Sibling Saturday - The Finley brothers

These boys were the children of Michael J. Finnegan (abt. 1860-1917) and Mary Agnes Wynne (1860-1934). They were Kevin Wynne's first cousins.

The Finley Boys (John, Frank, Joe and Gerald), Pueblo, Colorado

John James Finley, the eldest, was born in Dublin, Ireland on 8 October 1886. He followed his parents to Colorado Springs in the 1890s, having been too ill to travel with his mother in 1892. John served as a private in the US Army between 26 May 1918 and 9 August 1919, but worked with the railroad for most of his life. He married Fannie Golden, in Pueblo on 19 October 1926, and they had one son, George (1928-2003). John died on 2 February 1962 and was buried at Valhalla Memorial Park, Pueblo, Colorado.

Francis Edward O’Brien (Frank) Finley was born in Dublin, Ireland on 5 April 1889. He was also known as ‘Cotton’ because of his fair hair. When he was three years of age, his mother brought him to Colorado.  Frank was a salesman. On 1 September 1917, he married Mabel Schwarzkopf but they divorced in the 1930s and by 1943, he had married Rosalie Henigsman.  Frank died on 3 March 1957 and was buried in Roselawn Cemetery, Pueblo, Colorado. Rosalie died on 14 March 1984 and was buried next to him. It seems that Frank had no children.

Joseph Augustin Finley was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on 9 April 1895. He worked as a boilermaker with the railroad. He married nineteen-year-old Mildred Lindgreen, on 13 Aug 1917 in Colorado. Joseph died in Natrona, Wyoming on 31 August 1988, aged 93 years and was buried in the Greenhill Cemetery, Laramie, Wyoming. Mildred died on 2 May 2000, at the age of 101, and was buried next to him. They had one daughter Yvonne, who died in Wyoming, aged about 84 years, on 25 July 2003.

Gerald Bryan Finley was born in Colorado Springs on 6 May 1898. He worked as a bread salesman. Gerald married Rosa Rosky on 10 Mar 1921 and they had four children between 1921 and 1929, three daughters and a son. Tragically, Rosa died of a ruptured appendix on 8 March 1930, when her youngest child was only six months old. Gerald was married twice more. First, he married Gladys Seever on 3 November 1930, but they divorced shortly thereafter. He then married Genevieve Ferguson on 26 January 1935 but this marriage too was short-lived. Gerald caught a bad flu and died on 22 November 1935, aged only thirty-seven years. He was buried in the Roselawn Cemetery, Pueblo next to his first wife, Rosa.

The boys were all born with the surname Finnegan (or a variant thereof), but after the family moved from Colorado Springs to Pueblo, about 1904, they changed their name to Finley.  

Sources available. The photographs are courtesy of my third cousin, Phyllis, granddaughter of Gerald.

…………..

© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy.