George Welling, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

George Welling,
1922

This website includes a picture of the 1922 second grade class at Holy Name Parish on Broadway on the southeast side of Cleveland. My mother was in that class and identified most of the children in the picture. She identified the last young man on the right in the front row as George Welling. There was a George Welling living in the area, described below, who is probably him.

George W Welling was born in Cleveland on April 20,1914, the son of William M Welling and Catherine Farron. The family was living at 13124 Harvard in 1920, in the same home as Catherine's widowed mother Sarah. Beside George, the family included his sisters Catherine and Sarah and a brother Thomas.^{1, 2}

Catherine (Farron) Welling died November 23, 1920 of tuberculosis, and the family, including the Sarah Farron household, moved to 7512 Claasen. They were at that address in 1922. George's father William died in 1925, also of tuberculosis, and in 1930 the children were living with their grandmother and her son at 7915 Harvard.^{3, 4, 5}

George Welling married Coletta Gallagher on February 4, 1933, in Cuyahoga County and raised a family of at least four children. Coletta died in 1972 and is buried in All Saints Cemetery, Brookpark. George Welling died June 1, 1996, in Portage County.^{6, 7, 1}

George Welling's mother Catherine Farron was the daughter of Michael and Sarah Farron. She and her parents were born in Rostrevor, County Down. For more on their family see the article Peter, Michael, and Henry Fearon, Kilbroney to Cleveland.

The Wellings

When I revised this article I did some work on the Welling side of the family. You can begin with George's father William at William Welling's page on this site.

Conclusion

If you are a relative or descendant of George Welling you are welcome to download the class picture and pass it on. If you would like a larger image, with possibly better resolution, contact me.

Footnotes

Ohio Death Index, familysearch.org, for George Welling, 1996. Cleveland Public Library's Cleveland Necrology File for Catherine (Farron) Welling, 1920, and William Welling, 1925
1920 Census
Ohio deaths, images, at familysearch.org, for William Welling, 1925.
1922 Cleveland City Directory, at ancestry.com
1930 Census, at familysearch.org
Cuyahoga County Marriage Records, at ancestry.com
Cleveland Public Library's Cleveland Necrology File for Colletta (Gallagher) Welling, 1972.

Helen Finnerty, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

Helen Finnerty,
1922

This website includes a picture of the 1922 second grade class at Holy Name Parish on Broadway on the southeast side of Cleveland. My mother was in that class and identified most of the children in the picture. She identified the first young lady from our left in the back row as Helen Finnerty. There was a Helen Finnerty living in the area, described below, who is probably her.

Helen Finnerty was born about 1914 in Ohio, the fifth of eight known children of Michael Finnerty and Helen "Nellie" Kennedy. The family lived at 9423 Meech Avenue from at least 1904 until at least the time of Nellie's death in October 1948. Helen's siblings were: Mary, born 1903, Michael J (1904-1910), John P, born 1906, Dorothy, born 1909, Marguerite, born 1915, Patrick, born 1918, and Thomas E (1921-1921).

About 1932, Helen Finnerty married Travis Hunter, who was born in New Jersey May 10, 1913. They remained in Cleveland for a few years, being found in the City Directories for 1936 and 1939, but by April 1940 the Hunters were living in Oberlin Township, Lorain County, Ohio. The census shows them with four children: Richard, born 1932, Patrick Lloyd, born 1938, and two others who are still living. A fifth child would be born soon after the census was taken.

They returned to Cleveland but were soon separated. In 1942 they are listed both together and separately:

1942 Cleveland City Directory
page 534, image 272
Hunter Travers (Helen) laborer house 2206 East 73rd
Hunter Travis laborer 2297 E 89th

and then only separately from 1943 onward.

Travis Hunter married again, to Sarah E Tolar. They settled on East Blvd and may have still been there when Travis died in September 1985. Helen (Finnerty) Hunter remained divorced and died January 1, 1963, at home, apparently at 10109 Ostend Ave. She is buried in Highland Park Cemetery.

Helen Finnerty's parents

I struck out almost completely trying to find the ancestry of Helen's mother Nellie Kennedy. Her death record said her parents were John Kennedy and Alice Kerry, and she had a brother Edward living with them in 1920. Both Nellie and Edward were born in Pennsylvania. When Nellie's son Thomas died in 1921, the information said that she was born in German, Pennsylvania. There is a German Township in Fayette County, but I didn't find them there. Michael Finnerty had family in Scranton, but I didn't find Nellie's family there either. Nor in Cleveland.

The Finnerty side of the family were well covered in the records, and I was even able to find Michael's baptism record in Kilglass Parish, County Sligo, Ireland, along with the records of most of his brothers and sisters. Their parents were John Finnerty and Sabina "Sibby"/Cecelia "Celia" Gallagher. Celia was living with the Michael Finnertys in Cleveland in 1930.