Anna Ireland II: Child Installment

I found a bit more information about my diarist, but have otherwise hit a wall in my researching.  I have to put this stuff down before I forget it all and ancestry.com kicks me out.

Additional information has been Jack's middle name (Kyle), which assists in discerning him from the jillion other John Connellys who evidently flowed from Scotland in the day.  It appears that he died in 1954 of causes unknown.  Found the ex-wife, too.  A gal from Kentucky named Robbie who also worked in a drug store and was living in Detroit with Jack in 1930.  By 1935, she was divorced and living in Tennessee.

Anna seems to have remarried.  This is why I had such a hard time finding her originally - upon her death, she was known as Anna Helen Davis.  Death date on ancestry is "after 1966".  wth.

But here is the real information: they did have another child.  And by all appearances, she lives today.  Her name is, or was originally, Colleen Ireland Connelly.  Could you have a more Irish name, Colleen?  She was born in Orange, California in 1947, ten years after the deaths of Anna's first two children.  I have been unable to find any more information about her, even with that weird middle name.  I will find her eventually, though.  No one hides from the internet.  It is often difficult to find older people, though, as they strangely don't feel the need to make multiple social media profiles.  They are the only ones able to live under the radar, hidden away from modernity with their landline telephones, cassette tape answering machines and print tv guides.  Strange to think that their lifestyles will soon seem as quaint and unbelievable as the daily lives of people living before the Industrial Revolution.  You had to get your water out of the ground, drive a horse and communicate long distance by handwriting?  Sounds like some sci fi shit to me.  So anyway, Colleen is 65 years old and I will find her as long as I remember to look.  I'm kind of surprised that I haven't already, actually, but I suppose she's probably married and using some other name.  Cursed patriarchal name-trading!

Also, is it weird to contact people to ask for gossip about/pictures of their family members because I bought someone's diary at the Brass Armadillo 15 (jesus christ) years ago?  I know - it is.  But what am I supposed to do?  Also, the kid might want her mom's diary.  This could turn into a Hallmark Network movie about a woman's reconnection with her dead mother through a curiously and fortuitously found diary.  Or maybe they already did that on Lifetime.

In the meantime,

Party like it's 1933 from superheidi on 8tracks Radio.

Two interesting things: Fry and genealogy

Firstly I have to state that, as he touches on in the program, genealogy is kind of bullshit.

Due to limitations of time and records, we can only focus on certain of the innumerable ancestors we have. Also, we pick and choose which ones are the "best" and just focus on them, forgetting that we have all the DNA from the uninteresting and unknown ones too. Also, how far back does it cease to matter? How related ARE you to that 14th century King of England, and, if you're prepared to count that, then you have just gained a million distant cousins who are also "heirs". Great. More family to dislike and ignore.

My grandfather's surname has been in the states for ever. Someone did a tremendous amount of research on them and I came across most of the findings a couple of years ago. The oldest record is in the 1680s, I think. I keep meaning to check if anyone came on any boats of note (Mayflower power) but something always distracts me, and I have to question that even that recently in history, does it matter? Following one surname through endless branches disqualifies thousands of other relatives. I still occasionally dabble partly because it's a great way to sharpen researching skills and partly because it does put a human face on history: yours.



Have I mentioned that I love Stephen Fry? I adore him. I love every second of him. I listen to him speaking when I'm at the gym, instead of music.