Question of the Week: Do you have any ancestors who were musicians?

Question

Do you have any ancestors who were musicians? 

Please tell us about them below, on Facebook, or on any other social media site by sharing the question image.

Comments

My grx4 grandfather John Bently 1754 -1813 was an actor and a Muscician.  He was in a Philadelphia in 1783 and founded City Cocerts.  He joined several comedic and acting groups and traveled to New York, Montreal and Quebec City.  While there he played the organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral and for Holy Trinity Church while being the Overseerer of highways and bridges.  He wrote a couple chants, which I have found on line.

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That is so cool Lori ! We spent time summer before in Montreal and Quebec City recently.  The Notre Came Cathedral is amazing, if you have never been get tickets for the light show at night, and the music, Wow! All of it gives goosebumps.

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I fell in love with QC. Probably because of the connection.  I also went to the graveyard where the Trinity Anglican Church believe they were buried.  It's a church / graveyard that is outside the walls, because only Catholics could be buried within. They were protestant I believe.   It's now been converted to  library with the graveyard behind.  Unfortunalty no markers remain from that timeframe.

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My Mother played the piano and we had a player piano all our lives sitting in our front room, and many player piano music rolls.  Mum used to play "The Bumblebee Boogie" and "The Tennessee Waltz" and many others.  She could read music.  One time we took Mum to a party in a country hall, a fight broke out between two young men (over a girl) and Mum went right up onto the stage, opened up the piano, and began to play.  It was so fun, she caught the attention of the crowd and the fighters headed outside!

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not sure how to add pictures to my response

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Dorann... simply  right click the image you want to post pick "copy image address"  .  Go to the post box on here pick the image button (the one that looks like mountains and sun), add that address in the URL and a title for it.   Bing!  it should post.    I just learned that awhile back I was trying to do it like you do in a profile. And as we learned below, it must be attached to a non-living Wikitree person, or not from a Wikitree site to display.

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My grandfather, Hugh Kanagy(stage name was Hugh Mills - just dropped the last name) played with the nightclub bands in Chicago during vaudeville. As a 9yr old,  Dad was allowed to go the cast parties (except for Kate Smith, who I was told were too wild!). He also played with Sousa's band when they were in town.  I believe he also had a sister who taught at Julliard in the 1800's.  I inherited not a scrap of this talent.  :-D

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thank you

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I do have ancestors on both my maternal and paternal side of my family. My mother was a singer and my father played piano. I know other people in my moms family sang in the Pusateri/Bova clan. I know her Bova Uncles played instsruments and there were cousins who were country musicians. On my Dad's Derosier side, there were piano/organ players back to the first Derosier to immigrate here in the 1600's. He played the organ. I have an ear for music but never learned to play that well. I could sing a little when I was younder but not so much now...

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My mother (pianist, composer, teacher).  My maternal grandfather (cornet). My paternal grand-aunt (pianist, concert performer), and her husband, and her son.  My 4-greats-grandmother (composer, singer) and her family (all three children, and some grandchildren).

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WOW Melanie so much musical talent ! And how about yourself?

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I sing some (naturally, never been trained other than school and church choirs), tinkled some on a piano when a child - but Mum had had to sell her piano in order to put food in our mouths after my father deserted her, so I never learnt properly. (I tried years later, but my rambunctious son kept interrupting, so we gave my lessons over to him.) My siblings, Mum, and I always sang at home, and I don't remember a time when there was not music in the house.  I grew up listening to old 78s and LPs (Mary Martin (mother of Larry Hagman) was one whose voice I remember), and my first ever record (real vinyl) was Peter and the Wolf on one side, with "a Child's Guide to the Orchestra" on the other.

I used to play an instrument called a "melodica", mostly for when I was teaching RE at schools, and for Sunday School. (It's kind of like a breath-operated, hand-held, mini piano with about an octave-and-a-half of keys.)

My kids are both musical talents - daughter moreso.  She has perfect pitch and relative pitch, and always kept me "on note".  (I have a distressing to her tendency to hear the note, then start half a tone above or below.  As she was my accompanist, I nearly drove her insane!)  With her you don't ask her what instrument/s she plays, you ask her what she does NOT play (not much, having even learnt some sitar while at University).  Son plays mostly trombone and/or trumpet (and occasionally cornet).  His daughter has followed in her father's and aunt's footsteps, mostly playing clarinet.  My daughter's son composed his first piece when he was about 3 or so years old (younger than Mozart).  He even told his mother (who was doing the notation) what instruments belonged where.  Like her grandmother, my mother, my daughter could be a professional performer, but all she has ever really wanted to do was teach.  So she does.

My main "talent", I guess, is that I have an ear for accents.  So much so I have mimicked Frank Spencer's whine (Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em), and Brenda from Watching on multiple occasions.  I was always the one chosen to sing "Molly Malone", because I could bung on enough of an Oirish brogue to make the song a little beyond the ordinary.  I have a German friend in Australia who, many years ago, thought I was making fun of her accent, until I explained (and demonstrated) that I had simply picked it up naturally by being around her so much.  (I was very careful after that to NOT sound anything other than Aussie.)  I have also managed a reasonable Scottish burr, but have not even tried that for many years.

I still sing "boh-ull" for bottle after the first three or four (I believe there is an American(?) song "99 bottles of beer on the wall" -- well the song I learnt was "10 green bottles") -- and frequently pronounce "girl" as "gel" (my mother claimed that was from my Geordie ancestors), even though I had never heard it as anything other than "girl" -- and I did a pretty good take-off of the New Zealand actress in the Finesse commercials.  (New Zealand's accent is different on vowels from the way Aussies and the English say them.)

BUT - I'm not my ancestor, even if I am one to my grandkids -- and my kids aren't ancestors either, yet -- so this will be my last post to here, lest we threadjack totally away from the actual question.

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Oh, wow!  Your grandson's a prodigy, then!  

I actually used to play piano by ear when I was about 7 & drawn to Grandpa's concert grand like a magnet!   Until I hit a wrong note & he threw me out - "If you can't play in right, don't play it at all!!"  He also played the cornet.  I'm the only one in the family who plays no instrument at all.

Interesting about Larry Hagman & Mary Martin.  I actually ran into them at dinner one night here in Dallas about 30+ years ago.  They were having dinner with an old friend of my dad's, Celeste Holm, whom he knew as "Sissy."  I didn't want to interrupt their dinner to say hello, but my boss's 5yr old son was obsessed with "JR. Ewing."  He was not happy when I told him Mr Hagman & his mom were having dinner & we were going to leave them alone & JR was just pretend!  LOL.

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My uncle Leroy White, my mother's brother, played the piano and a large set of drums , in a band ( never knew their name ), in the Oxnard and Santa Barbara area of California - during the late 20's thru the late 30's, as a side job. When I was around 3/4 years old, visiting my grand parents at the Point Huneme lighthouse, CA, I remember being told not to go in to a room on the bottom floor, cause Uncle Roy would get mad, of course I peeked, I remember  all the drums. My mother and aunt played the piano at home, there at the lighthouse.

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Very cool . that must have been a fun place for a childhood visit..I have noticed quite a few musical instruments staged at various historical lighthouses I have visited around the country..  Most supposedly historically accurate.  Obviously it's a job that would leave you with time to learn and play..

Answer 1

I believe the connection is on my paternal grandmother's side, his name was Johann Helpenstal (might have the spelling wrong). I believe he was a German composer. My family doesn't have a lot of information about how we are related to him so I don't even know if it's true.

Comments

If he has a profile here on Wikitree Stacy, as you add your family and connect lines to the large tree...all you have to do then is hit Relationship Finder and it will show you the path to your common ancestor!! Welcome to Wikitree, enjoy ! And if you need any help the G2G will jump in to assist.

Answer 2

My mother came from a family of 13 children in a small farming community in the center of Texas.  They were "dirt poor", as she used to say, but my grandfather insisted all of the children learn to play instruments.  My mother was an excellent pianist, by ear, as well as playing the clarinet.  The older siblings became the "Foster Family Band" and played in nearby farming communities for dances, church functions and other gatherings.  My grandmother made "costumes" for the band, with hats and matching capes.  The local paper and a later area newspaper carried stories of the band.  My mother's talent to play by ear was passed on to me and my daughter, and we're hoping one of my three granddaughters will also learn to play the piano or another instrument.

Answer 3

My maternal great-great-uncle Stan Cornwell (first name was actually Leonard, second name Stanley) played the piano. The family story is that he emigrated to Australia where he became the director general of Sydney Opera House but I've never been able to verify this. I also play the piano, my mum plays the guitar and her sister plays the sax.

Answer 4

My 8Xs (?) gr Grandfather was famed organ builder Rusland Harris.  A couple of his organs still exist in Cathedrals  in England.

Also My gr. grandfather was a band leader along with his sons.

Answer 5

My mother was a church organist for over 53 years. My father played the guitar with a country-music group called "The Corn Cobbers." My great uncle and several generations back from him, played a very fine violin made in 1836 in Paris. My grandmother played the piano, as did many other relatives. My brother plays trumpet, keyboard, and guitar. I am a composer, arranger, producer and performer of early music. I have a collection of over 25 instruments, some of them antiques. Here is a picture of me with my tiorba - a big bass lute.

Comments

Marion your picture is privacy protected, maybe it's on a living person's profile, looking like ..?since it's not showing.  Two ways to solve , add the photo to a deceased ancestor and repost, or a freespace page and repost.

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25 instruments, some antiques, don't tell my husband, shhhh! His collection of guitars seems to be multiplying.

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If you know how many instruments you have, you don't have enough instruments ;-).

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The picture is of me playing my tiorba and since I'm not dead yet it does not show up. You would think I could post a picture of myself without worrying about privacy. In any case, I'll post another picture - one of my mother and her uncle who teamed up to play music in church.

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Here is a picture of my mother, Lucille D. Ceruti, the guest organist, and her uncle, Hildreth B. Smith, the violinist, who often would play together in various venues.

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Nice picture of your mother!  

You can post one, it just has to not be attached to a living profile, or it won't show here and will be real small even on your profile.  For instance when I wanted to post one I put it on my Grandmother profile temporarily.  Lots of people use a free space page for that too.

Answer 6

My grandmother (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/King-30245#), Kathryn King Corcoran, was a talented pianist who taught piano students in her home, and regularly played at the Brockton movie theater to accompany silent films before she married my grandfather. I still remember the piano that took up most of her front parlor, and the sheet music for popular songs that was always displayed on the music stand when we visited her “triple-decker” house in Brockton, Massachusetts. I remember in particular “(Won’t you Come Home) Bill Bailey” and her showing me at a very early age how the music on the page sounded on the piano. At my other grandma’s house, we weren’t supposed to touch the piano—Nana’s piano was for playing, not an ornament to the house. This picture was probably taken in the 1920s, before she married Charlie Corcoran. 

Comments

That is cool she played at the silent movies.   I love her hair, she was very pretty. My grandma let us kids pound all over her pump organ.. one side didn't work, but she sadly had extreme Parkinson's    I was trying to recall if I ever seen her play even once, if so it's a vague memory.

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Do you play Kathy?

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Sadly, I only ever learned to pick out melodies on the piano—I never took piano lessons, and we lived in another state, so Nana could not teach me properly. I sing, and read music a little. I married a musician, though, and our children both play multiple instruments and have beautiful singing voices. My husband’s mother was a very good pianist, and he learned from her. We have her piano in our home now.

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That is wonderful that the family talents live on in your children, from both sides!

I had 2 years of lessons as a kid and never was great .. my little cousin passed me up almost immediately.

Answer 7

My family heritage brought music from England.  My mother and aunts all played the piano as did all the children including myself.  I gave up on reaching Higher Local Trinity College exams as I have very small hands and could not reach the chords required.  However others went on to teach music - my mother and 2 aunts.  One aunt took her son (my cousin) to America in 1952 - firstly to Cincinatti, Ohio where he continued his career in music and education.  He was a violinist and played in the Cincinatti Orhestra.  Later he moved to Monterey, his wife (second marriage he met in the Monterey Symphony Orchestra where he was the First Violinist and she was a violinis.  Boith went on to teach music - violin mostly I understand and my cousin to become the Concert Maestro of the Orchestra.  Recently I had contact from one of their daughters who has 5 children and they have a string quartet Vioin, Viola, Cello and Bass and the 5th child also playing strings also plays the woodwind and trumpet - these children apparently play all over the area where they live.  My dad also played the piano - he was an accomplished pianist.

Answer 8

Second from left is my grandfather Bennie Addison Benjamin Boyd Addison (1895-1961)

From my understanding they played at local social functions, parties, weddings, whatever.

Comments

That's a wonderful picture Stephen!  Do you know where it was taken ?

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Probably Russell Co. Virginia, in the western part of the state where they lived till the 30s. Perhaps Belfast Mills.

Answer 9

My Greatly Grandmother, Rebecca Smith was a dancer and actress in London. She married an undertaker but had 2 sons with Baron Jean Francois Marie L'Horme de l'Lil who was a soldier and musician. There is a newspaper article where the Prime Minister's wife attended one of their performances. When he died, there was a piece of music written in tribute. I have found a copy of the score on line but it would appear that it has never been recorded so I have not heard it.

Comments

That's a  cool story... maybe you should find someone who plays pretty well, reads music of course, record it and add it to Wikitree for future generations of your family to enjoy and admire.

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I have tried to find a musician but it is a piece which is very fast and looks scary. I played piano, violin and recorder (all badly) throughout High School. I can almost hear it in my head. My daughter plays flute and neither of us would attempt it.

The piece was written for strings. Maybe someone is looking for a lockdown challenge.

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Go to your closest college or university music department and see how they might help.

Answer 10

My 1st cousin 1x removed Ludwig Schmidt, was a violinist. He made his first appearance in the Studebaker Theater in Chicago in 1913. At 24 yrs old he was considered one of the foremost violinists in the country.

Answer 11

My paternal grandfather, Harry Lee Barlow, born Moscow, Ind., played the coronet in a circus band, and my paternal grandmother, Blanche Myrtle (Smith) Barlow, born Corinth, Ky., was a good musician also.  My Father, played coronet and piano/organ by ear for family and friends.

Answer 12

My mother-in-law (still living) was a concert violinist and played with the National Orchestra in Bogota, Colombia. She was one of the founders of the National Chorus and National Symphony (both of Colombia). My husband said she had people over every Saturday to practice. They had a quartet, I believe. So he grew up around classic music. I've never met her, but I have spoken to her over the phone. She has a lovely, light, musical voice.

My grandmother played the organ at church and we had one at home growing up.

More interesting is (still living) who can play any instrument by ear. He just picks it up and can play it. His favorite instrument was the trombone! Many years ago he went AWOL from the service and came home. His mother marched him right back by calling the MPs. Somehow, I don't know how, he got transferred to the Air Force Marching Band. That is a very competitive position. So he played the trombone for the US Air Force.

Answer 13

My 5xGreat Grandfather Wilhelm Johann Cramer was a 1700s rock star, a famous virtuoso Violinist, apparently. 

He's one of my favourite ancestors

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cramer-1055

Comments

This is a wonderful photo. Also fascinating to think that back in those days he would have probably been like a current day rock star.

Answer 14

there is a LOT of music in our family

My grandmother played multiple instraments including banjo, violin & organ but she was most proficiant on her Dobro Guitar - playing mostly country and Hawaiian music with it.
she played for the USO during WWII up in the Seattle area, mostly. -

my Grandfather often played guitar back up for Hilo Hattie when she toured in the PNW.

my grandmother's uncle & her cousins made & played various string instraments & had a musical show on the radio in the Idaho /Washington areas in the 1930s the owned/played & we believe made a beautiful instrament called a HarpGuitar but it was lost in a house fire (i dont know when tho) (i cant figure out how to add a photo of them playing, sorry)

my daughters both play wind instraments and traveled around the world with their high school bands performing in such places as Scotland, England, Denmark China & So Africa..

my husband has been a drummer for nearly 55yrs & currently plays for Civil War reenacting

Answer 15

My mother Sadie Mitchell and her brother Aelwyn were in Music Hall in the UK and traveled all over the country from a very early age. Their stage name was The Magnet Twins and later they were billed separately as Sadie Sylvester and Irving Bellairs. They started out playing in pantomime such as Babes in the Wood in 1921 when my Mum was just 8 years old and her brother a year older, then progressed to piano playing, singing, dancing and comedy routines as they gained experience. Over the years they also performed in a number of Concert Parties such as the Blue Dragoons and the Velocity Follies. I have many photos of them and recently compiled a family photo book incorporating family history and included research from newspaper archives about their performances from 1921 through to 1939. I was amazed by the distance they traveled, as they performed from south east England, up through Wales, across to Ireland and in Scotland. Considering they did not drive back then, the logistics of organising public transport must have been considerable, particularly considering how young they were. My mother passed away in 1991, about 25 years before I researched her stage history, and my huge regret is that I never really asked her about her years on the stage. I always knew she had been a performer but never realised how popular she must have been at the time.

Would love to share a couple of photos but don't know how to     (Thanks for the help, Jo. Easy when you know how!)

Comments

Cherryl, there's a How-To on adding photos in the first few comments to this thread.

 simply  right click the image you want to post pick "copy image address"  .  Go to the post box on here pick the image button (the one that looks like mountains and sun), add that address in the URL and a title for it.   Bing!  it should post.    I just learned that awhile back I was trying to do it like you do in a profile. And as we learned below, it must be attached to a non-living Wikitree person, or not from a Wikitree site to display.

Answer 16

So my 4th Great Grandfather was Frederick William Crouch, whose profession was often listed as “Professor of Music”, he was born in about 1796 and lived in London until 1844.

One of his children by his first marriage to Anna Maria Nicholls was Frederick William Nicholls Crouch, who among other things emigrated to America and fought in the civil war. He composed the song ‘Katherine Mavourneen’ and his passing was noted in many US newspapers. One of his many daughters was the courtesan Cora Pearl.

On my mother’s side, she is descended from one of Frederick’s children by his second wife Louisa, making Frederick William Nicholls Crouch my 4th Great Uncle.

Answer 17

My German great grandfather Wilhelm Eberle played several instruments and taught his students.  No only did he play instruments, but he was a Director of the Choir from 1882-1907.  That was in his spare time.  His day job was the Dean of a boy's school in Pirmasens Germany.  Pictures provided on his Family Search page in the memories section:  https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GQQ3-ZJT

Good thing my mom was still alive to tell me this story, because no one in the immediate family knew about it until recently when I went over all the old pictures with her a few months ago.

Comments

Renee, you are so lucky to have your mother's story.  I'll bet many of us would like to go back and ask questions.

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My mom has many more stories.  I need to sit down with her next time I'm visiting and record her.  I never remember all the details.

Answer 18

I really loved reading everyone's stories. There could be fascinating documentaries made from many of them. My maternal grandfather Wesley Noble played the fiddle and sang all the time. He typically played things like Red River Valley - old cowboy tunes. His mother Dora Riley played the autoharp. My mom sang solos in church, played the piano all my life, much of it by ear, and composed her own tunes. My aunt has her bachelor's in music, has played in church and to entertain people all her life. She is 83 and continues to do so, traveling to numerous senior's homes to play and sing. My mom used to play the accordion when I was very young, and also played the harmonica. Late in life, she got a harp and plays it still. She is self taught on all but the piano.

I now have my grandfather's fiddle. Unfortunately I refinished the fiddle myself, after being told years ago that it was worthless (by a very poor appraiser - it is no strad but is a decent instrument). Nonetheless, it remains one of my most valued possessions.

On my father's side, there seems to be no music at all, nor any inclination or talent that I'm aware of, until I go back to my twice great grandfather, James Seamus Callaghan, a pre-famine immigrant from Ireland who made a fiddle for his son (this hung on the log cabin wall and was used every day after working in the fields). This son was a great-great uncle and not a direct ancestor. Music was in that branch of the family as his daughter was very proficient, and talented. I can only assume that my ancestor Seamus did play as well. It's my understanding that in the 1800s in certain areas in Ireland, most farmhouses had a fiddle, and many were made very rustically.

My life has taken me back to Ireland (with the fiddle that comes from the other side of my family) where I spend a lot of time. I have only started to investigate traditional music there. I cannot trace my maternal grandfather's ancestry back to Europe, though his mother's name was Riley so this indicates a thread of Irish ancestry.

Answer 19

Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee, an actors life for me... ¯

My great-uncle, Elijah Gill (https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Gill-3824&public=1) - back row, left - was an opera singer and vaudeville player.  "Lige" was known for his fine baritone.  He sang in the Tabernacle choir, in local opera, at the Chicago World’s Fair, and at Saltair, an amusement park on the shore of The Great Salt Lake.  

Elijah left town with the Pike Opera Company about 1899, he toured with the "Cat and the Fiddle", a "merry, musical extravaganza!"  Next was "The Cow and the Moon".  

He took the stage name Edward Gilmore and toured for seven years as player, singer, state manager.

The touring company would perform “Cat” at a matinee and “Cow” in the evening at the same theater.  They would finish a performance, hit the road, and do it again the next day in another town.  They worked in towns where John L Sullivan would be at the Pantages, or Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at the fair grounds the same week.  

Elijah visited his family in Salt Lake.  The visit gets an 8-inch column in the Salt Lake Tribune.  The article ended with: “the sight of home and the companionship and love of relatives and friends bringing joy to the loyal Utah heart”.

My 52 Ancestors blog: https://the-lopsided-tree.blogspot.com/2014/03/on-road-with-cat-and-cow-52-ancestors-9.html

Answer 20

My grandmother, Meena ( Lillian Meacham) was a true polymath.  But the first skill she mastered was the concert piano.  In the first decade of the 20th century she studied piano at the Royal Academy in London, and made her debut on the London concert stage. She won at least two gold medals for her playing, and then gave up music for the rest of her life.

Her other skills included ceramics (she had a one-man show and sold everything, and she also had a terracotta exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum), batik, dyeing and weaving, bookbinding, handmade wooden toys, all of which she gave up after perfecting her skill.  The only thing she stuck with was psychiatry.  She studied with Freud in the 1920s, and was still seeing patients in the late 1960s.

Her first husband was the Irish musician Herbert Hughes.  He is best known today as a collector and arranger of Irish folksongs, but he also wrote the music for new Irish songs ("She Moved Through the Fair", "Down by the Sally Gardens" with words by Yeats),and modern concert music. He was a music critic as well. See his Wikipedia article Herbert Hughes (composer).

Their son (my half-uncle) Patrick Hughes was also a serious musician.  His is best known today for his work a jazz bassist, composer and band leader in the early 1930s, but he also composed classical music, and was a music critic specializing in jazz and opera, and wrote several books on opera (especially Glyndebourne). He was also a restaurant reviewer, and wrote a series of humorous books on "The Art of Coarse ..." (cricket, travel, gardening ...). He also has a Wikipedia article, Spike Hughes.

Unfortunately, my father did not inherit his mother's musical talent.  He loved classical music, but he could neither play an instrument, nor carry a tune.