Family History Notes: My Fathers Side

My Father’s Mother -Cecelia Jacquinot Halley

My grandmother is 93 years old and was a great help to me. She lives in New Jersey so most of our conversations were by phone. We spent many hours talking about family history; I enjoyed her stories of how she grew up on a Kansas farm. One night asking her questions about her family. She was telling me about the church she was baptized and married in. I went online to research the church and found an article Legend of Greenbush St.Aloysius Church at the bottom of the article was an e-mail address with my grandmother’s maiden name. I wondered if this person was any relation to my grandmother so I send an e-mail explaining who I was and if there was any relation. Well I received an e-mail back from Judy, she is the daughter of Francis, my grandmother’s brother, I have never met her. I e-mailed Judy back telling her I was doing family research for my tree and if she had any information on her father she could give me. Judy wrote back asking for my address telling me she had something to send me. A week later I received a package about two inches thick! My grandmother’s side was already done! This was great she had everything, birth records, marriage records, obituaries, pictures and family stories. The family tree goes back to my 4th great grandfather (1795-1844) who was born and died in France. His Son was born in France and immigrated to the United States around 1856, this is where it all begins. I had no research to do on my father’s mother’s side!

This side of the family tree was done many years ago by another family member and Judy kept it up to date. I was even in the tree!

Judy told me about a book that was written in 1937 by W.W.Graves called THE LEGEND OF GREENBUSH the Story of a Pioneer Country Church. This book is out of publication so she sent me a paper copy. The book is about the history of the church and the priest’s who served the church. In one part of the book it names the early settlers, naming several of my ancestors!

My Fathers Father: William A . Halley

My grandfather died in 1979, I was around 15 years old at the time, and I remember him well. Since my grandfather has no living siblings I relied on my grandmother for his information.

I knew my grandfather was in the Navy, so with my grandmother’s consent I wrote to them. The Navy sent me the names of the Ships he was on and a list of medals and awards he received. He was a Senior Chief Petty Officer and retired from the Navy after serving for 20 years. He was in WWII and the Korean War. During my trip to New Jersey I visited my grandmother. I remembered a picture she had hung on her wall of my grandfather flying a plane. It was a big picture, too big to have it copied, so I took a picture of it with my camera. There also was an oil painting of my father and his sister when they were little; I took a picture of that too. My grandmother told me she still had my grandfathers Navy books and I was welcomed to look at them. The first book I looked in, lying between the pages was an 8x10 photo of my grandfather and his unit. I took a picture of this too. When I returned home the pictures I took with my digital camera came out great.

She could not find my grandfathers obituary so I went to the library and looked it up on microfilm. Later that night at my father’s house he took out his photo album and guess what he had? His father’s obituary in between the pages and he thought he did not have it!

My Great Grandparents - William’s parents, Mary Payne &Theodore Halley

Well my grandmother knew my grandfathers parents names and their children so at least I had a start. When I returned home to Florida, I put the names of my grandfather’s parents on my online tree. I found censes records on them and their children. The earliest census I found them on it listed the parent’s names and one child- the child’s name was not a name my grandmother gave me. When I asked her she did not know of such a name. In a later census this child was not listed but other siblings were - the names matched the names my grandmother gave me. My great grandparents lived and died in Crawford County Kansas so I wrote to the library. The library staff was very helpful they sent me the Tombstone inscriptions. In the inscriptions buried with my great grandparents was their first born daughter that died when she was eight years old. My grandfather never knew his older sister.

Along with the inscriptions they sent me obituaries, marriage and death records.

My 2nd Great Grandparents - Theodore’s parents, Fanny Crail & James Halley

On a1880 United States Federal Censes I found my 2nd great grandfather living in Indiana. On this census it states his birthplace is in Indiana, and that his Father and Mother’s birthplace was in Kentucky. I could not find him on any earlier census; I also searched the U.S. Census in Kentucky hoping to find his parents with no luck. On the 1920 United States Censes he is living in Crawford County Kansas with his wife and children. They were listed in the tombstone inscriptions the library had sent to me so now I knew their birth and death date. Once again Crawford County Library came through and sent me a copy their obituaries. In his obituary it states he was born in Switzerland, Indiana. I contacted Switzerland Indiana and they had no birth records on him, but they had a record of his marriage!

I also learned from his obituary that he had a brother Henry and a sister Lizzie. This is as far as I got on my grandfathers fathers side.