1910 llinois, Knox County, Galesburg

1909 Illinois, Knox County, Galesburg

1907 Illinois, Knox County, Galesburg

1902 Illinois, Knox County, Galesburg,

Organizations

These are a few of the 'buttons' from Grandma's jewelery box.

Upper left: Redmen
Upper right: Bookbinders
Lower left: Forresters
Lower right: ? trefoil for something?

As you can read this one is the Bookbinders Union button.

Any knowledge about these organizations? post your comments.

Joe Sheehan and his Veterans Bonus of 1936

Cousin Kevin responded to my last blog post and wrote some interesting comments. He's given permission for me to post his comments:

"Eleanor was talking about the Veterans Bonus of 1936, when Congress finally gave World War 1 veterans a bonus which had been promised years before.

I heard the story from my mother and Eleanor. Joseph Sheehan used his veterans bonus to pay off Josephine's mortgage.

This was years after their divorce but he evidently still cared very much for her.

His health deteriorated a few years later, the effects of the poison gas caused neurological damage which became noticeable twenty years after the war.

Did you know that he was a Chicago Firemen before the first world war? "

Any time I add facts to my database I first verify the facts. Cousin Kevin has provided some very interesting comments about Joseph Carroll SHEEHAN, my grandfather.

I look at Kevin's information and see it concerns Joseph Sheehan who is established to be our direct-line ancestor and several events that concern him; they are:

1. Veterans Bonus of 1936 - based on military service during WW I

2. Joseph used all or portion of his bonus to pay off Josephine's mortgage

3. Joseph's employment as a Chicago fireman pre-WWI

Let me give you my thoughts about the mortgage payoff.

I think that records of recipients of this bonus are not available to genealogical researchers - and I feel that we can take this event most likely happened and that Joseph received his bonus.

The event of a mortgage on Josephine's real property being paid off.

In order to substantiate this event I feel we must:

****establish the location of this property

****search the appropriate land records for

**********grantee deed

**********notice of the mortage payoff ca 1936

**********grantor deed

I do have some information ca 1930s that may assist us. I'll glean info regarding this era in the next few days and blog it. However, what do we know about Joseph and Josephine during this time frame.

{BTW, does any one know if the Brennan cousins - John, Kurtis, Rosemary - would be interested in joining our discussion?}

Joseph a Chicago fireman pre-WWI. Was he employed or volunteer?

As of a couple of years ago no records for the Chicago Fire Department were available, however, that may have changed in the meantime.

Let me get this blogged so that you all can give some thought to this and post to my "Comments" so that all may read.

Life Expectancy

The other day a friend of mine sent a URL that would 'calculate' an individual's virtual age and life expectancy. Just a fun sort of diversion.

That got me thinking . . . . .

so I went downstairs and fired-up my pc and went to Family Tree Maker program and brought up my direct-line ancestors and their age at time of death.

I used data from a limited number of generations so that a more balanced data base would be used. My maternal direct-line ancestors is very much limited compared to my paternal ancestors.

I went back five generations - to my great-great-great-grandparents.

The number of individuals doubles each generation as we research our ancestors. In order for me to exist it would take 62 individuals. That is:

2 parents

4 grand parents

8 great-grandparents

16 great-great-grandparents

32 great-great-great-grandparents

64 individuals in all

Okay, so I have data on twenty-seven of the sixty-four individuals required. This is what I have to work with for this project.

My findings

Of these twenty-seven ancestors - :

Data compiled using:

both parents

three grandparents

six great-grandparents

eight great-great-grandparents

eight great-great-great-grandparents

Average Life Span [ca. these decades]

Parents = 67 years [1900-1999]

Grandparents = 65 years [1890s-1960s]

Great-grandparents = 64 years [1850s-1930s]

Great-great-grandparents = 73 years [1810-1920s]

Great-great-great-grandparents = 68 years [1750s-1870s]

average life span overall = 68 years

The ancestor with the longest life span lived 89 years [female]

The ancestor with the shortest life span lived 41 years [male]

Longest and shortest Lived

Male = 83 years / 41 years

Female = 89 years / 57 years

Four ancestors lived until their 80s

Ten ancestors lived until their 70s

Seven ancestors lived until their 60s

Five ancestors lived until their 50s

One ancestor lived until his 40s

So there it is. One of the things I find interesting is that the two generations that lived the longest lived during the last half of the 1750s through 1870s

and 1810 thru 1920s.