Talk:Kate Shelley

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[edit] Date of birth

I've seen Kate's age in 1881 given as 15, 16, 17, and 18 in the various cited references. But the most knowledgable-sounding references give it as 17, and this is what the article originally used until an anonymous user changed it in July, pulling the birth date of "September 29, 1865" apparently out of thin air. The Irish Midlands Ancestory reference specifically addresses the age discrepancies and explains where the commonly-cited age of 15 comes from, and that 17 was the correct age. So I'm going to change the date of birth back to December 1863 (exact day unknown). --GregU 07:43, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

The article is, admittedly, terribly unsourced.

Irish Midlands Ancestory says her parents were married in February 1863 and she was baptised on December 12, 1863. James, Mayme, Margaret and John were later born to the family. But the typewriter hadn't been invented yet, and there's not a lot of difference between a 3 and a 5 in many people's handwriting.

The 1880 census shows a Kate Shelley living in Worth (Boone County) Iowa

The record shows

Margaret Shelley 35 born in Ireland

Kate Shelley 15

Mary A. Shelley 8

Margaret Shelley 6

John Shelley 4

It doesn't mention father's name or age, but shows he was born in Ireland.

According to the Irish Midlands Ancestry website, Mike Shelley was her father's name. He worked as foreman on a section crew for the C&NW, until he died in 1878, so I'm pretty sure this is the right record.

Apparently Mayme is Mary A., but what happened to James? Did he die? Did he move out of the house to make it on his own and lighten the load on his widowed mother? In any case, the gap from Kate to Mary is too big; it's not common that a family stops having kids for 7 years, then has 3 more stairstep kids. Maybe it was James, Mayme, Mary, Margaret and John, and both James and Mayme died.

The census was dated April 1 back then, too, and they didn't write down numbers, they marked circles, so handwriting is not an issue. If she was born early in 1865, she could have been 17 in July 1881. If she had been born in December 1863, she would have been 18 in 1881, which is older than the Irish Midlands Ancestry says.

Consequently, I'm assuming that she was baptised in December 1865, and born early in 1865. ClairSamoht - Help make Wikipedia the most authoritative source of information in the world 11:38, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Great work. The Irish Midlands site lists James, and the IAGenWeb site instead lists "Michael Jr." and says he drowned around 1878. So the "gap" son's name must have been Michael James, and he probably went by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father. And I think Mayme was Mary A.

However I'm not convinced on the birth year, as your math above doesn't add up. If she was born early in 1865, she would have been 16 in July 1881. And if she had been born in December 1863, she would have been 17 in 1881, which agrees with the Irish Midlands and IAGenWeb sources. I believe the December 1863 date still sounds the most legitimate, even though that doesn't agree with her being 15 on April 1, 1880. To resolve this, maybe we need to find what sources the IAGenWeb and the Irish Midlands Ancestory sites used, if that's possible. --GregU 09:30, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First Bridge Named for a Woman?

The unsourced statement that this was the first bridge in the United States named for a woman conflicts with the article for the Betsy Ross Bridge article with a sourced statement saying that it was the first named for a woman. Thoughts on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by RFlynn26 (talk • contribs) 02:46, 22 October 2007 (UTC)