Thankful Thursday: Moves and Migrations

This site has been a bit quiet over the past few months.  If you've wondered why, it's because blogging has had to take a back seat for a short time while we moved to a new home.

A rose from our garden

Growing increasingly weary of "big" city life, some months ago my husband and I sold our home and moved our family to a smaller community.  We were looking for a slower pace of life and a closer connection to people and the beautiful outdoors here in Northern California.

I guess you could call our move a mini-migration of sorts.  After all, we didn't go all that far.

As anyone who has moved from one house to another can attest, moving is a time-consuming and sometimes painful process.  You agree to give up the known for the unknown; purge the excesses of your life; pack the loved and necessary; unpack and put it all away again; and give family, friends, and service providers your new address. It can be exhausting.  It can be even more daunting to think about going to a new area altogether, whether it is a new town, a new state, or even a new country.

As it turned out, we moved not once, but twice.  Our house sold in less than a week.  With scarcely enough time to buy a new one, we rented a small, quaint Victorian house in a high-tech city to the north while we looked for a house in a valley to the south. We were hardly there when we found our small-town dream home, made an offer, and moved in three weeks later.  It happened so fast, we could hardly believe it.

The move has been good for us. People here are friendly and welcoming. We now live on the far edge of a town some 35 miles south of our old stomping grounds.  It could not be more different than what we left.  There is no traffic, no smog, no hustle and bustle here.  Set in the foothills, our home backs up to an open space of majestic oak trees, pristine skies, and plenty of wildlife.  We inherited some gigantic koi fish who have accepted us - and our dogs - into their kingdom. Our three four-legged creatures, of course, are quite fascinated by their new fair-finned friends.  (Okay, maybe the interest is in their fish food pellets, which resemble dog chow. One of our smaller dogs, Kira, has either fallen or jumped in three times already to get a closer look!)

About the only downside would be our commute to work.  It takes longer than before, to be sure, but the scenery along the way is breathtaking, and the time we have to talk in the car is a true gift. 

In all, it took us some 20 weeks to get here.  Putting it in perspective, that's 284 cups of morning coffee for two people; over 300 boxes of "stuff" (72 of which were just for books); 14 pairs of hands to get those boxes from one place to another; four storage units; and 18 meetings with our Realtor, contractor, and lender.  

We moved in a month ago and are still unpacking and purging, figuring out the nuances of the new house, and finding our way around town.  Like any adventure, it has not been without its ups and downs, but the blessings that have come from them have been great.

This move also has been an occasion to reflect on the many trials our ancestors endured in their own moves and migrations so many years before us, as they left the familiar for places unknown in search of a better life and greater opportunities. The risks we take and sacrifices we make today pale when placed next to theirs.

My great-great grandmother,
Catherine (O'Grady) Perrotin,
1884.

Take my great-great grandmother, Catherine (O'Grady) Perrotin.  When she was barely a teenager, poor and hungry, she and her older sister left their home in Waterford, Ireland, almost 200 years ago and sailed to New York in search of a better quality of life. Catherine had no idea where life would take her, but she trusted in God that all would go well.

And it did. She moved once or twice again after arriving in New York and ended up in Shreveport, Louisiana. There, she found work as a seamstress and married a French baker, François Perrotin.  

Catherine would move four more times during her lifetime. The first move was to nearby New Orleans. When the Civil War broke out, the Perrotins left the South for the peace of Niagara Falls, New York. A few years after that, attracted by the burgeoning railroad industry in Mexico, they relocated again, this time to Orizaba, a small mountain town on the Mexican east coast.

Catherine Perrotin built this house in Ruardean, Gloucestershire,
 for her family. Wanting them to remember their origins, she
had it built in the same style as their home in Mexico.  She named
the new family home "Orizaba Villa."

Catherine and François lived in Orizaba for nearly two decades.  They became integral members of the community and raised two children there before François' death from meningitis in the late 19th century.

This time, it was a widowed Catherine who moved, alone, back across the ocean to England, where her daughter and British son-in-law had gone with their children a few years earlier. To get there, she had to travel by train to the port of Veracruz, take a small boat across the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, travel overland to New York, and sail across the Atlantic, traveling overland again to reach her daughter's home in the south west of England. 

Despite the rough and cold waters of the Atlantic, the sea-sick yet determined Catherine arrived in Ruardean, Gloucestershire, in the winter of 1895. She lived a contented life with her daughter and grandchildren until her death some six years later. Her legendary spirit and resolve live on today through her descendants now scattered throughout the world.

Yes, our own little move is small compared with my great-great grandmother's many long-distance moves, but our motives have not changed.  Today, as I unpack yet another box, I remember dear Catherine and my other family members - including my own parents - who moved to new places in search of better lives. I thank them for crossing oceans and mountains and plains, for enduring hardships and overcoming obstacles and uncertainties, because without their sacrifices we would not be where we are today.

I will always remember them with a grateful and hopeful heart, never forgetting where I came from and all those who helped our family "get there."

************

Copyright ©  2014  Linda Huesca Tully

Mystery Monday: The Railway Men of Orizaba, Part 2

Edward Joseph Organ (1859 - 1893)

Looking over the collection of photographs that belonged to my great-great grandmother, Catherine (O’Grady) Perrotin, I found one that was especially compelling and have been wondering about its subject for some time now. 

Though he was not my ancestor, he certainly was related to someone, and it seems only fitting to honor his memory, out of respect for the friendship he shared with Catherine and her family.

"To Dear Mrs. F. Perrotin, Mater in Mexico"

Edgar Joseph Organ dedicated this cabinet card photograph to Catherine Perrotin on February 27, 1893.   Taken at the Lucio Diaz Studio in Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico, the photograph is addressed to her as his “Mater in Mexico.” 

Catherine, who would have been about 51 at the time, might indeed have been a mother-like figure to many of the expatriate railway men in Orizaba at the time.  Most likely, many of these young men, originally from England, Ireland, France, and the United States, had embarked on their great adventure working on the fledgling Mexican railway, Ferrocarriles Mexicanos, as bachelors, while others may have left wives and children behind for several years.  Catherine already had been living in Mexico for at least 25 years.  She would have been able to offer wisdom and counsel to these young men on the local customs, manners, and language. 

In this portrait, Edgar strikes a somewhat casual pose.  His broad hands appear strong from years of physical work.  He is dressed either as an engine driver, leaning against a half column on top of which are stacked three or four books.  Perhaps these were to indicate that he was an educated man and enjoyed reading.  This would seem to be borne out by his strikingly beautiful handwriting on the reverse of the cabinet card.  He also seems to have had some artistic talent, evidenced by the flower, leaves and feathers he incorporates gracefully into his capital letters.  

Edgar Joseph Organ

The great care that Edgar took to dedicate this to my great-great grandmother aroused my curiosity about him.  Documentation varies, but he was born in the southwest region of the United Kingdom in about 1859, in either Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, or Monmouth, Wales.  Cheltenham lies some 22 miles east of the village of Ruardean - where Timothy Bennett lived with his own family - while Monmouth is about half that distance to the west.  

According to the England and Wales FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837 – 1915, he and Elizabeth Maria Woodward registered their marriage in Gloucester between October and December 1879.

They appear two years later in the 1881 England Census, living at 18 Salisbury Street in Cheltenham, with a six-month-old infant daughter, Elizabeth.  By this time, Edgar is identified as a 22-year-old railway fireman. Both he and his wife are noted as born in “Gloster” – the abbreviation for Gloucester.

Did Edgar and Timothy Bennett know each other before they went to Mexico?  It seems likely, especially as both had been railway firemen before they advanced to engine driver.  They probably trained together on the double Fairlie steam locomotive in Bristol, down the River Severn, where the Avonside Engine Company manufactured some 53 of these for Ferrocarriles Mexicanos to navigate the steep grade from Cordoba to Orizaba, Veracruz, until the railway converted to electric engines in 1920.  

Though it is uncertain when both men left for Mexico, we know that Timothy married Maria Dolores Perrotin at the railway station in Orizaba in September of 1885.  A year or two after Dolores’ father, Francois Perrotin, died of meningitis in 1891, she and her husband and their two children left Mexico for England to join Timothy’s mother and family in the Forest of Dean.  Catherine would join them in 1895.

Two months after dedicating his portrait to Catherine Perrotin, Edgar appears as an engine driver on the passenger manifest of the ship Aurania, arriving in Liverpool, England, from New York on April 25, 1893.   

Tragically, he died some six months later on November 28, 1893, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.  He was only 32.  The entry in the National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861 – 1941 does not list the cause of death, but it does indicate that he left a widow, Elizabeth Maria Organ, who received his effects in the sum of £178 when the will was administered on December 23, 1893, just two days before Christmas.

Was Edgar ill before he left Mexico?  Did he become ill after arriving in England?  Or did he die accidentally?

Where was Edgar and Elizabeth Maria’s daughter, Elizabeth?  Unless she died before her father returned to England, she would have been about twelve years old in 1893.  The other possibility is that she could have been living with relatives during this time.  In any case, I cannot find her after her initial mention in the 1881 England Census and wonder whatever became of her.

Any extra money that Edgar might have brought home from his adventurous sojourn working on the Mexican Railway would have come in handy for Elizabeth Maria, though it could have not lasted long after she became the sole breadwinner.  In a sad turn of events, she reappears in the 1901 England Census in Barnwood, Gloucestershire, working as a storeroom servant at Barnwood House, formerly an estate that was later converted to an insane asylum.   Listed as a widow, Elizabeth was 39 years old.  Had she not only lost her husband but her daughter, too?

What happened to her after that?  I only wish I knew.   

Next:  The Railway Men of Orizaba - Part Two


Copyright ©  2012  Linda Huesca Tully

Marriage Record of Francisco Perrotin and Maria Amaro

Marriage Record
of
Francisco Perrotin and Maria Amaro

Orizaba, Veracruz State, Mexico

March 3, 1889

The following is my translation of the Marriage record between my great-grandparents, Francisco Perrotin and Maria Amaro:

Number 25.

Second act of The Marriage of Francisco Perrotín with María Amaro


In the City of Orizaba, at nine in the morning of the third of March of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, before me, the undersigned Judge of the Civil Registry of the Town, appeared Citizen Francisco Perrotín, demonstrating that as the term prescribed by law for the publication of his convened marriage with Miss María Amaro, without no impediment imposed whatsoever against it, asked for a date and time to celebrate it. The Judge, certain of the above, by the individual and in agreement with him, indicated five-thirty in the afternoon tomorrow and signed with the same. = Mr. Galindo. Francisco Perrotin = Fernández


Number 26.
Twenty-six.
Marriage of Francisco Perrotín and María Amaro


In the City of Orizaba, at five-thirty in the afternoon of the fourth of March of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, before me, Agustín Portas Ariza, first Justice of the Peace, legal substitute of the the Town Civil Registry, by physical impediment of the second (judge), appeared with the object of celebrating their civil marriage, the Citizen Francisco Perrotín and Miss María Amaro, the first twenty-two years old, originally from and neighbor of this City and a mechanic, current in the payment of his personal taxes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Francisco Perrotin and Catalina Ogradi (sic), married, of legal age, of this vicinity, the first originally from France, industrialist and the second from Ireland. The bride is celibate and seventeen years of age, originally from Tecamachalco, Puebla State, of this vicinity, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rafael Amaro and Soledad Cid, married, of legal age, originally from Tecamachalco, of this vicinity and the first an artisan. Both bride and groom demonstrated that: their matrimonial presentation of the fourth day of last February having been verified, the publications having been made as prescribed by law, without any impediments having been imposed to the contrary; that the bride’s father having given his consent in the act of the presentation and ratified by same today, in this act they petition the present Citizen Judge to authorize their concerted union. In virtue of having fulfilled all the requirements of the law, the relative articles of the law of July twenty-third, one thousand eight hundred fifty-nine having been read to them. The bride and groom having been interrogated as to article One Hundred Fifty-seven of the State Civil Code, whether it was their will to unite in civil matrimony, each taking the other and submitting mutually to one another as husband and wife and in view of their affirmative answer, I, Agustin Portas Ariza, first Justice of the Peace in this city and legal substitute of the Town Civil Registry Judge, made the following declaration. In the name of Society I declare Citizen Francisco Perrotín and Miss María Amaro united in perfect, legitimate, and indissoluble matrimony. The final part of the aforementioned article was read to them. Witnesses to this union were the Citizens Félix B. Marín and Francisco Salas, both single and Francisco P. Carmona, married, all of legal Age, the first originally from AltoSonga and the second from Puebla, both of this vicinity and the third
from Veracruz. The present act was read to them, with which all agreed and signed and sworn = Ag. Portas Ariza = Francisco Perrotín = María Amaro, = Felix B. Marín, Francisco Salaz, F.P. Carmona.



Did you know, or are you a member of the Perrotin, O'Grady, Amaro, or Huesca families?  If so, share your memories and comments below.