The conventional starting point for genealogists is with the immediate family. We then work backwards. Step by step. Generation by generation. At some point, maybe two or three generations back, we tend to hit a metaphorical ‘brick wall’. There are many possible reasons for this. Not all records can be found. Records may no longer…
All posts tagged United States
The wrong Theodore
The 1880 (American) Census shows Susan Cronin (nee Kelly), her husband Jeremiah and six children living in Marshall, Calhoun, Michigan. Staying with them are Anna McHugh (daughter of Susan’s sister Catherine) and two other members of the Kelly clan. Jessie Kelly was 10, born in Nebraska. Both her parents were both born in Ireland. As…
Rich Ormsby and poor Ormsby
In “Servant in Tonlegee”, I made reference to an article about Beechwood House. Almost in passing, there is a reference to an Ormsby estate. This required further investigation. There is a wealth of information to be found at http://goldenlangan.com/ormsby.html The earliest family record is of Richard de Ormesby who was born in 1020. A mere…
Seeking John Kelly
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…
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 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…
Massachusetts John
This is the third blog exploring what happened to the four children of the marriage of John Stanley to Winifred Kenney. See Massachusetts Mary and Massachusetts Thomas for the previous two articles. John was born in Islands, Roscommon on American Independence Day 1874. The best fit for his voyage to America is on the Cephalonia…
Massachusetts Thomas
I am continuing to explore the descendants of John Stanley and Winifred Kenney. (See Massachusetts Mary) This time it is the turn of Thomas. Civil registration started in Ireland in 1865. This doesn’t mean that all births after that time were recorded, but the majority of them were duly registered. Thomas was born on 21st…
Massachusetts Mary
If you can’t go back, then go forward! I realise that not everyone is as obsessive in hunting down obscure clues as me. I found a whole chapter of my wife’s ancestry when I googled the name of one of her relatives. It turned out that a second cousin had been publishing a blog for…
Both ends to the middle – Part 2
Part 1 was really an extended preamble. How do the principles apply to ‘the man in the street’? We have to move from the known to the unknown. What information do we have with which to start? We might have locations. Ideally these are Townlands, because they are the smallest unit of area, often with…