SAMMON, Catherine Ellen nee Hughes (1889-1964)

I have found some interesting information, including a passport application and photo, of Catherine Sammon. She and her daughter, Annie James/Nancy Sammon, have been very difficult to research because of their names changes and periodic untruthfulness about their family lives. Because of these issues I decided to research Catherine's oldest daughter [Catherine (aka Cassie) James] who did not live with Catherine in the US (for the most part.)

After talking to my Aunt Judy I was reminded that Cassie and Annie were raised to believe they were cousins and not sisters. But she also told me that Cassie would stay with Catherine when she visited the US. With these two bits of information I was able to locate a newspaper article with both Catherine and Cassie mentioned in 1928, a census record that led me to believe that Cassie had moved here in the mid-1920's and was working as a servant in Providence, RI in 1930.

I also found the ships manifest for the ship that Cassie arrived in North American on. She immigrated from England to the US via Canada and Catherine bought her ticket for the passage. All very cool stuff!

Then I asked for help on an ancestry.com message board and was provided with a link to a passport application of Catherine's when she went home to visit her family in 1920. For the first time I got to see what Catherine looked like as a 30 year old woman.

Because there is a lot here I plan on breaking down each of these subjects into an individual post and include as many of the documents as I can. So if you are interested see the posts immediately below this ....

SAMMON, Catherine Ellen nee Hughes (1889-1964)

Catherine immigrated here in 1918, soon after marrying Edward John Sammon, a machinist in the US Navy stationed in Queenstown, Ireland during WWI. Catherine had been married to Richard James prior to this and she and Richard had two daughters: Catherine (aka Cassie) and Annie (aka Nancy).

Annie immigrated with Catherine to the US and they lived in Boston (separately) for the first several years that they were here. Boston, I believe, was the home port of the ship that Edward was stationed on.

For many years we had thought that Edward was Annie's father (biologically speaking) until discrepancies arose and I realized that Edward and Catherine lived on different continents when Annie was born. While trying to find Annie's birth certificate in England I thought I'd found the right one but it listed her father as Richard James. Unfortunately, the ships manifest for Catherine and Annie indicated they were sisters rather than mother and daughter and it began to create enormous confusion for Annie's descendants. A later census also indicated that they were sisters solidifying the confusion.

Another hurdle I had to jump over was that Catherine identified herself as a spinster on her marriage certificate to Edward. All things were pointing to another "truth" that no one had known about.

But I began to doubt this information the more I researched and the recent conversation with my aunt really solidified my doubts. I began looking for information stating that Catherine's oldest daughter, Catherine (aka Cassie) James, visited Catherine in the US and that she and Annie were cousins. In doing this I came across a newspaper article which read is transcribed as follows from the Newport Mercury Journal and Weekly News, Newport, Rhode Island, Friday, May 25,1928:

Three Card Parties--Affairs by Catholic Daughters, William Ellery Chapter, and for Rainbow Girls (Newport Mercury Journal and Weekly News dated Friday, May 25, 1928)

A successful card party was held under the auspices of the Catholic Daughters of America in Knights of Columbus hall Thursday evening. The dark horse prize was awarded to Miss Cassie James, and the first prize to Miss Mary .... The committee in charge consisted of ... Mrs. Catherine Sammon, Miss Cassie James and Mrs. Gertrude Noyes and Isabella Finn. [and the article goes on from there]

This shows that in May 1928 Cassie was in Newport with Catherine which followed what my aunt had recently told me and helped me to follow that trail. That led to me finding a 1930 census record which looked to be the right Cassie (under the name of Catherine which my mom told me in a text message was Cassie's real name) working in Providence, RI as a servant. The census record also indicated that Cassie had been living in the US for nearly six years. This then led me down another trail which I will post about below.

JAMES, Catherine (aka Cassie) (c.1911-1960)

Although Cassie is not a direct ancestor of mine I am researching her line in order to determine who her biological parents were so that I can in turn learn who Annie James/Nancy Monica Sammon's parents were and then continue to research this branch of the family tree.

Cassie was raised to believe that Catherine Sammon was her aunt and that Annie James was her cousin. But she immigrated here in 1925 by way of Canada and the ships manifest for this voyage provided a wealth of information to substantiate what I already believed--that Catherine Sammon was really her mother and Annie her sister.

From the manifest I learned that Cassie was born in Seacombe, Cheshire a town literally right next to the town that Annie had been born in (Birkenhead, Cheshire.) This means that they were both born in the same vicinity as you can see on the 1880 Cheshire map here (click to enlarge it--Birkenhead is the pink shaded area on the left side and Seacombe is right above it.)

Secondly, Cassie's closest relative was her father Richard James. This is the same name I show as the father of Annie back in Birkenhead and he is still living in Birkenhead in 1925 when Cassie was immigrating to North America as a 16 year old.

Additionally, the manifest listed Richard's address and when I researched it on google maps I found it was extremely close to a friend I found listed as the witness to Catherine and Edward Sammon's marriage and the friend on the ships manifest for when Annie immigrated to the US in 1918. So Richard lives in the vicinity of a common friend of Catherine and Annie seeming to tie the relationships closer together in my mind.

The final piece of evidence for the relationship was that Catherine paid for Cassie's passage on the Athenia to come to Canada and met her in Montreal.

Althof Surname History

Althof(f) is a German name, chiefly Westphalian and is a

habitational name for someone who lived at the ‘old farmstead’, from Middle Low German olt, alt ‘old’ + hof ‘farmstead’, ‘manor farm’.

Westphalia, Germany is a region and former province of Prussia, W Germany. Münster was the capital of the province. After 1945 the province was incorporated into the West German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, now a state in reunified Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia is situated in the western part of Germany and shares borders with Belgium in the southwest and the Netherlands in the west and northwest. It has borders with the German states of Lower Saxony to the north and northeast, Rhineland-Palatinate to the south and Hesse to the southeast.

The region is drained by the Ems, Weser, Ruhr, and Lippe rivers; it is hilly in the east and south and forms a low plain in the northwest. The land consists partly of fertile soil and partly of sandy tracts, moors, and heaths. The Ruhr valley, in the west, is part of the great Westphalian coal basin and of the Ruhr district,

Information located on Ancestry.com / Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISGN 0-19-506137-4, Wikipedia.com, and Encyclopedia.com

James Surname History

James is Celtic and classified primarily as Welsh. It come from England and is

a personal name that has the same origin as Jacob. However, among English
speakers, it is now felt to be a separate name in its own right. This is largely
because in the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611) the form James is used in
the New Testament as the name of two of Christ’s apostles (James the brother of
John and James the brother of Andrew), whereas in the Old Testament the brother
of Esau is called Jacob. The form James comes from Latin Jacobus via Late Latin
Jac(o)mus, which also gave rise to Jaime, the regular form of the name in
Spanish (as opposed to the learned Jacobo). See also Jack and Jackman. This is a
common surname throughout the British Isles, particularly in South Wales.

People with this surname were found primarily in the counties of Cardiff, Newport, Llandrindad Wells, and Hereford in the Welsh and central areas of United Kingdom.

Information located on Ancestry.com / Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4 and The National Trust

Rice Surname History

Rice is Celtic and classified as Irish in origin. It is derived from two variants: Welsh and German.

Welsh: from one of the most common Welsh personal names, Rhys, Old Welsh Ris ‘ardor’. This was the name of the last ruler of an independent kingdom of Wales, Rhys ap Tewder, who died in 1093 unsuccessfully opposing the Norman advance.

North German and Dutch: nickname for a very big man, from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch rese ‘giant’.

German: habitational name from places called Rees or Reese, in Rhineland and Lower Saxony.

German: from Middle High German ris ‘undergrowth’, ‘brushwood’; a topographic name for someone who lived in an overgrown area, or a habitational name from Reis or Reissen in Bavaria, named with this word.

German: occupational name for a cobbler, Middle High German riuze. Compare Reuss.
German: variant of Reiss 2, or from the Huguenot name Ris. Altered spelling of German Ries.

People with this surname lived primarily in Exeter, Torquay, Redhill and Colchester counties in the southernmost parts of England.

Information located on Ancestry.com / Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4 and The National Trust

JAMES, Annie (1913-1997)

My grandmother (my Nana, Nancy Monica SAMMON JAMES nee Annie JAMES) has been somewhat of a puzzle in my genealogical searches. I have discovered many interesting things but she presents what I figuratively call a black hole in my family tree.

One of the mysteries I have struggled with is why her mom (Catherine Ellen JAMES SAMMON nee HUGHES) brought her to the US (Boston) at the age of 4 and then seemed to disappear leaving a 4 year old to live with strangers. Yet I easily located Catherine with her family [husband (Edward John SAMMON) and daughter] 12 years later in Rhode Island, in the 1930 census records. My assumption had always been that Catherine had returned to England, since it was during WWI that they immigrated to the US.

I recently made a discovery that helped to solve this piece of the puzzle. I was doing an expanded census records search for my great-grandmother in Boston and found her; she was living in a different neighborhood. And, her last name had been misspelled as Samon. The census records also told me that Catherine was a lodger/home worker with a family that had no other lodgers. It looks like Catherine supported herself by working as help for this family while her daughter lived with another couple.

I began a search of Boston to try and determine how close or far apart these two were from each other. Catherine was in the Roxbury District and Annie lived in the Jamaica Plain area. I found two things during this specific search: the first is that the actual house Catherine lived in is still standing and that my grandmother, Annie, lived in a very nice part of town.

I did a search of the Library of Congress since they have a huge digital photo archive, and discovered three photos circa 1920 (which is when Annie was there) of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston.

These photos, the first two of the arborway near Forest Hills Station and Center Street show the park like setting near Annie's home. The third is of the Franklin Park Zoo that was also in the neighborhood. The people in this photo are looking at the bears and just help to give us a feel for the styles and the place in 1920.

The Franklin Park Zoo, founded in 1912 and opened in 1913, is located in a section of the city where Dorchester, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain come together. So my search to find how far apart these two had lived was actually answered when I found some history on the zoo. Roxbury and Jamaica Plain are right next to each other. This meant the two of them were not to far from each other.

Now my job is to find out as much as I can about Annie and Catherine's lives in Boston.

IRVIN, Levi (c. 1807-1920)

Levi Irvin is the father of John A. Irvin, and was a well-respected farmer in the community. So this article was of interested and impacted the entire valley.

Transcribed from The Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, PA, March 14, 1842.

In the Matter Of the intended application of ISAAC HOKERSMITH for License to keep a Tavern, in Franklin township on the Turnpike road, between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, in the County of Adams, being an old and established Stand.

We, the subscribers, citizens of Franklin township, respectfully certify, that we are well acquainted with Isaac Hockersmith; that he is of good repute for honesty and temperance, and is well provided with house and stable-room, and every thing necessary for the accommodation of the public and the entertainment of strangers and travellers; and that a Tavern at is house is necessary, and could not be dispensed with without much inconvenience to the public generally.

William Walker, George Rambo, Isaac Bean, James Keim, Jr., David Newman, John Fiot, John Dillon, James Keim, Sen., Wm. Noel, E. D. Newman, Levi Irvin, Andrew McKinrick, and David Goodyear. March 14.

I love how the tavern license is for the good of the town generally. It sounds as though the establishment has been there for quite a while but is either just getting a license or renewing a license. That citizens (including my great (4x) grandfather) would stand up for the honesty and character of the individuals publicly is very cool. We wouldn't see something like this nowadays, I think.

IRVIN, John A (1847-1922)

Transcribed from the Adams County News, Adams County, PA, Saturday, January 16, 1909.

Orrtanna Route 2--John Irvin butchered Wednesday. The four porkers weighted 384, 369, 368, 341 pounds. It was stated in The Times at a recent date that Mr. Irvin had put up 12000 lbs of pork. Mr. Irvin wishes to correct that. Instead of 12000 it should be 4000. Mr. Irvin kindly remembered the carrier on butcher day.

George and John Irvin each sold a fine steer to Harvie Cluck, Mont Alto.

There were more tidbits relating to other neighbors but I only wrote about those pertaining to my family but for this week in history there were lots of visits out of town and visitors from out of town.

I love that the John made sure the carrier got his cut from the butchering work. It was probably a method of payment as well as a way of recognizing a job well done.

IRVIN, John A (1847-1922)

I have lots of newspaper clippings from my paternal grandfather's line. They lived in southern Pennsylvania and the newspapers have been available on-line for quite some time. The same is not true of the larger cities. Finding these articles originally helped me to understand how "chatty" newspapers were then and also allowed me to trace people as they traveled and moved.

This is transcribed from the Adams County News, published Saturday, January 30, 1909. The header on the top of the specific page of the paper is titled: Letters of Interesting News From Adams County Towns - Personals and Items of News Interest from Various Towns in the County. What the People in the Different Sections are Doing. Entertaining Visitors. Services in the County Churches.

Orrtanna Route 2 January 29--Mrs. Edward Cole visited Captain Backman's in Fayetteville recently.

Joseph Dillon caught a large gray fox last week.

Miss Esther Dillon receive a card shower on her birthday.

Albert Kimple received a shower of cards on this birthday.

Samuel Irvin, Henry Kimple, John A. Irvin and William Clapsaddle each sold a horse to a Chambersburg dealer this week. There are still some horses for sale in the Valley.

This paper comes out weekly on Saturdays, and literally illustrates everything going on with the people in the individual towns and communities. Wouldn't it be neat to be showered with cards on your birthday? Anyway, the Irvin's and Clapsaddles run through my grandfathers line and obviously the families were close. Isn't it interesting that there might have been a concern about horses still being available in the valley after four people sold their horses in a neighboring community.

SAMMON, Edward John (1888-1940)

Since I posted yesterday about a ship that was significant in my hunt for ancestors, I thought I would share about the first one I ever researched. This search is what ultimately led me to finding, or rather confirming that I had tracked my Nana (Annie James) through Ellis Island.

Tracing this ship and the man I had thought was my biological great-grandfather is what led me to start questioning what I had been told of my Nana's history and relationships.

I was told Edward John Sammon of Cleveland, Ohio married Catherine Ellen Hughes, of Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. These were the "parents" of Annie, who everyone knew as Nancy Monica Sammon.

I had a horrible time researching my Nana on-line. I knew where she was born, and I knew when she was born, I "knew" the name of her parents, but I couldn't locate her anywhere. One of the things you read about is that sometimes it is easier to research a sibling or other relative and find what your looking for through them. It allows you to narrow the area and names you are searching through when your specific ancestor is difficult to research.

Anyway, because I was struggling so much with my grandmother I decided I would work on her father since he was an American, figuring my troubles were due to my ineptness with the English records.

In my searches I came across a WWI military record for Edward John Sammon which looked very promising. The individual was the right age, his birth date was right, his hometown was right, even his name matched. These are all good things but they don't guarantee that you are on the right track. There was one problem and it was significant: my Nana was born in 1913 but this man was no where near England when she was born. In fact the military records indicated he was in Boston serving in the Navy. So I set the information aside (you never throw anything out because you many not be able to find it again) and kept searching.

Years and years go by and I still cannot locate either Nancy or Catherine in the English records and I can't find the "right" Edward either. I finally said something to my Aunt Judy, Nana's daughter, who took some time to ask my Nana about it (she was dying of cancer at this point.) My Aunt called me to tell me as a result of the conversation, she learned her mom's birth name was Annie James, and that her father was Lloyd James. Needless to say this was quite a shock to my Mom, her sister, and their brothers. My Nana died soon after and any additional information died with her.

After I learned her name was Annie James, I located her in the Ellis Island records, sailing from Liverpool, England with a Catherine Ellen Sammon who was married to an Edward John Sammon aboard the USS Cushing (an O'Brien class destoyer.) I spent some time digging up my old information and sure enough it looked to be the right man. This meant that Edward was my grandmothers stepfather and changed the direction of my search.

My hunt then began by looking for any marriage records I could find and I thought I found them in Liverpool, England (a huge port directly across the river from Birkenhead.) Annie and Catherine arrived in New York on April 21, 1918. This meant that Catherine and Edward were married sometime between December 1913 (Nana's birthday) and April 1918. It also meant they had to have been married in England. This narrowing of the time frame and the country helped tremendously. (I ultimately obtained a copy of their marriage certificate dated January 1918.) Armed with the information, I just needed to see if the man I thought I had located in the states was in England in January of 1918.

This is where my history research really helped. I began by researching the USS Cushing. It turns out there have been five ships designated USS Cushing. I next had to determine which one would be the one used during WWI. I originally followed the wrong one but quickly discovered my error and moved onto the second USS Cushing.

My next task was to see if I could determine where the Cushing was during WWI and specifically to see if I could trace her to England in early 1918. Through research I located her travels and found she was in what is now know as Queenstown, Ireland, in that period in time. A quick look at an atlas showed me that they were only a couple of hours apart. And information gleaned from an English coworker told me that Birkenhead was a resort town. It would make sense that a sailor on leave might visit a resort town and meet up with a pretty English girl. So my search had led me to a man, on a ship, in a port, all located near the town that I needed them to be. Things were looking really good that I had found the right Edward and the right Catherine ... and that this Catherine and Annie had immigrated to the US in 1918.

A write-up I found just recently on the USS Cushing confirms the research done over ten years ago.

After her August 1915 commissioning, Cushing sailed off the east coast and in the Caribbean. She was one of seventeen destroyers sent out to rescue survivors from five victims of German submarine U-53 [off the eastern end of Long Island, NY] .... After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Cushing was sent overseas to patrol the Irish Sea out of Queenstown, Ireland. Cushing made several unsuccessful attacks on U-boats, and rescued survivors of several ships sunk by German craft.

... After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 entering World War I, Cusing was put to sea from New York on 15 May 1917 .... The destroyers arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, 24 May for duty in the war zone.

So here confirms my original research, Edward had been deployed aboard the Cushing and stationed at Queenstown since May 1917. Sometime between May 1917 and January 1918 he met and married Catherine Ellen James (nee Hughes.) Very soon after Catherine and Annie sailed to America and away from the European front of the war.

Photograph taken from Wikipedia.

JAMES, Annie (1913-1997)

When I first started gathering oral information about my family history I talked to my Nana (Nancy Monica Sammon James) who was an immigrant from England. She had moved here when she was four and her memories included a Navy ship and a sailor who gave her a teddy bear.

I could make neither heads nor tails of that information for decades until I learned she was born Annie James. Armed with that information I then found her on a ship's manifest coming through Ellis Island. She and Catherine Ellen Hughes James Sammon arrived in American on April 21, 1918.

















These are photos of the actual ship my Nana sailed on. Originally built in 1895, she was an 11 ton passenger liner, named the SS Saint Louis. She was used by the Navy during the Spanish American War and decommissioned in 1898 to return to civilian use. In 1918 she was chartered by the US Navy and used as both a passenger and troop transport ship. In April 1918 she was re-commissioned and began carrying troops to and from Europe during the "Great War."

So with that history my Nana's story of coming to America on a Navy ship suddenly makes sense. The Saint Louis was transporting troops between Europe and America. And interestingly, she became a fully commissioned Navy vessel the same month my grandmother sailed from Liverpool.

Also, you can see that once she was commissioned for wartime her hull was repainted black. So these pictures allow us to see her as both a civilian steamship and as a Navy vessel.

Photographs taken from the US Navy History of Civilian Ships website.