Lost Uncles

Did you ever lose an uncle? In genealogy research I have encountered at least four "lost" uncles. One of them, Richard Corbett, was the subject of a previous post. (See Lost in the California Gold Rush entry)  But there are others: Andrew Bresnahan, Michael Farrell and brother John Farrell and William Corbett.  I found Richard Corbett through a website that carries an  index of the "Missing Friends" ads that were placed in the Boston Pilot by immigrants seeking their lost relatives. Patrick Corbett brother to Richard, placed two ads looking for him after he had gone to California. (This resource full text is available on Ancestry.com and the index on Missing Friends Ads Index Boston Pilot )

Andrew Bresnahan is a "double uncle". He occurs only in his marriage record in 1854 to my great grand aunt Mary Leary (sister to my great grandfather James Leary)  Perhaps my great grandfather met his future spouse, Andrew's sister Julia, at that wedding. They were married in 1863. Andrew and Mary had only one son Cornelius Andrew born about 1856. After that Andrew disappears - he is not in any US census including the 1860 one. His immigration record has not been found. He doesn't appear in a city directory for either Manchester, NH - where they were married or Fishkill where his son was born or Concord NH where his wife's family lived. Where did he go? The mystery deepens when a search (for entire US) of the 1860 census for a child named Cornelius Andrew Bresnahan with mother Mary and father Andrew does not come up with the family. If Andrew died before 1860 where are his wife and child? Both wife and child are alive in 1860 since they are in subsequent census records. The family only surfaces in the 1870 census when Cornelius is living with his aunt Julia and uncle James Leary in Concord, NH. His mother is working nearby as a maid and is a widow. There is no death record in NH that fits Andrew.

Michael and John Farrell are brothers to my great great grandmother Mary Agnes Farrell Shea. She and her sister Bridget Farrell Flanigan, placed a "Missing Friends" ad in the Boston Pilot in Sept 1855 looking for Michael  It says that their brother left Limerick in July on the ship Clare in 1850 which docked in  New York City. That ship's passenger list has a Michael 22 but also a John 13 accompanied by a Mary, age 40 who might be their oldest sister Margaret (Mary seems to be part of all the girls' names)  It is odd if this is true that the sisters did not name them also in their ad. It says that Michael is from Mungret about 2 miles from Limerick city. They indicate his mother Mary Catherine had received a letter 9 months ago from him from Ohio. (This would indicate she might have also immigrated and a Mary Farrell of right age died in 1854 in Burlington VT. )They thought he was in "Creamwell, Paulding Co Ohio" There is no town of that name but there is a Carryall in Paulding Co. There, however, the trail gets cold - four men named Michael appear in the Ohio marriage records between 1854 and 1864 and some of them can be tracked in the census but which one, if any,  is our Michael? There may be some Farrell cousins in Ohio but where is a question?

William Corbett is youngest child of several listed in the 1860 census living with Anastasia Corbett mother of Patrick, Richard and Dominic Corbett (my great grandfather) I can verify the identity of the girls Johannah and Ellen from baptism records in their hometown in Kilkenny but there is no William baptized in that town born around 1842. It is possible he is not the son of Anastasia. I do not know when the family immigrated but in the Massachusetts state census in 1855 only the two sons Patrick and Dominick are listed with their mother. Johanah, Ellen and William disappear from records after 1865 when these three appear with their mother under an incorrect last name of Champlin rather than Corbett. A number of William Corbett's live in Massachusetts but marriage records show none with a father and mother than match this family. What happened? Did William die in the Civil War? of disease? His sisters are harder to find since they probably married and none in Massachusetts records have parents that match this family. 

When the census makes no sense

Over the course of many years of researching lost ancestors I have found help in the U.S. census. I have also found problems and errors. Names are often not spelled correctly complicating an Internet search.  It would be rare not to find such anomalies - census takers often were dealing with immigrants with heavy accents and who themselves did not know how to read or write. Sometimes the information was given by a child or a neighbor who did not always have the correct information on ages or places of birth.  In the 1860 census my great grandfather Joseph Moreau dit Desrosiers appears as Joseph Morrow. For some reason in 1870 he drops Morrow and goes to his French nickname Desrosiers which leads to even more creative spellings: Derosia, Derusha, Dero and Deso.

Another example is my great-great grandmother Virginia Raymond Chicoine's census in 1880. I had found her in every census in US census from 1860 to her death after 1930 but the 1880 one had eluded me. I knew she lived in Highgate, Vermont and was twice widowed - with two children from her first marriage to Antoine Bouvier and four from her second to Paul Chicoine. She appears as Vergine Reymo with 6 children all with the surname Reymo. As a French woman, if she was the one speaking with the census taker she would have used her maiden name to identify herself - did the census taker assume that all the children shared the same last name? Or was the informant one of the older children who identified her mother this way and just gave the first names of her siblings? I certainly didn't search the indices for Raymond/Reymo. It is obvious that the census taker wrote down what he heard for the last name. This is true of many of both my French and Irish ancestors where Leary becomes Lary and Shea becomes Shay or even Chay.

Other errors may be deliberate. In researching a friend's family I discovered two sisters one older and one 2 years younger with ages correctly noted in all census until 1900 when the elder had gotten married. The newly weds were living with the younger single sister. The married sister had recorded her age as 2 years younger so her sister had to adjust her own birth date as to not give away her sister's fudged birth date. Since the husband would have been 2 years younger than his wife if the real date had been recorded I assume that was why she had adjusted her age.

Birth places can be in error - one granduncle who is listed as born in Vermont and by family tradition was born there was really born in Ireland A baptism record from Limerick proved that. In census where he probably gave the information he is listed as from Ireland but in others where his family probably were the informants it is Vermont. Why?

In a Kansas 1870 census a boarding school with about 1/2 Indian students and 1/2 white has the column denoting race with Ind crossed out. Why did the census taker or a later official do this? A native woman in the same town married to a white man is correctly identified in all the census but her children, originally designated as MB or mixed blood appear to get whiter with the passing decades. In another case the opposite is true. A man named George Washington, born in Virginia in 1841,  one of the few persons listed as "colored" in the census in Swanton, VT in 1870 appears with his white wife and white children. By 1880 his children have all become mulatto.

In the census for the 1860 census in Fall River, MA my Corbett ancestors and all Irish in the town appear in one index as from Idaho. Since that state was not yet in existence in 1860 it appears the census taker got creative and wrote Id for place of birth Ireland instead of the usual abbreviation IR or IRE.

It is very possible the census taker missed some people. Thanks to ancestry.com's census search I have been looking for a family who should be in the 1860 census. My great grandaunt Mary Leary Bresnahan and her child Cornelius Andrew Bresnahan appear in the 1870 and later census without her husband Andrew Bresnahan. They had married in 1854 in Manchester, NH and Cornelius was born in Fishville, near Concord NH in 1856.  I have searched  the US census nationwide for a child of that age and found none that match. Have even tried searching for child by just age and place of birth or first name only. Where was he? Where was his mother? What happened to his father? (disappeared? lost in war? civil war records doesn't turn up an Andrew that matches) He was probably deceased at least by 1872 when his wife remarried but no death record has yet to surface.  A mystery!

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

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?

Out of Ireland

All of my mother’s grandparents were born in Ireland. She knew that her Leary ancestors came from Kerry and mother’s parents were from Kilkenny and Limerick. Only her paternal grandmother's Bresnahan line had no definite place of origin in Ireland. She was very proud of being Irish and one of the high points of her life was a visit to Ireland to Killarney, Co. Kerry near where her father’s ancestors originated and when she was able to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin.

Much  about her Leary ancestors was hidden in a newspaper clipping from the Boston Herald published in May, 1907 (before she was born) giving a profile of her grandfather James Leary. In it he noted that the family had immigrated together, he his parents and his siblings. It also included his picture and the information that he had worked for over 50 years for the railroad in Concord, NH. Subsequent research and serendipitous discoveries found that the Leary family: John Leary (1798-1893) and Abbie (Gobnait) Callahan (1802-1877) with three of their children: James, Catherine and John Jr. landed in NY at the South Street Seaport on August 29, 1853 on the clipper ship Yorkshire out of Liverpool. Two older girls: Anna and Mary preceded them in landing in Boston Sept 1847 on the ship Bordeaux sailing from Castlemaine, Co. Kerry that summer. Based on census information 1850 John may have come over ahead also and worked at building the railroad in NH while Anna and Mary worked in service and the mills in Concord, and Manchester, NH. 

Subsequent research in the Casey collection (a multi volume source of Irish records extracted from parish and other records in the 1950's) Casey Collection found a link to a small Irish townland called Readrinaugh, Rathmore, Co. Kerry. Two baptism records that fit this family were found - one for daugher Catherine and the other for a child that probably perished in the famine years. The printout of the records showed the townland where the family lived. Another Leary family lived on the same townland and descendants of that family still live there today.  With DNA testing it might be possible to establish a link between the two families. A strong oral tradition on the Leary side was that they were from Cork. Since Rathmore is on the Kerry-Cork border in the Blackwater valley it is very possible that the family originated in Cork which is the ancestral home of the Learys.

View from O Leary farm Readrinaugh, Rathmore, Kerry