A Question the Records Can't Answer

        I never realized how attached you can feel to an ancestor who lived well over 170 years ago, one who you had never met. But when you devote months of research time trying to uncover information about a specific person, that is what happens. John Mervyn Reilly, my 2nd great grandparent is such a person for me. 

This is a photo of Jane Reilly and her son William, taken around 1890. She was a sister of John Reilly, the only sibling we have a photo of. It was this family line that lead me to the DNA match that helped answer many questions.

I only knew a few scant facts about him until recently. And the more I learned, the more questions surfaced, not necessarily about the details I uncovered,  but the “why” behind those facts. Family history enthusiasts deal with these unknowns every day. We consider different scenarios in our brains about our ancestors’ lives. Facts and records only get us so far. Many deeper questions probably will never be resolved.

And here is a photo of Lizzie Reilly, my g-grandmother, who was a daughter of John Reilly. The photo above of Jane Reilly was Lizzie's aunt. Some resemblance ?

At age 22, John left Mount Nugent, Cavan, Ireland, and arrived by ship in New York City in 1852. The following year his parents and five of his siblings also arrived in NYC. Two other brothers already had settled in Detroit, and one remained in Ireland. Most of the brothers took jobs as clerks. They all seemed to do well in this country, finding success in both jobs and marriages. 

The first sad news came when the family learned that Michael Reilly (the brother that stayed in Ireland) was killed in Balaklava in the Crimean war. He was one of the Irish soldiers killed in the 1854 battle that came to be known as “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The next sad news happened during the Civil War, when brother Alexander Reiily was killed by friendly fire in Virginia in 1861. So John Reilly lost two brothers in the first 10 years of being in the U.S.

Then in 1862, John left his job and home in Cincinnati, and took his wife and young daughter (my great-grandmother) back to Brooklyn. This was of course during the Civil War. I’m guessing he returned to Brooklyn to be with his parents and family during this time. He also served in the Union as a quartermaster clerk during the war. And he and his wife Matilda added three more children to their home. They moved to Philadelphia at some point before 1870.

Then tragedy struck again, this time claiming the young lives of two of John and Matilda’s four children, 7 year old Matilda Emma and 11 month old George died within a few weeks of each other in Philadelphia in late 1870, both of diphtheria.  Add to that John Reilly’s father, also named John, died six months later in Brooklyn, at age 71. 

 

In Philly John was employed, but his employment seemed to be a lower paying job that before. Then on March 1, 1872 John died at age 41. The death notice only said that he died at the county prison, was a clerk by profession, married, born in Ireland, and cause of death was heart disease. He was buried in the same cemetery where his two young children were buried just two years before. 

So this is where the records cannot answer what happened to him. There was no obituary, no notice of any kind in the Philadelphia newspapers, nor any estate probate or anything. His name was spelled John Riley on the death notice, but that was not unusual for this period of history. I hired an archivist in Philadelphia to research any prison records that still existed, and he was not listed, nor were there any court proceedings that indicated that he was in prison.

Since he and his family lived in the same general neighborhood as the prison, my best guess is that he either passed out from drinking (he was Irish!) or had a heart attack outside that evening in the vicinity, and was picked up and taken to the prison. Most men probably didn’t carry any sort of ID on them then, and I guess Matilda notified authorities that her husband was missing.

All of the secondary information led to this being “my” John Reilly, particularly the fact that of all the cemeteries there were in Philadelphia, he was buried at the old M. E. Union cemetery (Methodist Episcopal) where his two children were also buried. And, the next year, when the 1873 Philadelphia City Directory was published, Matilda Reilly was listed as widow of John. 

So there you have it. Twenty years after John immigrated to the U.S. There are so many more questions I would have for John and his brothers and sisters. I am still looking though. You never know what could turn up.

What happened to John, and where was he when he died?

How did he and his wife Matilda Whitehead meet ? Was it an arranged marriage?

Why did two of his brothers immigrate through Canada to Detroit? 

Was John’s brother William the one who was a partner in R. G. Dun ?

What happened to your brother William?  Where did he go?

I could go on and on !