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The Thumb's Christmas

  Our daughter, Anne, was a prolific artist when she was young. Our refrigerator door was full of her drawings, paintings, and school artwork. She liked to create little books, too, as she was also a natural storyteller. One Christmas when she was about eight years old, Anne wrote and illustrated a Christmas story for her little brother, James. If memory serves, she drew her inspiration from a book she had recently gotten from the library by illustrator Ed Emberley. He wrote and illustrated The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book . In it, Emberley showed how to make a variety of animals and people using a thumbprint as a starting point. The creations are simple and charming. It's amazing what you can do with a blog of ink and a few black lines. It's art that's accessible to anyone. Anne's story is called "The Thumb's Christmas," and is based on our family. There is a thumb with glasses (Anne), a thumb with little hair (toddler James), a thumb with a mustache (Ji...
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INTERTWINING SHERIDAN, CASSIDY & BAKER BRANCHES


 by Nancy Gilbride Casey

 

"I love it when this all gets intertwined," said Cousin Tom, and frankly, so do I! We are referring of course to the terrific intertwining of our family lines, one with another, which we discover time and again in our family history research. Much like tree branches.

This week I discovered—and Cousin Tom was reminded of—a Cleveland connection in our Sheridan line. You may recall from last month's post on Charles Cassidy that his parents were Mary Jane Sheridan and Philip Cassidy.

For a visual, here is my relationship to the couple:


Our find? Mary Jane Sheridan Cassidy fits into a migration pattern seen before in our family: from Europe->New York->Canada->Cleveland. 

This is a pattern that Grandma Gilbride's ancestors also took: In the Becker/Baker's case, their family moved from Germany->Sheldon, Wyoming, New York->St. Catharines, Ontario->Cleveland. 

For the family of Mary Jane Sheridan, the route was Ireland->Erie County, New York->Lincoln, Canada West (today's Ontario)->Cleveland. 

In both the Baker and the Cassidy families, it wasn't just an isolated person who moved, but several members of the same family, who either lived together or very near one another.

It seems that Mary Jane's husband Philip died sometime before 1900, likely in St. Catharines. She then emigrated to Cleveland and moved in with her daughter Mary Jane Kelly and son-in-law John Kelly, then living on Noyes Street, on Cleveland's near west side.1

In Cleveland, she would have also been near to her granddaughter Catherine Cassidy Baker, and would have even known Mary Josephine Baker Gilbride—her great granddaughter—who would have been a young girl at the time.

Mary Jane lived with the her daughter for about 20 years, first on Noyes, and later on W. 12th Street. Towards the end of her life, she lived on Olivet (off E. 105th St.). She died on 18 January 1919 and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland.2

Mary Jane Sheridan Cassidy's obituary from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.3
 

Add to this Cousin Tom's discovery: That after Mary Jane's death in 1919, the daughter and son-in-law with whom Mary Jane lived, moved in with...Edward and Catherine Cassidy Baker, then living on Shaw Avenue in East Cleveland, with our grandma Mary Josephine and all her sisters.4

See what we mean about intertwining?

Mary Jane Sheridan Cassidy's death certificate held another important tidbit: the names of her parents. Henry Sheridan, born in Ireland and Catherine "Kuth," born in Canada, were listed by informant Philip Sheridan (perhaps a brother or nephew?). Together, they are 5th great grandparents in the Sheridan/Cassidy/Baker/Gilbride line.5

Detail of Mary Jane's death certificate naming her parents.

Mary Jane appears to have been born in Erie County, New York. In 1855, she was resident in Evans, a town on Lake Erie, across from St. Catharines, where she would later live.6

Evans, on the Lake Erie shore & southwest of Buffalo, the possible birthplace of Mary Jane Sheridan.7

Early days in this research, but stay tuned for further discoveries on Mary Jane and her parents Henry and Catherine.

Until next time...

 

Special thanks to Cousin Tom Gilbride, as always, for his research and collaboration!

 

Image: "Vaulted Ceiling" by Andrew Gustar is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

 

NOTES

1 1900 U.S. Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, ED 184, Cleveland City, p. 15 B, line 93, Mary J. Cassidy, age 57, in the household of John H. Kelly; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/39590176:7602 : accessed 26 February 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, Washington, D.C.

2 1910 United States Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population Schedule, ED 143, Cleveland City, sheet 17-B, line 69, Mary J. Cassidy, 67, in the household of John H. Kelly; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/199720775:7884 : accessed 26 February 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, Washington, D.C. Also: Ohio Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death 1788, Mary Cassidy, 18 January 1919; database & images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GPJ1-Q6ZH : accessed 25 February 2022); citing Vital Statistics, Columbus; FHL film 004021896, image 1995.

3 Mary Jane Cassidy obituary, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 21 January 1919, np; image, Cleveland Public Library Center for Local & Global History.

4 1920 U.S. Census, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, population schedule, ED 539, East Cleveland City, sheet 22-A, line 12-13, Mary J. Kelly and John Kelly, in the household of Edward Baker; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/33281646:6061 : accessed 26 February 2022); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, Washington, D.C.

5 Certificate of Death, Mary Cassidy, 18 January 1919.

6 1855 New York State Census, Erie County, population schedule, Evans Twp., p. 48, dwelling 190, Henry Sheridan, age 35; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/13201:2181 : accessed 26 February 2022); citing Hamburg Historical Society, New York.

7 Samuel Geil and Robert Pearsall Smith. Map of Erie County, New York: from actual surveys. (Philadelphia: Robert Pearsall Smith and Buffalo: John Angell, 1854). Image, Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/item/2012593657/> : accessed 26 February 2022).






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