In Honor of James Nicholaus Ryan

You knew this one was coming.  This morning descendants of Ray and Roy Ryan, brothers of James, got together to share stories, information and artifacts.  The children, grandchildren, and spouses from the Ray Ryan branch included Jim, Peggy and Tim Ryan, Pat and Matt Biederman, and Chris, Paul and Mark DiBenedetto and Paul's son, Mario.  Descendants of Roy Ryan included Jim Ryan and his wife. Carol, Pat Gallagher, Mike and his wife, Doloures, and Dan Ryan.  The Jones branch was represented by Tim and Dusty, and Kath. Evelyn and Charles McCafferty had to cancel due to illness.

We had a wonderful time.  Everyone brought artifacts and stories.  Starting with James Hugh Ryan (gr-grandfather to me) was a brass moulder by profession.  You can  read more about him here and here.

James Hugh Ryan, grandson of the first James Hugh brought a working brass cannon. Mike Ryan, great-grandson brought an eagle and a very interesting bottle opener.  Look at it carefully!

Pat Biederman, daughter of Ray, had several samples of Rose Ryan's embroidery.  She brought the piece pictured at the left that had never been completed.

She also had a lacy nightcap that Rose had made.  Rose's mother had at one time had an embroidery shop run in conjunction with her Becker siblings.


Pat also shared with us a purse her grandfather (James Hugh) had brought back from the 1904 World's Fair for her mother, Rose.

Matt and Pat Biederman with purse

Probably one of my favorite items was a very little change purse that had been on the person of James Hugh at the time of his death.  It contained three pennies from the 1890's.

In addition to those items pictured, Mike Ryan brought numerous pictures of our grandfather, Roy, and Matt Biederman brought many of the items featured earlier this month in posts about James Nicholaus, the sailor.

My only regret is that I was so focused on all of the wonderful stories and trying to figure out who belonged to whom that I neglected to get pictures of everyone in attendance. I guess that means we have to do it again. I did manage to get a picture of a some of the new to me second cousins and spouses.

Chris DiBenedetto, Tim Ryan, Mark DiBenedetto, and Matt Biederman

Jim, Tim and Peggy Ryan

Tim, Peggy, Mark, Matt, Pat and Mike Ryan

I apologize to Jim, Carol, Paul, Mario, Tim, Dusty, Pat, Dan and Doloures for not getting a picture of you.  Next time, we put someone in charge of photography.  I so enjoyed meeting everyone.

Kathy

Note:  You can double-click on pictures to enlarge.  I would LOVE it if you would click on the comments box and add to the discussion.

Bone Tuberculosis? Who Knew?

Rose Batchelor, Florence Boisseau, Bea Lammert and Ray Ryan

About a month ago, I was contacted by Pat Biederman, daughter of Ray Ryan.  Ray is my Great-Uncle and brother to my grandfather, Roy.  He is the youngest of the nine Ryan children and brother to James N. Ryan (recently profiled).  I remember Uncle Ray but knew little about his life.

Pat's stories about her father touched me.  She told me that her father had suffered from bone tuberculosis from the age of about eight to eleven.  Bone tuberculosis?  I'd never heard of that.  Through reading I learned that, in fact, it does exist although rarely.  The problem was that at the time young Ray contracted it, there were no antibiotics for this bacterially-based disease.

Pat told me that Ray's TB manifested itself in his leg and that he lived at Bethesda Hospital for three years.  He was in a wheel chair and treatment involved bone grafts.  Apparently treatment was progressing when Ray, sitting on the hospital porch in a wheel chair, called to a large dog he saw. The dog enthusiastically ran to Ray, knocking his wheel chair over and down some steps.  Treatment had to start over.

When Ray was well enough to return home, his father had died leaving the family in extreme poverty.  His father, while running for mayor of the small village of Elmwood Place, caught pneumonia and died.  Pat told me that when Ray returned home it was near Christmas.  When Ray asked about Christmas his mother told him that Christmas died with his father.  Ouch!

Ray was initially unable to walk to school at St. Aloysius.  Miraculously, a large St. Bernard dog showed up out of nowhere and befriended Ray.  They called the dog "Buster."  Ray would literally ride Buster to school each day.  Pat said that Ray's mother would call for Buster each day when it was time for Ray to come home from school and tell the dog to go get Ray.  The dog would meet Ray at school and ride Ray home.

Over time, Ray's ability to walk improved and he no longer needed to ride Buster.  Buster seemed to be disappointed that he was no longer needed and vanished within two days, never to be seen again.  The family felt that it was some kind of miracle that the dog appeared out of nowhere when needed and disappeared when no longer needed.  No one ever knew where he came from.  Pat said that Buster was a familiar site in Elmwood and known by everyone to be Ray's dog.  Despite searchers for Buster, he was never found.

Ray walked proudly for the rest of his life, despite a limp and eventually having to use a cane.  Everyone remembers his great sense of humor and what a wonderful father he was.  In the next post I'll tell a priceless story Pat shared with me that left me wishing that I had known him better.

Ryan "Cousin Bait"

I was reading the post of a fellow family history blogger, and she said that the primary role of her blog is "cousin bait."  I thought that was such an interesting expression, but in the end, that is one of the primary purposes of my blog.  As a result of it, many of my extended family including 3rd and 4th cousins have found me because of something posted here.

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by Pat Biederman.  She is the daughter of Ray Ryan, brother of my grandfather, Roy.  I wrote about Ray in an earlier post.  Pat was interested in my post about James Nicholas Ryan, the oldest child of James Hugh Ryan and Rose Gross.  Jim, as he was known, was Pat's uncle, although he was dead by the time Pat was born.  Jim tragically died of diphtheria at the age of 22.  His loss had a tremendous impact on the family.

Pat told me of her personal interest in Jim's history and how her father passed on certain artifacts of Jim's that had been in the possession of his sister, Rose.  Included was a map outlining the ports of call and the distances traveled by the USS Virginia and the other ships in the fleet as they traveled around the world.  She also had a beautiful embroidered picture that had been given to the fleet by the Japanese in remembrance of their visit to Japan.

Pat's son, Matt, is the current caretaker of these very special artifacts. Matt and I have since emailed and shared information and I am hoping to set something up in the near future so that we can all compare notes and the pieces of the puzzle that we each possess. Pictured below are closeups of the embroidered artwork that Matt forwarded to me.

The information I have in my possession includes Jim Ryan's service record that I ordered from the National Archives. The next several posts will focus on separating the fact from the fiction about Jim's life and death that occurred far too early.