Sunday's Obituary - Theresa Burns

Yankton Press & Dakotan
July 23, 1945
p. 6, Col. 7

Mrs. Slowey is Called Sunday


Mayfield, (Special) - Death after a long illness came at 11:30 p.m., Sunday, to Mrs. John Slowey, sr., of the Mayfield community.  Mrs. Slowey, who would have been 80 years old tomorrow, passed away at Sacred Heart hospital where she had been a patient for five weeks.

The deceased, resident of Mayfield for 60 years, was Theresa Burns before her marriage.  Her husband preceded her in death years ago, and she is survived by eight children, five sons and three daughters.  They are: Peter, Thomas and Clement Slowey of Yankton, John Slowey, Sioux City, and Clarence of Mayfield; Mrs. John Nooney, Utica; Mrs. John Gemmill, Volin; and Mrs. Roy Stephens, Yankton.

The body will be taken to the Clarence Slowey home in Mayfield Tuesday and rosary will be said there Tuesday evening at 8:30.  Funeral services will be 9:30 a.m., Wednesday from St. Columba church with the Rev. Fr. O'Conner officiating.  Burial, in charge of Kabeiseman-Donohoe morticians, will be in the Mayfield cemetery.

Sunday's Obituary - John Charles Slowey

April 27, 1928 - Yankton Press & Dakotan
p. 7, Col. 4


John Slowey


The death of John Slowey, pioneer farmer of Mayfield township, was announced yesterday.

John Slowey was born in Wisconsin, February 26, 1861 and was aged 67 years and two months, the day of his death.  He had lived in Yankton county for 56 of those years coming here with his parents when only 11 years of age.  He was married here to Miss Theresa Burns and has lived since his marriage at his farm home near Irene.  He came to Yankton to visit a daughter about six weeks ago and while here was taken ill.  He passed through a siege of pneumonia and was well enough so he had made plans to return to his home when he suffered a relapse and had been in grave condition since.

Mr. Slowey is survived by his wife, five sons, Peter, Thomas, John, Clarence and Clement, all of this county, and three daughters, Mrs. John Nooney, Mrs. John Gemmill, of Irene, and Mrs. Roy Stevens, of Yankton.  He also has four brothers, Barney, Thomas, Patrick, and Peter, all of Yankton county and three sisters, Mrs. Patrick Cunningham, Mrs. Matt Murray on Yankton and Mrs. James Murray of Sioux Falls.  Another sister, Mrs. Mike Cunningham died several years ago, and four children of Mr. and Mrs. Slowey are also deceased.

Funeral services will be held from Mayfield Catholic church, Saturday morning at 10 o'clock, Rev. J. J. O'Brien officiating.

John Charles Slowey - Wisconsin to South Dakota - Part 9

Do You Ever Feel Like Your Ancestors Are Hiding On Purpose?  Seriously.

When I last posted here about my 2nd great grandfather, John Charles Slowey, I had requested various bios and obits, as well as birth, death, and marriage records from South Dakota.  For the past month, I have been hovering over my mailbox waiting for these things to come.  Everything finally showed up this week!  Here's what I received:

1. Delayed birth certificate for my great grandfather, Thomas Patrick Slowey - he was born in 1896, but his birth certificate wasn't filed until 2 Nov 1944, which is odd because he was issued his SSN in 1941.  Another mystery to figure out.

2.  Death certificate for my great grandmother, Anna Christina Huber (Thomas Patrick Slowey's wife).  She died on 29 Nov 1982.

3.  Death certificate for my great great grandmother, Theresa Burns (John Charles Slowey's wife).  She died 22 Jul 1945, only two days before her 80th birthday.

4.  An obituary for my great great grandmother dated 23 Jul 1945 (unfortunately, they didn't give me the name of the newspaper).

5.  An obituary for my great great grandfather dated 28 Apr 1928 (again, no newspaper name), which incidentally lists his birth year as 1861 - which by now we all know is incorrect!

6.  Pages 1332-1333 of "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson (1904) containing the biographies of Bernard Slowey, my 2nd great grand uncle, and Patrick Slowey, my 3rd great grandfather.

I requested John Charles Slowey and Theresa Burns' marriage certificate, but did not receive it.  I really hoped to find his birth date on the marriage certificate, or at least find out where in Wisconsin he was born so I can try to find a birth certificate.  Instead, I got a refund check for $15.  I know they were married in Yankton, South Dakota, but it was in 1886, before those records were kept by the state.  The church where they were married no longer exists, so I guess I will have to check the nearest diocese to see if they happened to keep those records.

I'm pulling my hair out trying to confirm John Charles' birth date.  If anyone has any other ideas, I'm all ears!  I feel like I can't move on to the next person until I solve this mystery.  Maybe I should call the Mounties or something ... don't they always get their man?

I'll be transcribing the obits shortly.  Maybe that will shake loose a clue or two.

2011 Genealogy Goals - an update

Since we're already a full month into the new year, I figured I'd update my progress on the goals I set for myself back in December.  Here goes ...


1.  Plan (and execute) a trip to the National Archives in D.C. (to coincide with my visit with my mom! I'll be dragging her along with me so we can play with my new Flip-Pal that she got me for Christmas).
I am currently planning to visit my mom in Fredericksburg, VA over spring break (March) and have planned to spend a few days in Washington, DC while I'm there.  I'm making a list of all the research I intend to do and all the things I plan to take with me using Thoughtboxes.

2.  Request pension files for my military ancestors.
Still working on which ancestors actually served in the military before I can request these records.  I am hoping to incorporate this goal into goal #1.

3.  Break down the brick wall that we call my grandfather's biological parents!
My aunt is working on finding an adoption attorney in New York who can help us with this.

4.  Scan and organize all of my photos.  I may have to become a regular at the ScanFests!
I have scanned approximately 150 photos already, while I'm working on goal #5 (see below).

5.  Re-source all of my research ... well, some of it is sourcing for the first time, but I just need to make sure everything has a source!  I guess before I do this, I really need to pick a program and stick with it.  I'm bouncing around between 3 or 4 different ones right now ... mainly because I don't have access to the new FamilySearch yet, so RootsMagic has kind of taken a back seat, and I like the layout of Family Tree Maker, but sourcing is confusing to me.  Ugh.  So many decisions!
This is slow-going since school started back and each of my professors thinks theirs is the only class I'm taking.  I have managed to input three generations into RootsMagic (which is the program I finally settled on), with proper sources, media files, notes, and to-do items.  I am simultaneously revamping my filing system as I input all of my information into RM4 and following DearMYRTLE's Organization Checklists (sort of).  Here is a photo of my new filing system (so far) ...

And my "reference" files (census forms, research logs, etc.) ...

And my nice clean desk (complete with my research assistant, BatCat) ...

Pay no attention to the box of filing in the background ... it's not genealogically significant :)


6.  Keep a to-do list in ONE place, and actually work on it!  (Thanks to all you folks who have posted some great ideas on how to do that)
Since I am putting all my information into RM4, I have decided to use the task list within the program to reach this goal.  I will transfer those items I plan to work on at the Archives into Thoughtbox as necessary (which will help me further categorize those items and - hopefully - make more efficient use of my time).

7.  Increase my FamilySearch Indexing output by at least twofold.
Still working on this one.  I haven't had much time to index since school started back, but I do plan to attend the Super Indexing Sunday bash today that Ken Sisler has initiated here.

8.  Finally take a trip to the Family History Library in Ooltewah, TN (yes, it's only about 15 minutes away, I just keep forgetting to go!)
Still need to do this.  I'll probably wait until I return from the Archives to see what I didn't have time to research.

9.  Transcribe all the documents I have obtained (and will obtain).
I've actually gotten started on this while I'm working between RM4 and my new filing system.  I am mostly concentrating on census records at the moment, but have managed to transcribe some birth, death, marriage certificates into RM4 in the meantime.

10.  Last but not least ... start writing my family history!  Note: it will probably be 2064 before I actually FINISH it, but at least I can start writing it.
Hmm ... still need to do this.  The procrastination is almost palpable, huh?  I actually have put together a (VERY) rough draft of John Charles Slowey's story, complete with photos and everything.  I'm waiting for some further documentation I requested by mail before I can call his "roughly complete" and start on someone else.


Needless to say, my goals are nowhere near met, but I think if I continue to keep them in sight for the time being (until I graduate), I'll be able to move full steam ahead to check them off before the end of the year!