Canal Days

My Ireland research

Does anyone know about the origins of these families in Ireland?

Hugh Donoghue was born February of 1847 in Gortdromagh, Kerry, Ireland. He immigrated 22 Apr 1873 via Castle Garden and settled in Holyoke Massachusetts.  He would marry Katherine E Looney of Holyoke in 1877 and have ten children with her there.  Hugh had parents of Michael Donoghue and Mary Ellen Kerrisk and Katherine E Looney had parents of John Looney and Johannah Donoghue. John Looney was born in 1830 in Glenflesk, Kerry, Ireland and died 20 April 1883 in Holyoke.  Johannah Donoghue was born in 1830 in Ireland and died 4 May 1889 in Holyoke.

Henry Walker Graham was born 19 April 1862 in Northern Ireland. His death was 4 November 1915 in Holyoke, Hampden, Massachusetts.  His parents were Walker Graham and Elizabeth Bate of Northern Ireland perhaps Belfast.  He would marry Ellen Bratton in 1887 in Holyoke.  Her parents were Samuel Bratton born in Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland in about 1830 and Ellen Sloan.

John Somers was born February 1863 in Ireland and his death was 4 November 1924 in Holyoke, Hampden, Massachusetts.  He married Mary E Baker who was born August 1866 in Ireland and who died 10 July 1915 in Holyoke, Hampden, Massachusetts.  John had parents of Thomas Somers and Mary McHugh both of Ireland.  Mary in turn had parents of Patrick Baker and Ellen Kennedy both of Ireland

Thomas McLoughlin of Binghamstown, Mayo, Ireland immigrated with his wife Bridget Corduff of Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland in 1905 to Holyoke Massachusetts.  They had five daughters with them.  Within a month Bridget and one daughter would die of measles.  Thomas would remarry and by 1920 move back to Belmullet Ireland with this new family of his.  His parents are George McLoughlin and Julia McCormick.  Bridget had parents of John Corduff (1841 birth in Ireland) and Ellen McManamon (1840 birth in Ireland) who had an 1866 marriage in County Mayo.

Peter Cox was born in 1826 in Ireland to Peter and Theresa Cox.  He would marry Catherine Reynolds who was born in Ireland in 1822 to John and Mary Reynolds.  They most likely married in 1852 in northeastern Rhode Island.  They would have a daughter Theresa in 1856 and a son Peter in 1858.  Peter Cox was of low mental ability and would live in group homes throughout the late 1800s.  The youngest Peter would marry Mary Ellen West in Holyoke in the 1890s.  Mary West had a mother Mary Moore who was born March 1837 in Ireland and a grandmother Mary O’Brien also of Ireland.

Richard Keane was born in 1841 in Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland to Harry Keane and Margaret Connelly.  He would marry Bridget Burke in about 1856.  She was born in 1841 in Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland and die young in 1880.  Richard would move to Holyoke to be with his offspring and would die there.  Mary Ellen Rowland had parents of Patrick Rowland and Catherine McGrath and was born 12 March 1865 in Bangor Erris, Mayo, Ireland.  She would immigrate to Philadelphia and then to Holyoke Massachusetts.  In Philadelphia, she married Martin Keane who parents are the above-mentioned Richard and Bridget.  They would moved to Holyoke and by 1908 Martin was dead but was not buried in the family plot.

John Reynolds was born in 1857 in King County Ireland.  In 1878 in Tullamore, Kings, Ireland, he married Catherine Carey.  They would remain behind in Ireland while many of their children immigrated to America.  Their son John would marry Johannah Elizabeth Donoghue of Gortlicka, Kerry, Ireland in a 1916 ceremony in Holyoke.  Her father was Cornelius Donoghue born in 1843 in Gortlicka, Kerry, Ireland and her mother was Johanna Cronin born in 1859 in Gortlicka, Kerry, Ireland.

Thomas Kennedy died in Ireland in 1905 in Glenlough, Ireland and his wife Margaret Habbert would die in Mahanabo, Kerry, Ireland.

Richard Foley was born March 1851 in Ireland to Edward Foley and Mary Fitzgerald.  He would marry in 1871 to another Irish immigrant Bridget Powers She was born 1848 in Waterford, Waterford, Ireland.

Thomas Keaton Bourke was born in March 1848 in Ireland to Jeremiah and Nancy Keaton.

Timothy J Murphy was born in 1907 in Ireland and immigrated in 1928.  He would marry Helen Viola Weed.

My New Brunswick ancestors

These are New Brunswick ancestors that I know very little about.  If you know more, then please write to me.

Nathalie Hope was born 7 February 1834 in New Brunswick Canada and died in Bangor NY in 1911.  She married Oliver Beaudoin in New York and had several children.  He was born in 1832 in Quebec and died in 1909 in Bangor, Franklin, New York.  They would have a few sons – one was William Boardway.  The last name had changed from Beaudoin to Boardway in the USA.  William Wood was born about 1825 in New Brunswick, Canada and perhaps she died in New York in the period from 1880 to 1900.  Sophronie Green was born about 1827 in New Brunswick and maybe died in the 1910s in Holyoke Massachusetts.  Their daughter Mary Wood would marry William Boardway in Hermon New York.

Alexander McLennan and Mary Finlayson were born in New Brunswick.  He was born in May 1816 to Duncan and Katherine. She was born in 1826 to Alexander Finlayson and Christina McCray.  Alexander would die in the range of years from 1900 to 1910 in Clinton County of New York.  Mary Finlayson would die there from 1890 to 1900.  They would have many children – one of whom was Janet McLennan.  Jennie as she was called was born in Canada and died in South Hadley Massachusetts having been married to Lester Jackson.

David Thibodeau was born in 1816 in New Brunswick, Canada but moved to Maine.  He married Celeste Landry in NB and had a daughter Modeste Thibodeau.  She was born in 1841 in New Brunswick and died in 1890 in Maine.  She married James Cochran of Maine in about 1868.  James was the son of John Cochran (born in 1817 in New Brunswick, Canada and death in Maine after 1860) and Sarah Brown (born in 1826 in Miramichi, Northumberland, New Brunswick, Canada).

Permelia Walton was born in 1830 in New Brunswick, Canada and died in 1907 in Fort Fairfield, Aroostook, Maine.  She was the daughter of David Isaac Walton and Elizabeth Post. Permelia married John W Thompson of Maine.

John W Duncan was born in 1847 in Scotland and died in 1902 in New Brunswick.  Sabrah Jane Hawkes was born in 1859 in Hopewell, Albert, New Brunswick, Canada.  They were married in about 1882.  Sabrah had a father of William Hawkes who was born in 1833 in Hopewell and mother of Sarah Fenton who was born in 1836 in Hopewell also.

William Wilcox was born in 1820 in New Brunswick to Benjamin Wilcox and Luceanna Lake.  Benjamin was born there in 1795 and Luceanna was born there in 1800.  They would immigrate to northern Maine with their children.

Loiselle family in 1915 in Holyoke Massachusetts

The Loiselle family in 1915 in Holyoke Massachusetts.  We are not sure about the two middle women in the back row.  One is Marie Louise and the other Calendia.  The other people are identified with a high degree of certainty but if anyone has any comment to add, then please write to me.

1ST Row: L to R – Louis Loiselle (photo over a stand-in) – Flora – Romeo
2nd Row: Henri – Telesphore – parents – Louis and Cléphire Loiselle – Wilfrid
3rd Row: Evelina – Rodolphe – Louise (?) – Elzear – Lina (?) – Alexina

Dubois and Caron families of New Bedford

The children of Ulysse and Gertrude Comeau have grandparents of Comeau – Henley – Dubois – Caron.  The Comeau quarter and the Henley quarter were written of previously so this will be about the Dubois and the Caron quarter.  They are by ethnic groups 95 % Quebec, 3 % Acadian of Nova Scotia, and 2 % Irish.

Joseph Dubois moved to New Bedford in 1892.  Within 5 years his wife Clarise Peluge Roberge had died of anemia.  He had five children to care for including George Emile Dubois.  He would soon remarry and worked for decades as a weaver in the cotton mills of New Bedford.  Joseph lived to 93 years old and is buried in the Old Sacred Cemetery far away from his birth place of Sainte-Sophie-d`Halifax of Megantic County Quebec.  These Dubois and Roberge families had a long history of farming in the counties at the western edge of the Gaspe Peninsula – counties like Kamouraska, Levis, and Bellechasse.  This stability is a good sign since they were not migrant farm workers but rather farm owners. The burgeoning population by the 1890s had forced many of the families to move south to the mill cities of southern New England.  The son George Dubois would have 11 children with Marie Louise Eva Caron in New Bedford.

Napoléon-Noël Caron would move as a young boy to Nashua, New Hampshire without his parents in 1885.  Nashua and Manchester were both giant mill cities and Napoleon would work as a mill machine operator.  He would marry Marie Alvine Plourde in Nashua in 1890 and they would have 11 children too.  The last of their children Irene Gertrude Caron was born in 1914 in New Bedford and is still alive having celebrated her 100th year two weeks ago.  Both the Caron and the Plourde lines come from the small city of Kamouraska in Quebec.  This is right above southwestern Maine and is surrounded by many farming villages.  The genealogy is not particularly hard to trace but they do have long names in these tiny villages.  Double first names and double last names were used into the late 1800s.  For example, Alvine (Ovaline) Plourde had a maternal grandmother of Marie Emilienne Laplante dit Madore.  Mostly, she was known as Emilie Laplante but on a couple of early census forms she was identified as Marie Madore.  Thus some people are hard to track and consequently some death records are hard to find.

The Caron family is seen below.

Marie Louise Eva Caron was one of the many children of Napoleon and Ovaline Caron.  She would marry George Dubois in 1912 in New Bedford at the Sacred Heart Church.  One of their daughters would marry Ulysse Comeau in 1945 in New Bedford.  They would have eight children themselves.

Football Pressure Drop by Temperature

Footballs have three components: a rubber bladder, a leather skin, and the string to tie the skin together.  The leather skin gets harder as temperature drops and can thus hide pressure changes to the user.  Same effect is seen with car and bicycle tires.  The rubber bladder is very pliable and thus expands quickly.  Only about 3 psi of added pressure are needed to cause the bladder to fill totally the volume of the skin that holds it in.  Certainly, in the range of 10 to 15 psi the volume is constant.  Thus the gas laws called Charles’ Law and Boyle’s Law do not apply.

On a similar note, the amount of molecules inside the bladder is important.  The use of the ball in such a violent sports does cause the number of molecules to decrease inside the bladder.  This effect can be analyzed by measuring the pressures immediately before and an hour after a game. This needs to be done inside a room within the stadium to control for temperature.  The effect probably is not more than a 2% loss of molecules.  This translates by Avogadro’s Law into a 2% loss of pressure.

Overall, pressure is directly related to number of molecules and temperature and inversely related to volume.  By the above analysis, we can assume that the number of molecules and the volume do not change much.  Thus pressure varies with temperature for the air in a football.  There are many gas laws to cover all these variables.  The necessary law for footballs is called Gay-Lussac’s Law and is fundamental to the study of gases. It was derived in 1808 by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac.

The Kelvin temperature needs to be used to study changes since it is directly tied to the motion of molecules.  The Kelvin temperature of a 75-degree Fahrenheit room is 297 K.  The Kelvin temperature of a 35-degree Fahrenheit field is 275 K.  This is a normal room temperature.  Halftime was at about 8:25 in Foxboro and the temperature was about 35 F.

The basic gas law will use Pf to mean the final pressure as read on the field.  Pi means the pressure as read indoors.  Tf mean the temperature as read on the field.  Ti means the temperature as read inside.  P means pressure, T temperature, f means final state, and i means initial state.  The mathematical form of the gas law is as follows:

Pf = Pi x (Tf/Ti)

The ratio of the temperatures is 0.926.  That is easy but the pressure to plug in is more difficult.  The NFL stipulates an internal pressure of at minimum 12.5 psi (pounds per square inch).  That however is the gauge pressure reading.  There is normal atmospheric pressure both inside and outside a ball before inflation.  This normal pressure is 14.7 psi.  Inflation merely increases the pressure inside the ball beyond the normal.  At the start of inflation the pressure difference is 0 between inside and outside.  To inflate to the NFL minimum of 12.5 psi means the gauge might read 12.5 psi but the true pressure inside is this plus atmospheric pressure of 14.7.  Thus at minimum there is 27.2 psi inside.  Since there is 14.7 outside the ball due to the atmosphere, the pressure gauge reads the difference of the two so 12.5.  Physics is based upon what is really there so the Pi to use is 27.2 psi.

Use the gas law equation now and you will find that the Pf on the field is 25.2 psi.  Now stick a pressure gauge inside the ball on the field.  The gauge reads the difference between ball pressure and atmospheric pressure.  So 25.2 minus 14.7 which gives 10.5 psi of internal pressure.  This is what the NFL is reporting as the difference.  They stated a pressure drop of 2.0 psi.  The calculations show a drop from 12.5 to 10.5 psi due to the temperature drop.  Thus there is no scandal but rather basic physics at work.  At the half, the footballs were given more air while cold.  This will bring the pressure up to the 12.5 to 13.5 range.  Since the temperature did not change during the second half, there was no pressure change inside the footballs.  When measured directly after the game when cold, they would maintain that pressure.

This analysis is for the New England team.  The Indianapolis team stated that they liked working with footballs at a pressure that gauged at 13.5 psi.  This is an internal pressure of 28.2 psi.  At the same temperature change, the pressure would decrease to 26.1 psi.  The pressure as read by the gauge would be thus 11.4 psi.  This is also under the pressure range as suggested by the NFL for its footballs.  Both decreased due to the temperature in the stadium.  Colts’ footballs would have decreased too with the amount dependant on the location and time at which measurements were taken.  But when were they measured?  Much also depends on the gauge being used.  The table is the probable pressure variation of the footballs with time.  First column is the time, second the Patriots’ pressure, third the Colts’ pressure, fifth the temperature, and sixth the environment.

5 12.5 13.5 75 indoors
6 12.5 13.5 75 indoors
7 11 12 45 on field
8 10.5 11.5 35 on field
9 12.5 11.5 35 air added at 8:30 halftime
10 12.5 11.5 35 on field
11 14.5 13.5 75 indoors

The pressure reading on the Colts’ footballs would have gauged at 11.5 at halftime.  The referees apparently checked all 24 footballs in 10 minutes.  They would have missed on a rough gauge that the Colts’ were at 11.5 and thought it to be 12 psi and thus good enough.  Hopefully, more information will be available soon.

Football Game Balls during the Cold Rainy Championship Game

The Wells Report was released last week and I have spent 6 hours reading it.  The cell phone records of the two aides can be read any way that you care to.  The science is more interesting to me.  The analysis is well done and is correct if one starts with their assumptions.  There are flaws in the assumptions.  They use an inside temperature of 70 F and an outside temperature of 48 F.  Fine but that outside temperature is recorded by an outside bulb that is kept dry.  It is known that very cold rain was falling during most of the first half.  The rain clearly fell on the balls and the ground.  Thus the temperature of the balls and the ground would not be at 48 F but would rather be at about 40 F.  Not all the balls were being used near the end of the first half but the ones that were cycling into the game at that point would have been the coldest and wettest.  Only four of the Patriots balls were below 11.4 psi using the Logo gauge.  These balls were most likely the ones used near the end of the half.  The report details that the ballboys rotated 5 balls into and out of play in a sequence.  The report claims that the balls after this sequence return to a state as if they were like the others.  I claim otherwise.

Eleven of the Patriots footballs and four of the Colts footballs were checked at half time.  The scientists were told to use the Colts balls as a control.  A control should never just be four items out of 12 footballs since how could you determine that you are drawing a representative sample from the bag.  Next, wet footballs warm at a slower rate compared to drier ones.  The Patriots footballs were tested first in the officials’ locker room.  Then the Colts’ footballs were tested.  Thus the Patriots footballs being wetter and colder would thus act if the Ideal Gas Law had decreased their pressure more.  This would also cause a greater variation in the pressure within the Patriots’ footballs since they are being measured during the warming and drying phase compared to the Colts’ footballs which has a chance to warm closer to equilibrium.

Thus I claim as I did months ago.  The Patriots’ footballs were not tampered with.  There is a difference in the Patriots and Colts’ footballs due to environmental properties and timing of the balls being on the field.  Testing the wet Patriot footballs first in that officials’ room is a violation of scientific standards.  Moreover, the temperature change was about 30 F making a large pressure drop possible.  This drop acts on all footballs during that game.  The measurement of 0.6 psi drop between the Patriots and Colts footballs is not significant due to the lack of equal testing.

Pine Cones in the Holyoke First Level Canal

In February, I took pictures like this one of the Holyoke First Level Canal.  The water was so flat that it mirrored the buildings on the other side of the canal.  I was so amazed that day that I picked up three pinecones that were alongside the canal.  One I threw into the canal that day.  The other two I brought home for good luck promising myself that I would return them to the canal someday.  I kept them on a shelf near my bed each side by side of one another.  Tuesday of this week I felt despondent so I decided to return the cones six months after I had taken them.

I went to the same spot along the canal that I had found them.  Plan was to throw the second pinecone into the canal and then after work five hours later to throw the third into the water.  I threw the first in and got ready to ride my bike away.  I noticed that the cone did not move at all even though there was a slight current to the south.  I was a bit irked so I pulled my backpack off again and got the third cone out.  I threw it a bit downstream and a bit closer in then that non-mobile second one.  They were about 7 feet away from each other at the time that the third one hit the water.  The third cone immediately and in a straight line moved toward the second cone while the second cone stayed still.  It was moving upstream and outward.  From seven feet away it directly hit the second cone without wavering a bit.  Both cones stuck together for 5 seconds.  Then they gradually (and finally) moved downstream as one would expect.  They did however stay about 10 inches apart that whole time.

My whole life I have been ever the scientist.  This was the first symbolic act I have ever done in my life.  Using physics, which is the one and only topic that I am good at,  I might find that there actually is a one in a million probability of this happening.  Seeing however that it was a symbolic act by me, it amazed me and still does.  I rode away along that beautiful canal walk.  They have been side by side on my shelf for six months and they seemed to want to continue being with each other even after I threw them into the water.

Civilisation by Kenneth Clark

Civilisation was written to express a view about the rise of modern Europe in a cultural vein and has succeeded.  This book should be a standard text in high school and college.  There should be discussions about this book in many forums.  The tack that I wish to take is that toward what has happened to much of college education in America in the last 30 years.  No longer is there the quest to get a good liberal arts education in order to learn about the physical and cultural world and about one’s self.  There is now only careerism that only leads one to think about oneself and not society as a whole.

The last two professions that depends heavily upon the person obtaining a bachelors degree and no more and also leads into a high level profession are engineering and business.  No other professions have led the Unites States to be a wealthy nation than engineering and business firms.  Often engineers and business people embark on their careers without a concern about their society whether on a regional or a national basis.  This leads to commercialism run amok.  Most engineers and businessmen know little about architecture, history, science, and the arts.

I propose that their education should be radically changed.  Their education should be closer to that of a medical doctor.  Doctors obtain a four year college degree and then go onto a professional degree.  Engineers and business people should all be required to do the same.  This would be for their own good and the good of society.  More science and more arts would make them better engineers and better at business ventures.  Society would also benefit since they would know how to fit engineering projects and business venture more appropriately into a community.

For example how should a bridge be designed to better fit into the cultural landscape of a city or town.  Another how could a store be designed to fit into the architecture of a downtown of a city.  Should there be more car free streets in the downtown of a city or town.  These questions are not being asked enough in the medium and small sized cities and towns of the northeastern USA where there are many architectural treasures.

The book Civilisation fits in since it will help students in these fields learn of the past and learn about Socratic dialogue.  The Middle Ages became a time of little innovation compare to the times that preceded and followed it.  That might be because workers were too narrowly trained and did little innovation.  In recent decades that milieu surrounds us again today.  Employers are hiring people not based on their desire to innovate and to fit their work into the cultural landscape but rather upon their highly refined technical skills.

A better trained professional would alleviate that problem.  They would be better able and have more desire to lead projects that fit into the culture needs of a city or town and not destroy it.

Stories

Civilisation by Kenneth Clark

Pine Cones in the Holyoke First Level Canal

Football Game Balls during the Cold Rainy Championship Game

Football Pressure Drop by Temperature

Poljacik family story

My grand nephew Nicholas was born to my niece Shelby 8 years ago.  He has grandparents of Poljacik – Burke – Saint Andre – Comeau.  The last two lines were written about in two separate stories so this is about the paternal lines.  All tales are unique and this one is no different.

Ján Poljačik came from Kokava nad Rimavicou of Rimavská Sobota province of western Slovakia in 1920 to work in the marble mines of Rutland County Vermont.  He was newly married to Mária Funtjar and they settled in Pittsford of that county and had 9 children.  It might sound difficult to do Slovakian genealogy but when I approached it about 10 months ago it was quite easy.  Most Slovakian immigrants came from tiny villages and moved to tiny villages in the USA.  All to do the same mining job that they knew so well.  This Kokava nad Rimavicou has about 300 people and his ancestors stayed there for centuries.  I simply followed the data trail back to 1810.  Jan was an evangelical Lutheran and this made my job very easy since there would be only about 10 records per year for that faith in that village.  I went through a century of data in two nights.

The Burke line from Vermont was a bit more work since there were families from Massachusetts, Quebec, and Pennsylvania.  By the end, it makes for a nice family tree.  Nicholas did have a unique story on this quarter of his tree.  His 2nd great grandfather George Townsend married 4 times.  That is no big deal in itself.  His third marriage was to Ella Mae Campbell who already had a daughter so he become a step-father.  No big deal still.  Well in 1928, when he was 45 years old, he ran away with this step-daughter Mildred Mae Kingsland.  She was 14 years old.  They went to Buffalo New York and got married there.  She signed the certificate stating that she was 16 and he signed stating he was 34 – both lies.  He was still married to the girl’s mother.  Goodness what a lurid tale – such that is not found very easily.  I have checked my work many times and am sure of the story.  The rest of the Burke quarter of the family is quite genial.

In the end all lines would meet in Rutland County of Vermont and that is where Nicholas extended family still live to this day.