Of all my ancestors whose details I've uncovered over the years in censuses, wills, tax lists, city directories, Civil War pension files, and other documents, by far the most mysterious is a man named Edward Harding Ryan.
Edward was born in Ireland in 1826 and immigrated in 1873, arriving in Philadelphia. He was apparently a Protestant so I'm guessing he may have been from the North, but I have yet to find any more concrete information on his origins.
He was naturalized on August 31, 1880, but strangely I can't seem to find him in the 1880 census. I don't know what his wife's name was and I don't know his profession.
He had at least two children, one of whom was my great great grandmother, Isabella Esther Ryan, born in 1859 in Ireland. She married Andrew Lucas Chamberlain and died when my great grandmother, Laura, was only five.
Edward's other daughter that I know of, Catherine S. Ryan, was born in 1857, also in Ireland, and married Douglass Bellerjeau, a Philadelphia native.
The most informative source on my great great great grandfather is his death certificate, dated January 1886. He was only sixty. He died of pneumonia and was buried in the Greenwood Knights of Pythias Cemetery. His address was listed as 1477 Cook St., and he was a widower.
I'm fascinated by the mysteries of my past. These people are part of who I am, and it's amazing to think that this almost anonymous Irish immigrant was one of the people without whom I would not exist. Some day I'll find out more about him but until then it's good to know on St. Patrick's day (though surely Edward would not have acknowledged St Patrick!) that I'm at least that little part Irish.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Quisqueya Relief
Check out this new blog about the Quisqueya Crisis Relief Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Don't miss the opportunity to donate.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Paraguayan guitarist Agustín Barrios Mangoré is one of the greatest musicians of all time.
That's what world famous Australian guitarist John Williams says about this Paraguayan icon of the first half of the 20th century. Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas and Williams talk about this remarkable composer and guitarist that so beautifully represented the musical heart of Paraguay in this BBC interview.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Still Thinking About Haiti
My posts about Haiti have slowed down considerably since last week. On Friday we left home (our temporary home in Kentucky) for a one-month road trip. This is the first extended time I've had internet access since then.
I haven't forgotten about Haiti. It's been on my mind constantly and I've particularly been praying for Steve Hersey and the team at Quisqueya Christian Academy and all the folks that continue to work for the restoration of Haiti. For the last few days they've been updating their website and tell of the excellent work they're doing to coordinate medical teams and help patients find the right location for the help they need.(To contribute to the ongoing aid and recovery work based at QCS, go to their website and scroll down to the PayPal "Donate" button.)
It does seem that the news media are forgetting, as they are bound to do as our own attention span wanes and our eyes look elsewhere for news-entertainment. Troy Livesay tweets that the media row, so much in evidence for the first week and a half at Toussaint Louverture Airport, has now disappeared. The aid effort, of course, has not disappeared and in some ways is only now beginning.
I've followed my sister Ruth's blog for a long time. She's been mysterious about where exactly she was located, preferring to refer to her adopted country as Tecwil. But after the quake she outed herself as a resident of Haiti, where she has in fact lived and worked since 1993. Check out her blog for beautiful writing in general and specifically these days for her own reflections on the earthquake, being a mom in a crisis, and being evacuated.
I haven't forgotten about Haiti. It's been on my mind constantly and I've particularly been praying for Steve Hersey and the team at Quisqueya Christian Academy and all the folks that continue to work for the restoration of Haiti. For the last few days they've been updating their website and tell of the excellent work they're doing to coordinate medical teams and help patients find the right location for the help they need.(To contribute to the ongoing aid and recovery work based at QCS, go to their website and scroll down to the PayPal "Donate" button.)
It does seem that the news media are forgetting, as they are bound to do as our own attention span wanes and our eyes look elsewhere for news-entertainment. Troy Livesay tweets that the media row, so much in evidence for the first week and a half at Toussaint Louverture Airport, has now disappeared. The aid effort, of course, has not disappeared and in some ways is only now beginning.
I've followed my sister Ruth's blog for a long time. She's been mysterious about where exactly she was located, preferring to refer to her adopted country as Tecwil. But after the quake she outed herself as a resident of Haiti, where she has in fact lived and worked since 1993. Check out her blog for beautiful writing in general and specifically these days for her own reflections on the earthquake, being a mom in a crisis, and being evacuated.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Some Links
We're on the road for a few weeks and I'm not able to write a full post but I'd like to refer you again to the following excellent blogs:
Ben and Katie in Haiti, an excellent update on the goings-on at Quisqueya Christian School.
The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog, following the very hands-on relief work of missionaries Troy and Tara Livesay.
And the following interesting links:
Satellite image of the location of the QCS campus. If you zoom out you'll find the nearby Montana Hotel and Caribbean Market.
Article about a lady who will be sending aid for the work at QCS.
Interesting news today from QCS director Steve Hersey: they are going to reopen the school for the few students who are still in the country. They'll resume classes in a very scaled-down way on January 27th.
Ben and Katie in Haiti, an excellent update on the goings-on at Quisqueya Christian School.
The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog, following the very hands-on relief work of missionaries Troy and Tara Livesay.
And the following interesting links:
Satellite image of the location of the QCS campus. If you zoom out you'll find the nearby Montana Hotel and Caribbean Market.
Article about a lady who will be sending aid for the work at QCS.
Interesting news today from QCS director Steve Hersey: they are going to reopen the school for the few students who are still in the country. They'll resume classes in a very scaled-down way on January 27th.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
QCS Earthquake Command Center
"Our campus has been preserved for a purpose." That was the realization that Quisqueya Christian School's Plant Operator Ted Steinhauer came to just hours after the earthquake hit Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area on January 12th. Although there was great destruction around the school, the QCS buildings had not sustained damage.
Almost immediately the QCS campus began to become a center for relief efforts. Its most obvious resource was its physical plant--undamaged buildings and courtyards as well as fields and open areas. Director Stephen Hersey comments on Facebook about the structural soundness of QCS buildings:
Many of these people responded to the call for help and have teamed together under the leadership of people like Steinhauer and Hersey, sometimes using their training and experience in administration, organization, technology, and medicine; sometimes reaching out to their connections within Haiti and beyond; sometimes simply doing the grunt work that needed to be done to make the relief effort work.
An example of the last category is Ben Kilpatrick, a North American teacher who had barely worked in Haiti for two weeks when the earthquake hit. Yesterday he volunteered to accompany a trip up the mountain to the Dominican Republic to search for a truck carrying relief supplies that had broken down. Reports say that Ben and others like him have been available to do whatever was asked of him, joyfully serving others and helping to ease pain.
Part of the extended QCS community are Troy and Tara Livesay who work with Heartline Ministries and World Wide Village. They have been working with missionaries John and Beth McHoul, John and Jodie Ackerman, and others to treat those injured in the quake. Using very basic equipment and supplies, they have sutured wounds, set seriously broken bones, and otherwise helped to relieve suffering. They've had to get creative, like using sterile gloves to provide drainage for wounds. The Livesays' blog tells an amazing story of how they found help for some of their most serious patients on the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort.
The Livesays report that the larger Non-Government Organizations, better-supplied with water, food, fuel, and medicine, have not been heeding the call of smaller NGOs for help. The smaller organizations, many of which have invested in Haiti for years, are trying to band together to provide the support they are not finding in the large groups.
It's not clear whether the humedica team from Germany continues to lodge on the QCS campus now that they are no longer working in nearby Hôpital Espoir, but Els Vervloet reports that a Korean team will now be moving onto the grounds.
With access to communications equipment, motorcycles, trucks, interpreters, and runners, the QCS Earthquake Command Center has become a vital nexus in the ongoing relief and recovery efforts in Port-au-Prince.
Almost immediately the QCS campus began to become a center for relief efforts. Its most obvious resource was its physical plant--undamaged buildings and courtyards as well as fields and open areas. Director Stephen Hersey comments on Facebook about the structural soundness of QCS buildings:
It is amazing. Many people are using the word 'miracle.' Walls collapsed right across the street, and the house directly across from the High School building suffered huge damage, big pieces falling off. I really have no explanation.But it also had a dedicated, compassionate team of administrators, faculty and staff who love the people of Haiti and feel a call to serve them. Many of them were already involved in ministry in orphanages and Haitian schools. An additional resource was the community of parents and alumni, both Haitian and expats, that QCS is connected to.
Many of these people responded to the call for help and have teamed together under the leadership of people like Steinhauer and Hersey, sometimes using their training and experience in administration, organization, technology, and medicine; sometimes reaching out to their connections within Haiti and beyond; sometimes simply doing the grunt work that needed to be done to make the relief effort work.
An example of the last category is Ben Kilpatrick, a North American teacher who had barely worked in Haiti for two weeks when the earthquake hit. Yesterday he volunteered to accompany a trip up the mountain to the Dominican Republic to search for a truck carrying relief supplies that had broken down. Reports say that Ben and others like him have been available to do whatever was asked of him, joyfully serving others and helping to ease pain.
Part of the extended QCS community are Troy and Tara Livesay who work with Heartline Ministries and World Wide Village. They have been working with missionaries John and Beth McHoul, John and Jodie Ackerman, and others to treat those injured in the quake. Using very basic equipment and supplies, they have sutured wounds, set seriously broken bones, and otherwise helped to relieve suffering. They've had to get creative, like using sterile gloves to provide drainage for wounds. The Livesays' blog tells an amazing story of how they found help for some of their most serious patients on the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort.
The Livesays report that the larger Non-Government Organizations, better-supplied with water, food, fuel, and medicine, have not been heeding the call of smaller NGOs for help. The smaller organizations, many of which have invested in Haiti for years, are trying to band together to provide the support they are not finding in the large groups.
It's not clear whether the humedica team from Germany continues to lodge on the QCS campus now that they are no longer working in nearby Hôpital Espoir, but Els Vervloet reports that a Korean team will now be moving onto the grounds.
With access to communications equipment, motorcycles, trucks, interpreters, and runners, the QCS Earthquake Command Center has become a vital nexus in the ongoing relief and recovery efforts in Port-au-Prince.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
QCS--For the Long Haul
In the wake of a strong 6.0 aftershock early this morning, the administrators, teachers, and staff of Quisqueya Christian School are determined to be involved over the long term in the relief and recovery efforts in Port-au-Prince. Reports indicate that the campus was again undamaged this morning though other buildings in the neighborhood still standing after the quake a week ago have now collapsed. To give to ongoing relief efforts at Quisqueya, click here and donate through PayPal.
Teachers who have remained in Haiti this past week, some of them European or North American, have found ways of being involved. Ben and Katie Kilpatrick just arrived in Haiti at the end of December. Less than a month into their stay, they find themselves carrying makeshift stretchers, cleaning wounds, and comforting injured children at a temporary clinic established on the grounds of their church.
High school principal Tony Dekoter ended up on guard duty on campus one night. The Canadian missionary from the Christian Reformed Church plans to remain in Haiti as long as he's needed to help in any way he can. Sean Blesh, in Haiti with his family since August 2007, who found himself on the rescue team last Tuesday night pulling people from the collapsed Caribbean Market, has been working with other teachers to prepare the campus to be occupied by the U.S. Army Southern Command.
The campus now houses U.S. Army personnel including a high-ranking general, reports Crisis Response International. Director Steve Hersey writes that he had the opportunity yesterday to brief Army Special Forces troops that will base at the school. Teachers were asked to clean out their classrooms so that the soldiers could move in. Senior Jessica Ackerman helped her mother, a teacher at the school with the task.
The German orthopedic team camping on the grounds continues to offer its services at nearby Hôpital Espoir. [UPDATE, 11:35 am. A message has come from Els Vervloet that the team has had to be withdrawn from Hôpital Espoir due to damage sustained to the operating room this morning in the 6.0 magnitude aftershock. The orthopedic team will be redeployed to Diquini/Carrefour to the west of Port-au-Prince, nearer the earthquake's epicenter.] Displaced orphans have occupied a classroom wing and the six-member CRI team from Kansas City has been camping on the soccer field.
The relief operation based at the QCS property continues to grow as administrators reach out to Quisqueya's community of students, parents, and alumni to participate. School registrar Els Vervloet of the Netherlands today requested volunteers to serve as telephone operators. She asked for people with skills in English, French and/or Haitian Creole, and Spanish if possible, to respond. These operators will be working around the clock in three shifts manning the high-tech Emergency Operations Center installed on campus.
This equipment, loaned and put in place by Quisqueya graduates Joel Trimble, Jr. and his brother, Michael, does not rely on existing telephony infrastructure but used satellite technology. The Trimbles are communications engineers and the specialized electronics come from IT Broadcasting. The brothers chartered a flight from their Florida base to Cap Haïtien on the north side of the island and transported it overland to Port-au-Prince.
This morning school director Steve Hersey sent out a request over Facebook for motorcycles and skilled drivers to be used in the relief effort. Facebook has been an important channel of communication for many in Port-au-Prince during this crisis as well as a means for those outside of Haiti to find loved ones and follow the relief efforts.
Hersey and school Chief of Operations Ted Steinhauer as well as other administrators have been working hard to coordinate with military and other relief organizations that are operating in their area, but they've also been meeting with school personnel to discuss how the relief operation will develop into a recovery and rebuilding operation. They intend to partner for the long term with their community to serve those who have been affected by the quake.
This investment in the community is not something QCS began after the earthquake. The school has a long tradition, sustained by compassionate teachers and energetic students, of investing in its community. Els Vervloet reminded alumni, parents, and students two days ago of the H.O.P.E. orphanage, this year's senior class's Community Service Project focus. The orphanage sustained damage in the earthquake and now "the H.O.P.E. girls and the family running it are living in 2 small rooms next to their clinic."
Many of those seniors, heartbroken, have now had to leave Haiti, unsure of if or when they'll ever return. A difficult decision has been made this week by QCS teachers, administrators and parents to send some family members out of the country. Torn between the desire to serve the desperately suffering and the need to see their families well, in some cases children have been sent to live with relatives or mothers of younger children have taken their children to the US, Canada, or Europe. Those not vital to the relief effort often felt they were using resources--food, water, cooking gas, power--that would be better used by someone else. Some expressed a sense that they were abandoning Haiti, their Ayiti cheri (Dear Haiti) that they love and mourn for. There are feelings of guilt and anguish for those who did not survive. Many will return as they have many times before, but for now they feel they ought to do more.
There will be much, much more to be done. International leaders swear they will rebuild Haiti but as always it will be individuals and families, serving in small ways, that will make the difference for the people of Ayiti cheri.
Teachers who have remained in Haiti this past week, some of them European or North American, have found ways of being involved. Ben and Katie Kilpatrick just arrived in Haiti at the end of December. Less than a month into their stay, they find themselves carrying makeshift stretchers, cleaning wounds, and comforting injured children at a temporary clinic established on the grounds of their church.
High school principal Tony Dekoter ended up on guard duty on campus one night. The Canadian missionary from the Christian Reformed Church plans to remain in Haiti as long as he's needed to help in any way he can. Sean Blesh, in Haiti with his family since August 2007, who found himself on the rescue team last Tuesday night pulling people from the collapsed Caribbean Market, has been working with other teachers to prepare the campus to be occupied by the U.S. Army Southern Command.
The campus now houses U.S. Army personnel including a high-ranking general, reports Crisis Response International. Director Steve Hersey writes that he had the opportunity yesterday to brief Army Special Forces troops that will base at the school. Teachers were asked to clean out their classrooms so that the soldiers could move in. Senior Jessica Ackerman helped her mother, a teacher at the school with the task.
The German orthopedic team camping on the grounds continues to offer its services at nearby Hôpital Espoir. [UPDATE, 11:35 am. A message has come from Els Vervloet that the team has had to be withdrawn from Hôpital Espoir due to damage sustained to the operating room this morning in the 6.0 magnitude aftershock. The orthopedic team will be redeployed to Diquini/Carrefour to the west of Port-au-Prince, nearer the earthquake's epicenter.] Displaced orphans have occupied a classroom wing and the six-member CRI team from Kansas City has been camping on the soccer field.
The relief operation based at the QCS property continues to grow as administrators reach out to Quisqueya's community of students, parents, and alumni to participate. School registrar Els Vervloet of the Netherlands today requested volunteers to serve as telephone operators. She asked for people with skills in English, French and/or Haitian Creole, and Spanish if possible, to respond. These operators will be working around the clock in three shifts manning the high-tech Emergency Operations Center installed on campus.
This equipment, loaned and put in place by Quisqueya graduates Joel Trimble, Jr. and his brother, Michael, does not rely on existing telephony infrastructure but used satellite technology. The Trimbles are communications engineers and the specialized electronics come from IT Broadcasting. The brothers chartered a flight from their Florida base to Cap Haïtien on the north side of the island and transported it overland to Port-au-Prince.
This morning school director Steve Hersey sent out a request over Facebook for motorcycles and skilled drivers to be used in the relief effort. Facebook has been an important channel of communication for many in Port-au-Prince during this crisis as well as a means for those outside of Haiti to find loved ones and follow the relief efforts.
Hersey and school Chief of Operations Ted Steinhauer as well as other administrators have been working hard to coordinate with military and other relief organizations that are operating in their area, but they've also been meeting with school personnel to discuss how the relief operation will develop into a recovery and rebuilding operation. They intend to partner for the long term with their community to serve those who have been affected by the quake.
This investment in the community is not something QCS began after the earthquake. The school has a long tradition, sustained by compassionate teachers and energetic students, of investing in its community. Els Vervloet reminded alumni, parents, and students two days ago of the H.O.P.E. orphanage, this year's senior class's Community Service Project focus. The orphanage sustained damage in the earthquake and now "the H.O.P.E. girls and the family running it are living in 2 small rooms next to their clinic."
Many of those seniors, heartbroken, have now had to leave Haiti, unsure of if or when they'll ever return. A difficult decision has been made this week by QCS teachers, administrators and parents to send some family members out of the country. Torn between the desire to serve the desperately suffering and the need to see their families well, in some cases children have been sent to live with relatives or mothers of younger children have taken their children to the US, Canada, or Europe. Those not vital to the relief effort often felt they were using resources--food, water, cooking gas, power--that would be better used by someone else. Some expressed a sense that they were abandoning Haiti, their Ayiti cheri (Dear Haiti) that they love and mourn for. There are feelings of guilt and anguish for those who did not survive. Many will return as they have many times before, but for now they feel they ought to do more.
There will be much, much more to be done. International leaders swear they will rebuild Haiti but as always it will be individuals and families, serving in small ways, that will make the difference for the people of Ayiti cheri.
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