Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Mary B. Carr Doyle: Who Is Frank Molloy?

If you like a good mystery..read on!

This past summer my cousin gave me this funeral announcement hoping  that I could figure out the mystery of who Frank Molloy is, and is he related to our family. This article was found in a large old bible, that was published in 1882. This bible, with pages crumbling and falling apart had an ornately engraved black leather cover and had belonged to my Great-Grandmother, Mary Belle Carr Doyle. There are no inscriptions inside. Neither one of us had a clue of why it was in the bible, nor had we ever heard the name MOLLOY in our family.

According to this announcement, Frank was a young man who drowned in a boating accident at pine lake in La porte, Indiana. In July of 1886. A young woman by the name of Mrs. Rose Stern was in the boat with him. She drowned as well.

I began researching Frank, trying to find a connection. I found that he was just 16 years old at the time of his death. The news of this accident was printed in several local newspapers, even in the new york times..which I thought was strange. Why so many newspapers, in different states? I also found that Frank was the son of  a very well known Evangelist named  Emma Molloy. Emma was known as the Temperance Evangelist. She also was an editor of a newspaper that she ran with her husband, Edward Molloy. Frank was her only natural child. She had adopted a few other children. So far I've only found her daughter Cora LEE. Emma became a part of a huge scandal when a murder took place on her farm.

  The Graham Tragedy and the MOLLOY-LEE examination


 



My Thoughts:

Mary B. Carr was born the same year that Frank Molloy died, 1886. So obviously she didn't cut that news clip out of the paper. Maybe the bible belonged to her husband Peter LEE DOYLE. And the news clip was sent to him. Maybe there's a connection between him and Cora LEE. Maybe it belonged to her mother. So who was Frank MOLLOY and how does he relate to my family? I have really tried to think out side of the box on this one..and still, no answers.




Denise
 © 2013 Denise Muhammad

9 comments:

  1. Ooooh! This IS something to ponder. Great points made, too. Hmmm. I'm gonna be following your progress....and progress is what you WILL make!

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  2. Obit was very detailed. A lot of Black newspapers from that time period. Mine are like that.When tragedy appeared. Families migrated. I bet family is out there. Hooe someone picks up on this.

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    1. Thanks True. That's information that I didn't know. I hope some one sees it too :)

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  3. I don't know if this is the case this time, but my grandmother had a scrapbook full of articles she clipped that were just interesting to her and not related to the family at all. If you can't find a connection, maybe that's why.

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  4. This is really interesting, I know you will find the answer.

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  5. I wonder if they were just really close to the family? Maybe because he was church family? Wow! You do have a mystery on your hands.. loving this blog, can't wait to see what you unravel.

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  6. Interesting mystery indeed. Perhaps your great grandmother Doyle was also a researcher, collecting info about possible kin or related to the later scandal...and now all these years later, you are picking up the research.

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