Photos: (1) Helen C. Pennea, Edward Brophy Sr, Edward Brophy Jr., (2) Helen C. Pennea, Baby Edward, my grandmother and father, (3) below, Helen C. Pennea and relative. Could be uncle, cousin? They look alike.The featured photos of Helen Pennea who’s family originated from Gibraltar, Spain. Her husband Edward Brophy’s family originated from Ireland.
Last week, I told you about having started an ancestry account and mentioned that I was in anticipation of an upcoming phone call with a new found 3rd cousin, Kathleen, from my father’s side. Well, a phone call it was and it was fascinating. Two hours later, I was a lot more knowledgeable about my long lost family on my father’s side. I wonder if they have dementia in that side of the family…hmmmmm
We made a plan for me to call her at 3:00 pm my time and I found myself watching the clock all afternoon in anticipation. Well, 3pm came, I made the call and we got acquainted and seemed to have hit it off straight away. Apparently, she has been doing her family tree for about 14 years now and seemed very knowledgeable about how to navigate it and about everyone on her tree. She showed me some of the how-to-dos on the ancestry site, which I was grateful for. I had a few people listed twice which she said, could cause problems later on in my search. I will learn a lot just by looking at her tree, regarding to births and deaths. Somewhere in her journey, she found a relative and was able to make a phone call who gave her another number of a relative who knew a lot of information on the family. She gave my new cousin Kathleen information and photos, which she has posted on her tree for all to see.
We are all related to a common link, our great-great grandfather Francis Pennea, making us 3rd cousins. I believe, if I remember correctly, he was a Sandy Hook Pilot who ended up being lost at sea in the late 1800’s. It would be fascinating to find out more about that incident in history, if indeed it was even recorded in the books. I’ve been told that I can go to Staten Island where they have a place where I can find out more information and possibly find a list of Sandy Hook pilots. Might be able to find documentation on our ancestor, which would be neat info to have. I will think about going when the weather gets warm again…in the spring or summer.
At one point, she had me connect to Facebook and send a friend invite, which I did. From there we went into her friend list and she pointed out how many of us there are. She briefed me on who they are and about what they do. After our two hour conversation, she made a beautiful post on Facebook introducing me to the family and one by one I have been getting messages and friend requests. I am so happy to have found them and looking forward to getting to know them better moving forward.
They seem like a fun bunch of people and I can hardly believe that I am related to them.
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Lynn, I’m really excited that you’re doing this research, and VERY sympathetic to the not knowing a whole side of your family. I’m glad you’ve found a cousin-researcher. I’ve got almost two years under my belt of ancestry research now, so let me know if you hit a snag, and MAYBE I’ll have a clue. I’ve found findagrave.com to be really interesting too, and helpful. You can also obtain death certificates (at varying costs) for ancestors, and learn about their deaths, and not incidentally, their parents names (mother’s maiden, usually). Sometimes marriage certificates have this information also. Yack yack yack… -Robin
Love your blog. My mother was also Helen Pennea. Middle name dolores, maiden name Reisenberger. Wow this is so awesome. I spent a few days at the geneology library in Salt Lake. There are more of us Pennea’s out there too.
Tom…That’s very interesting that your mother’s name was Helen. I wonder if it came from someone from years before them. I’m finding this whole process very interesting and love that there are so many of us, that before didn’t know each other.