Seven Sisters

It's nice that the title has a familiar ring to it. Seven Sisters roses, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the seven stars in the Pleiades, the seven sisters colleges in the Northeast...

But thanks to Diane Nelson, my "new" friend from Interlaken (who found Ada for me a few years ago), I really do know seven sisters. OK, I only know (knew) two of them, but I now know who they are.

Remember Jack, my dad's adoptive father? Here he is with Grandma Leary, his wife, and my dad at about age 14. So the picture is from about 1918.



The day I hiked with Diane this summer, we were just talking about things and people I remembered from the home town. I was commenting that I know absolutely nothing about Jack O. Leary. But I did remember that we often visited the Beach and Sager families.

Diane can't resist a good knotty puzzle. She immediately began hunting for Jack's obituary. It turns out that Grandpa Leary, Jack, was from the next village south. He had seven sisters. Two of them lived in my home town, and we visited them regularly. I called them Aunt Rose (and Uncle Guy), and Aunt Cora (and Uncle Levi). But I had no idea they were actually related (not by blood, but by adoption). Children called adult family friends aunt and uncle all the time. I don't think I have a single picture of any of these people (although, now that I say that, there is a suspicion I might have a picture of Cora and Levi somewhere).

Dad particulaly liked Cora and Levi. They were farmers, and Dad always said they were very kind to him as a boy. My fictional character of Cora is partly based on this Cora- in looks, not by interests.

Anyway, here is the list, as much as Diane could put together.

My adoptive greatgrandparents: John and Rosa O'Leary came from Ireland and lived in Covert, NY. This confirms my long-time speculation that Jack was second-generation Irish.

Children:
Sarah b. 1863; d. Aug 9, 1915; m. Sylvester Neal
Bridget b. about. 1865
Johnie/John/Jack b. September 1866; d. Feb 9, 1943; m. Frances Bullivant; adopted Ray
Margaret/Maggie born about. 1867; m. Jack Dempsey (Washington DC)
Mary A. b. about 1869; m. Bert/Burt Murphy; son Earl
Rose Ellen b. July 25, 1871; d. Jan 16, 1953; m. Guy E. Sager; grandson Don (deaf)
Theresa b. ?; m. Charles VanVleet
half sister Katherine Alcora/Cora b. 1880; d. June 16, 1963; m. Levi Beach

So, the children spanned 18 years, and I suspect Cora was a Leary with a different mother. Perhaps Rosa was just tuckered out from all those kids, and died.

Just to make it look more like a family, here are the kids' names in order: Sarah, Bridget, Johnie (grandpa Leary), Maggie, Mary, Rose Ellen, Theresa, Cora. The name Alcora is new to me, but it turns out to be a girl's name with Scottish roots- surname Alcora seen in the late 1800s. Social Security shows no one with that first name in the past 100 years! So, perhaps John's second wife was Scot. Other than Cora, the rest is a standard collection of Irish names. Top o' the evenin' to ya!

I edited, I worked on some other stuff, I walked to town to do errands.

See The Jack that Built the House