My Old Ohio Home - Hurley

Vincent Hurley, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland

2019-03-31T00:00:00-04:00

Vincent
Hurley,
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 fourth young man from our left in the third row as Vincent Hurley. There was a Vincent Hurley living in the area, described below, who is probably him.

Vincent was born June 9, 1912, in Ohio, the second of two sons born to Michael J and Anna (Donovan) Hurley. His older brother, Francis Joseph, had been born March 22, 1911. Vincent's childhood must have been a bit of a struggle–his mother died when he was eight, and I didn't find Vincent on any records until the 1940 census, when he was living with his mother's sister, Mary (Donovan) Toohig's family, at 4139 East 119th. Vincent enlisted in the US Army on May 8, 1942, for the duration of the war. He was living in East Cleveland when he died June 7, 1970, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery. He never married.

And that's all I know about Vincent. As for his family . . .

The Hurleys

With a lot more effort than usually required, I managed to find out something about Michael J Hurley and his family. Michael was born May 15, 1872, in Cleveland, the oldest son of Timothy Hurley and Ellen Gibbons. He was married twice, outliving both wives. His first family was with Ellen Lee, whom he married October 30, 1895, most likely at Holy Name Church. They lost a son 3 days old in 1896, then had a daughter Coletta and a son Emmett before Ellen died October 25, 1900. Coletta's records were about as scarce as Vincent's. She, Francis, and Vincent may have been in foster homes for a while. Only Emmett consistently showed up in the records.

Michael waited more than nine years before remarrying. He and Anna Donovan were wed on January 11, 1910, again probably at Holy Name. They had two children as mentioned, Francis and Vincent. Anna died April 18, 1920, of "insanity at menopause." Contributing to her death were "anemia and exhaustion." She and Michael were not living at the same address when she died, so it doesn't look like her dying was easy on anyone.

There were two Hurley families in Newburgh in the 1880s and early 1900s, but they might not have been related as I first suspected. The death record of Michael Hurley's sister Mary (Hurley) Broderick said that both their parents had been born in County Cork. For the other family, who said they were from Mayo, see Bernice Hurley, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland.

The Donovans

The Donovans were a family you dream about researching. The earliest American record for Anna Donovan, the 1880 census of her parents's household, said she was born about 1870 in Wales. I clung to that birthplace, despite later records saying things like "Mannershire, England" and "Ireland." And sure enough, she was born in the first quarter of 1871, in Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, Wales, the first child of Garrett Donovan and Bridget Rice.

Ballymacoda, East Cork

Bridget's death record (Cleveland, Ohio, July 9, 1925), said she was born in Cork, Ireland, the daughter of Percy Rice and Mary Murphy. That was close enough to the truth to find her baptism record in Ballymacoda and Lady's Bridge parish, Diocese of Cloyne, County Cork, on January 6, 1851. Her parents were not Percy and Mary, but Pierce Rice and Johanna Murphy. Pierce and Johanna were married February 25, 1843, in the same church.

When you find a few lone parish records like that, though, you always have a lingering doubt that there might have been two couples with the same names that had daughters named Bridget—and you found the other one. I have learned the hard way that no matter how unusual the name, there are usually two people living in the same place at the same time with the same name.

But not this time. I found the Rices and Donovans in the same household on the 1871 Census of Ebbw Vale, Wales: Pierce, Johanna, four children including Bridget, Garrett Donovan, and daughter Johanna. Pierce's surname on most of the records in Wales was spelled "Rees." I wonder if that was Welsh for "Rice." At any rate, there they were. The 1861 Census even identified the Rices' birthplace as Balymacody, Co. Cork.

Conclusion

Although Vincent Hurley had no descendants, I know that he had Toohig cousins who did. And I'm not sure about his brother Francis or his aunt Cecelia (Donovan) Mahon. At any rate, I'm sure there is someone out there who would appreciate learning their Rice-Donovan home parish in Ireland.

For sources and more details on the Hurley, Donovan, and Rice families, see the Ohio Families section of this website.

Credits

The picture of Ballymacoda was taken by John Finn, of Ballymacoda. It can be found on flickr at John Finn's page, and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 License.

Bernice Hurley, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland

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

Bernice
Hurley,
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 third young lady from our left in the back row as Bernice Hurley. There was a Bernice Hurley living in the area, described below, who is probably her.

Bernice was born July 22, 1914, in Cleveland, the daughter of Edward Hurley and Catherine Sadler. In 1920 she was living at 9408 Cassius Avenue with her parents and her maternal grandparents, William and Anna (Heffernan) Sadler. Also in the household were three of her mother's brothers, and Bernice's sister Edna May. She was still at home with her parents in 1930, at 9337 Harvard Avenue.

On July 22, 1938, Bernice was living at 4234 East 116th when she married Stanley J Mack. They were at 3311 Archwood in 1940. She died March 13, 2002, at a long term care facility in Westlake. Her home address at the time was 3078 W 137th St, Cleveland. She is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brook Park, along with her husband who died in November of that year. From the records it looked to me like they had at least two daughters, evidently born after the 1940 census.

The Sadlers

Bernice Hurley's first cousin, Peter Bolan, was also in this second grade class. His mother, Elizabeth Sadler, was Bernice's mother's sister. So for what I know about the Sadlers, which isn't much, you can see his article, Peter Bolan, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland, or the database Trees > Ohio Families on this site.

The Hurleys

That leaves Bernice's father, Edward Hurley's, side of the family. He was born January 30, 1892, in Cleveland, the son of Michael Hurley and Anna Durkin. And that is about the end of the story for the Hurleys. Michael Hurley's death record didn't include his parents' names or birthplaces, and his death notice didn't mention brothers or sisters. If I had access to more of the Cleveland City Directories, I might have been able to spot a possible brother or cousin living at the same address as Michael, but I only had the 1916 edition.

One thing I did come across, though, is that the Hurleys were from County Mayo. That information was in a Wikipedia article about Edward Hurley's son Joseph Patrick who became the Catholic Archbishop of St. Augustine, Florida.

The Durkins

I did a little better with the Durkin family. That same Wikipedia article, Joseph Patrick Hurley, said that Anna Durkin was from County Sligo. Her death record said her parents were Peter Durkin, Anna McCafferty, which turned out to be "close, but no cigar." I looked for people who died in Cleveland with parents that matched "Durkin, McCafferty" and found her brother Peter. His death notice mentioned Anna and a brother John. And Peter's death record said their parents' names were Patrick Durkin and Bridget McCafferty.

With that information I was able to find Peter Durkin's probably birth record on August 8, 1864, in Mintiagh [old spelling: Montiagh], Achonry, Sligo, son of Patrick and Bridget. And a birth for John not far away in Sargard, Aclare, County Sligo, on February 20, 1867. [I'm thinking the family didn't actually move, but registered the births in different places. I might be wrong.]

Ann Durkin always seemed to be the oldest of the three when looking at the records, so she was probably born before the civil registration of births began in 1864. I wasn't sure enough of her brothers' records to include them as their actual birthdates in the database, but they are in their notes.

If anyone has even a clue where Sargard is, please let me know. I didn't find a trace of it.

There is also a likely naturalization record for John Durkin in March 1893, which says he was born in Curry, Ireland. Curry is not far from Aclare and Mintiagh. The baptism records for the Catholic parish of Curry are not available before 1867, which could explain why none of the three children could be found in the baptism indexes online.

Conclusion

So there you have it. For the details and the sources, see Trees > Ohio Families mentioned above.

If anyone knows where exactly in Mayo the Hurleys were from, I would like to know. And I would especially be interested in any information about the Sadlers and Heffernans. I've struck out twice on them.