Daniel Edmund Foley, Margaret Ann Purtill and their children Circa 1886

To the left is one of the most interesting members of our family tree, Daniel Edmund Foley. He was born March 18, 1857, in Boston Massachusetts. He died February 24, 1938 in Carbondale, Illinois. He is pictured with his bride and children. Margaret Ann Purtill married Daniel when she was sixteen.
Margaret was born May 16, 1864, only 22 years old in this photo. Margaret died on January 19, 1930.
The oldest child is Louis Francis Foley. Louis was born in Centralia Illinois September 15, 1881.Daniel and Louis are pictured again together on this blog nearly 50 years later.
The second oldest is Ella Foley, born November 4, 1883 in DuQuoin Illinois. Ella died November 1, 1959 in Harlingen Texas.
The infant is Mattie Agnes who was born April 27, 1886 and is likely the reason for another trip to Wheatley Studios in DuQuoin.
The reason for the family's relocations around the state was the railroad. Daniel was a supervisor of a road gang. Although only 5'7" tall, he was supervising the gangs that laid tracks. In those days these were known as rowdies. And the boss had to be able to physically stand up to any challenges. Fistfights were common.
Daniel dictated our family history to his daughter Margaret, not yet born in the picture above.Margaret typed it and we still have it. Some of this is hard to document but that is the quest. The Purtill family history is well documented by a genealogy project that was done in 1965.
All of this information has been provided by Don Foley, Clearwater Florida who has been the gatherer of this information for the last thirty years.