1884_kitty_englert.jpg

Catherine Trainor Englert. This is the picture of my great-grandmother that I remember from the dresser of my Grandma Searls house. Catherine had five children and died in her thirties. All but one of her children (Harry, who died young), lived into ripe old age. Catherine's mother, the former Catherine McLaughlin, also died fairly young, as did her grandmother, Hannah Hockey, in Ireland. Her father, Thomas Trainor, left Ireland in 1825, from Letterkenny, at age 15. He was an indentured servant in Boston to a carriage maker. After marrying his boss's daughter (Catherine McLaughlin), he moved to New York, where he became a relatively prosperous carriage maker there. As I recall, he had a farm in Harlem and his business was at the lower end of Broadway. At least one of his sons was killed in the Civil War, and arrived home in a box on Christmas day, 1865. I'm guessing at the year here.