Happy Mother's Day

Especially in genealogy, it's so important to remember our MOTHERS and maternal ancestors - after all, we get half our DNA, half our traits, half our stories, half our history from them! Happy Mother's Day everyone! Miss you, Mom, every day...

Me and my mother, Margaret Raynor Gorry, circa 1981.

Happy birthday to my grandfather, Elmer Gorry

Today would've been my grandfather's 83rd birthday. Hope you're having a rockin' party up in heaven, Grandpa...Miss you!

(My grandfather comes in at about the 4:15 mark in this video - he plays NBC president Robert C. Wright this time, not Grant Tinker)

The mysterious death of Tim Tormey

From the April 18, 1921 issue of The Daily Star...Tim Tormey was my great-grandmother's brother. I think I recall my dad saying that he was kind of named after Tim Tormey (Dad, is this right?) In 1921, my great-grandmother, Mary Tormey, was 25 and unmarried. Her father, Michael, had died in 1908 of pneumonia when she was 12; her brother, also named Michael, died four years later when Mary (also known as Marie) was 16. Three days after Michael died in 1912, Marie's mother, Ellen Prendergast Tormey, died of breast cancer. From what I can tell, from the stories and photos my dad has shared, Marie and her siblings, especially her sisters, were close - and who can blame them? They were all they had.

After Michael Jr. died, Tim was the only brother. In 1921, he was already married ... he had married Adelaide Finn in 1916. It seems he was a bit of a shady character, someone who liked to party and who may have owed some people money, who may have drank too much, who may have flirted with the wrong guy's wife...the official story, as you can see from the newspaper article, is that he fell down the stairs and fractured his skull. I may have a death certificate floating around somewhere, too...you'll have to ask my dad about that.

But the question remains - *how* did Tim Tormey fall down the stairs? It's not like he was old or infirm. Maybe he was drunk. Another theory is that maybe he was pushed during some kind of altercation. I'm not sure we'll ever know the real story. At least, not until I can ask Tim Tormey himself... ;)