me that his in-laws decided to contribute $300 toward an iPad for me for Christmas. It was their daughter who died in December. Since she had a special place in her heart for me, they decided that they would contribute the money that they'd had allotted for her Christmas gift. When Christmas rolled around and I was still in a nursing home and nothing else was said about it, I figured it was not to be.

But, the other day my brother sent a message that he'd bought an electronic gift card st Best Buy. Apparently all I needed was the numbers. So I went there and picked out a laptop. However, when I went to pay for it I was told that they needed the physical card. It seems the salesman in Florida misled my brother. After about an hour of trying various things - my brother send a picture of the card in hopes they could scan that - we decided that we'd come back the next day (today.) That is, my brother-in-law and I.

We went back today after my brother used the card to buy the laptop in Florida, so we could pick it up here. The proceedings were very complicated. Still - I got the laptop and it seems to be working just fine.

After we left the store yesterday, my bro-in-law, my sister and I took a ride to visit another brother. I hadn't really spoken with this brother in something like 20 years beyond saying hello at family gatherings, but he seems to have mellowed a bit in recent years, so I figured perhaps I should cut him some slack. We've both been through the surgical mill (he had cancer, and lost much of his intestines) so neither one of us really wants to fight anymore.

Of course, he never answers his phone, checks his messages, or his email, so we had to take the trip without knowing whether he'd be home or not. He was and everything went fine. It was amusing to watch my sister get on his nerves for a while.

Oh, and by he way, I did remember to send a thank you email to the brother's in-laws. I guess I should write to my siblings who I'm told also contributed toward the laptop.

6 months

Anyone who knows me probably knows that I spent more than 2 months in a Florida hospital - from mid October until two days before New Year's. Actually, the last six days were spent in a nursing home/rehab. All I can say about that is that I would rather be dead than have to spend any more time in a nursing home.

What happened is this: In October, my sister-in-law died. She had been sick with ovarian cancer. I and the rest of my siblings all flew down to Florida for the funeral - that was the 16th of October. The viewing was to be the 17th with the mass on the following morning, and they were, except not for me. I spent all of those two days asleep with some kind of fever on my brother's floor. On the 18th, my brother and sister talked me into going into the hospital. I didn't really want to, because I thought I could sweat it out and because I did not want to get stuck in Florida.

My sister, her husband  and their son drove me in to the emergency room (Physician's Regional, Naples, FL.). I remember hearing that I was definitely septic with a pneumococcal infection. I vaguely remember the intake nurse asking about my drug use. My nephew was not surprised to hear me tell the nurse that I'd done everything - except heroin. Of course, I should add that that was more than twenty years ago. I haven't engaged in recreational chemistry since 1989. In any case, that is the last thing I remember until I woke up a day or two before Thanksgiving in the ICU at Shands/U. of Florida hospital.

From what I understand, they removed my spleen at Physician's Regional, but when they found that I needed more serious surgery on my heart, they choppered me up to Shands, where they replaced my aortic valve (the one I had put in last year was damaged by the infection,) repaired the heart wall, and [scraped?] out my lungs.

I have some vague memories of various visits - Mr. O'Connor (my sister-in-law's father,) two of my brother's, and one of my sister's - but I have been told there were many more. What I do (sort of) recall are the various drug-induced dreams I had while I was under sedation. I will spend some time sorting them out and recording them in blogger.

Now I am staying at my sister's house in Pennsylvania until I regain my strength and find a place to live back in South Jersey. Let's hope for a better 2012, shall we?

94 degrees

After almost a year... I am working full time in a department store, with benefits. I haven't examined the benefits package to see how good it is, but it is better than nothing.
I also hope that I will be able to schedule some shows around the work schedule. 

Today, it is f**king HOT, but I need to go get some cigarettes.

Jacques Brel - Voir un ami pleurer

This being 2010...

of course my butt is sore. I think that I've been sitting too long, and it does aggravate the old bed sore. I have been meaning to write something here all year, but circumstances made that difficult. If I feel up to it later, I will try to write everything up.
Just for the record, circumstances include emergency heart surgery due to an aortic dissection, the sale of my home and a car accident, due to which I have a broken wrist and opposite shoulder.
It has been an interesting year so far.

Follow-up

I went to see the surgeon the other day.
First of all, he agreed with what the cardiologist had to say last month - that my heart was in great shape, and I have been recovering wonderfully.
After that, I asked him about my tooth. I have a cavity in my upper left molar, and the dentist wants to remove it and it's partner (the wisdom teeth.) However, the surgeon told the dentist to do no work on the teeth until 6 months have passed (June.) I had no problem with this at the time, because the tooth wasn't bothering me at the time. However, it has started bothering me. I believe that the congestion (maybe from allergies) has been aggravating the tooth, so I am taking generic Zyrtec. I've also been rinsing it with Listerine dental rinse with Hydrogen Peroxide (8%) and taking tylenol. So far, it hasn't been too bad.
Anyway, the surgeon says that I can go ahead with the extractions if I have to, but that I should put it off as long as possible. He reminded me to take anti-boitics before, during and after, but he did not mention the blood thinners.
Then, he started telling me that both he and the cardiologist are very interested in my case. Apparently, "Tets" don't usually dissect, and my case might actually be unique. They are interested in finding out why I dissected, and he is thinking about writing my case up for the journals. Apparently, my surgeon is a really big deal in the world of heart surgeons. He actually developed the procedure that he used to work on me.
I have a whole lot of other stuff I could talk about, but I don't feel like it. Some blogger, huh?

No real news to report

I am, of course, still at my sister's house, and things are going fairly well. The wound on my butt is getting smaller, but it will still be some time before it is completely healed. My right foot is still in a weakened state, and it will, I fear, be some time before I have full use of it. My left shoulder still bothers me but that is an unrelated and much older issue.
Tomorrow I have an appointment to get a chest x-ray in preperation for a doctor's appointment next week. I am hoping that we can get to the condo to check the mail and the state of my car. My nephew passed his driver's test today, and I am thinking I will let him use my car until I get permission to drive again.
In other news, I spoke to my brother last night. He was saying that they did a CAT-Scan on his wife, who was battling breast cancer for the second time, from just below her chin to her knees. They found no trace of the cancer, so that is certainly good news.

Where the he!! have I been?

I lost the USB chord for my camera, so I can't upload the pics of my scar or the bedsore - and honestly, I wouldn't do that anyway - but they would be perfect illustrations for this post. Those of you who know me will already know most or all of this stuff, so you can skip this if you are squeamish.
On 6 January, at about 4 in the morning, I was online with a friend of mine chatting away, when I was suddenly hit by the nastiest toothache I ever experienced. This was soon followed by the total cessation of feeling and function from my right leg. Needless to say, I was perfectly willing at that point to give in to my friends sugggestion that I call 911 immediately.
Once the EMTs arrived, I explained what was going on to them, and when I told them that I had been born with a heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, they got particularly excited. After being rushed to the emergency room, I was choppered to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. That was the last thing I remembered for about two weeks.
Of course, I was under some serious anaesthesia during that time, so I can describe for you fairly clearly where I THOUGHT I was. In my mind, I was incognito in some hospital in either Germany or England. My mission was to stay put and NOT let anyone find out who I was. Of course, my cover was blown by the appearance of my sister and niece. After that, I had a hard time figuring out what country I actually was in. I was thinking maybe Columbia, and I thought it odd when my other sister came to visit that she was talking to the nurse about catching the train home. I couln't figure out why she wouldn't simply rent a room somewhere for the night.
Anyway, the truth was that I had suffered an Acute Type A aortic dissection with right lower extremity malprefusion. (Copied directly from hospital release form) Basically, I was told that my heart was splitting in half, and the split continued down to my leg.
When I was 10 years old, I had had open-heart surgery to repair some holes in my heart, that I had been born with. This was the Tetralogy of Fallot. According to the surgeon, who performed the 9 hour emergency surgery that saved my life last month, the scar tissue left by that 1970 operation was what saved my life, by keeping the blood in place.
So to make a long story somewhat less long, I was under sedation for about a week and a half, then in ICU for a few days, at the cardiology wing for a week or so, then in a Rehabilitation Hospital for about 10 days. Now, I am at my sister's house for a while, before they let me go home. I am okay with that for a few reasons, but I really do want to get home.
We have had some MAJOR snow storms this week, and I still have the wound on my butt to contend with, so it is just as well I am here for a bit. I can't drive, and my piano is for shit.

Religion or no?

I really want to know... what is the problem? Why is there so much animosity between those who believe this, that or the other thing, and those who do not?
Yes, I am an atheist, and yes I would very much like it if those around me stopped believing on those gods and churches they do? I say "gods" because, in the case of catholic christianity for example, I do choose to see god, Jesus and the holy spirit as three separate entities. For the record, I capitalize the name Jesus because I see that as a name. "God" and "holy spirit" are in my mind titles, and not necessarily proper nouns.
Anyway - why do I care what religious people believe? Why does it bother me that my family had to wait for me to sit down in order to carry on with their prayer at thanksgiving dinner? Yes, it bothers me a great deal when people tell me that I should say, "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." I personally find this attitude to be offensive.
While I am talking about christians here, I would like you to understand that my remarks are also about persons and groups belonging to most other faiths as well. It is merely that christians seem to be the most vocal group in the United States, and in the media. I generally hear very little of Jewish opinion and Muslim opinion on these matters. While I know that Jews and Muslims do have an opinion on these matters, I cannot really speak to persons whose attitudes I am not familiar with.
There is a great campaign in the political right that is based on the belief that there is a war on christmas. The very idea seems insane to me. I agree with every secular humanist and every atheist who wants to see religious displays removed from government sites, including state houses, courtrooms, federal office buildings and schools. I believe that there is a very bug difference between wanting the government to cease honoring any god at all, and asking individuals to cater their own expressions of faith, or their own manner of worship, praise and celebration. No one that I know of wants to stop anyone from praying, or even congregating for religious purposes. No atheist that I know of cares if you want to praise Jesus, light candles in honor of Hanukkah, or if you want to prostrate yourself while facing Mecca at a certain time of the day.
I certainly don't care about these things. I never have. Nevertheless, I do care when the government sponsors or hosts this type of activity. This seems like preferential behavior, and whether the religious recognize this or not, I think allowing these behaviors in what are not private or religious settings is a form of pressure, especially in schools. Children are impressionable, and I don't know that anyone will deny that. To allow religious activities to become routine in a classroom is a form of social pressure. I think this is true for many people when it happens in the classroom.
There is a movement in some places to have non-religious displays placed next to religious displays in government locations during religious times. I do not think this is really wise, either. I think that the religious displays should be removed, but I also think that having atheist displays placed there for the holidays next to the religious ones is a shallow compromise.
But this is just my opinion.
On the other side of the question, I can't really comment much, but I can state what it seems to me that others are thinking and feeling.
It seems to me that some christians are offended by atheist placards in the state house, and by signs and billboards saying that some people do not believe in god. They [the christians] seem to think that simply saying, "If you do not believe in god, you are not alone" is an affront to them and an attack on them. They [the christians] seem to think that implying that people can be good without believing is god is an affront and an attack. I do not understand this attitude.
It seems to me that christians want to keep a power in this country that they sort of had in the past, but didn't really. It is largely religious groups who have led the charge against stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, the Arts, women's productive rights, gay rights at every stage, climate-change related regulation, and a plethora of other issues. Of course I recognize that it is not all religious persons who do this, and indeed not even all christians. Many religious people of all stripes are on both sides of every issue, regardless of how vocal they might be.
That being said, I really just want to find out why. In several churches that I have had the pleasure and honor of being involved with, there is a clearly stated movement to encourage others to say Merry Christmas rather than, "Have a nice holiday!" I hear this from many people every year.
In my mind, this is nothing more than an attempt to force other people to support your own religious views. Atheists don't do this. They will argue with facts, and data, and experiments, and logic to support their opinions, but they do not try to stop anyone from disagreeing. We may try to get people to defend their beliefs with facts and evidence, but that is in part because people are trying to get us to belief in what seems like nonsense without any evidence.
And by evidence we do not mean revelation (people have used that with me personally, so don't pretend it doesn't happen,) nor do we mean testimony. We mean evidence - repeatable and verifiable.

Next Blog, my ass !

So, I read in the blogging mews section of the website you are now looking at that the "Next Blog" button, when licked on (if you are not signed on as a member, perhaps you don't see it) is designed to take me to other blogs that demonstrate similar interests and topics to those I write about. This seems like a fairly nice little feature. However, as in so many things, the practice is so far from the theory as to be worthless and laughable.
Think about it, blogger.com, I am a gay atheist, whose primary interests are really music, literature and atheistic writings. So, please explain to me how somebody, or some piece of computer software, thinks that I would be interested in blog after blog featuring little more than baby pictures and diaper advertisements. Id this simply some really bizarre glitch in a program, or is it a rather nasty and UN-subtle homophobic joke?
In any case, I am not amused. It isn't that I hate babies. I don't. To cite a rather droll joke commonly repeated among many of my real peers, "I love babies, usually with Hollandaise Sauce."
But seriously, don't you think this could just possibly be taken as an insult? To whom do I complain?