Knots In the Family Tree

I became a member of Ancestry.com, and like most things and ventures I started on in my life, it began with great expectations only to produce an almost equally great disgust.

As noted,  I recently filled in the blanks about my relation to the late Philadelphia Mayor Jim Tate.  And  I learned a lot about my great-grandmother Maginnis, Mayor Tate's aunt.  Ancestry.com helped me fill in those blanks.  Part of the reason I joined was because I wanted to see if I was eligible for Irish citizenship based on my lineage, in case Donald Trump regains the White House and makes himself  President-for-Life by declaring martial law.  At least, I thought, if I went far back enough, I'd learn fascinating details about my family and my roots in both Ireland and Italy, and I expected to find many fine people - on both sides - in my family tree.

But, umm, it didn't quite turn out like that.

My research actually started out to be rather swift and fruitful at first.  I found out that my Great-Grandfather Maginnis's father, Richard Maginnis, was a shipping clerk in Philadelphia, and William J. Maginnis, my great-grandfather, ran a printing business and was upper-middle-class, at least by today's standards.  Richard's wife Mary was a Callery, a name I'd never heard before anywhere, and of course William J. Maginnis married Mary Tate, whose own family was filled with surprises as I researched first cousins twice removed in that family.  (The Tates, of course, are an admirable family in their own right, as I've made clear before.)  My great-grandfather had a brother named Edwin, and through him, I found second cousins once remove still living in southeastern Pennsylvania.  And records for my Callery ancestors go back to Ireland at a time before the American Revolution, as well as my paternal grandmother's Irish forebears; it seems her grandparents were the ones who immigrated to America.   My research into my paternal grandmother's family revealed that, among other things, that her brother -- my granduncle - was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.     

Then I started hitting walls.

I haven't been able to go as far back with my Maginnis ancestors as I'd hoped.  Edward Maginnis, my grandfather's great-grandfather, was the one who emigrated here from Ireland.  Another reason I was researching my family is because a woman told me we could be related, because her distant ancestor was a Maginnis.  Also, I wondered if a son of Edward might be a link to CNN weather forecaster Karen Maginnis.  Hey, why not? But once I got to Edward, the trail went cold.

At least I found links to Ireland through my Callery ancestors and my paternal grandmother's grandparents.  On my mother's side, where my roots go back to Italy, I found practically nothing.  This is what I don't understand.  My mother's father and her maternal grandparents emigrated from Italy, so her family hasn't been in America as long as my father's; therefore I figured records of my Italian-born relatives would be more immediately available since such records are not as old.  Wrongo!  As soon as I tried to get past my maternal grandfather and my mother's maternal grandparents, the trial didn't just go cold, it went cold dead.   The only new information I could find about my mother's family concern cousins and the grandparents we don't share.  For example, I found out that my mother's brother's children had a Polish grandmother.  So I learned that my cousins were one-fourth Polish.  But that shouldn't matter to me, and it probably didn't matter to my cousins, as, sadly, their maternal grandmother died before they were born.

Even worse, my failure to find my roots in Italy made me feel like I was wasting the money I paid to join.  And with good reason.  When I signed up for $32, I thought I was paying $32 for a year.  It's actually $32 a month.  I can't afford that!  I have enough expenses to worry about without this!  So . . . I'm going to do as much research as I can in the one month I've paid for, download my family tree, and cancel my account.

Well, it hasn't been a total loss.  I did get a lot of eye-opening information about my family.  I just learned that my second-great-grandaunt Frances' second husband (her first husband died) served in the Spanish-American War of 1898 as an infantryman.  I found maternal second cousins who, it turns out, had a father who emigrated from Croatia when it was still a Yugoslavian republic.  And I connected with a second cousin and her aunt, who helped me a bit with my research.  But there was a severe downside.  I found many other distant relatives descended from my paternal grandfather and tried to contact them.  I haven't heard back from them. Even worse was what I found out about some of my ancestors.  My second-great-grandaunt Frances had a son who was murdered in 1913 as a teenager, making me wonder if the world lost a great scientist or statesman as a result.  And I learned something rather sour and unsavory about another long-dead relative that, uh, I'd rather not reveal here.  I may have revealed too much already. 

I can reveal the result of what brought my to Ancestry.com in the first place.  No, I do not qualify for Irish citizenship.  My paternal grandfather's Maginnis and Callery great-grandfathers and my paternal grandmother's paternal grandparents, all whom emigrated from Ireland, are too far back for me, generation-wise, to claim Irish citizenship.  In fact, my Irish immigrant ancestors came over here most likely because of the potato famine, and the Irish don't consider Americans descended from famine immigrants to be Irish at all.  They consider us to be . . . Americans.

So if Donald Trump becomes a fascist dictator in 2025, I know what I live to do - learn Italian.

I assume fascism won't come back to Italy anytime soon . . ..