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!

Participants who share every week can earn badges. Click here for more about the challenge and how to participate.

If this is your first time participating, or you don't have the participation badge, please post here.

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 great uncle Lewis Victor "Vic" Segraves was 20 years old when he was killed in action in World War I. Vic joined Company B of the Third Kansas Regiment (National Guard) when it was formed in March 1916. In the March 30, 1917, Oskaloosa Independent, Vic's name appeared in the cast list for a high school play. A week later war was declared and Company B was federalized. Vic was promoted to corporal in August 1917 and to sergeant in October 1917. Company B served in Alsace-Lorraine and in the Argonne offensive of September 1918. Vic led night scouting patrols in Alsace and during the Argonne push. He was wounded near Baulny, France, on September 28, 1918, and taken to a field station at Chaudron farm, where he died the next day. Vic was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The citation reads: "Victor L. Seagraves [sic], sergeant first battalion, scout platoon, 139th infantry, near Baulny, France, September 28, 1918, voluntarily formed and led a patrol against an enemy machine gun nest which was causing many casualties, and captured one of the guns. With utter disregard of his own personal safety he advanced alone on another gun of the nest, but was severely wounded by intense fire while performing this heroic act." American Legion Auxiliary, 36 Larner Segraves, in Oskaloosa, Kansas, is named for him and for Lt. Leland Larner, the first Oskaloosa casualty of World War I.

Answer 2

This is my first time participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge. The profile choice was pretty obvious for me, especially during Irish Heritage Month. It is my second great granduncle, Father Andrew Quinn. He was a Roman Catholic priest in County Roscommon, Ireland, during The Great Famine. It was a letter from him to my second great grandfather living in Canada, which had been passed down through the family, that allowed me to find tangible roots in Ireland for my surname line. Plus, while researching him, I made a great connection to a DNA cousin in Ireland that is interested in history and genealogy, especially in that part of County Roscommon. It has been a great experience all around. 

Answer 3

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Guth-422

Henry Guth was the Bachelor Uncle who named all 17 of his nieces and nephews.  If it wasn't for this record, it'd be unlikely that we would know the relation between him and his 2 sisters.  Still can't find the 3 sibling's parents though.

Answer 4

For my bachelor uncle I decided to go with David Ross. He is the brother of my 2x great-grandmother, Georgianna. I don't have much to go on with him. He certainly lived long enough to have children. Did he? I have no clue. He was definitely her brother and the son of John Ross and Marguerite Metivier. For all I know this guy probably had ten kids. I wish I knew more. I don't know if he was truly a bachelor uncle or not. 

What's interesting is that he's not in the picture of Georgianna, Anna, Nelson and Clara. That pic was most likely taken at a wedding. It's hard to say if he was there. Who knows? Maybe he was behind the camera?

Anyway, I need to dig and see if this guy really is a bachelor uncle. I haven't found much. Just the basics. No marriages. No anything. He's certainly a puzzle.

Answer 5

As long as I can go back a generation to my great uncle [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Flamer-12 Arne Schmidt Flamer], my grandfather's brother.

In World War II in Norway, he was enough on the outskirts of the Quisling group to not be indited with them after the war. His occupation was making umbrellas in his mother's umbrella factory in Bergen.

In the view of the world today, he was definitely not a hero.

Answer 6

I have hundreds of uncles in my tree but, after looking at three generations of family, I only found one great grand-uncle, Ernest W. Perkins, who died unmarried aged about 53. Unfortunately, the reason he didn't marry was likely due to mental disability and not lifestyle choice.

Answer 7

Like a lot of others, I had to go pretty far out to find a bachelor uncle. He's related to me by marriage, ie my husbands uncle (several greats).

Ferdinand Marcet did have an interesting life. He fought in the civil war, had several careers, was burglarized, and got thrown out of the Odd Fellows home, because he had too much money.

Answer 8

My great great uncle John Tracy Ager was a bachelor. He was such a bachelor that in one census he is listed as my great great grandmothers husband. She was unmarried that the time and had my great grandpa whos father did not want him. Since John was close to the age and lived with my great great gram they just assumed.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ager-85

Answer 9

My Great Uncle Charles Olof Laurin (1882 - 1968) was born in Brooklyn, New York and passed away in Lowell, Massachusetts. The fact that he was born in Brooklyn is interesting because all of his siblings were born in Massachusetts; I don't know if that had anything to do with him being a bachelor but I think its pretty funny.

Another Great Uncle who was a bachelor was John Jewell Van Vliet Jr

John Jewell Van Vliet Jr in his older years with his sisters

Answer 10

My paternal great-uncle, Charles King, was a confirmed bachelor. He never married and didn't like women according to my 1st cousin.

Answer 11

My story is similar to others, no bachelors in the tree. But I share the profile of my great uncle Aubrey, who was the twin brother of my grandfather. They, along with 2 other siblings, all served in the army and were deployed over seas. There's a newspaper article about the boys, as they were all from one family, and how the 'Andrews clan' was 'doing their bit'.

Answer 12

I've no direct bachelor uncles so I have to jump the family tree a few generations up and down. My father had two cousins - who had a lot of brothers and sisters with children. so they were uncles - who became missionary priests within the order of Mill Hill. One went to the Phillipines and the other to Kenia. I met them in my youth. When they came back to the Netherlands in retirement it was difficult for them. Society had changed, the church had changed and they had changed in a different direction. One coped better then the other. Their Names: Lambert van Hout and Ton van Hout

Answer 13

My great-great Uncle, Claude S Mumma, was a recognized surgeon.  He developed some advancements in the area of deafness.

He never married.  Some  rumors suggest he might have been gay.  However, there is some evidence that while living in CA he dated the famous actress, Claudette Colbert.

So, who knows?

Comments

Bill, this is a very interesting article, and how fun to have a great-great uncle that has helped the deaf to hear.

God bless him and you.

Answer 14

I had to search- my uncles were the marrying type.  The one i found was 2d-great uncle- Leroy Thurston (1878-1896). Maybe if he had lived past age 18 he would have married?  He was uncle to my grandmother Harriet Thurston (1901-1976) but she never would have known him.  The family is all from Eaton, NH

Answer 15

I had two bachelor great-great-grand uncles, Johnson Prynn Bunney and James Henry Bunney (not yet added to WikiTree). They died in the same year. James died first in August 1919 in a mine cave-in and Johnson died in November of a perforated ulcer. They are buried with their mother, who outlived them, in Globe, Arizona, USA.

Answer 16

My ancestor for this challange @batchelor is 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Langridge-100  Frederick Joseph Langridge My grandfather's brother he lost part of his leg in the WWWI and never married.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Langridge-128 is a GG Uncle I have never found a marriage record for so have him listed as a batchelor

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Langridge-214 Edgar Langridge is down as a son on one census and as a grandson on another so he is either a batchelor great Uncle or a second Cousin - he is a brick wall as I have not idendified his mum or 'dad' 

Answer 17

This is my first try at a challenge.

My Uncle Doug (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Prout-295) never married, but was his generation's family "glue".  Twice a year, he hosted a family reunion at his house: Christmas and July.  His Christmas party was one of 2 he hosted each year.  He decorated once and cooked once.  One party was for us, the other for his neighbors.  For the family party, he collected any of members of the previous generation and arranged rides home or drove them himself.  He expected his sisters-in law to clean up and the nieces and nephews to help and/or stay out of the way.  The men ate, drank and then fell asleep in front of the tv. After my father (his brother) died leaving 3 kids at home, he phoned often and, when my mother went back to work after #3 started school, he called daily to before school. We did Thanksgiving and Easter at our house (2 hrs away from him) he brought old relatives and gelatin salads. At Thanksgiving he also brought stuffed dates and at Easter he brought us Easter baskets he had prepared. After we had admired and emptied the baskets, he collected the baskets and fake grass to take home to use next year.

The Women's college I attended had a Sophomore Fathers' Weekend each year.  At my mother's suggestion, I invited Uncle Doug to stand in for his deceased brother.  I was shocked when he accepted and wined and dined me at any Boston area restaurant I chose.  He even escorted me to a friend's wedding that weekend. The only time his Yankee thrift showed itself  were that he brought his own bottle of Scotch to his motel, and he asked to be excused from a college function where her rightfully assumed he'd be asked to make a contribution.  

Uncle Doug made sure all family graves had pine wreaths at Christmas. And flowers at Easter.  

My Sister and I got interested in genealogy on Father's Day 2017 when we visited our parents' graves and then went on to Uncle Doug's in the next town.  We started talking about those family parties and wondering who decorates the graves now Doug is dead and after 200+ years in that part of CT, no family lives there now.  

Our Mom made us let the old people kiss us on the lips, but 25 years later we didn't know what the family relationship was with all those people.  As we now try to place them in our tree, we wish we had listened more carefully and asked more questions.

Comments

I think a lot of us wished we had listened more carefully when we were younger.  My dad's mother (my only grandparent who was still alive when I was born) had a great knowledge of her many first and second cousins.  She died when I was very young.  There were a lot of large families and the spread between oldest and youngest child meant big generation gaps for grandparents and grandkids.

Now my dad is older so doesn't remember quite so well, so we try to slowly piece together the information granny could have probably just recited, had anyone listened.  He certainly wished he had asked more questions, but is delighted when we do discover a new link or push the brick walls further back.

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The only plus is the excitement of realizing that Aunt Minnie, whom we remembered as such was Dad and Uncle Doug's Maternal Aunt, not Paternal.  A little piece of puzzle solved...And Uncle George married into the family and George was his Last name.

Such a big lesson to work backwards through the generations. 

Answer 18

When disinheritance, blackballing and even civil commitment was possible,  being LGBTQ was not an easy life (still isn't) throughout history. So, I'm always searching for ancestors that might have taken that difficult path. I believe my great uncle Gus (Gustof Martinus Barsness) may have been gay. He lived alone his entire life and worked rural North Dakota and St. Paul, MN as a photographer. 

Comments

My sister and I have made the same assumption about Uncle Doug.  There were even stronger hints about His maiden Aunt Marion and her roommate Aunt Puss who raised Uncle Doug after his mother died. ( I vaguely remember these 2 Aunts, especially that Aunt Puss was the first woman I remember wearing troussers and Pendleton Forty-Niner shirts.  I bought  a couple of those shirts when they started making them again in the 1970s. I wore through the elbows on one and sewed on suede patches to extend its useful life.

Answer 19

The brother  William John White of my Great Grandmother, Suzanne White never married. But I did find that I had a duplicate of him hidden somewhere. That was taken care of also.

Answer 20

52 Ancestors week 10: Bachelor Uncle

This one was very easy for me.

My husband's brother, Gene - Glenn Eugene Hess (Hess-4086).

He was the second oldest of 12 children of Popsy and Margaret Hess. After the first six children were married, Gene stayed at his parents home and helped raise the remaining 4 children. (One child died shortly at birth).

Gene was THE perfect Uncle to many nieces and nephews. Some of them were the same age as his younger brothers and sisters and he treated them all alike. You know how it is when you are married with three or four children and struggling. That is where Uncle Gene came in. He helped out at Christmas, birthdays and with school supplies.

His mom and dad's house was paid for, so his paid the utility bills. He had a very good state job and loved his nieces, nephews and younger brothers and sisters. He doted on them like they  were all the children he never had. He took them on vacation, shopping, to the movies, and all of the other places a parent would take their children too. My husband has told me many stories of the things his brother has done for him. School clothes, books, paper, etc. Without Uncle Gene, a lot of these kids would not have had new school clothes because their parents would not have been able to afford it. But Uncle Gene stepped to the plate and took up the slack.

When he died in 1992, everyone cried. It was like losing your dad, and not an Uncle or brother.  It was one of the saddest funerals that I have ever attended. And also one of the most packed churches I have ever seen.

Thank you for allowing me to talk about my brother-in-law that didn't like his good deeds to be known to other people.