1987 (3) Austin Augustine Canavan (1852-1917)

Editor’s Note: John recalls his own uncle — his mother’s brother — Austin Augustine Canavan (1852‑1917), known in the family as “Uncle Gus,” including the story of how he came to be given his middle name.

Transcript

Speakers: WJB — William J. Bowe; JC — John D. Casey. Transcribed from the recording; punctuation added and obvious mis-hearings corrected.

WJB: Now, your mother’s brother — what was his name?

JC: Austin Augustine Canavan.

WJB: And he was born in —

JC: Philadelphia, after their arrival from Ireland.

WJB: By way of Baltimore —

JC: Then they came through Baltimore, went immediately on to Philadelphia. We called him Uncle Gus. You see, it was kind of funny that his name was Austin Augustine, because that’s the same name in the Irish version and in the English version. But it happened that when they took him to the church to be baptized in Philadelphia, the priest looked at the calendar and said, “What middle name are you giving him?” They wanted to call him Austin, because that was the name of the uncle who was waiting for them in Momence. So the priest looked at the calendar and said, “Well, I see that today is the Feast of St. Augustine.” And so he was given the middle name Augustine — that’s how Gus got into the family. And so he was just almost known as Austin.