I am investigating the possibility that Rowe Kennedy is my wife's
grandfather. My wife's mother was born in Portland in 1921. Do you have
any information that would help me piece together Rowe's life?
Thanks, Mark
DiVecchio (husband of Sally) |
Mark,
I'm always glad to meet a relative, or an almost-relative. I'm
supposing you saw that I have Rowe Kennedy on my tree. Actually, to
find a more direct connection, we'd have to go to Rowe's father - he may
have been a cousin to my great grandmother. So the connection is
rather distant and I have no information on Rowe myself. In the 1950
and 60's, my grandmother (in the Kennedy line) did lots of genealogy
research, but then it was all by mail. I don't know how she did it.
My mother inherited all her papers, and I used that information as a
basis for my tree. ... I just got out the Kennedy file and in it found a
couple pages of notes that say they originally came from Clarence
Kennedy - I'm supposing Rowe's father. It lists birth and wedding
dates for Rowe and Bess and that Rowe was an architect in Portland.
.... Actually, now I find a letter written by Bess to my grandparents.
No listing for children has so far been given, but I guess I need to
do a more thorough search of the papers.
As I think about it, from the way you worded the message to me, I'm
guessing that your mother-in-law does not know for sure who her parents
are, or at least her grandfather. The next few days are busy for me,
but hopefully by next week I can look through the papers to see if their
is any more information you might want.
Has your mother-in-law considered a dna test - or at least your wife?
That would help give you direction. I've used dna to help solve a
couple of mystery connections.
Darryl Parks |
Darryl,
I'll try to answer your questions and add some comments.
Rowe graduated from Cottage Grove High School in 1911. He went to
Oregon Argicultural College (that became Oregon State) and graduated in
1915. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania where got a
degree in archtecture in 1918. He worked for a while in PA and he
appears in the Jan 1920 census enumeration in Bethlehem, PA.
(In my research, I learned that parade scene from the movie, Animal House, was
filmed in Cottage Grove - another piece of useless information.)
A newspaper article puts him in Portland in October of 1921 where he
got a job at an architecture firm. He married Bessie on 1 Feb
1923 in Portland.
Sally's mom was born in Jun of 1921 so would have been concieved about Sept of 1920.
In our research, we also considered other Davis men. There were two
that were about the right age but we could not place them in Portland
about 1920. They lived in Northern CA. We are in touch with descendants
of both of those men.
More to come.
Mark |
Mark,
You're giving me a problem that I'm not really wanting right now.
Not wanting it, but lovin' it!! :) I enjoyed reading
your email, but before I start on that, here's what I was prepared to
write you before I turned on the computer this morning.
Last night while watching TV I picked up my grandmother's two folders
on the Kennedy family. I found several letters written to
her from fairly close relatives of Rowe and Bess - they are mentioned
in the letters. Then I found several letters written by
Bess herself. These letters were written in the 1960's -
maybe the last was in 1970. Rowe was in his 70's I guess,
so most of the letters were about retirement activities and
health. Nothing from the past, except one mention of going
to a class reunion - high school class of 1911. So I
gathered that if Rowe graduated high school in 1911, and married in
1923, he had a number of single years - plenty of time for something
unplanned to happen. No hint anywhere of that 'something'
happening. From my grandmother's letter writing and
research, she constructed her own genealogy charts with notes.
Where Rowe is listed, there is no mention of a child, and if my
grandmother would have been told that, I'm sure she would have noted
it. So - it appears as if the written part of 'our'
research is leading to nothing.
So ... to pick up with your email. You're right, my great
grandmother was Ada Kennedy Pope. But don't try to find me on my
tree - I'm hidden. Over 10 years ago a cousin suggested I
get on ancestry.com. My mother had the papers and
family pictures, I had the time, and my cousin had the money. So
she paid for the tree and I did the work. Therefore her father,
my uncle, is the 'home person' on the tree.
You mention several Pope names - I don't recognize any of those names, so I'm guessing they are a different Pope family.
Darryl |
Darryl,
I've been through all of the trees on ancestry that had Rowe. Your Pope
Family tree is the most complete. Your grandmother did a great job.
I can see where Charles C. Pope married Ada Belle Kennedy in your tree.
That must be where the family lines connected. From what I could
deduce, Clarence Kennedy and Ada Belle Kennedy were 1st cousins.
My wife Sally Ann Clarno and her brother, Robert H Clarno, Jr, did their DNA. They both match you at 20cM amd 29cM respectively.
They match a few other Pope's (Gail, Chester, Jacqueline, Paul, Lucy,
Brandon) also. Even though 29cM is a small number, I've read that it is
still over 99% certainty that a relationship exists.
My mother-in-law, Bette, is dead. She died before DNA for genealogy was a "thing".
Yes, you are right, my mother-in-law always thought that her father was
Charles Baker, the man she knew as her father. Charles divorced Bette's
mother just a few years after Bette was born. When Sally and Rob did
their DNA, I spent a couple of years searching for Baker cousins for
them. Not finding any, I started to think that DNA analysis was way
over-sold! Then, last year, when a bunch of Sally's 1st cousins did
their DNA - they did not match either. Bette's father was NOT Charles
Baker.
That really hit me over the head. Looking more closely at the
matches Sally had, I could see a pattern of matches to the Davis
family. I'm in contact with some of them and we worked together looking
at possibilities. Emma Davis who married Clarence Kennedy and had a
son, Rowe Davis Kennedy, right now, looks like the best possibility.
Neither Rowe nor his sister, Ruth Henrietta Kennedy Tartar, had children. Rowe was the
right age, would have been single when Bette was conceived in 1920 and
he had just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
(Masters in Architecture) and he moved to Portland, OR in that time frame - where he
lived the rest of his life. He married Bessie Bush in 1923.
So Sally has a lot of matches to Davis, Kennedy, Babcock and Worden. So many that Rowe has to be her grandfather.
Since Rowe and Henrietta had no children, that family line has ended. Of course, not really ended if Bette was Rowe's daughter.
When you have time, it would be great to see what you have about Rowe.
Mark |
Mark,
I finally sat down and pulled the Kennedy folders back out and looked
through both of them to separate Rowe and Bess's letters to my
grandmother. Two other people also wrote letters referring
to Rowe and Bess, I think they were Rowe's uncle and a cousin who also
lived in the Portland area. I read all of those letters and
most of the references say that they will be forwarding to Rowe all the
family news. In other words, nothing worthy of
copying. Those letters were also written between 1958 and
1970.
From Rowe and Bess there were four letters, each about 5 pages long. There is also a newspaper clipping. I've scanned the first letter and attached it - it's identified by date and letters for each page.
Darryl |
Mark,
I was so busy yesterday scanning to see if it would work that I
neglected to read the letter to see what it was about. So
now I'm looking at it and will try to explain who some of the names are
- just in case you care and are wondering the connections of people.
If you haven't looked at the Kennedy line much, Rowe's grandfather was
Hugh Kennedy Jr - actually, there is a long line of Hugh
Kennedy's. Hugh Jr had 11 children. Gideon
Kennedy was the youngest of the 11. Gideon Kennedy also had
11 children. Yesterday's letter was addressed to Ruth and
Carroll. Carroll was the youngest of Gideon's
children. Carroll was born in 1891. His eldest
cousin was born in 1838, I believe. With two generations of
11 children, you can imagine that their ages spanned many
years. Anyhow, Carroll was Gideon's youngest child,
Clarence was Gideon's eldest child. Rowe was Clarence's
son, and Rowe was actually a year younger than Carroll.
Carroll would be Rowe's uncle. But Carroll and his wife
Ruth lived in Kelso, Washington and from the letters, that must not be
too far from Portland, Oregon. Evidently, Carroll and Rowe kept
in close contact. The first letter must have been
written for Carroll and then Carroll forwarded it on to my grandparents
- which some letters indicated that was happening.
Rowe's sister is also a Ruth and this Ruth married Nick
Tartar. Laura is mentioned in the first letter, she could
be an older sister to Carroll. "RD" in the first letter must be Rowe
Davis, since his wife Bess is writing the letter.
The second letter is scanned and it is attached.
Rowe's 2nd cousin is my grandfather, Hugh Kennedy Pope. My
grandmother was Jeannette - she was the one doing the family research
and she apparently was quite a letter writer.
Nina is mentioned in Carroll's letters. I think she is a niece to Carroll and also lived in Kelso, Washington.
Hopefully I'll get another letter scanned tomorrow.
Darryl |
Mark,
Here's the third letter.
I didn't see any extra names in this letter. I'm just giving
a very brief read-through, not really watching what's being
said. I thought one of the letters said something about
Rowe attending a class reunion. When I've copied the 4th
letter, if that is not in one of them, I'll have to look around.
Let me know.
I wasn't aware of the music tendencies in the Kennedy
family. That talent must not have reached us!!
Although, my siblings and I enjoy music, that's not a particular trait
among us cousins. But isn't it interesting when you can
trace family characteristics like that? More prevalent in
our family is math skills. Mom would tell us how her
mother's father was so good in math. Among us cousins we
have an engineer, two architects, and a couple of math
teachers. In aptitude tests, I scored far higher in math
than other subjects. It's interesting, and fun to think about.
I'll try sending this and maybe scan the last letter ....
Darryl |
Mark,
Good, by the time I could scan the last letter, the third one had been sent. So here's the last letter. I do have one more thing to scan though - a newspaper article.
In this letter, Laura Tendall is mentioned. I finally found
her in the tree. Carroll and Clarence had a sister,
Jane or Jennie. I think she lived in Illinois - near the
Kennedy home. Jane had a daughter Laura, so this would be
Rowe's 1st cousin. I think she was a couple years older
than Rowe. In the Kennedy folders, there were a number of
letters, etc from Laura Tendall, but since they were all Illinois
related, I didn't review them in much detail. I don't think
there was anything particularly Rowe related.
Just so you'll know, this letter was written in Oct, 1970. The
following spring my grandfather passed away. A year later
my grandmother passed away. So it's not surprising that
this was the last letter
Darryl |
 |
Mark,
Evidently Bess must have sent my grandparents this clipping from the
high school reunion that should have been mentioned in one of the
letters. I tried to enhance the picture a little, then I
tried to extract Rowe's picture from it. Not such a good
job. Maybe you know how to do better. Of
course, there's only so much you can do with a 50 year old newspaper
picture. :)
I think this pretty well completes what I have found on
Rowe. If you can think of anything else that I might have
missed, let me know.
Darryl |
Darryl,
This is your actual cousin writing, Mark's wife, Sally. I wanted to
personally thank you for all the letters and information that you have
sent about my newly discovered grandfather, Rowe Davis Kennedy. It was
interesting to read the letters and hear about him in his later years.
Thank you for sending the photo (in the newspaper article), as we had
photos of him when he was young, but had not seen a photo as he aged.
He was still a handsome man even in his later years!
BTW, math is one of my strong traits also. I spent my working career as a CPA. Did I get that from the Kennedy's? :-)
Thank you for all your efforts in digging up information about Rowe,
for communicating so well, and for forwarding information to us as you
found it. Mark is thrilled on the genealogy-side (he likes putting
pieces of puzzles together), and me, from the personal-side, finding
out about the grandfather that I missed having in my life. You and your
communications have been so appreciated!
Keep well and safe and perhaps we will meet one day!
Sally |
Darryl,
I don't remember if I ever asked you this.
Are you in touch with any descendants of Gideon Kennedy? Two people
showed up in Sally's DNA matches, a Beth Hafenrichter and T. Shakohl.
Thanks, Mark |
Mark,
I'm having a terrible time trying to download even basic information to my computer. My niece had complained about this problem to Verizon and they said the tower is so overloaded between schools and at-home employees, that the towers just can't handle it.
So I don't know if that's the problem, or something's wrong with my computer. Anyhow, I was trying to find definite names, but my computer just isn't coming up with the information. I don't think I'm in contact with any other Gideon descendants. I've been in contact with two other Kennedy descendants - one I know is NOT Gideon and I don't think the other is. I've written to a third one, but not much response there. I recognize the Hafenrichter name, but only through research - I'm not sure if Beth has matched with me or not, and I don't think T. Shakohl has. But since I can't get that info to show up, I don't know for sure. Sorry I'm not much help tonight. Tomorrow morning I leave with my brother and sister-in-law to go to our nephew's wedding in north Georgia. We'll be back either Sunday or Monday. So if you email, I'll respond when I get home - if my computer is working. I'm glad you're continuing to find information on Rowe and Bess.
Darryl |
