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December 8--Molly Caldron Iredale
After our lovely walk in Point Reyes on Sunday, we headed into San Rafael for some lunch, and then out to the cemetery where some of my family members enjoy their eternal rest. It was the anniversary of my grandfather's birth (137 years ago, back in 1884). His birthdate is one day before mine, and when I was little we used to celebrate together. He turned 80 the same year I turned 8.
His mother, my great-grandmother, is interred there as well. She died a few months before I was born, and my dad never had much to say about her, other than that her husband died young, and she lived in the Shattuck Hotel in Berkeley in her later years.
Last year I started messing around with my family tree on Ancestry, and found out some more about her. I have been thinking about her life a bit, as I have been reading a book about a woman and her family out here in the west, that takes place in the late 1800s, which is pretty much the same time my great-grandmother was living out west.
One thing I learned was that census records from back then are not always accurate, as I have three possible birth years for her, only one of which matches the date on her marker, which is 1866. I think the 1866 date is the most accurate, as this would make her about 18 when she had her first child, my grandfather.
She arrived in the US from England in 1870, when she was 4 years old. Her parents were both born in Ireland. They settled in St Louis, as far as I can tell. She married my great-grandfather, and had two children. He died 10 years after they married, of Phthisis Pulmonalis, or TB, and she was left a single parent with two young children.
They stayed in the St. Louis area for a while, and the census records indicate she worked as a cigar maker and as a private duty nurse. Eventually they moved to Colorado Springs because of a health issue with her daughter, and the daughter died there three years later. She moved to Oklahoma, where she worked as a private duty nurse for some family, and eventually came out to California where my grandfather lived.
Her name was Mary, but everyone knew her as Molly. I imagine her life wasn't easy. She lived to be 90 years old.
One of her sisters married a friend of my great-grandfather, and lived a long life as well. One of her descendants is a very conservative Republican state senator for Missouri. He has supported a bill to allow health insurance companies to deny coverage for contraception, and has a 92% favorable rating from the NRA. I don't think I will be reaching out to this long-lost relative.
His mother, my great-grandmother, is interred there as well. She died a few months before I was born, and my dad never had much to say about her, other than that her husband died young, and she lived in the Shattuck Hotel in Berkeley in her later years.
Last year I started messing around with my family tree on Ancestry, and found out some more about her. I have been thinking about her life a bit, as I have been reading a book about a woman and her family out here in the west, that takes place in the late 1800s, which is pretty much the same time my great-grandmother was living out west.
One thing I learned was that census records from back then are not always accurate, as I have three possible birth years for her, only one of which matches the date on her marker, which is 1866. I think the 1866 date is the most accurate, as this would make her about 18 when she had her first child, my grandfather.
She arrived in the US from England in 1870, when she was 4 years old. Her parents were both born in Ireland. They settled in St Louis, as far as I can tell. She married my great-grandfather, and had two children. He died 10 years after they married, of Phthisis Pulmonalis, or TB, and she was left a single parent with two young children.
They stayed in the St. Louis area for a while, and the census records indicate she worked as a cigar maker and as a private duty nurse. Eventually they moved to Colorado Springs because of a health issue with her daughter, and the daughter died there three years later. She moved to Oklahoma, where she worked as a private duty nurse for some family, and eventually came out to California where my grandfather lived.
Her name was Mary, but everyone knew her as Molly. I imagine her life wasn't easy. She lived to be 90 years old.
One of her sisters married a friend of my great-grandfather, and lived a long life as well. One of her descendants is a very conservative Republican state senator for Missouri. He has supported a bill to allow health insurance companies to deny coverage for contraception, and has a 92% favorable rating from the NRA. I don't think I will be reaching out to this long-lost relative.
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