Where in the world do they come from? Following breadcrumbs.

My Leary and Callahan side is from Rathmore, Co. Kerry (and probably immigrated there in the 17th century from Cork). I can pinpoint the townland upon which they farmed in 1850. My Shea and Farrell line is from Limerick and lived in Mungret, near Limerick City before immigration. My Corbett and Grace line is from Turkstown, Co. Kilkenny. Thanks to finding their origen in Ireland I have been able to visit each place and in two cases stand on the land on which they lived. 

However my Bresnahan and Fleming side has eluded me. Unlike all three of the other lines there is no family oral tradition as to where in Ireland they lived. No vital record or obituary has been found that pinpoints the county in Ireland. So I started following the few bread crumbs I could see based on available records and a blanket search for other families with this surname in the immediate area.

Bresnahan is a traditional Kerry name. The names Bresnahan, Brosnan and Bresnan in Ireland are derived from the native Gaelic O'Brosnachain sept that was located in County Kerry in the South of the country. The name is most likely taken from the small townland of Brosna that is located in that region. A search of Irish parish records for the area - on line at www.irishgenealogy.ie has loads of Bresnahan/Brosnahan and other variants but none that fit my family. Sorting them out has gained me quite a collection of Bresnahans in this area of New Hampshire.Our family has used Bresnahan but others use Brosnahan, Brosnan.

Castleisland Kerry

Searching through the Bresnahans in Manchester and Concord NH where my ancestors settled opens up more questions than answers. James Leary, my great grandfather married Julia Bresnahan in St. Ann's parish, Manchester, NH in 1863. That points to her residence in that city since the custom was to marry in the bride's church.

Mill workers apartments near Amoskeag mill (ahead)

A search for Bresnahan families in Manchester yielded many, some of which may be related. The best match for mine was Julia, 21with her mother Margaret Fleming 62, sister Honora 16 and two other perhaps related Bresnahan's Margaret  15, Patrick 17 and a Honora Dillon 19  in the 1860 census.  They all appear to be mill workers. A Margaret is listed in 1855/6 in the city directory and the family appears to have arrived (according to different census) between 1850-1855. By the date of this census Andrew Bresnahan, brother to Julia and Honora had already married Mary Leary sister of her future husband James. Perhaps that was how Julia and James met. Sadly I have been unable to find a record for Andrew, his wife Mary and son Corneilius b. 1856 in the 1860 census anywhere in the US. There is no death record for him in New Hampshire or neighboring states. Mary and her son disappear until 1870 when she is working as a servant in Concord with the woman who will marry the Patrick listed in this census. Her son is being cared for by his aunt and uncle James and Julia Leary.

From other records I was able to learn that the Margaret who lives with them in 1860 is the child of a John Bresnahan and a Johannah Fleming, Patrick is the son of a John Bresnahan and a Mary Fleming. I was led to these records by the obituary of Andrew's son Corneilius Bresnahan in 1903.  Margaret is listed as a relative of Corneilius when she attends his funeral in 1903 as is her half sister Julia. Both are listed under their married names and the marriage record of each showed they were Bresnahans. That led to a John Bresnahan who might be a brother to my great great grandfather Corneilius.

John Bresnahan b. 1810 lived in  Manchester NH with 1st  wife Johannah Fleming. He is father of Margaret Bresnahan who lived with our family in 1860 and of her half sister Julia Bresnahan with second wife Mary Sullivan Cashman. Margaret married  Peter Haggerty and Julia married to  John F. Cahill and both attended the funeral of Corneilius Bresnahan and are listed in obituary as relatives. Members of the Leary / Bresnahan family attended funerals from their family also and are identified as relatives.  Of course he may also be connected to our family via his wife, a Fleming like Margaret Fleming.

2nd from top: Record of Leary/Bresnahan baptism with John Bresnahan as sponsor 1870

Since the Irish usually ask relatives to be godparents and marriage witnesses I explored a connection with the only Bresnahan family in Concord in the mid 19th century. I discovered that John Bresnahan whose first wife was Mary Fleming appears also to be the father of Patrick, the young man who lived with my family in Manchester in 1860. John Bresnahan is the godfather of my grandfather James T. Leary son of James and Julia. He is a good candidate to be related to our family, both from the association as a godfather and the surname of his first wife. He remarried twice after his wives died, to Johannah Coughlin with whom he had a second family and late in life to Mary O'Hara. Born around 1800 he is also of the right age to be a brother to my great great grandfather Corneilius, husband of Margaret Fleming. John's parents are Dennis Bresnahan and Mary Broderick.

Trying to research this John Bresnahan's orgin in Ireland was confusing. He might be from Cork (on his son's grave in Wolfboro, NH that is given as place of origen) or  Limerick. A Callaghan McCarthy is living with John in 1860. Callaghan  (from other sources and another researcher) is from Rathkeale in Limerick and with him is  his wife Margaret Bresnahan. Two other Bresnahan women live there Kate and Catherine both single and listed as aunts in the McCarthy family.  Are they from Limerick or from Kerry or from Cork????

The majority of the  Bresnahan families in Manchester NH are from Kerry especially the area around Castleisland and Tralee. However a search of the Kerry parish records, which are extant for dates  of the family births did not yield records for Julia or her sister Honora that fit.  From the map above it can be seen that Castleisland is very close to the border of Limerick and to that of Cork.

Cemetary records for Old St. Joseph cemetary in Manchester have many Bresnahan burials. Unfortunately no stone has the name of Margaret Fleming Bresnahan on it although she is most likely buried there. There is an old Bresnahan burial plot with multiple interments but no individual markers. 

So the mystery remains - where in Ireland did my Bresnahan great great grandparents Cornelius Bresnahan and wife Margaret Fleming originate?

Mystery Mothers

Every genealogist deals with brick walls. Women's history sometimes is daunting as maiden names are overlooked in many records. At a certain point it is hard to go further back when all a person has is a first name. Some of my mystery mothers are:

Josephte Abenlak (Allerlock) 1750/60- before 1805 is my 4th great grandmother. All I know of her is her husband's name Jean Gray and that they were married in Albany. The marriage date is unknown. Both she and her husband may have been Native American. There was a settlement of Abenaki natives in Scaghticook near Albany during the upheavals of the French and Indian Wars. Did she live there? Her surname may be a corruption of Abenlak. She is my father's 2nd great grandmother. A strong family oral tradition has this line the source of native ancestry. Records are scarce in Albany for this period and no Catholic records exist. Many Mohawk Indians appear in the Dutch Reformed records but few are present and named in Anglican records. Indian baptisms and weddings are often noted generically i.e. baptised 4 Indian children and married 3 couples. Right when their daughter would have been born - 1780-86 records do not exist because of the upheaval after the American Revolution.

 Their daughter Marguerite Gray married Paul Desmarais dit Beaulac in 1805 in St. Charles, a town in the Richelieu valley south of Montreal. (See the record above - hard to decipher her mother's last name)  Her  father is listed as deceased. Paul, a widower, is listed  as from the "parish of the Hurons called St. Jean Baptiste". This is a puzzling allusion since St. Jean Baptiste would more likely be the parish of the Abenakis.The family lived in Swanton Vt. from 1810-1814 and 1823-25 based on birth places of children. They are  not in 1810 or 1820 US census. This family moved around quite a bit - with  children born in Canada and Vermont. Marguerite is dead by 1839. Her husband probably dies in New York state where is is living with a daughter and her family in 1850 census.

Their daughter, Marguerite Desmarais dite Beaulac, married Jean Baptiste Chicoine  in 1822  in Swanton, VT an area where the Abenaki tribe settled. Although Jean Baptiste b. 1798 is clearly identified as son of his father the connection with his mother is not verified by any record. His father Jean Baptiste Chicoine married Archange Valade in 1798 and their first son is Louis born 1799. They baptized several children in Montreal between 1799 and 1810 but no Jean Baptiste. So his mother may be another mystery woman!

Rose Bonin 1800-after 1851 is from St. Elizabeth, Joliette, Quebec. She is my 3rd great grandmother in my great grandfather Joseph Moreau dit Desrosiers line.  She is raised by Louis Bonin and wife Therese Goulet. Her wedding record records the relationship to Louis as that of a ward, foster child or adopted. using Bonin as her surname but on the baptism record of her first child her surname is left blank. Was she native American? In this area there are several records of native children - mostly boys, returned by a fur trapper father to be raised there. Was she related to Louis or Therese, an orphaned niece or cousin or a foundling? Several Roses and Rosalies with the surname "unknown" are also in the Berthier registers at the beginning of the 19th century. She married Jean Baptiste Belhumeur dit Blosse in 1824 - having at least 14 children up to 1848. Less than half of these children survived past age 10. She and her husband are listed in the 1851 Canadian census in St. Felix of Valois parish, Berthier Co.  Her birthplace is indicated as French Canada. 

Catherine Degres or Depre 1664-1758 my 7th great grandmother, was a Native American from the Gaspe pennisula, possibly of the Mic'maq tribe. She married Etienne Girard at Mount St. Louis  around 1705. He is also somewhat of a mystery - with no parents known and the nickname of "Le Breton" perhaps a clue to his birth in Brittany. Their first daughter Marie Catherine was born there in 1706. Neither Catherine nor Etienne are in the 1699 or 1700 census of the area. The couple had 15 children some born at Mount Louis and others in Anciene Lorette (a Huron village)  near Quebec city where they later settled. Over 1/2 of these children did not survive past age 5. The family traveled to Quebec City to record baptisms performed by lay officials in Mount Louis. It is from these records that we know Catherine was a Native American. The priest baptizing their daughter Marie Louise identifies her as Catherine "d'un nation sauvage" and her daughter as Metisse (mixed blood) Their daughter Marie Francoise is my grandfather Paul Marcel Chicoine's  many times great grandmother.

Mount St. Louis, Gaspe, fishermen

Catherine Pillard or Pallet 1646-after 1688 was not a mystery before DNA. She was listed as a Fille du Roi from La Rochelle and her 1665 wedding record to Jean Charron clearly gives her parish and parents Pierre Pillard and Marguerite Moulinet. Her city of origin is also noted on the occasion of her second marriage many years later. On the basis of maternal mtDNA descendants of her daughters  carry genes linked to Amerindian lines of Siberian. This DNA is passed directly from mother to daughter. This raised questions and started a controversy over her actual origin - was she the daughter of a Huron chief named Catherine baptized in Montreal in 1646 rather than the Catherine originating in La Rochelle?  If so why would she be misrepresented on her marriage record? Was she an Indian woman or the daughter of one, brought by explorers to France who then returned to New France?  French explorers had been to New France since the mid 16th century and  had brought back natives to their homeland. Some scholars feel that French fishermen were aware of the area from the 15th century. If so her mother or grandmother would be the person with Amerindian ancestry. Or is this a genetic fluke, DNA passed down in France from previous invasions centuries ago?

A detailed discussion can be found on the website:

http://www.charron-ducharme.org/index.php/en/catherine-pillard-en/87-catherine-pillard-s-origin

Marguerite Thomas (1635-1695) The foreign bride
 
Marguerite Thomas was from Stavelot, Liège, in what is now Belgium, daughter of Jean Thomas and Marguerite Fredrey and about 21 years old when she arrived in Canada in the summer of 1655. Her hometown was not French but part of the Holy Roman Empire under the authority of the abbot of Stavelot. It was located in the area called Southern Netherlands ruled by Spain.  She was among a number of marriageable women who came to New France between 1634 and 1663 with the idea of finding a husband. (unlike the government sponsored Filles du Roi they did not receive government assistance and came alone, with family members or in a small group)  What motivated her to come to New France?  Whatever did,  she quickly found herself a spouse. Jean-Pierre Trudel was a cotton weaver from the parish of Notre-Dame in Parfindeval, La Chèverie, Orne (Perche), Normandy.  In November of 1655, they were married in Chateau Richer, QC.

Trudel had arrived in Canada as a bachelor in 1652 from the Perche area of Normandy, and is considered part of the Percheron Immigration.  First mention of him is in Québec is 11-13-1655 at his marriage contract.  The young family lived in Québec, and in 1657, established themselves at l'Ange-Gardien on land acquired from M. LeGardeur de Repentigny. Their daughter Marie Madeliene Trudel one of their nine children,  is my 7th great grandmother in my Chicoine ancestry.