Grandma Claire’s Stories

Before she was a McKellogg, our beloved Grandma Claire was Claire Frances FitzGerald. Her dad was John King FitzGerald, a descendant of Irish immigrants born and raised in Saugerties, New York. 

The “Fitz” in the FitzGerald name means son. Therefore, the surname FitzGerald is simply "son of Gerald". Claire’s brother, Uncle Bob, explained the big “G” in our family name denotes an aristocratic lineage from the Emerald Isle. 

If this is true, our progenitor was baron Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan (1105-1176). He was actually born in Wales, taking part in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. The English granted him lands near Limerick. FitzGerald ancestors first lived in Shanid Castle until their descendants built nearby Glin Castle on the River Shannon. Although the castle was attacked several times over the centuries, the FitzGeralds resided there, on and off, for over 700 years. You can see beautiful photos of Glin Castle, including the gardens maintained by owner Catherine FitzGerald. Although the first Geraldine dynasty was part of the English invasion of Ireland, after centuries of assimilation the FitzGeralds were known to be “more Irish than the Irish themselves.” 

When Grandma Claire was born, she was part of  the fifth generation of FitzGeralds to have lived in the United States. Uncle Bob shared his chart of our American ancestors, including the first FitzGerald in our family to come from Ireland,  James FitzGerald. 

Like so many Irish Americans, our immigrant patriarch was part of the mass exodus due to the Irish Potato Famine. Two million Irish escaped the Great Hunger, as it was also called, with over a half-a-million arriving on America’s shores between 1845 and 1852. Among their numbers was not one but many Irish immigrants by the name of James FitzGerald.

An Internet search for an Irish immigrant named James FitzGerald is a little like finding a family member named John Smith. My ancestry.com search produced over 5,000 documents related to more than a dozen James Fitzgeralds who immigrated to the US in the mid-19th century. They came from Dublin, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford. They landed in Boston and New York City. They settled in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and beyond.  One James FitzGerald served as a soldier in the Civil War for the Union. Another, served time in a South Carolina jail, although neither of these Irish immigrants were our kin.

After sifting through the evidence, it is most likely our James FitzGerald was born in Ireland around 1805. His future bride, Mary, was born a decade later.  James and Mary married during the 1830’s and the first four of their eight children were born in Ireland: Ellen (b. 1838), William (b. 1840), John (b.1841), and Catherine (b.1846). We are particularly interested in John FitzGerald, who was to become the great grandfather of Claire and her siblings. John was baptized on December 28, 1841 in Tipperary, Ireland, only about 25 miles from the FitzGerald castle in Limerick. 

According to the 1860 US Census data, James and Mary’s remaining four children were born in the United States: James (b. 1851), Michael (b. 1852), Johanna (b. 1855) and Mary (b. 1858). This gap between the last of their children born in Ireland, 1846 and their first child born in the US, 1851, is presumably the time the family immigrated to the US. These years correspond with the huge Irish immigration to the US in the Potato Famine years. 

The New York Census of 1855 shows the FitzGerald family settled in Stephentown, New York, next to the Massachusetts border. The town is just 34 miles from Hudson and 60 miles from Saugerties where  FitzGerald descendants would also live. In the 1860’s Stephentown had a little over 2000 people. In the same census, James is listed as a farmer. The FitzGeralds resided in Stephentown in the 1870’s and 1880’s according to both New York and US census data. One ancestry site shows 1883 as the year our immigrant patriarch, James FitzGerald, died.

We know a lot more about James FitzGerald’s descendants. His son John, who we’ve mentioned, was brought to the US as a little boy of about ten. He would grow up to marry Marcella or Mary Riley, born in 1842. She hailed from a small Irish town, Castlepollard. Marcella emigrated to the US with her family during the Irish Potato Famine, too.  She was only 7 years old when she departed Liverpool, sailing to New York City aboard a ship named the Andrew Foster. She arrived in the US May 25,1848. Records from the Emigrant Bank indicate she was living in New York in 1864.

The two Irish immigrants, John and Marcella, married May 2^nd, 1867 across the river from Manhattan in Jersey City, New Jersey. The 1880 Census shows these FitzGeralds living on 69 Diamond Street in Hudson, New York. John is listed as a laborer, Marcella as a homemaker or housewife. The couple had eight children: James (1866-1877), John (1870 -1912), Michael (1871-1930), Mary (b.1873), and Nicholas (1875-1921), Catherine L. (1877-1968), Charles J. (1878-1857), and Elizabeth (1884-1960). The FitzGeralds continued to live in Hudson, moving to 129 Union Street. 

Sadly, John FitzGerald died in a tragic accident on November 18, 1902. The local newspaper reported his body was found on the bank of a small stream. His clothes were wet and it was assumed he drowned before his body washed up onto the shore. Marcella would live one more year. According to her death notice she was only 59. The two were buried in the Hudson City Cemetery.

John and Marcella’s third child, Michael FitzGerald, was Grandma Claire’s grandfather. As an adult, he lived in Saugerties, New York. This town is on the west side of the Hudson River, 110 miles north of New York City.  Michael married Margaret King (1869–1918) June 11, 1896 in Hudson, New York. The couple had three children: Mary Ethel (b. 1897), John King (b. 1898-1948), and William (b. 1901).

Michael FitzGerald worked for 35 years as a cigar maker, even serving as the Cigar Makers Union vice president. A decade after Margaret died, Michael remarried Josephine M. O’Brien (1890 -1971) November 29, 1928. He would only live two more years. Michael’s 1930 obituary described him as a “genial and companionable man” who died at 59 due to an attack of indigestion. 

The obituary also says he was member of the St. Mary’s Church and participated in several charitable organizations. At the time of his death, he was the ex-chief of the Saugerties fire department, “much respected by the department members". He was buried in the Saint Mary of Snow Cemetery in Saugerties, etched on his gravestone his surname, FitzGerald, spelled with a capital G.

Michael and Margaret’s middle child, John King FitzGerald - nicknamed Jack - was born in 1898. He grew up in Saugerties, too. John was destined to marry Mary Agnes Kraemer (1896-1992) from New York City. As Grandma Claire told the story, our small-town boy met big-city girl, Mary Agnes, with an introduction from a Catholic priest who knew both families.

Our Grandma Fitz, whom we affectionately called Little White Grandma, grew up on 42^nd Street. Her father, August Kraemer, worked on the railroads. His parents were German immigrants. Perhaps you remember Grandma Claire telling us her grandfather spelled his surname the German way, Krämer, with an umlaut over the a.

Mary’s mother was Agnes Mary Noonan (1865-1955), daughter of Irish immigrant Abigail Foley (b. 1826), whose story we’ve told in this website. Grandma Claire said the match of August and Agnes was a common one in New York neighborhoods, where German Catholic men were often quite smitten with the Irish Catholic lassies. At least, that is how Grandma Claire explained it.

John King FitzGerald married Mary Agnes Kraemer in 1922. A society page article on the FitzGerald-Kraemer nuptials reported, “A very pretty church wedding took place in St. Agnes’ Church, New York City, Tuesday June 6^th, when John K. FitzGerald of Saugerties, was united in marriage to Miss Mary Kraemer of New York city.”  After the ceremony, the wedding party enjoyed a delicious wedding breakfast at Cavanaugh’s on 23^rd Street. The same day, the newly-weds departed for their honeymoon in Atlantic City.

John and Mary had four children, Marilyn (1923-1917), Claire (1924-1920), Don (b. 1930), and Robert (b. 1933). During the 1930’s and 1940’s the family made regular summer visits to their FitzGerald relatives in Saugerties. Claire reminisced that she loved playing with her cousins. However, as she grew older Claire realized that the trips to Saugerties were hardly vacations for her mom who spent most hot summer days cooking for the whole FitzGerald gang.

Claire described her dad, John King FitzGerald, as having a big and humorous personality. She said he charmed everyone he met including the school nuns. By her own accounts father and daughter were close, even if they didn’t always agree. Claire loved dancing and acting in high school. However, Claire’s dad didn’t want his daughter being a performer and encouraged her to go to college. When she was accepted to Seton Hill, he advised her to pick a practical college major.  Nevertheless, he deferred when Claire decided on psychology. For her part, Claire agreed to add a teaching credential to her major making her more employable after she graduated.

John FitzGerald saw both his daughters married, Marilyn in 1945 and Claire in 1946.  Shockingly he died several years later in 1948. He was only 49 years old. It was a very difficult loss for everyone, especially his young sons and recently married daughters.                                                                                          

 

The rest of the story you know. The McKelloggs and FitzGeralds established their west coast wing when Bob and Claire packed up the Ohio family in 1956, flying to Fullerton aboard TWA flight 5. A little over a century after Irish immigrant James FitzGerald made his journey from the old world to America, the McKellogg-FitzGeralds started anew in sunny California.