Keating Ancestry

  Here's a gem from the archives, a photo taken at a Christmas Eve party hosted by Grandma and Grandpa Keating (Eleanor Motier and Edward M. Keating) in their home in Chicago.  As my dad recalls, they hosted a fairly lavish party on Christmas Eve for their children and grandchildren.   This picture is undated, but from the ages of the children, I've decided it is 1936.  I have also determined the people in the photo with high accuracy.  The front row contains Uncle Tommy, Uncle Jerry, Little Laurence (Geoff's son).  Middle row contains Uncle Johnny, Mary (Geoff's daughter) and my Dad is peaking out from behind Mary.  The back row contains Joannie (Geoff's oldest daughter) and I think Santa is John, but I'm guessing at that one. This is 1936, the heart of the Depression, but the house looks pretty fancy.  My Dad recalls that Grandma Keating always bought an Austrian pine, so that is a real tree decked out with tinsel. The kids all seem to have...

    With my Dad's 92nd birthday approaching (Dec. 14) I thought I'd write a blog entry about his namesake and our family patriarch, Edward Michael Keating.  I've been able to piece together a story of his life from papers and recollections from my Dad, photos from Petra and a great genealogist named Tammy Eledge who can search a database in most amazing ways.  Here is her contact information: Genealogist Edward Michael Keating was born on July 25, 1864 in Davenport, Iowa.  He was the first child of two Irish immigrants, Michael Keating (DOB 1834) and Bridget Creagh (DOB 1838), both of whom had immigrated from Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland sometime in the early 1860s.  We have little factual information about Keating and Creagh. I assume they knew each other from County Clare and traveled together to Iowa, maybe through Canada, but that is all speculation. We do know that they married in Davenport, Iowa in November 1863.   We have no information ...