These are pretty cool, came to me via my little sister Megan Roach who got them as part of her search on ancestry.com. Semi-related fun fact: based on Megan’s submission to that site, our family includes some 3% European Jewish ancestry.
This first document is the passenger manifest from the S.S. Leviathan on which my paternal grandfather, John Needham (after whom I was named), sailed to America. He had listed his birthplace and hometown as Doohoma in County Mayo, Ireland, which I think was transcribed as Doohorne on the manifest. S.S. Leviathan left the port of Southampton in the United Kingdom on October 12, 1926. Another fun fact: the S.S. Leviathan was originally a German ship called Vaterland that was seized by the United States in 1917 and was renamed Leviathan. John Needham is listed near the bottom of this page of the passenger manifest and listed his Calling or Occupation as “Labourer.”
The next document is John Needham’s Petition for American citizenship, dated February 8, 1934. It was witnessed by John O’Farrell and John F. Donovan in Chicago, lists John Needham’s wife as Mary (nee O’Malley) of Stirling, Scotland. Mary O’Malley was born in Scotland when her father was stationed there in the British Army, but, I am told, was sent, when she was a baby, to Doohoma to be raised by relatives.
The application for citizenship also lists three sons born to the couple, John and Mary: Michael Needham (my uncle, currently living in Truckee, CA), John Needham (my Uncle Jack, also my godfather, RIP) and Patrick Needham (my father, RIP). This family would go on to add four more children: Phelim (RIP), Jerry (RIP), Kathleen and Ellen.
Finally, here is a 1940 United States census document which lists (top of the page) John Needham as head of household, Mary as his wife, and the first five children, all sons. This document is undated, but was filled out in Chicago’s 45th ward in Cook County. What’s amazing to me here is that census documents were, at that time, all filled out and counted manually.
My sister Meggie continues her searches, and if anything interesting comes up, and she wants me to share it, I’ll post it here.
John P. Needham
Spring, TX
October 21, 2019