Lonely Civil War Soldier Needs Your letters

Some people are letter writers and some not. Nancy Forgey/Moss was in the latter. I never enjoyed writing letters either. Typing a letter is much more enjoyable than handwriting one, however.

Lick Creek April 1, 1862
"Dear Wife
I received your letter baring date April 1st and was glad to here from you. I have nothing of interest to write from the fact that I have wrote to you every other day since I came here whether you ever received my letters or not I can't say as you have not wrote whether you have received any one of them or not you must write oftener and write whether you ever received my letters or not you must take care of your self the Best you can. I was joking about writing every other day but I have wrote five or six letters to you beside peases that I have wrote in others since I came here. This leaves me well hoping it ma reach and find you enjoying all the pleasures of life you must answer this immediately. So no more But Remain your affectionate Husband. John R. Moss"

Lick Creek April 1, 1862
"Dear Father
I was informed yesterday by West Eavens that you was at home which I was glad to here. But at the same time sorry to here that you was not well. I want you to do Nancyes writing for her and all so want you to write to me your self. Give me all the News as I have a bad chance of geting any here you must let me now where you left Harry so that I can write to him. tell Mother I would have come By when I started up here but I new it would hert her.


Vicksburg, Miss March 9th 1863
"Dear Wife,
As I have an opportunity of writing to you and sending it by hand I conclude to drop you a few lines which will inform you that I am well. Trusting at the same time these lines may reach and find well. I have nothing new to write to you at present more than all the boys here safe and appear to be very satisfied. When we will get away from this place I can not say as I see no prospect at present tho I am in hopes we may get away soon. Take good care of yourself and rest assured that I will do everything in my power to render you happy so no more write soon and give me all the news."

John R. Moss and Nancy Forgey Civil War Letter

John R. Moss and Nancy Forgey

Lick Creek Tennessee April 1, 1862
"Dear Wife,
As you will not write to me I have concluded that I will write to you a gain. hoping whenever this reaches you it may find you well for I would be very sorry to no that you was unwell or dissastisfied in any way whatever. I want you to content your self  as best you can and not bee uneasy about me as I take the best care of my self  That I can and live till I die I unless I get killed. I want you to write to me immediately if you have not all ready written and if you have write again. I want you to write at least once a week and I will do the same you nead not bee uneasy about me drinking as their is no whiskey up here that is fit to for a hog to drink.
I am well and getting fit on Bull Beef and Biscuit. I thought I would give you a specimen of the house I intend building when I come home you must have it framed and a glass put over it and keep it untill I return. If you or  any of the you family should get dangerously sick you must write to me no. I can get a furlow under them circumstances. I ? you must give me all the news and let me no how you are geting along farming. Be shore and not let the stock astray my wheat as I intend coming home at harvest if possible. Give my best respects to all inquiring friends. J. R. Moss "

The House he intended to build 

Happy St. Patrick's Sister Mary Kathleen!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! My Great-Great Aunt Sister Mary Kathleen (Bridget Mullen) was a Roman Catholic Nun. Her life story is very inspiring. Born in the Townland of Pollaturick Co. Galway, Ireland in 1888 she migrated to Chicago Illinois around the turn of the twentieth century. Firmly committed to her calling as a Nun she she talked a resistant church official into allowing her to join inspite of apprehensions about her age. I guess they thought 23 was told old to join that order? She worked at various Catholic Boarding Schools during her long career with the Church. She lived to a very old age, dying at the age of 103!! She received a letter from the Pope when she turned 100.

The first mention of the maiden name of my Great-Grandmother Ellen (Helen) Mullen-Mason's mother was in an unexpected place, her sister's eulogy. I had never heard of the name before and thought it didn't sound Irish. I thought maybe someone got the name wrong? I did some research and found it is indeed Irish. It's a variant of the surname Hoban common around Irish Town Co. Mayo, Ireland. Here is a link to my website with more info about the surname http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~huvane/huvane0.html.

Funeral Reflection

Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen

October 17, 1991

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood."

"For 103 years Sister Mary Kathleen Mullen searched the reflection in the mirror and added to the vast store of knowledge her years had accumulated. Today we celebrate because at last that dim reflection is fully revealed and her knowledge is complete.

Mary Kathleen Mullen was born in County Galway, Ireland on February 1, 1888, just two months after Mary Frances Clarke died. The BVMs motherhouse was still St. Joseph's on the Prairie and Mt. Carmel was only a dream.

The year Kathleen was born there were only 440 sisters in the Congregation. They did their reading and sewing by kerosene lamps, they pumped their water from the well, and they traveled by horse and buggy.

Kathleen's parents Mary Huvane and Patrick Mullen baptized her Bridget, and Bridget's crossing from Ireland to the United States was very similar to that of Mary Frances Clarke's and the early founders. Bridget entered the BVMs on March 19, 1911 from St. Ita's Parish, Chicago and received the name Kathleen."

PRAYERS FOR THE FAITHFUL

"For Kathleen's parents, Patrick and Mary Huvane; her brothers and sisters Ellen, Michael, Thomas and Winnifred; her nieces and nephews who preceded her in death, that they all be reunited."

Happy Dance Day plus email Address Log

As you can see above I had Rachel listed as unknown. NO MORE. Nan Harvey has been working to breakdown a brickwall in her own Tyree line and discovered a court record with Rachel's maiden name. She found this document (see image right). She found it here Chancery Court Records for Scott County, VA. I have looked at this collection several times but didn't run across this. It doesn't seem to be indexed for every name? I could not find it looking for Forgey? You have to be very cautious indeed when using indexes, Never assume someone isn't in a record collection just because they are not on the index!

Jame A. Forgey Slander Case 1837 Jackson County, Indiana 

I went back and looked at the info I gathered on James A. Forgey and Rachel Tyree's family. I had not been able to find too much about them. I know they migrated to Jackson County, Indiana after the 1830 Census ( from Scott County, VA). I also found a slander court Case filed in 1837 between Jesse Hubbard and James A. Forgey in Jackson County IN.  I couldn't find any more details regarding the case in the microfilm I ordered. The Family also live in Bartholomew and Jennings County, IN. James Forgey's name was listed as Hugh J. A. Forgey on a Census and may have been his full name? The family did have a bible with some family dates in it. According to their family tradition two brothers came to America from Ireland and settled in Virginia; which sounds like Alexander and Andrew, who did live in Virginia briefly?. I couldn't find James or Rachel's place of burial either? Sadly, one of their descendants was put to death in the Electric Chair in Texas.
I was contacted by one of their descendants a few years ago asking for more info about the family. I've been trying to locate their email address. I have not been able to locate it so far. I've been having all my emails routed to Gmail from other email boxes. Some of my emails have been lost in the rerouting. I've printed out a stack of emails about two inches thick and filed them. Sadly that one is not one of them. I have paper everywhere so I may have printed it and missed filed it? I need a log outside my email boxes to keep addresses so they don't get lost if something goes wrong with my email box. I found this form http://www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy/index_files/CorrespondenceRecordSheet.pdf . Sorry I can't contact this person with the good news. I'll do some filing this weekend and I may find a copy of the email?

Was an Ancestor Presidente de Nicaragua?

My Mother Edna Forgey/Kapple and Grandmother Graciela Del  Castillo/ Forgey in Nicargua

Ever since I found information on a short term President of Nicaragua I wondered if I was related? His name was Nicasio Del Castillo and he was President for an entire month 13 Aug 1856 - 12 Sep 1856 . My great-grandfather was also named Nicasio Del Castillo. According to Enrique Mejia, who had studied Nicaraguan History for his own family research, the del Castillo family had been one of the most important families during the colonial era.  He also said a that a Juan Arguello Del Castillo was Vice President at one time. I had found that a number of Del Castillo's served on the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. My mother thought that her grandfather may have been a lawyer?

At this point I have not been able to trace my family very far back in Nicaragua. The only clues I have about my family there is from my Grandmother's death certificate. It gives the names of her parents as Nicascio Del Castillo and Elena Garcia. Unfortunately only the Civil records for Managua, Nicaragua have been filmed by the LDS Church and are now available online. I've written to the Church in Granada where my mother was baptized for additional family info but it sounds like my great-grandparents were not members of that Church. I was informed that the name Forgey was not a local name. No, actually my grandfather was a US Marine stationed in Nicaragua and Scots-Irish and German. My Forgey family really stands out in the records there!

I've written to several addresses I've found for Civil Registration Records but never received any kind of response. My new strategy is to contact the Nicaraguan Consulate in Los Angeles; and I've also found contact info for the Family History Center in Granada, Nicaragua. I will continue to keep trying to get someone's attention. Hopefully the Granada records will be microfilmed eventually? I just discovered that Managua Church records are now online at Family Search. I will being doing research there for the next few days, probably more than that (it's not indexed).

• The Best Source for Nicaraguan research are these Civil Registration Documents: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1601210
• This is a great research outline for Nicaraguan genealogy: http://net.lib.byu.edu/fslab/researchoutlines/LatinAmerica/Nicaragua.pdf
• Municipal Archives of Granada Nicaragua: http://aer.mcu.es/sgae/servletAerCga_ServletManagerCGA?pantalla=0&pantallaCuerpo=3
• Link to info for Nicaraguan Archives: http://aer.mcu.es/sgae/servletAerCga_ServletManagerCGA?pantalla=0&pantallaCuerpo=3

Nuestra Mercedes Church where my mother was Baptized built between 1534 and 1539

How would you interpret these DNA results?

Click on this image to enlarge

Let's take a look at the final results in our first round of our Forgey DNA testing. I highlighted some of the differences. I focused on differences which were shared. There was mutations in both of Samuel's descendants' lines which separates each of their lines, and are not shared by the others.
This is my impression of the results if anyone else has a different take or is able to draw any other conclusions please let me know?

1. The Maury County, TN Andrew Forgey (died 1820 see image above) line had a unique mutation on DYS-442 which is 13 and everyone else is 12. If someone in the Alexander Forgey line tested and shared the same DYS-442 mutation 13 that would be very helpful!
2. My uncle's line which goes back to Andrew Forgey and Anna Roller had a unique mutation on DYS-438 which is 11 and everyone else is 10.
3. DYS-576 is the most confusing. We've got 3 of the 5 with the result 20?  Two got the result 19? So was the earliest common ancestor 19 or 20?  You would think that both of Samuel's descendants would match but they don't. We've got one of Samuel's lines matching the Maury County Andrew. The other matching the Hawkins County Andrew. 
4. All of the Forgeys matched the William Forgie line of Co. Down to some degree. I am guessing that is where all of the common lines originated? We need someone from the Hugh Forgey line of Co. Antrim to test. That line is confirmed to be from Co. Antrim. Would like to know if they are related?
5. A Forgy line in Pennsylvania did not match. I am curious as to whether that was a non paternal event? We still don't know whether everyone carrying the name is related?
6. The testing has proven that all of the Forgeys above share a common ancestor at some point. My Uncle Charles Forgey and Roger Forgey seem to be the most closely related with a mismatch of only one. 

Hopefully we can get more Forgeys to test. It seems like a few people have looked at my postings at the Forgey message boards regarding testing. If we can get more testers to compare with we might be able to determine when the mutations occurred which might tell us at what point we are all related?