The APPEARING Doyles!

In re: the same William Doyle that was the father of my great-grandfather John J. Doyle, b. 1864: Please scroll down and refer to the post of 5 Jan 2006 entitled "The Disappearing Doyles". I had written about the confusion I've been feeling in regards to just who the William and Mary (Dever) Doyle children were, particularly in regards to Mary Ann, Margaret, Alice, Mame, and Anastasia, since I've never been able to find any reference to a Margaret, Mame or Alice in the census records.

Tonight I pulled out the outline that my mom's first cousin had sent to me again and looked under that listing of Mame. This had Mame being married to a Tighe, with children Francis, John, Harold, and Marie (who'd married Emerson, and whose daughter married Donald Murphy). It also mentioned that Francis lived in Chicago. Now, I had searched the Godfrey Memorial Library's Obituary Database before for both a Mame and a Mary Ann Tighe, in both PA and ILL, and came up empty-handed. Tonight it finally dawned on me to search for the children listed on the outline as Mame's. So I plugged in "Marie Emerson" and narrowed my search to Chicago newspapers. Lo and behold, there was an obit listing in the Chicago Tribune, October 26, 196 edition for a Marie C. Emerson. The obit identified her parents as Mary and the late Edward Tighe, and her siblings as Francis, John, and Harold Tighe.

Hmmmmm. Could Mary have been still alive in 1961? If this was indeed Mary Ann Doyle, she'd have been 86. So I plugged in "Mary Tighe" and got an obit for a Mary Doyle Tighe, listing all the same people as Marie Emerson's obit had (and identifying her as Marie's mother). This obit was dated January 18, 1969 and was also out of Chicago. It stated she was 93 years old, which would put her birth year at 1875. Which is the same year the 1880 Census had for the birth of Mary Ann Doyle, daughter of William and Mary Doyle in Pittston, PA.

I was so excited that I IMmed a cousin in NJ with ALL CAPS jumping for joy. Then I yelled at her in the IM for not being at the keyboard when I had torn down another piece of a major brick wall! So I emailed my other cousin (my mom's first cousin) and told HIM of a few of the finds!

This brings us to another lesson for us to learn for our children's children's sake: IDENTIFY OUR AND OUR CHILDREN'S BIRTH NAMES WHEN NICKNAMES ARE USED IN EVERYDAY LIFE! And yes, I DID intend to yell :).