Looking For John J. Slowey
I am writing for myself , in Long Beach, California, and for my sister Carol Gebhart Marlo, in St. Louis, Missouri. We have been looking for our great grandfather, John J. Slowey (b. 1841), since about 1980 with little to show for it. In all the years we have been searching we have found exactly zero primary records. We have looked in the PRO, the PRONI, Scotland's People, Ancestry, various mailing lists and message boards, and a pro genealogist on your side of the Big Pond. We think that John married Elizabeth Davidson (b. 22 June 1842) in 1864. We know, or think we know, that their first two children, James J/John J (b. 1865), and Elizabeth (b. 17 February 1866), were born in Glasgow. It comes from US federal censuses that they were born in Scotland, and from family history that the place in Scotland was Glasgow. However Scotland's People could not place them in Scotland. We think that the family emigrated from the British Isles in about 1868. It appears in the 1870 census of the 17th Ward of Allegheny City (now part of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania with the surname, Sloy, which we understand to be a recognized variation of Slowey. The proper names and the ages of parents and children were correct. But we have not found a port-of-entry. Three more children were born in Allegheny City/ Pittsburgh, the last being Mary Josephine, our grandmother, born 5 February 1876. City directories up to 1876 find John S with various corrupted surnames, e.g., Slowery, working as a Mechanic. Family history says he was an engineer, presumably of a locomotive for a coal mine.
In 1876 the family moved to Bogy Township in Jefferson County, Arkansas, where John J. is listed as a farmer in the 1880 census. We suspect that the move was brought about by John's declining health so that Elizabeth could be with her people. Her parents were John Davidson (possibly English) and Elizabeth Cline/Clyne. Nothing more is known about them. In the 1880 - 1890 period in Little Rock there were Davidsons, Clines, and Klines in Little Rock but no Sloweys. John J. died in about 1881 after which Elizabeth moved to Little Rock in Pulaski County, Arkansas, where she worked for two years in the Quapaw Cotton Mill as an "Operator". Later she is found in various Little Rock city directorys running one or another boarding house. Family history says that she was also a housekeeper in a RC parish but no such entry was found in the Little Rock city directories. Elizabeth later moved to St. Louis, Missouri where she died on 20 July 1914. She is buried at Calvary RC Cemetery in St. Louis.
We would be delighted if any of you good people in Clones, Ireland, or in Monaghan, Ireland, or in Ulster, Ireland, or in Ireland, or wherever could give us any aid in our search.
Thank you.
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