Where are you Harry Hill?

     Where are you Harry Hill? You frustrate me to no end! I know you're there. Couldn't you have left a few more bread crumbs about where you came from and where your parents came from? That would have been so helpful. Don't get me wrong. I'm so grateful for what I DO have. But I want to know where your family came from in Ireland. Is that too much to ask?? I'm going to find you. And your family. I'm good at puzzles and I was good at "Where's Waldo?" You are my modern-day Waldo. Blended in with all the other Harry (Henry) Hill's out there. But I will find you. There will be a distinction. You will finally stand out. And that day I will shout, "There's Waldo!"

    Yeah so as you can see from above, I am frustrated. I am trying to locate my 2nd Great-grandfather, Harry Hill in New York. Which is proving to be an arduous task. I have no link to an area in New York. I assume it was New York City. I don't see the family moving out of the city unless they had a reason. But I have no proof. I have written about Harry Hill before, as he is my Immigrant Ancestor. Now that is not entirely true as he was born in New York. BUT both of his parents were from Ireland. So while he didn't immigrate, he is full-blooded Irish. 

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Read about Harry Hill here

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    I am still trying to trace some leads here in St. Louis to hopefully help me narrow down my search in New York. Until I get a response though, I am forging on. I have begun my research in New York. I have located a Harry Hill in New York City in the 1870 US Federal Census that matches the age of my Harry Hill. But that's all that matches. So I have no proof it is him. There are a few Harry Hill's in New York City in 1870, so I need to narrow it down. Which will include tracing ALL the Harry Hills I find to rule them out.  Oh boy... this is going to be a long process.

What I know about Harry Hill

• He was born in New York (multiple sources back this up)
• His birth date is approximately 24 May 1845 (based on age from Death Certificate; 53 years, 6 months, 9 days)
• At the time of his death, he was a painter; owned his own business for years. In keeping with that, he could have worked in trades related to this (Laborer)
• Came to St. Louis around 1877 (according to info on Death Certificate)
• His parents immigrated to New York before 1845 (based on age from Death Certificate)
• He was married at Holy Ghost Evangelical Church in 1879 (a German Protestant Church, not a catholic church)

    Knowing this information will help me narrow down and eliminate other Harry Hills. That's the best way to try to find someone. Eliminate who they can not be based on what you already know to be true. So let's get started.

Beginning Research in New York
   Thanks to a friend in the Genealogy Addicts Anonymous Facebook group, I have access to New York City Directories. So I started with those. I looked up all Harry Hills from 1869 to 1880. Since we know that Harry Hill came to St. Louis around 1877, we can eliminate Harry Hills that were at the same address past that year. I included all the way up to 1880 as I don't have a guarantee the year he came to St. Louis. But since he was married in 1879 in St. Louis, we know he was definitely there around that time. Also, City Directories are taken a year before and released a year after. So an 1880 City Directory includes people who lived in the city from the year before.

    So I began looking up all the Harry Hills from each year. While looking those up, I noticed a few repeat entries from year to year. Except they were listed under "Henry" instead of "Harry". Oh, this complicates things. So I also looked up all the Henry Hills that were listed in the city directories as well. 

1873/1874 NY City Directory Source: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/	1874/1875 NY City Directory Source: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

    I created tables in my research log notes to organize and coordinate my research. Once I went through those city directories, I color coordinated similiar entries from the different years based on the same information.

Research Log

Harry Hill

City Directories

    As you can see, I have crossed through a few names. Those are people I've already ruled out. After I listed out all the entries and color coordinated the matching people, I went to the 1870 Census and looked up all the Harry & Henry Hills I could find. Then I worked on matching up those in the census to the city directories. I used the same color for the entries in the 1870 census as I did for the city directories.

Research Log

Harry Hill

1870 US Federal Census

    Based on some criteria, I was able to rule out a few more people. But I still have a few options that I just can not rule out officially. The next step will be looking further back to the 1860 US Federal Census. Harry will be 15 and he might be living with parents. But going back will hopefully help me eliminate more options. 
    This might take a while and it might be the long way of going, but I don't know what else to do. As I said before, tracing the others is the best way to rule out who is not your ancestor. I've used that technique before when tracing my Helfrich line. But I was researching in a familiar area at that time. I have not researched in New York before. Plus this will only work as long as the family stayed in New York City. I don't see a quick end in sight, but I'm not done researching yet.

This is just the beginning...

Stay tuned for more updates on my research about Harry Hill.

Traditional Irish Foods & Recipes

    Happy St. Patrick's Day! As my mom says, "The day where everyone is Irish." Well, thanks to DNA testing and research, I have learned I am actually part Irish on my Dad's side! I wrote about Harry Hill, my Irish Ancestor last year. Check out that post and come back here to see what we have in store for this St. Patrick's Day.

    I love watching this Channel on YouTube where Irish people try all kinds of things from all over the world. It's called The Try Channel. That gave me the idea of trying traditional Irish Foods to celebrate my Irish heritage. So that's what I did. I reached out to some friends on the internet for some ideas. Here is what I came up with.

Mark & me trying Irish foods

Watch me try all these Irish foods!

Boxty

“Boxty in the griddle, boxty in the pan, if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man”.

Boxty is a traditional Irish Potato Pancake with grated potatoes and mashed potatoes. It is commonly made with about 70% potato and about 30% other ingredients. The most popular version of the dish consists of finely grated raw potato and flour. The grated potato may be strained to remove most of the starch and water but this is not necessary. The mixture is fried on a griddle pan for a few minutes on each side, similar to a normal pancake. The most noticeable difference between boxty and other fried potato dishes is its smooth, fine-grained consistency.

The dish is mostly associated with the north midlands, north Connacht and southern Ulster, in particular the counties of Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal, Fermanagh, Longford, and Cavan. (Irish: bacstaí)

The recipe I used I found on Pinterest. There are other recipes that might have just a slight variation, but this one turned out so well, I'm going to stick with it.

    This recipe made quite a lot of potato pancakes. I had enough leftovers for my husband, daughter, and my mom. I served mine with sliced green onions and a couple of sausage links. Other sites state you can serve them with syrup or sour cream, depending on your taste. 10 out of 10 would make this again.

Irish Coffee

This was something my husband has been wanting to try for a long time. He loves coffee and he loves whisky. So I looked up many recipes for Irish Coffee. I was surprised at all the variations. I finally landed on a simple recipe that was perfect. Click the link to read about the History of Irish Coffee.

Irish Coffee
4oz Coffee
1-2 TBS sugar (hubby doesn't like it too sweet)
1 shot of Irish Whiskey (I used Jameson Black Barrel)
Homemade Whipped Cream

Pour hot water into the glass you are going to serve your Irish Coffee in so it will warm up. Make your coffee. Put the sugar in a small pot, add just a bit of water, and heat it until it melts. Remove from heat and pour in the whiskey to warm it with the sugar. Pour out the water from your cup. Add the coffee, then add your sugar/whiskey mixture and then top with homemade whipping cream. (Just whip heavy whipping cream until solid) 

There you go! Like I said, there are many variations. So make it however you want. This is just the way I make it and hubby loves it! I don't have a traditional clear glass to serve it in, so I used what I had. I served my coffee with Irish Soda Bread. I did not make that. I purchased it from the store. It was one less thing for me to make. 

The Irish Coffee was created in the winter of 1943 by Joe Sheridan, chef at Foynes Port near Limerick, Ireland. When he was asked by the passengers if he had used Brazilian coffee, Sheridan replied: "No, it was Irish coffee.” https://weaverscoffee.com/blogs/blog/the-original-irish-coffee-recipe-and-its-history

Irish Soda Bread

I had thought about making this from scratch, but with everything else I was doing, I decided to just pick it up from the store. I served it with my Irish Coffee and some Kerrygold Irish Butter.

"Despite its hefty presence during Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, the history of Irish Soda Bread doesn’t nearly date back to the days of Saint Patty himself—roughly 400 AD—but rather only a couple of centuries. Irish Soda Bread was first created in the late 1830s when the first iteration of baking soda—or bicarbonate soda—was introduced to the U.K." Source: History of Irish Soda Bread

More history: http://www.sodabread.info/history

Irish Beef Stew

I wasn't planning on making this at first, but since I wanted to try a Guinness for the first time (and you can only buy the cans in a four-pack) I decided to try this recipe. It called for a full can of Guinness. Wow! It takes all day to cook to get the flavors melded together. The house smelled delicious. I got the recipe from here: Irish Beef and Guinness Stew. She explains it so well, so I'm not going to type it all out below. follow her instructions and it will turn out amazing. 

I served this with Colcannon Potatoes since they recommend Mashed Potatoes. 

Colcannon

Colcannon is an Irish Mashed potato recipe that contains kale or cabbage and bacon. I absolutely LOVED this. It paired well with the Irish Beef Stew, but I would serve this by itself some time. 

Recipe: Irish Colcannon Potatoes

During the 1600 and 1700’s in Europe and Ireland, potatoes, cabbages, and leeks were considered the food of the common man so it was inevitable that a dish would evolve that combines all the ingredients.  The word colcannon is from the Gaelic term “cal ceannann” which means white-headed cabbage.  It is also believed to be a derivative of the old Irish “cainnenin” translated as garlic, onion, or leek.

In Ireland, colcannon is served as a special treat with ham or Irish bacon.  The Irish tradition is to serve colcannon as the main dish for Halloween festivities and refer to the evening as “Colcannon Night”.  Colcannon is used for the foretelling of marriages.  Just as Americans have the fun superstition of the single young lady who catches the wedding bouquet will be the next to marry.  Young single Irish women hope to find the ring hidden in their plate of colcannon. Source: What's Cooking America

    All in all, it was a good day trying traditional Irish foods. I did end the day trying my first Guinness, and I have to say... eh... well watch the video to get my take on it. What a great way to celebrate my Irish heritage. I am going to try some other items soon that were recommended to me. Such as a Tayto Crisp sandwich. I ordered the chips from Amazon. 

Have you tried any of these recipes? What do you like to make for St. Patrick's Day? do you have Irish heritage? Let me know in the comments below. And don't forget to check out my video!

via GIPHY

My Irish Ancestor - Harry Hill

      As my mom likes to say, "On St. Patrick's Day, everybody is Irish." She has memories of going out with friends, doing pub crawls, wearing her button that says, "Kiss Me I'm Irish." No matter if you are Irish or not, you celebrate it as if you were. Well, I learned something this past year. I learned that I am actually Irish on my father's side.
     This really shouldn't be such a shock. I did a DNA test a few years ago with 23 and Me and my results came up with a high percentage of Irish. That blew my mind. Cause most of my research has led me to Germany, not Ireland. Well, going through my Papa's paperwork from the Military, he had listed on a paper as "Irish-American" for his Nationality. I was like, "What?!" So looking up my tree and following the line back, I found Harry Hill. He was born in New York, but both of his parents were from Ireland, so he was full-blown Irish. Holy cow! So let me introduce you to Harry Hill.

*Disclaimer: All the information I am presenting is from records I have found. I am still in the process of proving and sourcing his life. He is actually one of my brick walls. I posted my sources below.

     Harry Hill was born in New York on May 24, 1845. As of right now, his life in New York is unknown, as I haven't officially found him yet. He came to St. Louis, Missouri around 1871, just after the 1870 census (of course). He worked as a painter for most of his life in St. Louis. He even had owned his own Painting business with a gentleman by the name of Joseph C. Mukish. They ran ads in the City Directories that advertise House and Sign painting. Their business was located on South 16th Street. He was also a member of the I.O.O.F Laclede Lodge #22.

Hill & Mukish Ad

City Directory - 1884

     He married Magdelena Barbara Primus on May 17, 1879, in St. Louis, Missouri. The marriage record I found butchered her last name as Bremers. They would go on to have five children: Alice Barbara, Ellen Henrietta (My Great-Grandma), Rosilene, Gertrude Kate, and Harry Hill Jr. 

Missouri Marriage Record

Ancestry.com

     Unfortunately, his life was cut short. When his youngest was only about 4 years old, Harry Hill died on December 3, 1898, from Pernicious Anemia. He is buried in Normandy, Missouri at St. Peter's Cemetery. They held the funeral at their residence on High and Vine Street, which is Oddfellow brothers attended. 

Missouri Death Records
Ancestry.com

St. Louis Post Dispatch

Dec 3, 1898

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Dec 5, 1898

     As you can see, I do not know much about my Irish Ancestor. I've tried tracing back farther, but keep hitting that doggone brick wall. I picked up a new book to try and help me with my research called Finding Your Irish Ancestors in New York City by Joseph Buggy. My biggest problem is making the connection to New York from St. Louis. I have some possible leads, but nothing concrete. Maybe by next St. Patrick's Day, I will have made more progress.

Harry Hill and Magdelena Primus

Late 1800s

St. Louis, Missouri

Do you have Irish Ancestors? Who are they? Have you traced them back to their homesteads? Share your stories below!

Sources:

1880-1930 US Federal Census - Ancestry.com
Missouri Marriage Records & Indexes - Ancestry.com
Missouri Death Records - Ancestry.com
U.S. City Directories - Ancestry.com
Missouri Death Certificates - Missouri Digital Heritage
St Louis Post Dispatch - Newspapers.com
St Louis Globe-Democrat - Newspapers.com
Harry Hill Memorial - FindaGrave.com
U.S. Social Security Applications - Ancestry.com