Motherlines: documenting the women in our family tree.

Genealogy tends to follow back the paternal lines - father and mother to their grandfathers with the grandmothers sometimes only there as "Mrs." or only with a first name without their maiden names. It is interesting to do a "motherline" on the women in the family and since we are coming up on Mother's day I thought I would do just that.

This "motherline" needs their maiden names (which of course is the last name of their father - not their mother). I don't have any families with hyphenated names or with women who kept their own names. However on my paternal grandmother's side I am blessed by being from a culture (French Canadian) where women were often referred to in records by their maiden names (most Canadian census, baptism, marriage and sometimes death records). On my maternal Irish side I have had to rely on very unreliable marriage, baptism and death records to find the elusive maiden name. Even a missing person newspaper ad provided one name. Occasionally in searching census records a researcher can find a relative living with the family who reveals the woman's maiden name especially if the census notes the relationship to the head of house: in-laws, siblings, nephew or nieces, etc.

Mary Margaret Leary at the Lakes of Killarney near where her paternal grandparents lived.

Here are my "motherlines" beginning with my maternal grandmother Kathryn Grace Corbett mother of my mother Mary Margaret Leary.(1907-1994)

• Kathryn Grace Corbett (1873-1860) daughter of Mary Bridget Shea 
• Mary Bridget Shea   (1844-1924) daughter of Mary Agnes Farrell
• Mary Agnes Farrell (1818-1886) daughter of Catherine Supple 
• Catherine Supple (ca.1790-ca.1850) where the line ends somewhere in Limerick Co. Ireland  Her father's name is of Norman origin and found in Limerick from the 13th century. Her mother's name is unknown. Her name is from baptism records of siblings of her daughter Mary Agnes. 

Mary Agnes Farrell and Mary Bridget Shea came to St. Johnsbury, Vermont from Limerick. Some records indicate that Catherine Supple might have immigrated with her son John Farrell to Ohio.

The maiden names are retreived from baptism, some marriage and death records. A missing persons' ad published in the Boston Pilot identified Mary Agnes Farrell's sister Bridget who lived in the same town and made finding her baptism record in Ireland easier. Her mother's maiden name was on the record.

Here is the "motherline" of my paternal grandmother Ida Emma Desrosiers. (on right)

• Ida Emma Desrosiers (Moreau dite Desrosiers) (1873-1924) daughter of Adelaide Raymond (dite Toulouse) 
• Adelaide Raymond (1852-1915) daughter of Salome Dupuis
• Salome Dupuis (1822-1907)  daughter of Marie Montminy 
• Marie Montminy (Montmesnil) (1788-1827) daughter of Francoise Remillard
• Francoise Remillard (1756-1809) daughter of Clothilde Denis (dite LaPierre)
• Clothilde Denis (1740-about 1760) daughter of Marie Jeanne Clement (dite LaBonte)
• Marie Jeanne Clement (1704-1758) daughter of Marie Jeanne Morisset
• Marie Jeanne Morisset (1683-1756) daughter of Jeanne Choret(te)
• Jeanne Choret (1652-1718) daughter of Sebastiene Veillion
• Sebastiene Veillion (1626-1698) ,  daughter of Bernarde Venet
• Bernarde Venet (1599-1657) in Verdille, France where the line ends and whose mother's name is unknown Her name is from her daughter's marriage record in 1647.

Salome Dupuis immigrated to Highgate Vermont Quebec  around 1850 from St. Valentin, Quebec. 

Sebastiene Veillion born in Verdille, Vienne, France immigrated to Beauport Quebec via LaRochelle France where she married in 1647.

The maiden names of all these women come from marriage records as well as baptism records where they are carefully noted. For an explanation of dit names google my blog on that topic.

Millyard Immigrants

Amoskeag mill workers apartments - mill in distance

Throughout New England, one industry attracted immigrants during the 19th century - the mills. Swift flowing water allowed industrialists to construct textile mills in many small towns. Originally these mills attracted  New England farm girls, most of whom were Anglo-Saxon Protestants. However, the influx of Irish and later French Canadian immigrants provided a steady flow of cheap labor for these towns Often whole families including children would be employed in the mills. Most of those workers were Catholics and some spoke French or Irish.

In Manchester NH, many of the mill buildings still stand and an excellent Millyard Museum showcases the many ethnic groups that worked there before and after the Civil War.  see http://www.manchesterhistoric.org/millyard-museum 

From my own family history on my mother's side, her Bresnahan and Leary families were connected with the Manchester mills. Her great grandmother Margaret Fleming Bresnahan b. in 1798 appears there in mid-century.  Her son Andrew and daughters Julia and Honora immigrated with her but her husband Cornelius may have died in Ireland. She appears in the Manchester city directory in the 1850's but not in the 1850 census.

Whether she worked in the mill is not clear but by 1860 census she is listed with her two daughters: Julia , 20 (my great grandmother) and Honora, 16 both spinners as well as Patrick, 17 and Margaret, 15  possibly cousins and Honora Dillon, 19 relationship unknown. All were working in the mill. Well into the 20th-century children were an important part of mill labor force.

Mill children 1909 In the early 1850's Andrew Bresnahan met Mary Leary. Mary may have immigrated around 1848 with her sister Hannah and their father John. A Mary Leary (Lary) of the right age appears in the 1850 census in Manchester, a millworker. Andrew and Mary married in 1854 in St. Ann's parish. Mary was the elder sister of James Leary, my mother's grandfather, who would later marry Andrew's sister Julia. Did Andrew also work in the mills? Some sources say that before the Civil War the mill employees were all female. However, since the mills were also producing steam engines right before the war and converted some sections to making munitions during the Civil War so it is possible he worked there. What is puzzling is his disappearance - neither he, his wife Mary or their young son Cornelius appear in the 1860 census anywhere in the US. By 1870, when Mary is a widow and she and her son are in the census but not Andrew .   Mill workers about 1900