Introducing Ethel

I just met Ethel today after receiving a group of letters that she has written over the span of a couple of years from 1925 to 1926 

This is the first letter in the stack. 

Letters to Mr. Logan Howard

1411 Forest Ave

Knoxville, TN 

Feb 27, 1925 - postmarked Henryville, Tenn

West Gaines St, Lawrenceburg, Tenn

Feb 26, 1925

Dear Logan:

And I am answering all so quickly again you all. I have a new location and I ust must tell you about it. I began teaching again Monday ten miles from Lawrenceburg. My other school was out Friday, I started home and was offered principalship at this place so I accepted. They make me think I am a pretty nice teacher since they want to keep me on the job. And I really like it. 

This is a pretty nice little village. I have a fine place to board with some real jolly people. I shall spend the week-ends in Lawrenceburg and I would be glad to have a letter from you next week-end. I spend four nights here and three nights there. 

I have not decided yet where I shall go to summer school. May not go. However I really feel that I should go some place. 

Now I am stopping cause it is getting late for a little girl like me to be up alone. I thought you might be interested in the fact that I am still a Lawrence County school teacher. Ha! It shows of whom I am thinking anyway doesn’t it? 

Sincerely, 

Ethel

Hi Ethel, 

It’s nice to meet you. I don’t know you yet but I do know that you are a school teacher in Lawrence County. 

I know that Lawrenceburg is 250 miles away from Knoxville. 

I wonder how old you are. 

I wonder how Logan is to you. 

Logan.... Who are you?  I know that you live on Forest Street in Knoxville. 

It is going to be a pleasure to get to know you! 

Who is Mr. Thomas McNulty?

Primary notes...

I believe that Thomas Francis McNulty was born May 4, 1889 and passed away July 1, 1958 at the age of 69.

His parents were Thomas McNulty b.1855 and Mary McNulty who migrated to Eagle, Colorado from Ireland in 1882 and were farmers. They settled in an area known as Cattle Creek.

Thomas was the oldest followed by Margaret E, Harriet A, James J and Mary A. Each child born two years apart with Mary A. being the last born in 1897.

Thomas enlisted in the military June 5, 1917 at the age of 24. He was a Pvt. 1st Cl. 13 Company in the Trans Corps. Interestingly Thomas listed his address in Carbondale which is now a ghost town!

He married Elizabeth Frances "Lizzie" Shea sometime between 1925 and 1930. She was born in either Nebraska or Colorado (conflicting info) March 25 1909 and passed away at the age of 86 on August 10, 1995. Lizzie was 20 years younger than her husband.

I believe they had one daughter but I'm still looking into that.

Thomas and his siblings were born in Colorado in Garfield County, named after President James A. Garfield. Thomas spends most of his life in the city of Glenwood Springs.


There is still much to know and I can tell I'm just scratching the surface. I have spent my time up until now learning about Thomas and his immediate family in Colorado. My next step is to research his parents who migrated from Ireland and is the obvious connection to the Teresa, who wrote the letter in Ireland.


Here is a great link describing Garfield County, Colorado .... click here

Thomas McNulty Sr

This is a project I have just started. I bought this letter off of Ebay and now trying to sort out the story. 

Mr. Thomas McNulty, Sr

RR2 Box 16

Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA

c/o Mrs Margaret Donegan

Rooskey, Echo

Sept 2nd 1931

Dear Thomas,

I received your welcome letter two weeks ago, my two sisters arrived same day, and went home again last Friday, they took little Nancy with them, you know our Nancy, the one who wanted to go home with you. I don’t know how long they will keep her, I miss her very much, She was the only one who would look after Eileen. Mary goes to school on her bike now it only takes her an hour to go now. One of my sisters and I spent a day in Enniscrow last week, it was nice but rather cold, there isn’t much of a town there. I made a few pictures, but they didn’t turn out very good, I took a snap of Nancy shaking hands with the Yank, the day she was going away, those two were always chums. 

I hope you are enjoying the best of health as we all are. We have had some fairly good weather lately although there are parts of this country were flooded and lots of crops have been washed away and some cattle were lost in the floods, quite a slot of destruction has been done in many other countries and hundreds of people lost their lives owing to floods, so we think ourselves very lucky. We don’t have visitors anymore, those pretty Rogan girls carried tales to John Molloy so he doesn’t come anymore, I’m rather glad something choked him off, I was just about sick of him, just imagine he wanted to show me how to ride the bike, I baulked. I will send one of Nancy’s good-bye pictures if they turn out alright. 

Good-bye love from all and Teresa

Return address:

A.McNulty, Rooskey, Foxford

Mayo, Ire

Who am I?

I am Nosy Nellie!

I collect old diaries and letters and try to re-unite them to their original owners or to a member of the family. I am a budding genealogist and use my new found, ever learning skills to track down ancestors. A lot of time I don't have much to go on so I do rely on luck quite a bit!

I enjoy history and learning about new places in the United States as well as abroad.

In addition, I am a dabbler in writing fiction, particularly historic fiction.

The combination of these three enjoyable past-times led to this blog. I want to have a space to chronicle,  research and share what I find. My goal is to feature one family via a letter or diary for a few weeks and then showcase another.

Please enjoy the forgotten past, as I do my best to bring them back into days world where they will no longer be forgotten!