52 Ancestors Week 10: Bachelor Uncle

Question

Ready for Week 10 of the 52 Ancestors challenge?

You're encouraged to share a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches the week's theme. This week's sharing prompt:

BACHELOR UNCLE

From Amy Johnson Crow:

Coming soon!

Share below!

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Comments

Easy-peasy. I'm the bachelor uncle in my family. Never could find a woman crazy enough to marry me. :)

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Our father's older brother Peter Sannino born 1921 was a bachelor uncle. Upon graduating high school, he had apprenticed as a pipefitter. The day after Pearl Harbor, the town organized a parade that marched the length of Main St. ending at Borough Hall. Like most of the town's young men, Peter fell in with the parade, marched to Borough Hall and enlisted. He chose the navy, and served throughout the war in the Atlantic as a seaman in his ship's engine rooms. Peter was also the Chaplain's (Catholic) Assistant as well as ship's middlewight boxing champ (but not fleet champ  he admitted). His war experience included accompanying convoys, then troop transport. While in England, he developed a lifelong love of all things Irish, rare for an Italian-American of that time. He was in D-Day, shipboard. After the war, Pete came home opened a plumbing business, then a bar restaurant, sponsored sports teams in the local and semi-pro leagues, was a lifelong member of the YMCA, and the PBA, and the VFW, American Legion, and ushered at 10 o'clock mass every Sunday until the week before he died after a brief illness at aged 83. My Irish born wife was astonished at the number of people who appeared at his viewing and attended his funeral.

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Maybe you're just smarter than the average crazy bachelor uncle? :)

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Rob, I'm right there with you man! 

Answer 1

My father-in-law had two bachelor uncles who he never knew, Henry Edward and Thomas Frances Lawless.  Henry was born in England in 1878 and immigrated to the United States with his parents and older sister sometime before July 1880 (sister was born in New York July 1880). Thomas (the next known child) was born in Norwich, Connecticut in December of 1886.

The family finally settled in Middletown, Connecticut where many of them worked at one of the local textile mills. Henry moved to Rhode Island in 1902 and Thomas joined him by 1907. They both continued to work in the textile industry. 

Unfortunately, Henry died as a result of an accidental drowning in September of 1927 - his occupation was listed as Textile Designer. Thomas passed away just a little over a year later in February 1929 from complications of appendicitis and an appendectomy - his occupation was listed as Weaver.

Thankfully, my mother-in-law had labeled a picture of Tom on the left and I believe the other picture is Henry.

Answer 2

Surprisingly, there are two. Both related through my 2nd great grandparents, Zebuline Clarinda RHODES and John Wallace CAMPBELL.
3RD GREAT UNCLE: Addison Franklin RHODES, Clarie's brother, never married. He served with John Wallace CAMPBELL in the same regiment during the Civil War. He lived with his brothers, and died in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

SECOND GREAT UNCLE: Roy Allison CAMPBELL, son of Clarie and John CAMPBELL, never married. He went to Nevada for silver mining. While there, he became acquainted with a certain "lady of the evening" - as she was going to San Francisco, he decided to also go along, finding miner work there. However, in 1909, Roy found himself entangled with another of the lady's suitor's, and shot him in self-defense. Corrupt policemen arrested Roy, he was falsely accused and convicted. He spent almost three years in San Quentin, but was finally paroled. I have copies of the letters he wrote to the Warden, thanking him for his help in getting Roy released.

Answer 3

My 2ggrandfather Steven Dardinger had 7 boys (and 3 girls) and 2 or 3 of the men appear to have not been married. Ferdinand (Fred) and Lewis are pretty certain to be unmarried. William does not show a spouse in the censuses, but appears to disappear after 1880.  Ferdinand was born in Switzerland and Lewis was born in Ohio, USA

Answer 4

My Bachelor uncle actually my 2x great uncle George Sanders (not currently on wikitree but son of Sanders-2828)  who never married in his 71 years of life.  I learned from this death certificate that he owned a store and am still trying to find more information regarding that.

Answer 5

I found a 2x's great uncle on my mothers side of the family John Curtis Hunt, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hunt-13338

Out of 10 children he is the only one to have never married or have children. He was also the most traveled of his siblings as he made his way from York, Pennsylvania to Washington State. He was born in 1879.

Doing these 52-Ancestors and 52-Photos has me wishing our family had exchanged stories and pictures to hand down generation after generation. It has inspired me to make sure that my 2 grand children get a family history with as many stories and pictures as I can come up withd

Answer 6

Confirmed Bachelor Uncles are thin on the ground as there are none in the last 3 generations and with earlier ones, maybe I just didn't find a marriage - YET. However I will add to the War theme and give the Great Uncle who lent his name to my father. Armstrong-8350. Richard Clyde Armstrong was born in NZ and died as a Flight Sergeant over the Bay of Biscay on 12 July 1943. I found his Will which left money to, what appears to be an Australian woman. I am sure there was a story behind this - was it his lady love? Was it a debt he owed?

Answer 7

My mom's older brother, William J Osborne, was my Bachelor Uncle.  I have fond memories of going on picnics with him and him taking us fishing.  My one and only experience with ocean fishing was with Uncle Bill!  :) 

Answer 8

I was going to post 52 direct ancestors in 52 weeks on this challenge, so this week it can't be a direct ancestor. In any case, I intend to use 52 different ancestral surnames.

For this week's challenge I'm thinking of Andrew Stern Stern-1201]a man I never knew, who lived in Maple Grove Township, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. He comes alive in the family history written in the 1960s by my great-aunt Leonora Schilling Baumgartner.

"Uncle Andrew was really Father's uncle. His name was Andrew Stern and he was Grandmother Henrietta Schilling Stern's brother.  So he was our Great Uncle, but everybody called him Uncle Andrew or just Old Andrew.  He came from Germany much later than my Grandfather Jacob Schilling, coming with some of the Stern family.  Our father paid his passage, either in part or all of it."

He was a character.  He was a bachelor.  His relatives built him a house in the swamp where he was surrounded by trees and lived with his Jurix.  He was also an alcoholic.  If you had seen him, you would see how much he resembled the Hair Generation we have with us today.  His hair covered most of his face.  It was long, gray hair and when he came into the house, he often kept his hat on.  He raised potatoes and onions on the good virgin soil near his log house.  The onions and potatoes were the best, and he often carried some to the tavern, perhaps in exchange for drinks.  He did seem to like us children and when he was in a generous mood, he would reach in his trousers and get out a handful of change which he passed around to us."

"Once he came to see us in an inebriated state and perhaps he was not able to keep his balance, and threw his arms around the stove pipe and it fell to the floor!  Ashes and soot were everywhere!  Luckily, we had carpenters in the house and they made order out of the stove pipe mess.  Mother and father took charge of Uncle Andrew and led him out of the house.  Some days later, he came back and when we saw him coming, we wondered in what mood he would be.  He was somewhat mollified, but also somewhat offended.  He thought the folks had not treated him very "nice' to put him out of the house!"

"One chilly March night, he made his last trip to the tavern.  His body was found next morning on the road to his little log house.  No one knows why he died there.  He may have felt like sleeping and slept away in the cold after his drunken spree. At any rate, Aunty Heinrich and her family took charge of funeral arrangements.  In fact, dear old Aunty would do anything for a needy one.  She had always washed for Uncle Andrew, she made his bedding, she provided food for him, even some of her wonderful preserves.  Of course, she would give him a good farewell, best she could." https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stern-1201

I'm not sure what a "Jurix" is. I have his death date as 29 April 1908.  I also saw a newspaper notice of Uncle Andrew's death that glossed over the fact that he was a drunkard:

"On Monday morning as farmer Wilhelm Degner of Town Maple Grove near Casson was bringing milk to the cheese factory, he found the body of Andreas Stern lying on the road near the entrance to the Kasson Cemetery. Degner immediately notified the town authorities and an investigation established that Stern, an old bachelor who worked a 40-acre farm near Kasson, had visited his cousin, Jacob Heinrich on Sunday--also a farmer in that town--and shortly before sunset had set out for home.  On his way he suffered a heart attack. The body had lain the entire night alongside the highway exposed to the terrible weather. Considering all of the circumstances, District Attorney Kelley decided that a coroner's inquest was unnecessary." from Der Nord Western newspaper, 30 April 1908.

Answer 9

Like Ray Hawkes, this topic is harder for me as most of the men in my family marry.   Sadly, Albanie Bernier remains a bachelor in my family tree because he passed away at age 17.  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bernier-540

Answer 10

I wrote about my uncle who was killed by Torys in the American revolution

https://genealogybyjanelle.blogspot.com/2019/03/bachelor-uncle-archibald-mcclurkin-1753.html

Answer 11

I am a bit late with my contribution for Week 10,

I chose my great grandfather's brothers Tom Smith and Charlie Smith. 

Here is my blog post:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 10 - Bachelor Uncles - Tom and Charlie Smith

Answer 12

The closest bachelor uncle I have would my husband's great uncle, George Clifford Stone, who died as a prisoner-of-war on the Burma Railway.  I started a profile for him.

Answer 13

I believe my Great Uncle Frank is a bachelor.  I also have an Uncle who is a priest, but still alive so not a public profile.

Answer 14

Hi,

I only have one uncle, so here is my mother's Bachelor Uncle. Joseph George Mayoh. He almost made it to 100 years of his age.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mayoh-9

Answer 15

Albert John Poole , born 1887, died 16 May 1915 Flanders, France. Not married, always remembered by my family. I am custodian of his medals.

Answer 16

I have way too many bachelor Uncles, going back many generations! It's always hard to research these kinds of bachelor relations as they seem to take off and disappear without a trace or vanish in thin air. Sometimes it's a challenge I am up in the research department. For instance, there was this "Uncle Ed, the gold miner" story. Well, his name was really August and he was a solid bachelor but he must have done well during the California Gold Rush as he was the proprietor of a hardware store out there in the middle of Placer county. > https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fougeron-15

Answer 17

My 5th great uncle, John Pinckney, born July 17, 1777; died unmarried at Aurelius, New York.

Answer 18

As I said in my blog...it took me 3 weeks to remember which uncle didn't marry that actually had a story that might be of any interest, so this put me 3 weeks behind...but the next two are already lined up to be researched and completed so I can get those blogs done.

My Bachelor Uncle for this weeks challenge is my 8th Great Uncle, Thomas Wheeler. The blog is more freestyle with a bit of my own opinion added in to get the reader to thinking, where the profile isn't so much, partly because I'm not the profile manager and I didn't want to take too much liberty where I am not the profile manager. Though I didn't take much...just a smidge...but you'll have to read the blog 

Also posted to my Twitter Account and my Facebook Timeline. Happy reading...it's a super short story.

Answer 19

I had to go back to my great great uncle William Johnstone [Johnstone-1697]. He grew up on the family farm and ended up with tuberculosis which was rampant in his family. He and several of his brothers left the family home in Prince Edward Island, now in Canada because they were infected, but unlike the rest, he did not marry because he never quite defeated the disease.He was a bank manager in Regina and died in Denver, Colorado in 1929 at the age of 30.

Answer 20

I don't have any bachelor uncles and neither did my mother, so here are my fathers' maternal uncles.

Brothers:

Louis Allen Budd (1887-1959) 

Thomas William Budd (1891-1968)

Both lived in Iowa their whole lives and both worked for the railroad.