Sometimes I have to stop myself and check that I am not going down a blind alley. Why am I looking for information on John Kelly? In “Both ends to the middle – Part 2” I reported that there is only one ancestral line from the two distant cousins in America that I need to…
All posts in North America
Looking for the Kelly siblings
The story that has come down to me from my distant American cousins is that 1847 was a significant year for the Kelly family. John, Catherine, Susan and Mary arrived in America in that year following the death of their parents in the Great Famine. Census and marriage records provide some information on the ages…
Jessie – early days
On the 1880 census for Marshall, Calhoun County, Michigan, Jessie Kelly appears as a ten year old child. She is living with her Aunt Susan (born around 1840, in Ireland), Uncle Jeremiah Cronin (born around 1831 in New York) and their six children. Also in the household is Anna McHugh, the eldest daughter of John…
Jessie and Jesse
According to a correspondent in America, John McHugh and his wife Catherine (nee Kelly) moved from Michigan to Missouri in March 1873. Initially, they stayed with Catherine’s brother John on his farm. In the 1960s this farm was owned by John’s grandson Jesse East. I found an obituary for Jesse Clarence East who died in…
Algorithms
As mentioned in ‘Sue Alice McHugh and her father, John’, there are some differences in the various trees that mention Patrick McHugh. Most agree that his wife was Catherine Kelly (1833-1909). There is general agreement that he was born in 1825. But where was he born? Sligo, Cork, Mayo, Galway and Roscommon are all offered.…
Boston Pilot
I am conscious that many of those emigrating from Roscommon ended up in America. For 90 years (from 1831 to 1921) a newspaper called the Boston Pilot published a ‘Missing Friends’ column. Photo: Boston Harbour in the mid 1800s Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_harbor_and_East_Boston_from_State_St._block,_by_Soule,_John_P.,_1827-1904.jpg (cropped) The database has over 40,000 records. (https://infowanted.bc.edu/search/ ) (now behind a paywall) Advertisements…
From Islands to America
On the post “Island Lower and Upper”, (https://www.roscommonstanley.me.uk/geography/island-lower-and-upper/ ) I referred to American records as providing answers to the question about what happened to the rest of the Stanley/Kenney line. (Bridget, Thomas, Mary and John) Bridget Stanley married William Simpson on 29th June 1887 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was born in Darnford, New York in…
Kilbride to Canada
In my efforts to understand more about my Roscommon ancestors, I have looked at Parish records. There are many gaps. It is not possible to track people from birth to marriage to death. Kilbride Parish Church, at Four Mile House, features in my family’s records. I have found another family with the Stanley name on…
DNA: the magic bullet?
Posted on Author Keith StanleyPosted in Brighton, Direct line, Geography, Ireland, North America, Unresolved questions
I was given a DNA testing kit as a Christmas present (2018). The results were pretty much as expected. I received a list of people with whom I share some DNA in descending order of overlap. The closest matches suggest that we might be fourth cousins. This means that we share a great, great, great…
Thomas Stanley (b 1873)
Posted on Author Keith StanleyPosted in Direct line, Geography, Ireland, North America, Possible relations
Thomas seemed to disappear after his birth. He is not recorded on the 1901 Irish census. There is no good match for him in England either. This made me suspect that he had emigrated. I spent a lot of time scanning passenger lists. Hours were spent on the census returns in the USA. In June…