I’m having some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (#SNGF), with help from Randy Seaver and his prompts! Feel free to join in.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: May 16, 2026

Prompt: “Determine where your ancestral families were in May 1876 — 150 years ago. List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).”

Introduction

150 years ago, for me, means that no one I knew was alive then. Certainly it’s possible but it didn’t happen in my case. So this location-gathering is all evidence-based.

What surprised me as I worked through the list was how scattered they already were. Some families were still in long-familiar places in Suwałki, Staten Island, Morris County, or Ohio. Others were already in motion, recently arrived, orphaned, widowed, separated, or just beginning the moves that would shape the next generation. Looking at May 1876 this way turns a date on the calendar into a family map.

The numbers used will be my children’s ahenentafel numbers.

Discussion

11. Ida Rabinowitz was born as Khaya Rabinovich in 1872 in Vyskie, Seiny, Suwalki (now in Lithuania) to a trader family headed by Mortkhel Rabinovich and Khana Rachkovski (birth record dated 1875), though she later claimed to be born in 1879, consistently shaving seven years off her age. (She married a man born in 1878.) She is the sixth known child, preceded by siblings Sora Leya, Avrum, Shimon, Aron Szimel, and Traina.

16. Bernat Birnbaum (also known as Joe, Bernard) was born in Czechoslovakia. He married FANNY STEINBERG before 1885, as their son Samuel was born in that year. So in May 1876 he was presumably a young man in Czechoslovakia.

17. Fanny Steinbergwas born perhaps in Czechoslovakia. She married BERNARD BIRNBAUM (also known as Joe, Bernat) before 1885, as their son Samuel was born in that year.

18. Joseph Frank was born in April 1852 in Russia. He immigrated to the United States in December 1872 and settled in Manhattan, New York, where he remained for the rest of his life. I have not located him in the United States prior to 1887, so cannot confidently say where he was in May 1876. He was not with family that I know about.

19. Jennie (Sheindel) Felder was born on December 20, 1859, in Austria-Hungary. She emigrated about 1886, so in May 1876 would have been in Austria-Hungary, I suppose with her parents Joseph Felder and Rosie.

20. Szmujl/o Morthaj “Mordecai” Gudelski was born June 20, 1837, in Suwalki, Congress Poland. He married Cywa ‘Sylvia’ Bachrach in 1855 in Suwalki when both were 19 years old. By 1875, they had several children born Suwalki: Yochevet, Kuna, Mowsza Lejba, Abraham, Berko, and Szepszel.

21. Cywa “Sylvia” Bachrach was born in 1835, probably in Suwalki, and was having children with 20. Mordecai Gudelski above in 1875.

22. Mortkhel Rabinowitz and 23. Khana Rachkovski. Mortkhel was born about 1828 and Khana about 1828-1833. They married by 1864 when their first child was born. They lived in Veisiejai, Sejny, Suwalki, in 1864.

24. Michael Joseph Anderson was born on April 20, 1874, in Staten Island, Richmond, NY. He lived with his parents Michael Anderson and Theresa Kilkenny Anderson, and his younger sister Theresa, in 1876, his older sister Mary Ann having died the prior year.

28. Adam Grant West was born on May 2, 1866, in Liberty Center, Henry County, Ohio, the seventh child to parents John Thomas West and Patience Spiegle.

29. Charlotte Mae DuShannon had been orphaned and in 1876 was living in the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Protestant Orphan Asylum when Chester and Mary Peters assumed her guardianship.

40. Manel Nochim Gudelski was born ca. 1798-1807. He married 41. Rejza Hirszowna, born about 1807. They were living in Suwalki in 1873, and she died a widow in 1885.

43. Rochla was born about 1799-1800, and married Mowsza Bachrach. She died 8 April 1867 in Suwałki.

44. Rubin Rabinovich, born ca 1804 probably in or near Dusnica (Dusznycia), gm Dumble, near Sejny, Suwałki Governorate — a small rural settlement in what is now Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland, near the Lithuanian border. He died on May 2, 1877, at age 73, in Dusnitse village, Krasnovo area, Sejny, Suwalki, so I have to assume he was in the area in 1865.

48. Michael Anderson had married 49. Theresa Kilkenny and had three children by 1876. They were living in Staten Island, Richmond County, New York.

50. Andrew Driskol was probably living with his wife 51. Malvina Hendel in Manhattan as recent immigrants, with their children, Edward, Edith (if still alive at that time), and Mary.

52. William Carey and his wife 53. Mary C. Keoghan were newly naturalized in Morris County, New Jersey, with then-children James, Mary, William, John, Andrew, and Catherine. William worked for the railroad.

54. James Hart was a boy with his parents John Hart and Johanna Dobbins in 1876, in Hibernia, Morris County, New Jersey. He had older siblings Timothy and Michael, and younger siblings at that time Mary, unknown, John, and Margaret.

55. Bridget Agnes Kearney was a young woman soon to marry, with her father Matthew Kearney, in Randolph, Morris County, NJ. Her mother Eliza Culligan may or may not have been alive during 1876.

56. John Thomas West Sr. and his wife 57. Patience Spiegle were living in Liberty Center, Henry County, Ohio, in 1876, with or recently split from his father John West. Their children in 1876 were Mary Ann, John Jr., Fannie, Adam, Eva, and Wilbur.

60. Henry Mackey was in Buffalo, Erie, New York in 1876 with his parents William Mackey and Ann Dolan, as well as siblings Edward, John, Margaret, and Mary Ann. He may well have been dating the woman he’d marry the following year.

61. Ellen McCourt was living with her father Patrick McCourt in the 1875 census, and presumably still in 1876, and with her widowed sister and two niblings.

62. Cornelius Britton was married to his first wife Frances Housman in 1876, and they were living in Brooklyn, New York and their first two sons Frank and Willard.

63. Alice Matilda Smith was separated from her first husband, living with her parents Jason Smith and Mary Denny in Staten Island, and her child Louis Seawood.

108. John Hart and his wife 109. Johanna Dobbins were living in Hibernia, Morris, NJ with their children Timothy, Michael, James, Mary, unknown, John, and Margaret. He was recently naturalized and worked as a miner.

110. Matthew Kearney was with one of his wives or between them, a miner in Randolph, Morris, NJ, and his children Thomas, Bridget, Martha, John, Ann, and Matthew.

112. John B. West was living in Liberty Center, Henry County, OH. He was widowed and had been living with son John and family but I believe had moved out due to differences between them by then. He died later that year, never having reconciled with that son.

120. William Mackey was living in Buffalo, Erie, New York, with his wife 121. Ann Dolan. Their children Edward and Henry were still at home in 1875.

122. Patrick McCourt was perhaps living with his widowed daughter Mary in 1876. He would soon go into an old age asylum and die soon after.

124. Cornelius Britton and his wife 125. Harriet Barker were living in Staten Island, their children having flown the nest, though they were only 46 and 42, he working as a carpenter.

126. Jason M. Smith and his wife 127. Mary Catherine Denny were also living in Staten Island.

218. Michael Dobbins and his wife 219. Mary Malone had settled in Shawnee, Wyandotte, Kansas, by 1876. Their immigration path had brought them from Ireland via New Jersey (where their daughter Johanna and another daughter Margaret remained).

250. Stephen Barker and his wife 251. Mary Miller were living in Manhattan, either on Rivington or Hudson streets.

Those are all of my children’s ancestors known or believed to be alive in May 1876. Some locations are documented, some are carefully inferred, and a few remain frustratingly uncertain. But taken together, they offer a remarkable snapshot: families rooted in old communities, immigrants beginning again, children growing up in households that would soon change, and ancestors whose paths were slowly converging toward the people we would eventually know as family.

ChatGPT, 19May2026

AI Disclosure

This post was written by me with the help of AI tools for organization and editing. The memories, family details, and reflections are my own.