Ordinary People Who Accomplished the Extraordinary--Our Immigrant Ancestors and Their Descendants: Reflections, Recollections and Facts About Ritchharts, Deans, Bushs, O'malleys,Schmidts, Shorts, Cantrells, Wimers, Christmans, Wackowskis and Other Notable Ancestors

By Delbert A. Ritchhart

Above is a photograph of Oberhofen Castle where at least three generations (circa 1585 to 1650) of Ritschards served as castle baliff. The photo was taken by the author during a visit in October 2004. This is the village where Christian Ritschhart, his family and 80 year old mother-in-law lived before emigrating to America in 1750.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728327983

Delbert A. Ritchhart

This book recounts the stories of Christian and many other Ritchhart related ancestors who departed their homelands and endured the unknow challenges of starting a new life in America. We all owe these ancestors a debt of gratitude for their bravery and adventurism. Because of them, we enjoy the benefits and pleasures of living in America today!

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Ordinary People Who Accomplished

the Extraordinary

Our Immigrant Ancestors and their Descendants

Reflections, Recollections and Facts about Ritchharts, Deans, Bushs,

O’Malleys, Schmidts, Shorts, Cantrells, Wimers, Christmans, Wackowskis

and other notable Ancestors

by

DELBERT A. RITCHHART

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AuthorHouse™

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© 2019 Delbert A. Ritchhart. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/09/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-2799-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-2798-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019914481

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Significant DNA Discoveries

Lesleyanne Hits the DNA Jackpot!

My McNally DNA Breakthrough!

County Mayo—Home of the O’Malley’s

Peter and Julia O’Malley—Immigrants from Ireland

Royalty in Their Blood—The Bush Family

The Ritchhart Family—From Switzerland to California in One Hundred Fifty-Five Years

The Deans from England Become Cowboys

Maria Feiertag and Frederic Schmidt Emigrants from the Kingdoms of Bavaria and Wurttemberg

An Irish Black Sheep

The Weekend of 50,000 Memories

The Enigmatic Mary O’Malley

Walter Lee O’Malley

The Short and Wood Family Histories

The Weimer/Wimer and Loeffler Family Lines

Early Settlers From England, Norway and Germany The Cantrell/Cantrills

Christman, Howard, Oliver and Fontaine Family Branches

The Wackowski and Sion Family Branches

Outline Ancestor Report for Delbert Arthur RITCHHART

Outline Ancestor Report for Joanne Frances SCHMIDT

Outline Ancestor Report for Eric Sterling CANTRELL

Outline Ancestor Report for Douglas Gregory WIMER

Outline Ancestor Report for Ronald G SHORT

Outline Ancestor Report for Justin Patrick CHRISTMAN

Outline Ancestor Report for Stephen McCormick WACKOWSKI Jr.

References and Resources

Dedication

As with my first book, this one is dedicated to my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and future generations of our family. Most of the current family members don’t have much interest in genealogy; but that is typical of most families. I didn’t develop an interest until I was in my mid-50s, which is fairly common.

As they get older I think they will have a greater appreciation for all of the information I have recorded about their ancestors. I am also very confident that future generations of the family will enjoy the fruits of my efforts to gather the facts and stories about their ancestors and, hopefully, further expand on the baseline of information I have collected.

I also have great expectations for the role that DNA will play in helping break through many of todays brick walls.

I would be remiss if I didn’t express special appreciation and love to my wife, Joanne, for being very understanding about this very time-consuming addiction of mine; as honey do’s frequently took a back seat to my genealogical research.

Prologue

This is my second book about the history of my family. The first, "Breathing Life into Family Ancestors", was published in 2011. Soon after members of the family obtained copies and had a chance to read it, I began finding out about errors in the book; the most embarrassing being an incorrect date for my brother’s wedding. There were also a couple of other errors. Thus, one of the reasons for this second book was to correct those errors. However, I have also accumulated more information and made some progress penetrating my Schmidt and O’Malley brick walls.

I have long known that my great-great grandparents, Peter and Julia O’Malley came to this country from County Mayo, Ireland; but I haven’t been able to identify either of their parents or a specific town or village where they lived in County Mayo. Similarly, I knew that Joanne’s great grandparents, Frederic and Maria Schmidt, came from the Kingdoms of Wurttemberg and Bavaria, in what later became Germany. However, I couldn’t determine their parent’s names nor a specific town or village where they had resided. I have made some progress in those pursuits.

I also failed to inform my readers in the first book that all the information I have gathered about our families’ history is recorded on Ancestry.com. Since it is one of the world’s top web sites for posting family trees and doing research, I feel certain it will far outlast me and that the tree will be there for the enjoyment of future generations. I am confident one of my children or grandchildren will develop an interest in continuing with the site in future years.

If you have an interest in gaining access to the Ritchhart Family Tree on Ancestry.com just send me your email address and I will extend an invitation to you.

Significant DNA Discoveries

Over the past five to ten years the use of DNA to compliment genealogical research has grown tremendously and I believe we have only begun to scratch the surface of its potential.

I have, personally, been very fortunate to have benefited from some research discoveries due to the use of DNA data. Because the use of DNA for genealogical purposes requires finding a match with one or more other people, it provides a natural platform for collaboration. A match creates the obvious question, How do we match–where is the common ancestor? During the few years that I have been exploring the potential revelations of DNA, I have had the good fortune of discovering many new cousins and learning much more about my family.

This chapter contain two of the more interesting stories about those discoveries. One brought a new member into our family who had long pursued knowing more about who she was and her paternal family. The other discovery has gone a long way toward solving one of those agonizing brick walls that confounds almost every genealogist.

Lesleyanne Hits the DNA Jackpot!

The following relates an interesting story of how a woman from Australia made a life changing discovery through DNA testing. Lesleyanne had been told by her mother that her father, Walter Lee, was an American soldier who had been stationed in Darwin, Australia during WW II and came back to Sydney following the war. Lee, the name he used, had a small role in an Australian film and was in the Sydney area for a couple years working on the film. He also hosted a radio show in Sydney on the Lux Radio Theatre Sundays at 8 pm. We think it was called The Yank.

Lesleyanne was born in on June 1, 1950. When she was about 16, her mother told her that the person she thought was her father was not her biological father. It was only later when Lesleyanne took the DNA test that her mother provided additional details; such as the fact Lee married another Australian woman and moved back to America. Despite years of trying to learn more about her biological father, she was unsuccessful . However, her husband, David, gave her an Ancestry DNA test as a Christmas present in 2016. She took DNA test in early 2017; hoping by some chance to learn more about Lee and his family.

Shortly after Lesleyanne took the test, I happened to be looking at some of my DNA matches on Ancestry. I noted that I had a match with a lady from Australia and it was a possible 3rd to 5th cousin match. I noted that the man listed in the person’s tree as her father had the same name as my cousin once removed, Lee. I sent a note through Ancestry asking the person to explain a little more about her father. She responded with details about movies in which her father had performed, the name of the Australian woman he had married prior to moving back to the United States and the fact she never knew Lee, except for what her mother had told her.

When I received the reply from Lesleyanne, I knew immediately that her father was my cousin once removed; Lee, who had passed away a few years earlier. He had a son by the name of Leigh. whom I corresponded with on a regular basis. Leigh had also taken the Ancestry autosomal test and when I checked, Leigh was listed as a close family match with Lesleyanne. After some deliberation I sent an email to Leigh giving him details about his newly discovered half-sister and asking if he desired any further communication with her. I also told him I would not respond to Lesleyanne about her father unless it was acceptable to him. Understandably, Leigh was a little taken back; but quickly responded that he would very much like me to respond. I wrote back telling her she had hit the proverbial DNA Jackpot and revealed the details about Lee and his family and informed her it was all available to her on Ancestry.com. Needless to say, she was very excited; and, in her own words, giddy like a school-girl.

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David and Lesleyanne at San Diego Zoo

In July 2018 Lesleyanne and her husband came to the U.S., visited with Leigh and his family in the Portland area and came down to San Diego and spent a few days with Joanne and me. They were wonderful people and she and her husband thanked me numerous times for having made it possible for her to meet and learn more about her family. The relationship between Lesleyanne and David with Leigh has blossomed and, a follow-up visit to the U.S. in 2020 is in the making.

It should be noted that much of the credit for this discovery goes to Lesleyanne’s husband, David. He always encouraged Lesleyanne to pursue the search for more information about her father and pushed her to take a DNA test.

Truly a feel good story with a happy ending and, most likely would never have been possible if it were not for DNA testing.

My McNally DNA Breakthrough!

For about 15 years I have been trying to determine where my Great-great grandparents, Peter O’Malley and Julia McNally O’Malley lived in Ireland. I knew they came from County Mayo; but I didn’t have anything more specific than that. Because they both had such common surnames, I was not going to be able to determine where they were from without some big breakthrough.

I had taken both the Family Tree DNA Y and autosomal DNA tests about six years ago and the Ancestry autosomal test about three years ago. However, I had never been able to find any significant matches with people from Ireland or persons with either the O’Malley or McNally surnames. In early Feb 2017 I transferred my Ancestry DNA data to MyHeritage. Within a few days I was notified of several matches. One of them was a person in Ireland; something I had been hoping for years to find. I contacted the individual, Michael, and he promptly responded. It turns out his great grandfather, Patrick McNally was born in 1829 and was from Cloonkeen Townland, Kilmeena Parish in County Mayo. Since my great grandmother, Julia McNally, was born in 1835; I think it is possible she and Patrick could either be cousins or siblings.

Unfortunately, Michael says that there are almost no records for Kilmeena for that time period. Fortunately, however, Griffith’s Valuation listed a Patrick and Bridget McNally living in neighboring Townlands, Cloonkeen and Knockboy, Kilmeena Parish around 1855.

I also found a DNA relative on Ancestry of my 2nd cousin, Leigh O’Malley. His name was John Loughney and we corresponded extensively in mid-2016 through 2018. It turns out he had a McNally ancestor who settled in the Scranton area and was also from the Kilmeena area. I checked; but he wasn’t listed as a match for me. That isn’t unusual since he was listed as a Distant Cousin (5th to 8th) for Leigh.

Having identified two DNA matches who have McNally ancestors who lived in Cloonkeen Townland, Kilmeena Parish; I now think I have narrowed down the location where Julia and her family lived!

If I had discovered Patrick and Bridget McNally in the Griffith’s Valuation without any other supporting data, I would have been very reluctant to put much confidence in them being related to Julia. However, because Michael and I are a DNA match, have no other surnames in common, and he knew his grandfather, Patrick, had lived in Cloonkeen Townland, Kilmeena Parish, County Mayo; I feel much more confident there is a relationship with my Great-great grandmother, Julia. My O’Malley 2nd cousin’s DNA match with another person with McNally ancestors, gives me even greater confidence, I still have more work to do; but I feel this DNA discovery is the significant breakthrough I have been seeking!

Somewhat ironic is the fact that when Joanne and I visited Ireland in 2006 we stayed at a B&B that was only about two miles from Cloonkeen Township. I certainly wish I had known then what I know now!

County Mayo—Home of the O’Malley’s

My O’Malley cousins, family and other readers might enjoy some photos we took when Joanne and I visited County Mayo in 2006. We spent a week on a guided tour through the Irish Free State and visited all the typical tourist sites. Then we spent five days in Westport, which that year won the title of Ireland’s Tidiest City in its size category. It is near the center of County Mayo and one of the two largest cities in County Mayo. While there we visited several sites associated with the history of the O’Malley clan and of the famous Irish Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley—also known as Grainuaile.

We visited two of the Tower Houses that Grace reportedly used for her seafaring operations, Rockfleet Castle and Clare Island Castle. Rockfleet sits on an inlet to the North Sea just to the northwest of Newport in County Mayo; while Clare Island is located about 20 miles west of Westport at the entrance to Clew Bay. We took about a 20-minute ferry ride on The O’Malley Ferry (what else). There was a competitor ferry company; but we obviously had to take the O’Malley ferry. It was from these sites that Grace and her fellow pirates patrolled the west coast of Ireland. She didn’t view herself as a Pirate, only a good citizen protecting the territorial sea rights of her county.

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Clare Island Castle

On Clare Island was located an Abbey with a surrounding cemetery. In walking through the cemetery, it was obvious that a lot of O’Malley’s lived there as an estimated two-thirds of the headstones belonged to O’Malley’s. Inside of the Abbey I was delighted to find an O’Malley Crest imprinted into the wall near the alter. Enroute to the abbey we passed the main and only B&B on the Island. You guessed it—the "Granuaile House B&B".

Research indicates that a large majority of the O’Malley’s in Ireland lived in County Mayo, both in the 1700s when my ancestors were there and today.

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Granuaile House B&B

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Clare Island Abbey

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O’Malley Crest in the Abbey

We stayed in a lovely B&B in Westport that was within walking distance of the center of town. The first night there we found a Pub by the name of O’Malley’s Tavern—once again an obvious choice! Ireland’s national rugby matches were in process while we were there, so that was on every TV in every Pub in town. The food and ambiance were so good we ate there two of the five nights we were in Westport. They had music in the evenings which was advertised to start at 9 p.m. We learned the Irish aren’t too concerned on being prompt. The musicians started arriving about 9 p.m.; but by the time they tuned up and started, it was 9:30 p.m. We told our hosts at the B&B that we loved the music; but the hours were a little late for our schedule. She suggested we try a pub near the quay on Sunday, when they start at 3:30 p.m. That was more to our liking and, they actually started on time.

About ten years after our trip to Ireland and Westport, I learned through DNA matching that it was highly probable my great-great grandmother, Julia McNally, lived in Cloonkeen Township, Kilmeena Parish which was only about two miles from the B&B where we stayed. We had driven up through that area and even stopped at the golf course that was in close proximity to Cloonkeen Township. If I had only known that at the time!

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Ireland and, especially, County Mayo. The O’Malley Clan has an Annual Reunion in County Mayo. Attending a future reunion is on my bucket list!

Peter and Julia O’Malley—Immigrants from Ireland

The Irish Surname O’Malley

The name O’Malley may well be said to be Irish of the Irish. It is one of the few O names from which the prefix was never widely dropped. It is not especially numerous, but it is very well known. It belonged exclusively in the past to County Mayo, and this is almost equally true of the present day; over eighty per cent of the births recorded are in Connacht (the Irish Province encompassing County Mayo) and most of these are in County Mayo. Their particular territory is the baronies of Burrishoole and Murrisk. It may be of interest that the well-known Sir Owen O’Malley, diplomat and author, who claims to be Chief of the Name, insists on his name being pronounced O’Mailey. (Irish Families by Edward Maclysaght)

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County Mayo

I also found the following in the 1992 Journal of South Mayo Research Society (Vol V, pg. 12), The 10 Principal Surnames of County Mayo. O’Malley was one of the ten and the article stated . . .In Ireland the surname was frequently anglicized as Melia in the last century (i.e., 1800’s). In this century (1900s) the variant has frequently been changed back to O’Malley.

In "County Mayo, Ireland Achill Parish, Some Baptismal Transcriptions with Index" by William G. Masterson, I found the following interesting comments about

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Author at O’Malley Tavern in Westport, Ireland

the O’Malley family name . . . the surname O’Malley, Maley, Malley and Malia may be found under the predominant surname for the family. It appears that Malley was used for several years at the beginning of the records and then it became Maley for a few years and then reverts to Malley.

My Great-great Grandparents

My great-great grandparents are Peter O’Malley and Julia McNally. By tracing back from my grandmother, Mary O’Malley Dean, in census records; I was able to identify her grandfather as Peter O’Malley. I made an effort to determine when and how he arrived in America, where he came from and who his parents were. Various records, including census, indicated he and his wife, Julia, were from County Mayo, Ireland. Research indicates that Peter’s surname evolved over the period of about thirty years from Maley, Melia, Mally and Maloy to O’Malley. Early in my research I thought the various spellings of the surname were because Peter and Julia could not read or write or the enumerator made a mistake. However, it later became obvious they spelled the name Melia, Maley or Malia until changing it to O’Malley.

It is very likely that the reason for Peter and Julia’s emigration from Ireland was the Potato Famine.

"The Great Famine or the Great Hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine, because about two-fifths of the population was solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. During the famine, approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island’s population to fall by between 20% and 25%." (Wikipedia)

It is estimated that the potato blight of late 1845 caused about 77,000 people to leave Ireland. In 1846 the number increased to 106,000 and peaked at almost 250,000 in 1851. Peter and Julia were among those people.

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Potato Famine Home

Peter Maley/Maloy/Melia/O’Malley

Many passenger records were found for Peter Maley and other variants of the name; but the one that seemed most likely to be our person of interest was for a Peter Maley who arrived in New York from Galway in April 1847 on the Young Queen. There were six passengers listed together with the same surnames on the Young Queen which arrived in New York City on April 24, 1847 from Galway, Ireland. Their names were Ned (30), Winifred (28), Arthur (12), John (18),

Owen (20) and Peter (15) Maley. Winifred was listed as male; but it is strongly suspected that Winifred was a female, both because of the name and her listing as Winnie (Female) in the 1850 census. Because of the ages, it is surmised that they were all siblings. However, in a later consult with the head genealogist for the New England Genealogical Society, he believed Ned and Winifred were the parents of the other four boys and that the ages were incorrect. Some later data tended to support that theory. The 1850 Census included the following: Edward (Ned?) age 45, Winnie (Winnifred?) age 45, Arthur (8), John (16), Owan (22) and Peter (12) Maly living together in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area. The ages didn’t exactly agree with those listed on the manifest of the Young Queen; but with Edward and Winnie being 45, it was more feasible that they were the parents. Additionally, Peter, his wife, Julia, and his children (John b. 1855, Mary b. 1856, Sara b.1863, Walter b. 1866, Johanna b. 1869, Ellen b. 1869 and Michael b. 1873) were identified in the Scranton area in the 1860 Census (Maloy surname) and 1870 (Malia surname) census. Julia was also from County Mayo; but I think they definitely married after arriving in America. Since their first child, John, was born in 1855, it seems reasonable to assume they were married around 1853-54. In 1880 they moved to Mason County, Illinois; where they later died and were buried. Exhaustive research has been conducted in an effort to identify Peter’s parent’s names or a village/parish in County Mayo. To date, however, those efforts have been unsuccessful. During a trip to Ireland in 2006 we even visited the North and South Mayo Family Heritage Centers; but they said because the name O’Malley was so common, they couldn’t do anything for us without Julia and Peter’s parent’s names or the parish where they lived. Unfortunately, at that time we didn’t realize that the name might have been Malia, Maley or Maly—so they just researched the name Peter O’Malley.

In November 2013 I wrote to the Luzerne County Prothonotary in search of naturalization papers for Peter. I received back The Petition of Peter Malay who arrived in New York on 27 June 1847. The dates don’t agree with the Passenger List for the Young Queen (24 April 1847); but I think there is a very good chance this is the same Peter Maley. I have searched for any ship arrivals in June 1847 and can’t find anyone arriving with a similar name to Maley/Maloy. I feel fairly comfortable it is the same person.

Julia McNally

The Havana, Illinois newspaper obituary for Sara O’Malley McCabe listed her parents as Julia Downey and Peter O’Malley. Thus, for several years all search efforts were for Julia Downey. Then a baptismal record was found in Scranton for her first child, John, as well as the Mason County Marriage Record for Sara and Tom McCabe. Both listed Julia’s maiden name as McNally. Subsequently, other records were located confirming Julia’s maiden name as McNally. This was a significant breakthrough in learning more about Julia’s past.

A Julia McNally was found in the New York City 1850 Census. She was 17 years of age living in an apartment building. The person next to her on the list and the only other person from Ireland was Mary Kiblokon, age 71. An effort was made tried to find anyone with the surname Kiblokon in Family Search, Ancestry and FindMyPast and none were found other than this one instance. A Google search was also negative. This suggested that the person might either have been using a fictitious name or the Census enumerator made an error . We cannot be sure this is our Julia of interest; but she cannot be ruled out.

Numerous efforts were made over a period of years to learn more about the identity of Julia’s parents or where she was born in County Mayo. In early Feb 2017 we had a breakthrough.

MyHeritage announced that they were accepting DNA results from other testing companies and would compare those results with those of all others in their DNA data base, so I provided my Ancestry DNA data to MyHeritage. Within a few days I was notified of several matches. One of them was a person in Ireland–something I had been hoping for, but not achieved with either Ancestry or Family Tree DNA. I contacted the individual, Michael Lavelle, and he promptly responded. It turns out his great-grandfather, Patrick McNally, was born in 1829 and was from Cloonkeen Township, Kilmeena Parish in County Mayo. Since my great-grandmother, Julia McNally, was born in 1835; and because of their closeness in ages, I considered it was possible she and Patrick could either be cousins or siblings. Unfortunately, Michael indicated that there are almost no records for Kilmeena for that time period. I was still elated because I now think I have narrowed down the location for Julia and her family. Since I think she and Peter met and married in New York, I am still not sure where in County Mayo Peter’s family lived. However, in exploring whether Peter Maley might be from the same general area as Julia, Michael said that there were Maleys in two of the adjacent parishes. There were over 80 Malleys in the Kilmeena Parish where Julia may have resided. Thus, one can’t rule out the possibility they were both from that area.

Of interest, when I tried to find Cloonkeen town land on Google Maps or in listings of Townlands in Kilmeena, I could not find it; but I could find Clooneen. I wrote back to Michael Lavelle, who lives in the Westport area near Kilmeena, asking him to clarify. He told me to look on Google Earth just to the right of Mucklagh and sure enough–there was Cloonkeen! It is not far from the Golf Course that is just a couple miles northwest of Westport. I then found a listing of all Townlands in Kilmeena and both Cloonkeen and Clooneen are listed.

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Cedar Lodge B&B Near Cloonkeen Townland

Ironically, my wife and I visited Westport, County Mayo, Ireland in 2006. By chance we stayed in a B&B that is about 3 miles from Cloonkeen and drove right past it in route to the town of Newport.

Peter and Julia’s Life in America

For the longest time records for Peter and Julia in Pennsylvania couldn’t be found, although it was known from their daughter Sarah’s obituary that they lived in Scranton, PA. Then in March 2005, I put a note on the Ancestry.com message board searching for Peter and Julia and also listed the names of the children. Shortly thereafter I received a reply from John Stanley, who was also researching O’Malleys. He found the family; but listed as Malia in the 1870 census in Scranton and as Maloy in the 1860 census in Hamlinton Post Office, Salem Township, Pennsylvania. That was a key breakthrough that led to identifying all the children and being able to trace the family’s subsequent moves. I tried locating Hamlinton on Google Maps; but could only find Hamlin. I assumed they were probably the same; but wasn’t positive. Then in 2013, I noticed in "History of Wayne County, Pennsylvania 1798-1998 by Walter B. Barbe and Kurt A. Reed, that … Hamlin has had various names: Salem Corners, Hamlinton, and about the turn of the century, Hamlin. …" Thus, I knew they were one in the same. In 2012 when I went back to the Scranton area I drove through Hamlin and took photos.

Later it was noted in the 1870 Scranton Census that there were four Malia men living in the 2nd Ward: Anthony (22), Patrick (30), Thomas (25) and Peter (35). Peter and Thomas were neighbors (houses 316 & 321 of the survey). I then found Peter O’Maly, Julia and three children in the June 1880 census in Illinois, which must have been just after their arrival in Illinois. Thus the surname evolution was: 1860–Maloy, 1870–Malia, 1880–OMaly thence O’Malley in later years.

In checking Scranton City Directories, I found the following; but cannot verify any or all are our Peter:

1867–Peter O’Maley, laborer, Providence (Borough)

1868–Peter Malia, laborer, G.R. Mine, Diamond Flats (Home) 1871–Peter J. Malia, laborer, G.R. Mine, Diamond Flats (Home) 1876-77–Peter O’Malley, laborer, Water near Oak (Home)

1879-80–Peter O’Malia, brakeman, Prospect

I found a Civil War draft registration (1863-65) document for a Peter Malia who was living in North Scranton. He was 29 years of age, which would match nicely with Peter’s estimated