Groucutt

Wordless Wednesday: Sitting Around the Table

joelowry1982 Groucutt, Paternal, Wordless Wednesday

Left to right, sitting: Kathleen Rogan Groucutt (Mother Groke), Virginia Groucutt Naples, Barbara Groucutt Roberts (Babs), Kathleen Groucutt Sullivan (Booney), Jean Groucutt Lowry (my grandmother), Bob Sullivan
Left to right, standing: Noah Groucutt (Daddy Groke), Bob Schell, John Naples, Dorothy Groucutt Schell, Dave Roberts

This photo has been making the rounds with the family on Facebook. It’s my great grandparents, grandmother, her siblings and in-laws all sitting around the table in the late 1940’s. I believe the original is held by my cousin Gigi Naples.

About:
Wordless Wednesday is usually just a quick post with a photo and a caption. Nothing special, just something fun to look at and look back on…

Document of the Day: Noah Groucutt Marriage Record

joelowry1982 Groucutt, Paternal

I’ve spent a lot of time on the Groucutt family with this blog, but that is where my research has taken me lately. I promise to branch out and include other families and family names in due time.

FamilySearch.org has recently indexed Pennsylvania marriage records from 1885 through 1950. With the Groucutts being the largest group of Pennsylvania families in my ancestry, a quick last name search revealed the marriage license of 30-year-old Noah E Groucutt and 23-year-old Kathleen Rogan, both children of tin workers, as the first returned record.

Noah and Kathleen appeared before S. E. Crawford, the Clerk of the Orphan’s Court (the probate court, although still today called the Orphan’s Court) on 21 October 1913.

On 22 October 1913, Fr. O’Shea (of Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, today known as Mary, Mother of Hope Catholic Church) married the couple and signed their license as ‘Priest + Minister of the Gospel’.

Sources:
“Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885 – 1950,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VF4D-MYY : accessed 17 Sep 2012), Noah Groucutt and Kathleen E. Rogan, 1913.

Census Sunday: 1900 George Groucutt Family

joelowry1982 Census Sunday, Groucutt, Paternal
1900 Census record for George Leo Groucutt and Family

Relationship to me:
George Leo Groucutt (1862 – 1941)
father of:
Noah E Groucutt (1882-1967)
father of:
Mary Jean Grocutt (1924-1987)
mother of:
Patrick Edward Lowry
father of:
Joseph Patrick Lowry
State: Pennsylvania
County: Lawrence
Enumeration District: 106
Sheet No.: 24
City of New Castle
Ward of city, 4th
Address: 223 Long Avenue (map)
George Groucutt, Head, White Male, April 1861, 39 years old, male, married 19 years, born in England, father and mother born in England, naturalized in 1891, works as a tin worker, can read, write and speak English, owned a house with a mortgage
Bridget Groucutt, Wife, White Female, Feb 1862, 38 years old, female, married 19 years, mother of 10 children, 8 of these children living, born in England, father born in England, mother born in Ireland, naturalized in 1892, can read, write and speak English
Noah Groucutt, Son, White Male, June 1881, 18 years old, male, single, born in England, father and mother born in England, naturalized in 1892, works as a tin worker, can read, write and speak English
Thomas Groucutt, Son, White Male, Mar 1886, single, born in England, father and mother born in England, naturalized in 1982, can read, write and speak English
George Groucutt, Son, White Male, Aug 1888, single, born in England, father and mother born in England, naturalized in 1892, at school, can read, write and speak English
Ellen Groucutt, Daughter, White Female, Feb 1891, single, born in England, father and mother born in England, naturalized in 1892, at school
William Groucutt, Son, White Male, June 1894, single, born in Ohio, father and mother born in England, at school
Clare Groucutt, Son, White Male, May 1896, single, born in Pennsylvania, father and mother born in England
Edward Groucutt, Son, White Male, Nov 1897, single, born in Pennsylvania, father and mother born in England
Mary Groucutt, Daughter, White Female, May 1900, single, born in Pennsylvania, father and mother born in England

Photo Friday: Tin Workers

joelowry1982 Groucutt, Paternal, Photo Friday

Taken around the turn of the 20th century, this group photo of workers include several family members. Dressed for the trade of tin work, it is believed that the man on the right is Noah E Groucutt (1882 – 1967) and the man in the center is his father, George Leo Groucutt (1862 – 1941). George had five sons and several of them may be included in this photo, but that hasn’t been confirmed. The Groucutt family in 1900 lived in New Castle, Lawrence, Pennsylvania. Where these men worked is unknown however New Castle was home to the world’s largest tin mill, the Greer Mill, which opened in 1893.

According to the Lawrence County History Society,

In the early 1900′s, New Castle was a one-industry town. Individuals and families made decisions based on predictions of how the tin mill was running. Even local entertainment evolved around the mill. Children played at the company playground and attended movies at the Company Theater.(1) 

There is a similar photo on the website of the Lawrence County Historical Society (seen here, under ‘Industrial Boom’). I’ve emailed them to see if they have any additional details on their photo or the one above. If I get a reply, I will include that information here.

Sources:
Lawrence County Historical Society. “New Castle, Portrait of an American City.” Accessed September 17, 2012. http://www.lawrencechs.com/museum/exhibits/new-castle/.

Lowrys Take Plane East After Rite

joelowry1982 Groucutt, Lowry, Paternal
The marriage of Charles James Lowry (10 Nov 1924 –  4 Feb 2007) to Mary Jean Groucutt (23 Dec 1924 – 26 Feb 1987) as featured in the 30 May 1948 edition of the Youngstown Vindicator.

The article was cropped and the masthead added to form a single image. The original story was spliced to two pages in the paper. Chuck Lowry, my uncle and Charles J.’s oldest son, who is always the family storyteller, emailed several regarding their wedding:

Email of 1 Mar 2012
I have actually seen this newspaper clipping. There was also an engagement announcement, presumably some months earlier. Dad’s account was that by the spring of 1947 he was up and around again and feeling pretty good. He and a couple of his buddies got into the car the first week of May, 1947, and drove to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. He was miserable, utterly miserable, he claims, without his Jean for three days, so he came back to Youngstown after the races and proposed.

When the engagement announcement was made, it appeared in The Vindicator. Dad went downtown (he no doubt stopped for a Jay’s Hot Dog on West Federal as part of the trip) on Saturday night to get something called the “bulldog edition” of Sunday’s paper. It had Mary Jean Groucutt’s engagement announcement, but–and I have no idea how this happened–Barbara Groucutt’s picture. They were able to get it fixed before the main Sunday edition came out. (emailed 1 Mar 2012)

Email of 29 May 2012
“Mom and Dad were married by a priest named Fr. Kelly. I do not know him, never met him, as far as I know. He was, however, an Irish immigrant, ordained in Ireland. Those of you on this list under the age of 50 will find this an unknown phenomenon, since most of our immigrant priests now are from India, Africa and the Philippines. Previously, however, the biggest group of immigrant priests in the United States were known as FBI–foreign-born Irish.

Anyway, Dad asked Fr. Kelly what kind of official paperwork was needed to get married. Since Mom was baptized at St. Columba, all that was necessary, Fr. Kelly said, was a copy of Dad’s baptismal certificate from St. Ed’s. A marriage license from the state or county or city or something? Don’t be silly, Fr. Kelly said, certainly the Catholic Church was able to marry two Catholics without anyone’s permission. Well, as we all know, that was surely the case in Ireland, um, but not here. Dad worried about this for a while, and on the day before the wedding he investigated and found out that indeed he needed a license. The problem is that (a) marriage license applications had to be accompanied by blood tests (no longer required in New York, but still required in 1978 when Lorna and I got married) and (b) marriage licenses came with a built-in waiting period, lest Johnny Walker or Jack Daniels be the best man.
Dad actually had to go before Judge Woodside (don’t ask me why I remember that name), a Mahoning County Probate Judge, to get him to waive the blood tests and the waiting period. Judge Woodside agreed, the day was saved and the wedding went off on schedule.”

Email of 11 Nov 2012
“By the time of the wedding, dad had a few bucks, but they were worried that New York would be too expensive for their Youngstown blood. They were careful with their money, even occasionally eating at the automatic (the windows where you put in nickels and got the food behind the window) to afford to stay another day. Their one splurge was to go to Mamma Leone’s, a famous Italian restaurant in the Theater District. It was around for decades, and I actually ate there myself once. They ordered from the “Completa” menu: appetizer plate, soup, salad, main course, coffee and dessert. Then the check came, but instead of completa, there were charges for every single item that had appeared. When dad attempted to ask about it, all of a sudden there was not a soul working in the restaurant who could speak English. They could only speak Italian, all of them.

They returned to Youngstown and on the first full day they were back, mum gave dad pork chops and ginger ale for breakfast, and on a Friday no less.”

Sources:
“Lowrys Take Plane East After Rite,” Youngstown Vindicator, Section 3 Society, Page 1. May 30, 1948, accessed February 29, 2012, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6YpIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fIMMAAAAIBAJ&dq=lowrys%20take%20plane%20east%20after%20rite&pg=2329%2C5641465.