Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920
Biography of Rosina Flannelly, 1863–1937
By Chelsea R. Miller, independent scholar, Saratoga Springs, NY
Rosina (Rose) Flannelly, was born in November 1863. Her mother, Bridget Flannelly (née Conlon), was born in New York, and her father, John Flannelly, was born in Ireland. In various records, their last name appears as “Flannelly,” “Flanelly,” or “Flanly.”
In 1900, Rose Flannelly, a schoolteacher, lived at 408 West 44th Street in Manhattan with her mother, her aunt, Fannie T. Conlon, and four siblings: Fanny Flannelly, Thos S. Flannelly, Hugh J. Flannelly, and Mary Flannelly. An Irish-born servant named Hannah Hurley was also reported as living in the household. By 1915, Fanny and Rose had moved to 58 77th Street.
Rose, along with her sister, Fanny, was a member of the St. Catherine Welfare Association, a Manhattan-based Catholic organization of young women advocating for suffrage that grew out of the work of the Catholic Committee of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party. Named after Saint Catherine of Siena, the Association aimed to improve social and economic conditions for women and children. The extension of suffrage to women was considered a means to this end. The Association, led by Sara McPike and Winifred Sullivan, worked in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other states, in collaboration with other organizations, including the Woman Suffrage Party of the State of New York and the Manhattan Borough section of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party. Rose and Fanny were listed in the History of Woman Suffrage: 1900–1920 among several members who “helped [promote suffrage] unceasingly by writing, speaking and in many other ways.”
Rose Flannelly died on November 20, 1937, and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens County.
Sources:
Anthony, Susan B., Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Gage, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and Ida H. Harper, eds. History of Woman Suffrage: 1900–1920. National American Woman Suffrage Association: 1922. [LINK]
Haines, Helen. “Catholic Womanhood and the Suffrage,” New Catholic World 102 (1916), 55–67. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://bit.ly/2k96blV.
“Jottings from the Boroughs: Manhattan,” The Woman Voter 7, no. 5 (May 1916), p. 24. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://bit.ly/2GzqNfI.
Keller, Rosemary Skinner and Rosemary Radford Ruether. Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Volume I. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.
National Catholic Welfare Council of Catholic Women, The National Catholic Welfare Council Bulletin IV, no. 7 (December 1922), p. 34. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://bit.ly/2I1K6Dy.
“Rosina Flanelly,” State population census schedules, 1915. New York State Archives, Albany, New York, 1915. Ancestry.com. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://ancstry.me/2HzA1ya.
“Rosina M Flannelly,” Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. Ancestry.com. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://ancstry.me/2FqQCxZ.
“Rosina M. Flanly,” New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795–1949. FamilySearch.org. Accessed May 19, 2018. https://bit.ly/2LdNvxu.
Schaffer, Ronald. “New York City Woman Suffrage Party,” New York History: Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association 43, no. 3. (July, 1962), 269–287. Accessed April 28, 2018. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23153512.