Hampton 1

Robert Hampton
Professor Lynn Raymond
UWRT 1103
October 7, 2014
The Tree With Many Branches
My family tree is very confusing, even after all of the research that I have done
into distant relatives and sifting through all sorts of old documents. My grandmother has
done a lot of research into our family already but only on my mothers side. My original
plan was to do research on my fathers side of the family but because my grandfather left
my dad and his two brothers when they were very young, so we dont like to talk to him.
The oldest of my dads brothers, my uncle Jim, tried to contact him but he had since been
remarried and had more children, he wanted nothing to do with my dad or his brothers.
So that left me with trying to clarify things on my moms side as the only option.
My grandmother had already done research into her family so I decided I would
conduct my research on my grandfathers side, the Ferrell side. I quickly discovered a
ton of information; it was mostly given by word of mouth. I have spent many hours
talking to relatives on the phone trying to line up dates and who lived where and what
not. In May of 1910 a woman named Sarah McKaig married Henry William Farrell.
Sarah had immigrated to the US from Scotland, her father was born in County Armagh in
Ireland, he was a seaman on a whaling ship. Sarahs mother was Scottish. Sarah
immigrated from Dundee, Scotland. She had five sisters and three brothers, all but one
brother immigrated to the US. Henry delivered supplies to a hotel by boat at Greenwood
Lake in New Jersey. Henrys parents were Anna and William, both were English but

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Anna came from England whereas William was born in the US. William was a Union
captain during the Civil War. Williams father and uncle owned a shipping business on
the Great Lakes. According to William I also have a relative that fought and died in the
American Revolution. Anna and William are my great-great-great grandparents.
Sarah and Henry were my great-grandparents; and one of their children, Henry
John Farrell, married Frances Rita Brameyer. Henry worked with Francess father,
Charles, in a shipyard during WWII. Charles was born January 24, 1883 and died
December 31, 1973. Charles married Philomena Bruno on April 21, 1908. They had
eight children but only six made it to adulthood. Philomena was born October 19, 1889
and died February 19, 1964. On the Brameyer side, Charles and Philomena are my greatgreat-grandparents and my great-grandparents were Frances and Henry Farrell.
Frances and Henry got married June 28, 1941. They had five children, my
grandfather Robert, born 1942, followed by Rita, Charles, Henry and Denise. Their
father, Henry worked as a crane operator and a bartender during WWII and often worked
three jobs, because his job was war related he was not drafted to fight in the war. Frances
was a homemaker most of her early marriage. Once my grandfather joined the Navy in
1960, Frances decided to work in a hospital cafeteria. According to my mom, when she
was little and went to visit her grandma Frances, she had these huge tropical fish that
were almost too big for the tank they were in. Apparently she absolutely loved fish, but
these fish would somehow flip out of their tank while Frances was out running errands
and just die on the floor. Those fish would just reproduce another one after about 7
weeks.

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Now going over my grandmothers side, the furthest back I could find was a man
named Theophil Godleski. He immigrated to the US in 1902 from Hamburg, Germany,
most likely from the closest port to Poland. He was most likely born in Warsaw around
1870 or 1871. When he immigrated he was listed as a laborer at the age of 31. He died
in 1920 or 1921 during the flue epidemic. According to the United States Department of
Health and Human Services, an estimated 21.5 million people died between 1918 and
1919 (The Pandemic). He married Bronislava Zablocka in 1910 or 1911. Bronislava,
who went by Bertha, immigrated to the US in 1906. She was a laundress, a seamstress
and perhaps a domestic worker after Theophil died. She was born on a small farm outside
of Warsaw in April of 1893. They had four children, Theodore born 1912, Henry born
October 10, 1913; Sigmund 1916, and Josphine 1920. Theophil and Bronislava are my
great-great-grandparents on the Godleski side.
Henry Godleski met a woman named Marion Tagliranei while roller skating in the
street while they were both in their early twenties in New Jersey along the boardwalk.
They dated for about six years and were married on September 1, 1940. They are my
great-great-grandparents on the Godleski side. Henry was a welder in the shipyards
before and after WWII, and because he had a war related job he was not drafted. Henry
was also a talented carpenter, and may have worked as a draftsman at some time. He
later owned and operated a neighborhood general/candy store. He sold newspaper,
fountain drinks, but mostly candy and ice cream. Marion was born December 2, 1912;
and was the second of five children to be born in the United States. Her parents came
from Naples and most likely the Calabria area of Italy. Marion was a homemaker for
most of her married life, but in her late 40s she got a job as a general office clerk-typist,

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until she retired at the age of 65. Henry died at the age of 51 on December 7,1964 of
uremic poisoning. Uremic Poisoning is another term for food poisoning. It is now
curable with kidney dialysis, but at the time there is nothing that could be done about it
(Healthy Insite). Henry and Marion had two children, my grandmother Marilyn born
November 25, 1943; and Henry Jr. born September 6, 1947. Marion died November 11,
2002. Henry Jr. died December 19, 1996.
My grandparents meet in 1962 through friends; they starting dating in 1964 after
my grandfather was discharged from the Navy. He then became a tech worker for AT&T
and attended night classes at Newark College of Engineering after he and my
grandmother got married in 1967. They got married August 19,1967 in Bayonne, New
Jersey where they lived until my grandfather got a job working for IBM in 1966, so they
moved to Coral Springs Florida. My mother, Jeannette was born while they lived in New
Jersey in 1968, and her sister, Bernadette, was born in 1971.
Before I started looking into that side of the family I new that it was a big family
with a lot them coming from other countries, but I was surprised to find all of the things
that I did. Most of my family cant keep track of their own lives, let alone each others, so
to find all of that specific information from all of them when I called them to talk to them
about this project. I had no idea where most of my relatives came from until then. I am
very happy to say that I enjoyed finding all of this information about my heritage, and I
couldnt have done it without the help of my grandmother, who provided me with all of
the numbers I needed to gather all the information I did. Im sure there is still more to be
found and I will most likely continue my search, and maybe even attempt to find out at
least about my grandmothers family on my dads side.

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Work Cited
Farrell, Henry. Personal interview. 28 Sept 2014.
Farrell, Marilyn. Personal interview. 1 Oct 2014.
Farrell, Robert. Personal interview. 1 Oct 2014.
Farrell, Denise. Personal interview. 3 Oct 2014.
Hampton, Jeannette. Personal interview. 6 Oct 2014.
The Pandemic." . : The Great Pandemic : : The United States in 1918-1919 : ..
N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/the_pandemic/index.html>.
"Healthy InSite." : Uremic Poisoning: Causes and Symptoms. N.p., n.d. Web. 23
Oct. 2014. <http://healthyinsite.blogspot.com/2008/01/uremic-poisoning-causes-andsymptoms.html>.