Frances Owen Flavelle 1883-1975

Frances Owen Flavelle was born in Dublin, Ireland on 3^rd July 1883 and baptised in Sandford Church.  A little brother George Frederick Flavelle arrived in 1884 and he too was baptised in Sandford Church in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland.  Sadly George Frederick died in 1885. Very soon after George’s death, Frank and his parents Thomas Lindsay Flavelle and Catherine Flavelle née Bradley left Dublin for the United States. 

In 1889 Frank returned with his mother to Dublin, for the birth of his twin cousins, Bernard Hugh and Mary Mathews Barden. A few months later he sailed with his mother on the Alaska back to New York.

Frank in New York in 1893

 

The summer of 1898 saw Frank and his parents back in Dublin again to be godfather to his Aunt Dora Barden’s youngest son Brian who was baptised in June of that year. 

Frank returned to New York on the “Cymric,” a ship plying between Liverpool and New York. The Cymric was built by Harland and Wolfe, Belfast for the White Star Line in 1898, so it was quite new when Frank travelled on it. I wonder what it would have been like for a 16yr old fellow travelling  across the Atlantic on a ship which was 599ft long by 64ft wide and travelled at a speed of 14 knots. Unfortunately the Cymric was torpedoed and sunk off Ireland by a German submarine in 1916.  

  

Frank’s name appears on the list of passengers who came into Ellis Island  from Dublin on 26 Sept. 1898.  He is listed as being  16 years old and already an American citizen.

By 1900 Catherine Flavelle, her husband Thomas Lindsay Flavelle and son Francis Owen are listed in the 1900 United States Census as living in Ridgeway Township, Bergen New Jersey.  Frank was working as a messenger boy

and his father was a dry goods salesman. 

Frank went on to become a railway man and later a conductor on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. 

Perhaps one of these young men could be Frank.

The United States Census 1910 shows  Frank Flavelle aged 26, his wife Elizabeth Anita Flavelle, née Flaherty and their baby daughter Mary C Flavelle aged 1yr 5mths residing in Easton, Northhampton P.A .  Elizabeth is listed as being born in Pennsylvania of Irish parents. The initial C in Mary’s name would suggest that she was a  the granddaughter of Catherine Flavelle née Bradley.

                 

Meanwhile, Frank's parents had returned to Ireland:   Thomas Flavelle is listed on the list of deaths for 1905 in Dublin South and by 1911 Catherine Flavelle is on the electoral roll in Dublin, widowed and living with her sister Dora and her family in Sallymount Terrace.   Catherine lived on until 1936 when she died at the age of 78. 

Frank’s career progressed through the ranks of the Lehigh Valley Rail Road Company to become a conductor. 

The United States Census 1930 lists a similar family again in Easton, Northhampton P.A By 1930 that family had grown considerably, the family name is listed at this point as Flovelle but that is very likely to be an error in transcription. The 1930 family consists of Elizabeth A Flovelle aged 47, Frank Flovelle aged 46 and their children Mary K Flovelle aged 21, Elizabeth L Flovelle aged 19, Janet M Flovelle aged 17, Frances O Flavelle aged 14 and Gerald D Flovelle aged 10. 

A 1942 draft cards gives Frances Owen Flavelle’s date of birth as 3^rd July 1883 in Dublin Ireland and I am quite convinced that this Francis Owen Flavelle is my father’s godfather. Here his wife is clearly shown as Elizabeth Flavelle of Easton P.A. and Frank as being a railway employee. All of this information leads me to believe that the Flovelle name is a misspelling of Flavelle.   


Frances Owen Flavelle is recorded as having died in Morris New Jersey in 1975 aged 92yrs. Elizabeth L Flavelle born 14 October 1910 died on 2nd February 1994 aged 84. Jane Flavelle died on the 10th November 2005 aged 92, also in the Easton area of Pennsylvania.
 

The story of Dora Barden’s elder sister Bessie Kate Naile née Bradley and her immediate descendants extended from Bessie Kate’s birth in Cockermouth in 1846 to the death of her youngest daughter Dora Esther in Hornsey Middlesex in 1953. Dora’s younger sister Catherine Flavelle née Bradley’s story, on the other hand, would seem to continue to the present day in Pennsylvania U.S.A.  The Bradley descendants are far flung, some in the United States and others in Australia. It would be wonderful if they could all be in touch someday.

Written by Judith