Who's Who in the Family Tree

My father was one of four brothers who were sons of one of four brothers. I'm aware of six cousins of my father's, only two of whom I've known. William Thomas (4 Sep 1915 - 25 Dec 1987), Francis Vincent (to my surprise his birth certificate says Vincent Francis and I doubt he ever knew it!) (16 Aug 1916 - 15 Apr 1996), John J. (28 Dec 1919 - 13 Sep 2006), and Clifford James (16 Jun 1922 - 17 Nov 2008) were the sons of William Thomas Hawkins (6 May 1890 - 15 Feb 1962) and Margaret Kenny  (13 Mar 1891 - 10 Oct 1981).  Margaret was adopted as a baby, her birth name was Joanna Smith , daughter of John Smith and Margaret Cross/Roche. Margaret Kenny had been engaged to William's brother, John Hawkins (b. 8 Apr 1889) but John died 16 Dec 1911 at just 21 years old. Almost three years later, on 15 Nov 1914 Margaret married John's younger brother, William. The next younger brother of John and William was George Edward (b. 5 Aug 1892). George married Emma Desmond and their...

My 2nd great grandmother, Bridget Cain/Kane was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Thomas Cain/Kane and Hattie Kelly.  She was first married in Ireland to William Sharkey and she had 2 children by him, Mary and Winifred. Bridget says that she left William because he was a bad man and she came to America in 1863 (she described it as having been “2 years here when Lincoln was shot”) and that she left her children in Ireland (with her parents according to Winifred). She says she drifted to Poughkeepsie becoming a servant there until she married Benedict Sherer. She says she never divorced William Sharkey but that her father wrote to her telling her that William had gone to Staffordshire, England to work and fell off of a building. He was returned home and died in Ireland.  I’ve been in contact with a cousin, Maire, who is a great granddaughter of Mary Sharkey and she has shared some family information with me. William Sharkey was a Stablemaster to Lord Ffrench ...

When I began researching my family history I had been told by my uncle that my great grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Benedict (aka Maime Sherer) Hawkins. I also had a death certificate for Mary E. Hawkins, born 1 Mar 1870, died 17 Nov 1935, naming her father as Benedict Sherer from Switzerland and her mother as Mary Meehan from Ireland. I also had my grandfather's baptism and marriage certificates naming his mother as Mary Benedict. No one knew why two different maiden names were given for Mary until we found the answer in her father's Civil War pension file. Mary's father had come to the US during the Civil War and after the war he settled in Poughkeepsie. At the time he didn't have a good command of English and as often happened with foreigners who didn't speak much English, the locals began to call him John. When they learned that Benedict and Sherer were in his name, they used various combinations of John, Benedict and Sherer but most common was John Benedict....

I’ve learned from Benedict Sherer's pension file that according to Benedict his parents were John Sherer and Catharine Miller. He was born 13 Oct 1844 or 1845 in Berne, Switzerland and had one living brother as of 1900 named John. He landed in NY on a spring day in 1863 or 1864. Although the transcription of the passenger list for the ship on which he travelled says he arrived on 20 May 1864 and his enlistment in the Union Army was dated 20 May 1864, he says he enlisted the day after he arrived. He spent his first night in America in a hotel with no family or friends here to meet him. The next morning he walked into the street and a man told him he had a job for him driving a bread wagon. Instead, the man took him to a military hall where he was induced to enlist in the Union Army. Benedict’s regiment spent 2 months training at Hart’s Island, NY. From there the regiment went by steamboat to Fortress Manor and City Point, and then to Petersburg, VA. They moved about Petersbur...