This was a bit of a side quest. Cornelius Joseph Wholey was the brother of James Francis Wholey, who married Theresa Cecelia Basquil, a daughter of Denis Basquil and Ellen Carney. I wouldn’t normally have done much research on him, but I ran across an article in a Fall River newspaper that caught my interest.
Cornelius and Elizabeth M. Duggan (daughter of James Duggan and Mary Ready) married 11 Mar 1905 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Elizabeth died 9 Feb 1931 in Fall River.
Cases Heard in District Court
Cornelius Wholley pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault and battery on his wife. Judge Benjamin Cook appeared for the government, Attorney T. F. Higgins for the defendant. After Mrs. Wholley had told her story, Mr. Higgins announced that he would offer no defense. The defendant was sentenced to 30 days in the House of Correction and this was ordered suspended for six months.
Source: The Evening Herald, 10 Sep 1921, p. 12, col. 4
That happened in 1921. I couldn’t find Cornelius in the 1920 census, and after that article he seemed to disappear from the face of the earth. But sometimes if you do a search at Ancestry for parents, you hit the jackpot. And I did, with a Los Angeles County death certificate. But to make absolute sure I had the right person, I tried tracing his path from 1921 to his death in 1952. I found him in the 1930 census, in Los Angeles, living with a wife named Mary and using the name Cornelius Anderson. As far as I can tell, he did not divorce his first wife, Elizabeth Duggan. I have no idea who Mary was, or if they actually married. If they did, Cornelius committed bigamy. More likely they just lived together and told everyone they were married.
1930 U.S. census, population schedule, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, enumeration district (ED) 19-639, sheet 13B, p. 240 (stamped), dwelling 248, family 249, Cornelius Anderson; database and images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Mar 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T626. Rec. Date: 25 Jan 2020.
1940 U.S. census, population schedule, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, enumeration district (ED) 60-1195, sheet 17A, p. 8675 (stamped), household 377, Cornelius Wholey; database and images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Mar 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T627, roll 00397.
1950 U.S. census, population schedule, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, enumeration district (ED) 66-450, sheet 72, household 191, Cornelius J. Wholey; digital images, 1950 Census (1950census.archives.gov : accessed 20 Mar 2023); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T628, roll 3672.
In 1940 his two surviving children, Etta and James, were living with him, which makes sense since their mother had died in 1932. Whether they knew all along where he was, I don’t know. And did they know he’d been using the name Anderson? He was back to using Wholey in 1930. Mary disappeared, though, and she’s pretty much untraceable.
In 1950 he is living alone, at the same address that’s on his death certificate. His son, James, is the informant.
I still have a million questions. Did he leave Fall River to avoid jail? Did he serve his sentence then leave? But if he served his sentence, then why the name change? A funny side note is that I traced Cornelius through several years of Los Angeles city directories, and he was listed for several years under both Anderson and Wholey, at the same address, with the same occupation.
red paper boat 