In Search of Frank
| My search for
the parentage of Frank Blessing began when I was a young child in
the Spring of 1976, ironically Frank Blessing would have turned 102
on the 26th of September of that year had he been living. My
paternal family was in the process of collecting information on
descendants of my great great grandparents, Francis Swiggett and
Elizabeth (Stevens) Todd, of Harmony, Caroline County,
Maryland. Each person was given a pedigree chart to fill out and return.
This information was to be combined in book form and used to update data
in “Todds of the Eastern Shore of Maryland” which was published in 1912 by
Rev. J. R. Whitcraft.
There was no problem filling out my father’s paternal and maternal ancestry back the prescribed five generations, but my mother’s was another matter. My mother knew her grandparent’s names and the given name of one great grandmother but beyond that she couldn’t help. Both of her grandmothers had died young and she had never known them. So I took my pedigree chart on a visit to my maternal grandparents and asked for help. My grandmother was able to give me information on her lines back a couple more generations, however I was stuck on my grandfather’s forebears. This was when I first remember hearing the story of Frank Blessing and his childhood in an orphanage. The saga begins when Frank and his brother were placed in an orphanage in the city at a young age. At some point Frank was taken out of the orphanage and worked on a farm as a hand, eventually making his way to Queen Anne’s County, Maryland where he was enumerated on the 1900 census. According to family lore, Frank Blessing spoke often of the Johnstown Flood and that he had “seen the water.” This was my first clue to look in Pennsylvania for Frank’s parents. I explained to my grandfather that the rivers which converge at Johnstown flowed west not east, and that Frank Blessing could not have seen them if he was in Maryland. Previous to this I had been searching in Baltimore, Maryland without luck. There were several Blessing families in Baltimore but none of them “fit” my information. Upon receiving the roll of Pennsylvania soundex covering the Blessing surname for 1880, I found two Blessing boys in an orphanage in Erie, Pennsylvania! These youngsters, Harvy Blessing, aged 6 and Willie Blessing aged 4, were living in the Erie Home for the Friendless.1 This Willie Blessing is really interesting as my Frank Blessing would have been about 4 in 1880 as well, and my grandfather, William Franklin Blessing, son of Frank Blessing the orphan boy, was called Willie as a child. With research provided by The Erie Society for Genealogical Research I learned that, one Margaret “Maggie” Blessing had appeared on the 16th of May 1879 in Erie County Orphans Court requesting that someone be appointed guardian of her two children, Harry Blessing, aged 5 years and Millie (sic) Blessing aged nearly 4. Her husband, George Blessing, had been convicted of larceny and had been incarcerated at Western Penitentiary. At the time of the petition George Blessing had been released but was not providing for his family and had gotten in trouble with the law again. Margaret stated that she could not provide for herself and her children.2 On the 1880 Census Maggie Blessing, aged 30, is listed as a cook in a hotel in Erie’s 3rd Ward.3 Later in this same year, 1880, Margaret Blessing filed for a divorce from her husband George, which was granted on the 30th of September.4 Margaret later married again, this time to Thomas Adye, an English immigrant, on the 18th of September 1888 in Erie, by Clark M. Cole, a Justice of the Peace. The marriage record gives Margaret‘s surname as both McKenney and McKinney.5 Thomas & Margaret (McKinney) Adye had two children of their own; George T., January 1889-1940, and Susan, born July 1890.6 Thomas, Margaret & George Adye are all buried in Trinity Cemetery in Mill Creek Township.7 Margaret Adye died at Hamot Hospital in Erie on the 4th of March 1923 of bronchial pneumonia.8 Her funeral was held at St. Patrick’s Church in Erie on the 6th of March 1923.9 Unfortunately, Margaret’s death certificate does not give her parentage but does state that she was born in Ireland on Christmas Day 1853.10 According to George Blessing’s Civil War pension file, he was married to Margaret, listed as both McKinney and McKinley, in 1870 by Father Cacy in Erie, Pennsylvania.11 The 1880 Census of Erie lists a Rev. Thomas A. Casey, a parish priest in the household of Tobias Mullen, Bishop and the address as East 4th Street.12 I suppose that this was St. Patrick’s Church. This pension application also states that George & Margaret Blessing had had two sons, Henry & William Blessing, and that Margaret had divorced George then remarried. Margaret (then the wife of Thomas "Edye") actually gave a deposition, which is included in George Blessing’s pension file, concerning what she knew of George’s injuries resulting from his service during the Civil War. She stated that she didn’t know of any except the one in his head (grin) and that she wasn’t even in this country then.13 That statement leads me to believe that Margaret had lived in Canada prior to her arrival in Erie. I understand that it was much less expensive to emigrate to Canada than to the USA, and many Irish families spent some time there before moving on to the states. Depositions were also given by Mrs. Flora Camp, a sister of George Blessing, Samuel “Sam” Woods, a brother-in-law of George & Flora, and numerous persons who had known George before the war in his birthplace of Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. 14 Sam Woods was well-known in Erie having been at various times a newspaper reporter, an alderman and Chief of Police for the City of Erie. 15 It was also in George Blessing’s pension file where I learned that John Blessing, George’s father, had actually been born a Malcomb. His father died when he was very small and he was then raised by a Blessing family. 16 I am still trying to verify this information. I do know that George Blessing used the surname Malcomb during his second period of service during the Civil War. 17 This also may explain the fact that my grandfather had repeated what his father had said “that he really didn’t know if Blessing was his last name or not.” I believe that Frank knew much more about his background than he let on. According to court records, George Blessing had numerable encounters with the law. One of those was with a Willie / William Blessing in 1889 when both were charged with larceny. 18 William would have been about 13 years old at this time. Was this when Willie was sent to work on a farm? Did Willie become Frank? I believe so but I may never know for sure. I would like to thank the Erie Society for Genealogical Research for all their help and research. _______________________________ |
This Page Belongs To E. Parker Todd.