Dawn's Family History Journey

  SAMUEL W. KELLY was born sometime between 1840 and 1845 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to unknown parents (both of whom were born in Ireland, per the 1880 census). [1] A record of Samuel’s life before 1871 has not been located, so no information of his birth or childhood is available. (The research for this time period is ongoing – his common name and different spellings of Kelly/Kelley increase the difficulty of research.) On 30 December 1871, he was a probationer at Scott Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia (previously located at 8 th & Dickinson Streets near his home locations listed above), but was dropped in less than a year, on 20 July 1872. [2] His future wife, Rachel FORKUM, was also a member in 1872 here, [3] and his future daughter Clara May would later be baptized at this church. [4] Samuel spent his career working on the railroad. The Philadelphia city directories include Samuel for a number of years, with his occupation shown as “flagman,” and he li...

  HENRY (aka HARRY) K. PAUL was born likely on 31 December 1840 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents Daniel C. Paul and Margaret (Fry) Paul. [1]   After an extensive search, a birth record for Henry K. Paul has not been located in either Philadelphia or Montgomery counties. The most logical birth year for Henry is 1840 – if he was born in December 1839, he should have been listed on the 1840 census of his father Daniel C. Paul as a male child under 5yo. [2]   It is possible that the other census ages were rounded up, and he was probably not the informant for any of them.   The civil war registration shows 1840 as the calculated birth year; the request was very specific on this document (“age as of 1 July 1863”), and he was probably the informant for this process, making it likely that it was more correct. [3]   All documents align with a birth location of Philadelphia, and he lived his young life in Germantown (the 22 nd ward in Philadelphia). [4] ...