On Thurs and Fri, I worked on getting through Catherine's Surrogate Court record. As I think I mentioned before, one of the beneficiaries of her will contested the list of her assets and stated that her funeral and burial were not commensurate with her station in life (like too much money was spent)--so depositions were taken from the beneficiaries and family. There are dozens of pages of this testimony and I was excited that we would learn a lot about life back then--except the scribe (attorney? court stenographer?) who recorded the entire thing has ILLEGIBLE handwriting! I plan to go back there on Thurs to work on it more, but I was deeply dismayed and frustrated, feeling like a treasure chest just could not be opened. Are there people who make a living from deciphering horrible handwriting? Anyone know? ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of O'Brien, David [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 10:08 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC] Catherine Armstrong I agree. I was taken by the story too. I grew up in Albany and my mom was from Troy but I've lived in Alexandria, VA for many years. In the summers, I'm a "host dad" for interns from Northern Ireland and the Republic as part of something called the Washington Ireland Program---it's related to Project Children. One of the interns who stayed with me came from nearby Maguires' Bridge in Fermanagh which in turn is not far from where I determined my Troy great grandmother, Rebecca Dolan O'Neil, was originally from. I forwarded Catherine's story to him. We'll see if he knows some Armstrongs. Thanks for sharing this. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevina Munnich Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 9:43 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC] Catherine Armstrong This is what genealogy is all about. The stories - the personalities! Thank you for sharing. On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 8:27 AM, Kathleen Secker <[email protected]>wrote: > Catherine had a great sense of Irish wit and humor! Usually the head of > house was a man and referred to as"Himself" . The lady, especially if she > was the breadwinner or even his spouse was referred o as "Herself". So she > must have had a bit of money to be able to buy such a stone and to use > the > caption on it shows she thought a lot of herself, and it could also be that > she ruled the roost and was mockingly called "Herself" by herself or the > family. She showed them! I love her-don't you? Kathleen S. > > > > ===NY-IRISH-GENSOC Mailing List=== Time for Society Members to pay up their **2012 Dues**. See the Website for details: Troy Irish Genealogy Society www.rootsweb.com/~nytigs/ Click ON - "JOIN TIGS NOW!" to get form. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ===NY-IRISH-GENSOC Mailing List=== Time for Society Members to pay up their **2012 Dues**. See the Website for details: Troy Irish Genealogy Society www.rootsweb.com/~nytigs/ Click ON - "JOIN TIGS NOW!" to get form. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message