Musante Family

MUSANTE FAMILY
(by Rolene Kiesling)

The Musante family is a large family with many branches; this article focuses only on those family members buried in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) Cemetery.

G. E. Musante, a native of Italy, whose ranch was located about 4 miles above Priest Station, had three sons. Givoni (variously known as Giambattista, Giovanni, Giambattista or John) was born 28 January 1849 and married Theresa L. Musante in 1877. According to an article in the Union Democrat, dated 2 February 1929, they had six surviving children.[1] Marilyn Roberts states in her work, The Musante Chronicles, that Teresa and Givoni were distantly related. She believes that the Musantes were from that area of Italy known as the Moconesi Alto, an area east of Rapallo Genoa.[2]

Frank J. Musante died September 11, 1934. He was a rancher and also involved in the stock business with his brothers, Joseph and Fred Musante, in the Spring Gulch area off of Priest Coulterville Road.[3]

Joseph John Musante was born 1883 and died unmarried in 1951 in Sonora. He had served on the Board of Directors of the Tuolumne County Fair for about 4 years preceding his death.[4] Frederic (Fred) was born about 1888/1890 and died in 1950 in San Mateo County.

Three daughters also survived Givoni and Theresa. Carmelita (1892-1967) married a miner, Gustave Nystrom (1882-1972), who died prospecting near Ward’s Ferry. He was of Swedish origin and was known as an expert “powder man”, notwithstanding the fact that on one occasion, he managed to unintentionally blow out two windows of the Laveroni residence. Alan Repashy said he was a “man who loved life and knew how to live” and he and his wife frequently enjoyed trips to San Francisco to enjoy the best hotels, food and wine available.[5]

Rosie predeceased her parents, she died unmarried at the age of 24, about whom not much is known. Mary married Giambattista (also referred to as Giovanni Battista or Giavonni or “Bachees”) DeFerrari. Mary must have been a good stay-at-home mom, the kind who doesn't leave a long paper trail but without whom a community does not get along. She must have married DeFerrari, who was 10 years her senior, about 1897 or 1898, for by 1910 they had been married 11 years and had 5 children. In June, 1900 they had already been married 2 years and Mary had just given birth to her second child -- a then unnamed daughter. In 1900 they were enumerated next door to her parents, but by 1910 were living with her parents when the census taker came around. Mary is enumerated at the top of the list with her parents, but a big arrow is drawn from her name to DeFerrari's and indicates that in addition to being the daughter of the head of one household she is the wife of the second head. In 1920 she and John have their own home in Groveland, in the general vicinity of present-day Pacific States Bank and Twice as Nice. In 1930 Mary is living in Roseville with her oldest son, his two young children, and her own youngest son, who is now 11.

Josephine (1886-1969) married Earl R. Dumond (1885-1973). Prior to becoming a mechanic for Hetch Hetchy, he was a refinery worker in Richmond, California; Josephine was a nurse and was employed by the Hetch Hetchy Hospital in Livermore, California.


[1] Sonora, California. The union Democrat, February 2, 1929.
[2] Roberts, Marilyn, Musante Chronicles: a Historical Record of an Italian Family. [no date : privately published], Page 169
[3] Sonora, California. The union Democrat, September 15, 1934.
[4] Sonora, California. The union Democrat, September 27, 1951.
[5] Repashy, Allen J., ED.D, History Makers South of the River: a History of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church and Historical Survey of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cemetery. Big Oak Flat : Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society [1989]

Spinning Wheel Ranch

The Spinning Wheel Ranch is on the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne River off the Cherry Road. You can look down on the site from the road as it climbs from San Jose Camp up to the point where it meets the old Hetch Hetchy railroad grade.

Here's a link to a US Forest Service report on the area, including some interesting information about ownership and use of the property.

Here's another link, this time to the Stanislaus National Forest Heritage Resources page. It's definitely worth a stop for anyone interested in local history of the Big Oak Flat - Groveland region.

Karen Davis, who runs the Museum office, adds that there is additional material related to Spinning Wheel Ranch in the Museum files.

Podcasts and Genealogy

In reviewing the Board for Certification of Genealogists website, I discovered a weak link in my own preparation. They recommend 24-40 hours of classes, seminars, or other genealogical training each year! Haven’t had much time in the last five years to do that. So what’s the option? What’s the option for those of us who live away from cities where such programs are readily available? What's the option for those of us with sick family who need our care and attention? What's the option for those of us who work full time in another job? In searching for alternatives, I discovered podcasts and quickly became addicted.

I’m downloading most of my material from the FREE sites available at iTunes. To get there, just type “itunes” (without the quotes) in the address bar of your computer’s network browser. Your Windows Vista computer will do the rest. So will your Mac computer. Your XP computer should, too. I haven’t plugged in my XP machine to try it. You can listen to the podcasts on your computer, or you can download to a portable mp3/mp4 player (like an iPod or your music-playing cell phone) and listen on the go. That’s the option I prefer.

Once in iTunes, click on STORE in the very top left-hand corner of the screen. In the new screen that appears, find the POWERSEARCH box. Scroll down to PODCASTS. Now move to the box labeled DESCRIPTION. Type GENEALOGY here. Move your cursor to SEARCH and click.

Here are two that I particularly like. You can click on the links to go directly to the websites. Explore to find presentations that please you.
· http://www.familyrootsradio.com/ Family Roots Radio Genealogy Hour. This is a series of 24 programs each dealing with a separate aspect of genealogy research. Although the material is not too difficult for a novice researcher, I have learned something new in each episode I’ve listed to. There is a podcast Archive on the website.
· http://www.genealogyguys.com/ The Genealogy Guys podcast This is an ongoing podcasts with new episodes still being added. Easy to listen to. I don’t see an easy way to download previous programs from the website, but you can listen to the current broadcast from the website.
· I have just added TRACING YOUR ROOTS, produced by BBC Radio to my subscription list. It should focus on British genealogy – England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Haven’t listened yet, so can’t say.

Next I’m going to try the HISTORY podcasts, on the premise that knowing the history of a place or time will help me understand the people I’m researching who lived there.
Please add your comments and sites that you’ve found helpful!

Meantime, keep searching!

P.S. One of the Genealogy Guys actually read this post and sent along specific instructions how to download previous podcasts! Check the comment for this post for details. Thank you, Drew Smith!

The Timothy Sheehan Family

A photo of a partial tombstone is currently displayed on the "Can you Help Us?" page at the website for our little museum. The stone sits under an old oak tree in the cemetery behind the Gold Rush Era Catholic church, and was placed by Timothy Sheehan in memory of his wife, Hannah. There is also an inscription for their son, John J. Sheehan. There is a story in the Sheehan family that the stone was vandalized, removed from the churchyard, found in a creek bed and returned to the church. The story doesn't say which creek bed (although we can guess), nor does it say when it was found or by whom.

From the stone we learned that Hannah predeceased Timothy, for he erected the monument in her memory. That was 1899. Hannah was 85 years old, suggesting that she was born in 1814. We learn that when Timothy died in December, 1903 he was 79 years old, suggesting that he was born in 1824. We learn that they had at least one son, John J., who was 40 years, 10 months and 7 days old when he died on 23 August 1895. By calculation, he was born in October 1854.

Obituaries from the Mariposa "Gazette" posted at one of several Mariposa Co. data sites add two additional children -- a daughter (Mrs. Baker) living in Merced, and a son William, residence not specified. We learn that the family lived near Bower Cave in Mariposa County. Census records tell us even more. Both Timothy and Hannah (called Anna in one census) were born in Ireland. Timothy was born in March 1826. In some records Hannah is as much as 11 years his senior; in others, they are the same age. Son William was born in Massachusetts about 1851. Daughter Mary was born in California about 1860. The 1900 census tells us that Timothy was born in March, 1826; that he arrived in the United States in 1849; and that he was a naturalized citizen of the United States.

The 1900 census presents a mystery, another "Can you Help Us?" issue. Mary Sheehan married John B. Baker about 1882. In 1900 she was the mother of 8 children, 6 of them living. There are 6 cvhildren in the household, including 16-year-old son Richard BENNETT (remember, his parents used the surname Baker!). In December 1903 an Irish-born uncle of John B. Baker was killed on the railroad tracks near Merced while on his way to the funeral of Tim Sheehan. The uncle's name was JOHN BENNETT. Is there another link between Richard Bennett/Baker and John Bennett beyond that of nephew/great-uncle?

Bill Koch, webmaster for the Tuolumne County Genealogical Society, is a shirt-tail relative of these Sheehans. Bill initially posed the question about Richard Bennett's surname.

Bill's genealogical report on the family says that John James Sheehan, son of Timothy and Hannah, married Mary Ann Coyle, daughter of Mathew and Margaret (Lennan) Coyle. Big ah-haaaaa! We know the Coyles! Read about the Coyles, and about a second Sheehan family in southern Tuolumne Co. in future postings to this blog.

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