1. Only a Few Clues

Discovering your family history is a lot like trying to solve a puzzle.  Sometimes you start with only a few clues, yet end up with a rich story and maybe a little mystery too. This is what happened to me when I uncovered the story of my Mullen family from Youngstown, Ohio.   This blog post is the first in a series of my discoveries about this family.

My Grandparents - Helen Carney Mullen and John A. Mullen, Jr. (1957)

It wasn’t until I decided to research my Mullen family history that I wished I had asked more questions of my Grandpa Mullen.   He was a very quiet man and it was rare that we had any conversations at all, but when I was a teenager we had one brief exchange about my mother’s heritage.  “Grandpa, is Mom half Scottish and half Irish?”  I asked him, thinking that I already knew the answer.  I knew my Grandma Helen's parents were born in Ireland, and I thought his parents were born in Scotland.  He started to say yes and then changed his mind.  “No, she’s one-quarter Scottish and three-quarters Irish,” he said.  “My father was from Scotland, but not my mother.”  That was it, the end of the conversation as far as he was concerned.

My Great Grandfather - John A. Mullen, Sr. (c. 1946)

I was a little surprised that I was wrong, but I didn’t give it much more thought at the time.   I wasn’t that curious about Grandpa’s parents.  His mother died before I was born, so I never knew her, and I hadn’t heard any stories about her.  I was six when his father died, so I do have a few childhood memories of him and they aren't good ones. I remember him as an unfriendly old man!  He lived in the same house as my grandparents, so I saw him occasionally when we were there for visits.

One morning as I was coming downstairs into the kitchen, I saw him sitting at the table by himself with his back to me, drinking coffee, dressed in his pajamas and robe.  I wanted to turn around and run back upstairs, but my Grandma Helen, standing at the stove, noticed me and said, “Karen, say hello to Papa.”   I did as I was told and in response, he mumbled something and then ignored me.  Warm and fuzzy, he wasn’t.

Now I wish I had been more curious and asked more questions, but it is too late.  My mother, Louise, filled in a few of the blanks, but even she didn’t know much about her grandparents’ history, even though she grew up in the same house with them.

My mother - Louise Mullen Vitullo  (2008)

Since I don’t have a picture of my great-grandmother, I asked Mom to describe her.  “White hair, thin, not very tall, and looked old.”  What was her personality like?  I’m sure she wanted to say, “What personality?” but instead she just said, “Stern.”   When I asked if her grandmother ever played with her or read stories to her, she looked at me like I was crazy.  Apparently, my great-grandmother was as warm and fuzzy as my great-grandfather.  They were really well suited for each other.

I can’t explain why I would want to know more about my not so warm and fuzzy great-grandparents. All I know is that curiosity took over and I had to know about my roots.  I didn’t have much to go on, but I knew my great grandfather’s name, John A. Mullen, Sr., and where he was born - Scotland.   My mother thought he had come to America on his own as a young man since he didn’t seem to have any family in the United States.  I also knew that workers flooded into Youngstown from all over Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s because of the steel mills, and it seemed likely that he probably left his family behind in search of a better life in America. 

      Or so I thought....