Lydia Regina Sandell Johnstone 1890-1978

My great grandmother Lydia who I met once in New York in the early 70s. She is pictured here with her children Andrew, Walter and Helen (my Nana).



Sadly, Walter died at five years of age. My Nana spoke fondly of young Walter and her brother Andrew who died at 22 years. Two years after Walter's death, my great aunt Kathy was born.



And, of course, Helen was married to Charles Henry Whelan Sr. who was the grandson of John Henry Whelan in the previous post.

Whelan, John Henry 1829 - 1913

I apologize in advance that there will be no rhyme nor reason to this blog. I'll be throwing posts up as I find new information. Some day soon I'll add a bit of a biography for John H. Whelan but, for now, here are some just-found news articles about my father's great grandfather.





Please keep in mind that if you click on each article, you should be able to see it a bit better.

Digging Up Roots and Saving the Planet at the Same Time

As I'm sure you know, digging up the family roots has become a bit of a hobby of mine. However, not wanting to clog up cyber-landfills with multiple e-mails, I'm switching to blogging. We all benefit. I get the enjoyment of sharing my genealogical obsessions with you. You get to share in the excitement of each and every family find. Al Gore gets the satisfaction of knowing that the Whelan family is doing their part to fight global cyberwarming (or something like that).

With no further ado, I'd like to introduce you to our current cast of characters:


(to view the family tree, right click on the image, open in a new window and zoom)

Yes, at some point in the near future, I'll start work on the maternal line and you'll be treated to the Banks Bak Bankowski Behm Bonk and Borkowski family Blog (or as I like to think of it, the BaBaBaBeBoBo Blog). Stay Tuned...

For now, we're be digging up news and tidbits from Whelans, Johnstones, Looneys, Craigs, Holtzmans, Shafers and Harts.