The Kempen - Scully connection (Fanning side)

As I wrote in the last Fanning family post, Henry "Henny" Kempen married Marion Scully (1898-1971) around 1920. They lived at the 1669 Third Ave address. They had a daughter Veronica Helen in 1921.

I remember my great grandmother Marion from when I was young. She died when I was 4, so there are not many memories. However, at the time she lived with daughter Veronica and her family of Fannings. I don't recall her being a very doting woman, but she was protective as she was continually telling us kids to stop playing on the stairs. I remember her smoking a lot while she sat in the living room chair. Once in a while it was with a beer in a gold colored metal cup.

Marion Scully Kempen

So, who was Marion Scully? As discussed earlier, her parents were Michael Scully (1866-1908) and Annie O'Neill (1873-?). According to consistent census records, Michael was born in Ireland in 1866 and immigrated to the America in 1887 at 21 years old. History tells us that Ireland in the 1880's was one of difficult social conditions. The era of the worldwide Long Depression had caused grief among the residents of the emerald isle with unemployment while class struggles and "The Troubles" made life even harder. I have been unable to locate any records of Michael or his family prior to his arrival in the US. All we know is that he was just one of thousands who journeyed far in search of a better life.

Even less is known about Annie O'Neill (actually the last name is an assumption as she was residing with her nephew in the 1910 census). Conflicting dates on the census reports has her immigrating in 1881, 1890, and 1893, but they all indicate her birth was in November 1873 and that she came from Northern Ireland. Life as a Catholic in Northern Ireland continues to be a difficult one. Life in the 19th century Northern Ireland was one of poverty and prejudice as a Catholic. Unfortunately, the 1890 census reports were lost to fire because we could have determined if she came with other family members. Annie and Michael married in 1897. Marion was born in 1898 & their son, Michael Jr., was born in 1899. Unfortunately, he died at 2 years old.

Michael Sr. died in 1908 and this left Annie and her 10 year old daughter, Marion, in a very vulnerable position in New York City. They apparently spent their entire lives together although I have not been able to locate a death record for Annie Scully.

The tale is reiterated with Marion and her daughter, Veronica who was known to all as Vera, after Henny & Marion divorced. Initially, I believed that Henny had left the family after 1930 but after speaking with other family members it may have been Marion who left Henny after getting fed up with lies and a a life of being a flim-flam man. It was once described that Henny was just like a character in the movie "The Sting". I also thought that Henny did not have any contact with Marion or Vera during her adult life but I recently learned that he did walk Vera down the aisle at her wedding.

Wedding party of Joseph & Vera Fanning. Henny Kempen is 3rd from right.

The 1940 census will be released next month and we'll be able to see where Marion & Vera were as the European conflict was growing into World War II. We do know that Marion lived with Vera's family in Manhattan's Yorkville until they moved to Lyndhurst, NJ, in 1964. She died on March 6, 1971.

Vera married Joseph Patrick Fanning and had 6 children. But I think we'll save this story until we discuss the Fanning branch.