Workday Wednesday: Barrett Nephews & Company

When the gate house of Barrett Nephews & Company collapsed from disrepair in 1939, the remaining brick walls of the 122 year old factory at 84 Broadway, West Brighton, Staten Island, NY had to be demolished. The attached article describes the final days of the old Barrett Nephews & Co. buildings and a little of its long history (source: Staten Island Advance).

Staten Island Advance, April 3, 1939

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As noted in the article, the original dyeing business was started by William Barrett (1775-1834) of Concord, MA.  Barrett opened his first cloth dyeing business known as William Barrett & Co. in Malden, MA with his partner Hugh Thompson (from whom he had learned the process) in 1801. During his lifetime Barrett also secured many patents on the innovative processes he and his employees developed. In 1804 Barrett started a new company and expanded his business beyond the Boston market by using sales agents in cities along the coast of New England and in New York City. The latter was particularly successful, leading to Barrett’s desire to capitalize on the New York location as a means of more quickly reaching lucrative markets along the mid-Atlantic and Southern coastal cities.

In 1819, William Barrett bought an old mill on a fresh water pond and opened his new factory on Staten Island under the name  Barrett Tileston & Company, in partnership with native Staten Islander and local merchant William Tileston, along with his brother George Minot Barrett (1783-1838) of Concord, Mass and his nephew Nathan Barrett (1795-1865) of Hope, Maine.

Two siblings of Nathan Barrett followed him to Staten Island including John Thorndike Barrett (1811-1890) and Eliza Barrett Heal (1801-1886).  Many of George, Nathan, John T., and Eliza’s children went to work for the firm, married native Staten Islanders, and settled down in the area known as Factoryville, later called West New Brighton. Searches in the census records and local city directories show that at least four generations of Barretts, Heals and related families were employed over the many decades by the family’s dye works on Staten Island.

In 1850, after a falling out with his partners, Nathan Barrett left Barrett & Tileston and started his own business in partnership with Abraham C. Wood of New York City and three sons of his sister Eliza Barrett and her husband James A Heal (1797-1896) who had risen to management positions at Barrett & Tileston. Nathan Barrett invested half of the capital and maintained majority control of the new business.

According to the History of Richmond County (Staten Island, New York: From Its Discovery to the Present Time, Part 1. by Richard Mather Bayles, January 1, 1887.  (p. 721-726).

[Nathan Barrett] Associating with himself, under the firm name of Barrett, Nephews & Co., his three nephews, Messrs. N. M., J. H., and E. B. Heal [i.e., Nathan Minott Heal, Joseph Hughes Heal, and Edwin Baldwin Heal], and Mr. Abraham C. Wood, gentlemen who, up to that time, had held positions at the head of the various dyeing and printing departments, he purchased eight acres of land on Cherry lane, situated in the town of Castleton, and about one mile south of the village of Port Richmond.

This illustration is a rendition of the factory grounds.  Cherry Lane is now called Forest Avenue

The New York Library Digital Collection has a detailed map of the factory grounds – see Staten Island, Plate No. 24 from the 1885 Sanborn Atlas of Staten Island.

Over the ensuing years, Barrett Nephews & Co. was known under a variety of names including The New York Dyeing and Printing Establishment and The Old Staten Island Dyeing and Printing. Barrett Nephews & Co.  Like its predecessor, the new firm grew to be very successful with sales offices in Manhattan (5 & 7 John Street), Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Englewood, NJ.

The firm ran colorful advertisements in major city newspapers to attract attention and draw in retail customers.https://genealogysisters.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=2818

Nathan Barrett died while traveling in London in October 1865.  He is buried in Staten Island Cemetery where a good number of Barrett & Heal relations of that era are also interred.  According to Richard M. Bayles, upon his uncle’s death Nathan M. Heal was appointed President and continued in that position until 1879 when he was succeeded by his cousin Clarence Tynan Barrett (1840-1906). Bayles wrote in 1887: “The present board of trustees of Barrett, Nephews & Company consists of the following gentlemen : Clarence T. Barrett, president; Charles W. Kennedy, vice-president and treasurer; Charles E. Heal [son of Edwin B. Heal], secretary; Augustus W. Sexton, Jr., Edwin B. Heal, trustees.” 

In 1888, the Barrett Nephews & Co. was merged in to a new company called Barrett, Palmer & Heal.  The principals were Henry B. Palmer, President, and Corporate Secretary Charles E. Heal.

In 1915 Barrett Nephews & Co.  was officially dissolved. Legal documents regarding its closing and subsequent appeals by creditors are available in the New York Court of Appeals, Records and Briefs. – New York State.  It appears that some form of the business survived until 1932, according to the 1939 Staten Island Advance newspaper article, when it appears to have been abandoned and become derelict.

Further information on the dyeing and printing business and its impact on Staten Island is available at the Staten Island Historical Society, 441 Clarke Avenue, Staten Island, New York under the archive folder noted below. 

Old New York Printing and Dyeing Establishment records, 1824-1920.

Notes: Related photographs in the Staten Island Geographic Photograph Files.

Records of a printing, dyeing, and dry cleaning factory including correspondence, advertisements, trade cards, account and dye recipe books, maps, photographs, and samples.

Also included are articles of agreement (dated 1856) between Nathan Barrett and the Heals, and a pamphlet, ‘Memorial of Sundry Citizens of the City of New York, Proprietors of a Dyeing and Printing Establishment on Staten Island’, 18th Congress, 1st Session, 1824.

The account and dye recipe books and a product wrapper are from Joseph & Nathan Heal of the Staten Island Fancy Dyeing Establishment, 1848-53.

Workday Wednesday is a daily genealogy blogging post suggested by Denise Spurlock through Geneabloggers.

Surname Saturday – Little Clan – Belfast

“The majority of Littles, Lytles and Lyttles in Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand have their family roots deep in the old West March of the Scottish Border.” ~ Clan Little Society North America

Motto: Concedo Nulli (No surrender, no retreat, yield no ground).

Our connection to the surname Little, comes from our great-great-grandmother, Ellen Little, born circa 1840 in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. She married John Doran in Ireland. Ellen Little Doran died on 19 March 1907 in Belfast from bronchitis. Her age, as supplied by her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Doran, was sixty-three. From our research we know that Ellen Little and John Doran had at least ten children, and possibly twelve.

Ellen Little and John Doran’s first known child was Bernard Doran. He was our great-grandfather, and he was baptized at St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church, Belfast, County Down, Northern Ireland, on 2 October 1858. His sponsors, or godparents, were Samuel Crawford and Anne Doran. Bernard married Mary Hall at St. Peter’s RC Church in Belfast on 15 November 1884 [Source: Ulster Historical Foundation].

St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church, Ballymacarrett, Northern Ireland. Down and Connor – a Short History, by Ambrose Macaulay, Publisher: Editions Du Signe (2000), page 12.

St. Matthew’s RC Church was where the next two children were also baptized. When my sister and I were researching the children of Ellen Little and John Doran we noticed a significant gap between Bernard and the next child (Anna) on the available online databases at Ulster Historical Foundation ($)(https://www.ancestryireland.com/) and the Irish Family History Foundation($) (http://www.rootsireland.ie/). Many Irish Catholic Parish Registers are now also available to search for free on online at the National Library of Ireland (https://registers.nli.ie/). You need to know the parish, and the approximate date of the baptism or marriage to search, since there isn’t a search engine. I found a record of a son named John Doran, baptized on 20 July 1860, with parents listed as Ellen Little and John Doran. His sponsors look to be James and Ellen Doolin – the writing is hard to decipher.

The third child, Anna Doran, was baptized on 16 February 1862, at St. Matthew’s, and her sponsors were Thomas Murphy and Mary Ferran. This Anna must have died, because the next child was named Ann Dorran, born 24 November 1863, at the District of Johnstone, County of Renfrew, Scotland [Source:  http://www.scotslandpeople.gov.uk].

Traditionally the Ulster Naming Pattern has the first daughter named after the maternal grandmother, so it is possible that Ellen Little’s mother was named Ann. Searching on Ancestry.com for an Ann Little in Belfast during this time, I did find one in Shankill, Belfast in 1862. There was an Arthur Doran listed on the same page.

Ellen Little and John Doran’s daughter, Mary Ann Doran, married Thomas Perry on 21 May 1892 at St. Peter’s RC Church in Belfast. It is unclear if this was the Anna born in Scotland, or another child. Her parents were listed as Ellen Little and John Doran [Source:  http://www.rootsireland.ie].

Why the family was in Scotland when Anna Doran or Dorran was born is unknown. For all of the records found for john and Ellen Little Doran, the occupation for John was hackler or flax dresser. Possibly a linen mill in Scotland needed an experienced hackler. This Ann was baptized at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, in Belfast, on 16 December 1863, and only one sponsor was noted – Mary Doran – again parents were noted as Ellen Little and John Doran.

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Down and Connor – a Short History, by Ambrose Macaulay, Publisher: Editions Du Signe (2000), page 8.

Another son, John, was baptized on 5 January 1864, St. Patrick’s RC Church, Belfast, The sponsor was noted as Mary Doran. This John Doran also died in childhood.

A son, Joseph, was baptized on 9 April 1866 at St. Patrick’s RC Church. On this record the parents were Ellen Lyttle and John Doran. The address was 5 Jude Street, Belfast. This child died on 25 February 1870 while the family was living at 49 Irwin Street,

When the next daughter, Ellen, was baptized on 19 July 1868, it was at St. Peter’s RC Church in West Belfast. This church was dedicated in 1866. The family was still living on Irwin Street, put down as 49 Irvine Street. Ellen married Arthur Lewis at St. Peter’s on 25 February 1884.

St. Peter’s Street, Belfast, County Antrim ~ photo taken 2008 by Maryann Barnes

Another daughter, Catherine, was baptized on 16 May 1873, at St. Peter’s, with the sponsor noted as Mary Doran.

The next daughter was named Hannah. She was baptized at St. Peter’s on 30 August 1876. The family’s address was 9 Whitehall Court. She married Daniel Murray at St. Peter’s on 17 June 1899.

Another son, John, was baptized on 26 September 1878 at St. Peter’s. The sponsor was Bridgette McCan. This John Doran did live to maturity. He married Elizabeth Campbell at St. Peter’s RC Church on 17 April 1900. Sadly, he died during World War One while serving in France on 27 September 1917. He served as a Private with the Princess Victoria’s Royal Irish Fusiliers. His spouse was listed as Elizabeth Doran, with two children living – Mary and James [British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920, database online at ancestry.com].

Knowing that these children were baptized at St. Matthew’s and St. Patrick’s in Belfast, my sister and I searched the online marriage records for the marriage of Ellen Little and John Doran. To date we haven’t found the correct record. The date of marriage 6 June 1857 was on the birth record of Ann Dorran in Scotland. Since the first child we have found a record for, Bernard, was baptized a little over a year later, it does seem probable that this date is correct.

We have found two Ellen Little baptism records from Belfast, but we can’t be sure if either were for our own Ellen, since both seem a little early. At St. Patrick’s RC Church in Belfast, Ellen Little was baptized on 17 January 1836. Her parents were listed as William Little and Ellen Lonard. Also at St. Patrick’s, Ellen Little was baptized on 24 March 1833, with parents listed as Catherine Hand and William Little. Further away in County Down, an Ellen Little was baptized on 27 May 1841 in the parish of Magheralin, with the parents listed as Catherine Keenan and Charles Little [Source: Ulster Historical Foundation].

We really don’t even know if Ellen Little was a cradle Roman Catholic, or became one when she married John Doran. There are Protestant Little families in Belfast, too.

For other Little researchers we found these two marriage records. At St. Patrick’s RC Church, Belfast, on 7 September 1857 another Ellen Little married James Murray. The parents were not listed. At St. Matthew’s RC Church, Ballymacarrett, yet another Ellen Little married Henry McLeroy on 11 February 1850. The parents were not listed.

The earliest Belfast area Roman Catholic Church was St. Mary’s on Chapel Lane, and that opened in 1784. The first year marriage records are available are 1867. The second church is St. Patrick’s RC Church on Donegall Street, Belfast. My sister and I both searched the records online for 1857, and multiple years, for a marriage record, and we haven’t found the correct one there. The marriage records there are from 1798 to 1867, online, with some years missing or hard to decipher. The third church was St. Malachy’s RC Church, and it opened in 1844, but the available marriage records there start in 1858.

It is very possible that Ellen Little and John Doran married at one of the two Belfast churches with records not filmed or available. Ellen Little Doran had put down her place of birth as Belfast during the 1901 Irish Census, and possibly she married in her own church, as was the custom. Searching all of the available Irish marriage records, for a marriage between Ellen Little and John Doran, both Roman Catholic, and Protestant, comes up empty. Some ancestry research is just meant to be left for another generation of family researchers!

Little is a surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Middle English littel,[1] and the Old English lȳtel, which mean “little”.[2] In some cases the name was originally a nickname for a little man. In other cases, the name was used to distinguish the younger of two bearers of the same personal name.[1] Early records of the name include: Litle, in 972; Litle, in about 1095; and le Lytle, in 1296.[2] The surname has absorbed several non English-language surnames. For example, Little is sometimes a translation of the Irish Ó Beagáin, meaning “descendant of Beagán”. Little can also be a translation of the French Petit and Lepetit, as well as other surnames in various languages with the same meaning (“little”),[1] especially the German name Klein during World War II [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little].

There is also a Little Clan from the Borders area between Scotland and England – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Little

If your surname is Little, or a variation, at Family Tree DNA there is a Y-DNA Little Surname Project with over 400 members tested, that was initiated in 2001.   https://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Little

Surname Saturday is a blogging prompt suggested by GeneaBloggers.

Copyright 2018 by Maryann Barnes and Genealogy Sisters.

Year In Review – 2017 – Dedicated to My Siblings

The Doran Gang

This year we have found out so much about our Irish and Polish roots here at Genealogy Sisters. Since I’m the youngest of the family, the memories my siblings share are priceless. This year is dedicated to my sister and my two brothers. Three of our four grandparents emigrated from Europe to the United States. All of our eight great-grandparents were born in Europe, with four from Ireland and four from Poland. Little by little their stories have unfolded.

When we started researching our family history, we really had only had heard a few stories about our grandparents with little hints and stories about them and their parents. By the time I was born, only my mother’s father and my father’s mother were still alive. I’m so lucky to have wonderful memories of them. Now we can identify all of our eight great-grandparents and the places in Ireland and Poland they came from.

Starting with our father’s grandparents we have: Bernard Doran, born in the Ballymacarrett area of Belfast, County Down, Northern Ireland in 1858; Mary Hall Doran, born in West Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1864; John Mahoney, born in Enniskeane, County Cork, Ireland in 1858; and Mary Carter Mahoney, born most likely in Oughterard, County Galway, Ireland in 1868.

We had heard that our Doran clan had often used the Dorran spelling, and we have found that to be true. We had also heard that the Hall family was the only side of our family to have been Protestant, instead of Roman Catholic, and we have also found that to be true. This year with Y-DNA results from Family Tree DNA, we have also learned that an early branch of our Doran family emigrated from County Antrim in the first half of the 1700s to colonial Virginia. My brother’s test and another Doran male matched. Emailing with the sister of the Doran tester has added much to our knowledge. Many thanks to this family for sharing their research with us. From Hall matches with autosomal DNA we have found many more branches, with many with roots in Scotland. To our surprise it seems our Doran side also went back and forth to Scotland from Belfast for jobs and for serving in the British Armed forces.

It seemed like this year our Mahoney / Mahony research really hit pay dirt. We had heard that our Mahoney side was from County Cork, Ireland. This year because of DNA testing, with autosomal testing at ancestry.com, we know where exactly in this very large Irish county they came from. My sister and I had looked at records of another Mahoney family from Newark, New Jersey, and wondered if they could be related to us. The family had the same naming patterns as our family and lived in close proximity in New Jersey after emigrating from Ireland. AncestryDNA has shown that our hunch was correct. With what this Mahoney family had learned and shared with us, we are able to say that our Mahoney Clan came from small villages called Enniskeane and Ballineen, in County Cork. Our Carter clan has always been more of a mystery. We hope next year will help prove that our great-grandmother, Mary or Maria Carter did indeed come from County Galway, possibly to Dublin, and from there to Brooklyn, New York.

Our mother’s grandparents from Poland have always been more of a challenge to research because of the language barrier. With help from distant and close cousins we now know their names and where they came from in Poland: Jakub Mirota was born in Plawna, Poland in 1833; Margareta Tabis Mirota was born in Zborwice, Poland in 1844; Piotr Szczerba was born in Brazna, Poland in 1840; and Apolonia Olszewska Szczerba was born in Bobowa, Poland in 1848. These are small villages in south-east Poland in an area called Małopolski. Our Polish grandparents would also have put down on records that they were from Galicia, Austria, because this area of Poland was partitioned when they were born. With two researchers with shared Polish roots, my sister has been documenting the family histories of this side of our family. With DNA matches we are broadening our family tree.

DNA results can be confusing, but one of the most important things is to look at the shared centiMorgans or CM that you share with a match on an autosomal test. Most of the test companies share this with your results. If you need more information please use this link: https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_statistics

Here is a chart showing expected results and relationships with your matches. You can click on the chart to enlarge it.

As seen at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/379920918555712125/

Many thanks to family that have shared photographs and stories and other researchers that have graciously shared information this year. My siblings and I have met cousins, first cousins once removed, second-cousins, and more distant cousins, and with each story we keep the memory of our ancestors alive. Good luck with your family history and research!

With my beloved siblings in front of our childhood home, waiting for the school bus.

Copyright 2017 by Maryann Barnes and Genealogy Sisters.