Photo is Elizabeth (Hueston) Luby, wife of Peter Looby/Luby
The photo is my great-great grandmother, Elisabeth (Huston/Hueston) Luby, who was born in Ireland in 1850. She was the wife of Peter Looby. (Peter changed the spelling of his name to LUBY.) This photo was taken in St. Louis, Missouri in 1910, shortly before her death.
I’ve been researching my St. Louis, Missouri Luby/Looby family for many years.
Marriage record of Peter Looby and Elizabeth Heuston, July 13, 1862, St. Michael’s Church, St. Louis, Missouri
A story of Peter and Elizabeth Looby
Below is the the story of Peter and Elisabeth Luby that my cousin Dianne Scollay wrote after our Grandma Whitelaw told her about our Looby ancestors:
“Maudie, my grandmother, was a storyteller who had stored in her memory an extensive library of personal and family experiences. With little or usually no encouragement, she would recite the familiar words as she sat on the edge of her chair, her feet barely touching the floor. I watched her deeply wrinkled face brighten as she conjured up the images from the past……
“Did I ever tell you about Pete Looby? He was your great-grandfather. He took all his cattle to be branded to what is now downtown St. Louis. The streets were just dirt then. Pete had a big herd of cattle and thought he was finally set. He had to go mail a letter so he asked an acquaintance who was also waiting to have his cattle branded, ‘Hey, Sam!’ Would you watch my cattle for me?”’
‘Sure, Pete Glad to do it.’
‘Well, old Pete Looby came back about a half-hour later and couldn’t find his cattle. He came up to Sam and said ‘Where’s my cattle, Sam?’
‘What you talkin’ about Pete? I ain’t got your cattle!’ ‘What do you mean? Those cattle are all I have in the world. You dirty dog. You took my cattle!’ You’ve ruined my life.”’
Dramatically, Grandma would lean back in her chair and place her hands on her knees. Looking at me intently, she’d say “Old Grandpa Looby went home, told Grandma Looby what happened, sat down in his chair, and never worked another day in his life. Grandma Looby had to take in wash so their children wouldn’t starve. All they had to eat was mush. If it hadn’t been for the neighbors helping out, they would have.
I try to imagine my great-great grandmother, shown above, taking in wash and trying to survive and raise her three daughters with a husband who would not work!”
That family story above seems to be borne out by the fact that in 1900 Peter Looby, aged 60, is living in a boarding house
1900 United States Federal Census
about Peter Looby Name: Peter Looby
Age: 60
Birth Date: 1840
Birthplace: Ireland
Home in 1900: St Louis Ward 2, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri
[St. Louis]
Race: White
Gender: Male
Immigration Year: 1860
[1880]
Relation to Head of House: Boarder
Marital Status: Widowed
Father’s Birthplace: Ireland
Mother’s Birthplace: Ireland
Occupation: View on Image
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
James Hughes 65
Julia Hughes 55
Eva Hughes 19
James T Obrien 25
Emma Obrien 23
Mary Obrien 4
Julia Obrien 2
Louis Kahlor 60
Lenna Kahlor 40
Peter Looby 60
According to the that same census, Peter’s wife, Elisabeth Luby, was living at 3404 North 11th St., St. Louis (it must have been a duplex because the next person on the census lived at 3404 1/2), along with their son Peter and daughter Lizzie, Vol., 86, E.D. 28, Sheet 12, Line 87, Ward 2. On that census, Elizabeth is age 51, married 39 years. Year of immigration – 1866 and 34 years in U.S. She has had 11 children, 6 are living. (Note: That year of immigration could NOT be right because she had Johanna in 1864 in St. Louis, according to Johanna’s baptismal cert.)
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There is a town in Co. Tipperary that is called BallyLooby, in Irish/Gaelic the name means “The town of the Looby’s”.
Peter Looby in Griffiths Valuation 1847-1864, Limerick, Ireland:
LUBY is changed to LOOBY
While doing research on the Looby family of St. Louis, I saw that some names were spelled Looby and others Luby. Then while looking at the list of deaths on microfilm in the St. Louis Co. Library, I saw that there are 2 lines drawn through the name LUBY and LOOBY is written above. Then there is a notation written above saying “name was changed by attached application of son-in-law Thos. D. Whitelaw.” (See below) This PROVES that our Peter Luby did indeed change the spelling of his surname from LOOBY to LUBY – why, we don’t know. He must have changed the spelling between 1869 & 1875. This information has allowed me to connect our Peter Luby family with the William Looby family of St. Louis.
Coming to America
The ship Excelsior
Peter Looby was born in Ireland in 1840 and sailed to America on the ship Excelsior and sailed out of Liverpool and arrived in New York on 18 June 1855. His name was spelled phonetically as Lube. He is listed as a 21 year old sailing with no other family members. He would have only been 15 at the time, so he must have lied about his age, which would not have been uncommon.
New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
about Peter Lube Name: Peter Lube
Arrival Date: 18 Jun 1855
Birth Date: abt 1834
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality: Irish
Place of Origin: Ireland
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
Destination: United States of America
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Ship Name: Excelsior
Researching Irish ancestry is a challenge and the results can be disappointing because of the lack of written family records. This can make tracing Irish roots difficult and frustrating. The state registration of non-Catholic marriages began in 1845, but the registration of all births, marriages and deaths did not begin until 1864. In most cases, Church records are incomplete and few Church records exist from before 1800, particularly in rural areas. But the real problem confronting Irish genealogists and Irish family history researchers is the catastrophic loss of almost all census records from 1821, when the full census of the island of Ireland was taken, up to 1891. The census records for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were stored at the Four Courts in Dublin and were destroyed by fire in 1922 during the Civil War. Also lost were a large portion of Church of Ireland parish records and a majority of Wills. Further, the census returns of 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 were pulped by government order to support the 1914 – 18 war effort.
The primary valuation of Ireland or Griffith’s Valuation – carried out between 1848 and 1864 to determine liability to pay the Poor rate (for the support of the poor and destitute within each Poor Law Union) – provides detailed information on where people lived in mid-nineteenth century Ireland and the property they possessed.
I did find a William Looby listed in Griffith’s Valuation. And I have found a Peter Looby and a William Looby in County Limerick. There were also Loobys in County Tipperary. The two Parishes that William and Peter Looby were from, even though they are in Limerick, the parish records are located in Tipperary. There was also a John Sherlock in Limerick and this John Sherlock is in the same Civil Parish (Kilbeheny) as Peter Luby, so I believe that it’s likely that this is the father of Elizabeth “Lizzie” Sherlock and the husband of Martha “Patty” Cahill. There are also the following Cahills there: Thomas (2), Bridget, Ellen, and John. Grandma Whitelaw told me that the Sherlocks and Loobys were friends and came to America at the same time. She said they lived in County Cork. However, most Irish left the port at Cork when they sailed to America, so that fact was confused with where they lived.
More recently some Irish records have become accessible for researching. So I look forward to finding out more about our Looby family in Ireland.
I have shown below an outline descendant chart for William Looby, father of Peter Looby/Luby and his brother William Looby, both who were born in Ireland and who immigrated to St. Louis, Missouri by 1855.
Descendants of William Looby
1 William Looby, b. Ireland
….. 2 Peter Looby/Luby b: 1840 in Ireland d: 03 Nov 1906 in St. Louis, MO
Peter Looby tombstone in Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri
……… +Elizabeth Bridget Heuston b: 15 Aug 1843 in Ireland m: 1863 in St. Louis, MO d: 18 Mar 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri (Photo above)
…………. 3 Johanna M. Looby/Luby b: 05 Oct 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 08 Nov 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………….. +Thomas David Whitelaw b: 04 Mar 1862 in Neath, Glamorgan County, Wales, Neath; m: 16 Apr 1884 in St. Louis, MO d: 21 Oct 1933 in St. Louis, MO
……………….. 4 Jane Elizabeth “Bessie” Whitelaw b: 08 Sep 1884 d: 1971
…………………… +E. L. Marxer
……………….. 4 Thomas Rees Whitelaw b: 01 Dec 1885 in St. Louis, MO d: 15 Aug 1947 in St. Louis, MO
…………………… +Martha “Maude” Elizabeth Wirtz b: 15 Dec 1886 in St. Louis, MO m: 08 Jan 1908 in St. Louis, MO d: 16 Jun 1981 in St. Louis, MO
………………………. 5 Thomas David Whitelaw b: 31 Jul 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 13 Aug 1994 in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………….. +Agnes Catherine Anglin b: 28 Oct 1905 d: 14 Dec 1974
………………………. 5 Mary Virginia Whitelaw b: 02 Feb 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 08 Aug 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………….. +Vincent Lang m: Abt. 1930 in St. Louis, MO
………………………. 5 Baby Whitelaw b: Abt. Nov 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 19 Nov 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………. 5 Hannah Elizabeth Whitelaw b: 12 Sep 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 22 Jun 1995 in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………….. +Bud Brown
………………………. *2nd Husband of Hannah Elizabeth Whitelaw:
………………………….. +Ed Birkle b: 27 Feb 1909 m: Abt. 1942 d: 04 Mar 1983
………………………. 5 Alexander Gunn Whitelaw b: Abt. 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri d: in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………. 5 Baby Whitelaw b: 18 Nov 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 18 Nov 1914 in St. Louis City, Missouri
………………………. 5 Alexander Gunn Whitelaw b: 11 Nov 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 23 Mar 1997
………………………….. +Rosemary F. Tudor b: 1921 d: 11 Apr 1982
………………………. 5 Janet Page Whitelaw b: 19 Jun 1919 in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………….. +Bob Scollay m: 02 Jun 1945 d: 07 Jan 2003 in St. Louis, MO
………………………. 5 Jessie Louise Whitelaw b: 19 Apr 1921 in St. Louis, MO d: 26 Feb 1991 in St. Louis County, MO
………………………….. +Edsel Arthur Hatfield b: 02 Jan 1919 in East Alton, Madison Co., IL m: 10 Oct 1942 in Camp Robinson, Pulaski County, Arkansas d: 05 Jul 2007 in St. Louis City, Missouri
………………………. 5 John Lee Whitelaw b: 06 Mar 1923 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 24 Nov 1989 in Flat River, Missouri
………………………….. +Dorothy Pat ?
………………………. 5 Martha Rees “Peggy” Whitelaw b: 21 May 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri; d. 17 Oct 2018, Chesterfield, St. Louis Co., Missouri
………………………….. +Chester Freebersyser m: 04 Oct 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 09 Oct 2004 in Florissant, St. Louis County, Missouri
……………….. 4 James Alexander Whitelaw b: 26 Feb 1887 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 03 Mar 1969 in Hialeah, Dade Co., Florida
…………………… +Alice ? b: Abt. 1893 d: Bef. 1969
……………….. 4 Agnes Maude Whitelaw b: 12 Mar 1891 d: Mar 1971 in St. Louis City, Missouri
……………….. 4 Jessie Louise Whitelaw b: 13 Sep 1896 d: 1981
…………………… +Charles Blount Slade, Jr., b. 26 Jun 1902 Manhattan, New York, New York, USA; d. 15 Oct 1962, Detroit, Michigan
……………….. 4 Jane Matilda Whitelaw b: 08 Jul 1899 d: Dec 1977 in St. Louis City, Missouri
…………. 3 William Luby b: 1865 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 02 Nov 1865 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………. 3 Peter Luby b: Jan 1867 d: 27 Nov 1936 in St. Louis, MO
…………. 3 Edward Luby b: 1868 in St. Louis County, Missouri d: 1868 in St. Louis County, Missouri
…………. 3 Rose Ann M. Luby b: 15 Jan 1869 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 05 May 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………….. +William Guthridge d: in St. Louis, MO
……………….. 4 George Guthridge
……………….. 4 William Guthridge
……………….. 4 Leo Guthridge
……………….. 4 Walter Guthridge
……………….. 4 Rosemary Elizabeth Guthridge b: 24 Apr 1903 in St. Louis Co., Missouri
…………………… +? Vernell
……………….. 4 Edward V. Guthridge b: 1893 d: 04 Apr 1928
…………………… +?
………………………. 5 Dorothea Guthridge
…………. 3 May Luby b: Jun 1872 d: 07 Feb 1905 in St. Louis, MO
…………. 3 Elizabeth “Eliza” Luby b: 16 Feb 1875 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 1876 in St. Louis, Missouri
In the LDS Microfilms, 1903461, 1903462, & 1903463 I found the records of St. Michael’s Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Pg. 188, 1875 – LUBY, Elizabeth, born Feb. 16th, 1875, daughter of Peter LUBY and Elizabeth HEUSTON. Sponsor: F. C. Harvis and Bridget Shean
…………. 3 William “Willie” Patrick Luby b: 02 Feb 1877 in St. Louis, Missouri
In the LDS Microfilms, 1903461, 1903462, & 1903463 I found the records of St. Michael’s Church in St. Louis, Missouri. 1875 – LUBY, William, born Feb. 22, 1877, son of Peter LUBY and Elizabeth HEUSTON. Sponsor: Patrick Murphy and Johanna Luby
…………….. +Lydia Rogers b: Jan 1876 in PA
……………….. 4 William Edward Luby b: 18 Feb 1904 in Elwood, Indiana d: 08 Jun 1956 in San Bernardino Co., CA
…………………… +? Shane
………………………. 5 Roger Luby
………………………. 5 Billy Luby
………………………. 5 Marianne Luby b: 20 Aug 1937 in Toronto, Ohio d: 08 Mar 1984 in Orange Co., CA
………………………. 5 Karen Lydia Luby b: 12 Jul 1944 in San Bernardino Co., California
…………. 3 Elizabeth “Lizzie” Luby b: 08 Jul 1879 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 07 Jan 1957 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………. 3 Mary Cecelia Luby b: 08 Jun 1883 in St. Louis, Missouri
In the LDS Microfilms, 1903461, 1903462, & 1903463 I found the Baptism records of St. Michael’s Church in St. Louis, Missouri. It says: June 24, 1883. Mary Cecelia, daughter of Peter LUBY & Elizabeth HEUSTON, born June 8. Sponsor: Patrick White & Elizabeth Doody. Pastor: A. Eustace.
…………….. +Alexander Gunn Whitelaw b: 13 Jul 1868 in Wales d: 07 May 1938
…………. 3 ? Luby b: Unknown
….. 2 William Looby b: 1844 in County Cork, Ireland d: 19 Sep 1880 in St. Louis, Missouri
……… +Ellen Slattery b: 1846 in County Cork, Ireland m: Abt. 1865 in St Louis (?) d: 08 Mar 1899 in St. Louis, MO
…………. 3 John Joseph Looby b: 24 Jun 1866 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 19 Aug 1918 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………….. +Mary Ann Horgan b: 1870 in Missouri m: 1890 in St. Louis, Misouri d: 20 Oct 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri
……………….. 4 ? Looby
……………….. 4 ? Looby
……………….. 4 ? Looby
……………….. 4 ? Looby
……………….. 4 M. Looby b: 08 Feb 1903 in St. Louis Co., Missouri
……………….. 4 William R. Looby b: 1891 in Missouri d: 07 Mar 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………………… +Minnie ? b: 1891 d: 20 Aug 1927 in St. Louis, Missouri
……………….. 4 (Infant) Looby b: 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 07 Apr 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri
……………….. 4 John Joseph Looby b: 1894 in Missouri d: 19 Jan 1949 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………………… +Ellen Medley m: 1915
………………………. 5 George Thomas Looby b: 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 1984 in St. Louis, Missouri
………………………….. +?
………………………. 5 Cathern Looby b: 1917 d: 1988
………………………….. +? Stapher
………………………. 5 Helen Marie Looby b: 1920 d: 1997
………………………….. +?
………………………. *2nd Husband of Helen Marie Looby:
………………………….. +?
………………………. 5 Arthur John Looby b: 1921 d: 1973
………………………….. +Ruthanne Cooper
………………………. 5 Charlotte Rose Looby b: 1928
………………………….. +?
……………….. 4 Peter Gregory Looby b: 12 Mar 1900 in Missouri d: 06 Aug 1973 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………………… +Helen ?
………………………. 5 Bill Looby
………………………. 5 June Looby
………………………. 5 Anna Mae Looby
………………………. 5 Helen Looby
……………….. 4 Charles J. Looby b: 1903 d: 30 Jun 1963 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………………… +Marguerite ? b: 1899 d: 10 Jan 1977 in St. Louis
……………….. 4 Leo F. Looby b: 1907 in Missouri d: 02 Dec 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri
……………….. 4 Frank Looby b: 1913 in Missouri
…………. 3 William J. Looby b: 1868 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 01 Sep 1892 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………. 3 Johanna Looby b: 1869 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 26 Dec 1961 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………. 3 Peter Joseph Looby b: 1871 in St. Louis, Missouri d: 25 Jun 1883 in St. Louis., MO
…………. 3 James Looby b: 1874 d: 09 Jul 1874 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………. 3 Kate Looby b: 1875 d: 17 Oct 1876 in St. Louis, Missouri
…………. 3 Mary Josie Looby b: 1878 in St. Louis, Missouri d: Aft. 1883
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