Now, thanks to the folks at the Rock Island County illinois Genealogical Society, I have made a major breakthrough tracking down Shawn Butler, the great grandson of Leta Smith.  Based on one of Shawns earlier message forums posts, I have been working under the assumption that Shawn was the grandson of Leta Butler.  That would make him the son of Merle Record.  So all my research was focused on looking for Merle or Muyrll Butler. So armed with that information, I took a shot and emailed the RICIGS for help.  Within a couple of days, one of their researchers had emailed me back with the following research.

“I visited RICHS library and found information I think will be helpful. His request is both specific (can we put him in touch with Shawn Butler) and broad (any information on Shawn, his mother, father, or grandparents). I limited myself to one visit and spent about 1-1/2 hours and found the following samples on the family. Based on below information Leta and Berl Record may be the great-grandparents of Shawn Butler, not his grandparents.

1. Birth Index of Rock Island County, IL 1908-1921, Compiled by the Blackhawk Genealogy Society of Rock Island and Mercer Counties:

Name: Record, Beryell A; Father – Bert; Mother – Lita; Birth – 1912; Book 11 Page 202

Name: Record, Merle Leon; Father – Bert; Mother – Leta E.; Birth – 1909; Book 9 Page 121

2. City Directories – 1925 lists Bert P. Record, wife Leta E, living at 1303 40th St., Rock Island. Bert is listed as foreman, People’s Power Co.

1930 City Directory – no listing for Bert P. Record in either Rock Island, Moline, or East Moline.

3. Mohlenbruck, Dwight E.: Death Index, Rock Island, IL Area 1930’s, Vol 29 L thru Z.

Record, Muyrel L., died 24 Sep 1930, obituary 25 Sep 1930, a.k.a. Turner.

See attached file Obit-Muyrel Record Turner.jpg

I could find no information about Roy Turner. No listing of gravestone in Chippiannock Cemetery. If more information is required suggest direct contact with cemetery – it may be a burial without a gravestone.

4.  Birth Index of Rock Island County, IL 1922-1934, Compiled by the Blackhawk Genealogy Society of Rock Island and Mercer Counties:

Name: Turner, Leta Ellen; Father – Roy G.; Mother – Mayell; Birth – 1929; Record # 11225

5.  Rock Island / Moline City Directory 1974: Butler, Wm. O. (wife Leta E.), Lab Tech Rock Island City Water Purification Plant, Home 1925 9-1/2 St., Rock Island.

6.  Obituary Record Binders: Butler, Leta, Obituary in The Argus, Rock Island, IL, 21 Dec 1990 (copy attached – see Obit-Leta Turner Butler.jpg). No records of an obituary for William Butler.

7.  Shawn Butler – no records found in time allotted. However, a inquiry of www.qconline.com finds news stories as recent as 2007 which list a Mercer County Deputy Shawn Butler. Since Leta Butler died in Mercer County this may or may not be her son Shawn listed in her obituary. Law enforcement personnel normally do not list contact information. Suggest direct contact with the Mercer County Sheriff’s department to attempt contact with this person.”

The obituaries were the key to solving the mystery.

• Muryll Turner Obituary (Click To View)
• Leta E Butler (Click To View)

So based on the obituaries, the following is believed to be true.

Leta and Bert Record had a daughter named Muyrll Leon Record (b. 25 Aug 1909, d. 24 Sep 190) and a son Burrell Aaron Record (b. 24 Sep 1912, d. 17 July 1968) .  Muyrll married Roy Turner (b. 1906, d ????).  Muyrll died tragically at the age of 21following two operations for an intestinal ailment,  leaving behind two children.  The two children were Clarence (b. abt 1927) and Leta EllenTurner (b. 9 Aug 1929, d. 22 Dec 1990).  Leta Turner married  William Butler on 19 November 1965 in Rock Island.  They had five girls and two boys.  One of those boys is Shawn Butler.  I think I found him living near Joy, Illinois, which is where he was living when his mom died!

So today, I sent three letters to addresses I believe to be where Shawn works and lives.  With any luck, I will be hearing from him in the coming weeks.  A few more Smith cousins have been added to the family tree.

Then in July 2009, I found an interest post on a genealogy message board that gave me the name of Leta’s great grandson.  His name was Shawn Butler.  He was looking for information about his great great grandmother Julia Geeslin Smith, for which I have lots of info about.  I tried to contact him without success. The problem was that his email address that he provided was no longer valid.  I even tried contact some Shawn Butlers on Facebook.  No good.  You can read more about that part of the story here:

http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/07/17/great-grandson-of-leta-smith-found-sort-of/

So with that dead end, I gave up on her for a while, until this morning.  I’m not sure why I selected her  for my research effort again.  I guess it was because I just couldn’t accept the fact that I couldn’t  find her or her family.  With such unusual names involved, you would think finding a mother named Leta and two children name Merle and Berle would be easy.  No way.  It has been a nearly impossible task…  until this AM.

This morning I decided to do a fresh search of Leta using four know variations of her name, including Leeta, Leda and Leeda.  I stripped out almost all other search criteria except for her birth year and birth state and asked for exact matches.   Then I added what was believed to be Leta husbands first name… Bert. Since I had no idea what the last name could be, I left it blank.   I confined the search to the 1920 Census.

When I pressed the search button, there,  at the top was a Leta E Record, married to a Bert Record with two children; Muyrell and Burnes (at least according to the person who translated the record into the Ancestry.com database).  On closer examination of the actual 1920 Census record, I found the Leta E was born in Iowa, her mother born in Iowa and her father was born in New York.  This information perfectly matched what I knew about Leta.  Now, my concern was of the two children’s names.  They looked similar to the names I was looking for, but far from a match.  In addition, this Census Record was taken in the Rock Island, Illinois area.

What would Leta be doing in Illinois?  But then I remembered.  Back when I was looking for Leta’s son, I tracked down Shawn Butlers Internet Service Provider and they were in Illinois.  Hmmmmmm.  That’s interesting!

So I went back to the original article I wrote about Shawn’s inquiry to see if there were any clues that I missed. Nope, nothing there.   I then went back to the original postings he made at geneaology.com.  Nope… didn’t miss anything there either.  But….  he had made inquiries into other surnmes at geneaology.com.  So I went to check on his other postings.  Sure enough, there was the confirmation I needed.  He posted several messages indicating that he was in possession of the “Record Family Bible”.  And the details of his post was even more interesting.  In one post, he said:

“I have a family bible handed down to me with my great-great grandfather listed as well as his brothers and sisters. Grandfather Bert Record is buried in rock Island .”

Bingo..  Now the pieces have fallen into place.   Leta Ethel Smith married Bert Record.  And Merle and Berle do not appear to be twins, at least according to the 1920 Census.  Now I just need to make the rest of the connections!  Say tuned!

THE FIRST US GENERATION OF SHEEHANS

Jeremiah D Sheehan was born circa 1826 in Ireland.  He arrived in the US sometime around 1845, although no concrete details about his immigration have been found yet.  He was married to Mary Sullivan, who was born circa 1829 in Ireland. Together they had six children.

• Jeremiah Sheehan, (b. 1848 in Vermont or New Hampshire)
• Daniel J. Sheehan (b. 1851 in Vermont or New Hampshire)
• Mary A Sheehan (b. circa 1856 in New Hampshire)
• Hanora A Sheehan (b. 1859 in New Hampshire)
• Margaret G Sheehan (b. 1860 in New Hampshire)
• John Joseph Sheehan  (b. 1864 in New Hampshire).

Based on the fact that the two youngest children have conflicting census information about where they were born, it is possible that Jeremiah and Mary may have initially settle somewhere in Vermont, before making New Hampshire their home.  Between 1856 and 1864, the Sheehans lived in Boscawan, New Hampshire where I believe most, if not all the other children were born.  There are no birth records for any of them in the New Hampshire Vital Record Archives.

Around 1860, the Sheehan family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire.  Over the years they lived in several houses.

• 1860:  6 Johnson’s Block
• 1864 – 1866:   4 Mitchell’s Block
• 1871 – 1875:  5 Merrimack (opposite the square)
• 1873:  Rear of 44 Merrimack
• 1875 – 1886:   62 Auburn Street, Manchester, NH
• 1886 – 1891:  186 Auburn Street, Manchester, NH

Mary Sullivan Sheehan, Jeremiah’s wife,  died at the age of 41 in 1870 and was buried at the old Saint Josephs Cemetery in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Jeremiah D Sheehan was a proud member of several New Hampshire Volunteer Regiments during the civil war. He enlisted as a Private on 25 July 1861 at the age of 38.  His grave proudly indicates that he was a  member of Co. K 10th Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers.

• Enlisted in Company C, 3rd Infantry Regiment New Hampshire on 23 Aug 1861.
• Received a disability discharge from Company C, 3rd Infantry Regiment New Hampshire on 19 Oct 1861 at Annapolis, MD.
• Enlisted in Company K, 10th Infantry Regiment New Hampshire on 5 Sep 1862.
• Received a disability discharge from Company K, 10th Infantry Regiment New Hampshire on 28 Apr 1863.
• Enlisted in Company C, 11th Regiment U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps on 4 Jan 1864.
• Received a final disability discharge from Company C, 11th Regiment U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps on 2 Dec 1864 at Point Lookout, MD.

In all census records between 1860 and 1880, Jeremiah is listed as a general laborer. The 1870 census lists his son Daniel as working in a locomotive shop, while the three girls were listed as working in a Cotton Mill, in Manchester.   In 1880, the three girls continued their work at the Cotton Mill but were now joined by their brother Daniel. John began his apprenticeship as an iron moulder.

Jeremiah D Sheehan died on 16 December 1891 in Manchester and was buried at the old Saint Joseph’s Cemetery with his wife.  Jeremiah jr. disappeared after the 1860 Census.  He most likely died at an early age although it is possible he moved out of the area.  As far as I can tell, he is not buried at the family plot.  Daniel (or Danial as the headstone indicates) died 20 Dec 1900 in Manchester and is buried at the family plot with his mother and father.  Mary A Sheehan also disappeared after the 1880 census.  She may have married or also died.

THE SECOND U.S. GENERATION OF SHEEHANS

Hanora Sheehan (Aunt Han) never married and lived to the age of 81,  She died in 2 November 1939 in the Manchester area.  She spent much of her elder years living with her sister Margaret Sheehan Simpson at 335 Central Street in Manchester.  Margaret’s husband Charles Simpson, died a year or two after they married.  Margaret and Charles had no children.  Hanora worked as a Milliner while Margaret worked as a cook in a hotel.  I believe both were present at the later marriage of their niece, Margaret Sheehan.  Margaret Sheehan Simpson died 22 May 1930 and is buried at the family plot.

John J Sheehan, my Great Grandfather, finished his moulder apprenticeship around 1890 and left Manchester for the big city of New York.  He may have done this looking for work.  There, he met his first wife, Elizabeth Rose Keeny (Kenney) and were presumably married there in Brooklyn, New York.  They lived at 158 Luquer Street in Brooklyn and attended the Church of St Mary Star of The Sea which was right around the corner from where they lived. There is no marriage certificate filed with the City of New York.  Together they had three children.

• Margaret Mary Sheehan (b. 1891 in Brooklyn, NY)
• William Edward Sheehan (b. 1893 in Brooklyn, NY)
• Elizabeth R Sheehan (B. 1896 in Brooklyn, NY.)

There are no birth registrations filed for any of the three children in the City of New York either, but all three were recorded as baptized at Saint Mary Star of the Sea.  Failing to register births with the City was not necessarily uncommon in New York.  Apparently about 10% of the population chose to to not notify the authorities of births during those years.

Elizabeth Kenny Sheehan, mother of three young children,  died 6 March 1898 at the age of 29.  According to her death certificate, she died of appendicitis and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.    When I called the cemetery, they told me that they have no record of an Elizabeth Sheehan being buried there.  So as of today, we know nothing about her except what is indicated in her death certificate.  I have not been able to find a birth record for her or connect her with a family in the 1880 Census.

Born: Brooklyn, NY (between March 6 1868 and March 6 1869)
Occupation: Housewife
How long a resident of New York: Lifelong
Lived in a three family house on the third floor.
Father was born in Ireland
Mother was born in Ireland.

By 5 June 1900 , John J Sheehan had left Brooklyn, NY was living in Milford, Mass. The 1900 census shows just  two children, William and Margaret, with him.  Elizabeth was not listed, nor could I find her anywhere else in Census records.

On 2 January 1902  - John J Sheehan married his second wife, Ellen Francis Flynn in Natick, Massachusetts.  By June 1910,  the new Sheehan family moved to Woonsocket, Rhode Island and bought their first house at 239 Summer Street.

John J Sheehan died at his home at 239 Summer Street on 24 Apr 1930 and is buried at St Charles Cemetery in Blackstone, Massachusetts.

THE THIRD U.S. GENERATION OF SHEEHANS

Somewhere around age 22, Margaret Mary Sheehan decided to leave Woonsocket and her father and move to Manchester, New Hampshire.  She may have been seeking work. She moved into an apartment at 276 Central Street in Manchester and began work at 999 Elm Street which is where her Aunt Han worked.   In 1915  Margaret moved in with her two Aunts,  Margaret Simpson and Hanora Sheehan and lived with them for several years.  Together they lived at a house  at 315 Lake Avenue.  Margaret soon met Jeremiah J Hayes, who she married on  24 June 1918.  A wedding with lots of family photographs took place at the house on Lake Avenue.   The couple moved into a rented house at 35 Front Street.  Within the year after the marriage, Jeremiah opened up the J. J. Hayes Novelty Store at 80 Front Street.

By 1920, the couple were expecting their first of three children.

• Margaret Hayes (b. 1920 in Manchester, NH – died soon after birth)
• John Joseph Hayes  (b. 1922  in Manchester, NH)
• Andrea Hayes  (b. 1927 in Manchester, NH)

After Andrea’s birth, Jeremiah gave up the Novelty store and began work as a salesman for a candle company.  In 1924, Jeremiah and Margaret moved to Woonsocket, RI and moved in with Margaret’s widowed step mother, Ellen Sheehan at the house at 239 Summer Street.

When searching Census records for a Francis Dillon who was born circa 1848 in Scotland, I came across just one possible match and it was in the the 1861England Census.  In it, we find a family of Dillon’s living in Liverpool, England.

Francis Dillon 54 abt 1807 Ireland Head of Household, A Feather Dealer

Sarah Dillon 60 abt 1801 Ireland Wife

Ellen Dillon 19 abt 1842 Ireland Daughter

Frances Dillon 13 abt 1848 Scotland Son

This most certainly seems to be a match for the Francis Dillon buried with the Beattie’s at Holy Cross Cemetery. With further research, I found the same family 10 years earlier in the 1851 England Census.  In this Census, there is another daughter named Sarah with the family. But in this Census, it indicates that Francis was born in Ireland.  Inconstancies like this are not unusual in Census records, but it does make it difficult to confirm relationships.

Francis Dillon 38 abt 1813 Ireland Head of Household

Sarah Dillon 38 abt 1813 Ireland Wife

Sarah Dillon 15 abt 1836 Ireland Daughter

Ellen Dillon 9 abt 1842 Ireland Daughter

Francis Dillon 3 abt 1848 Ireland Son

By the time the 1861 Census was taken, the younger Sarah Dillon must have died, married or emigrated to America. In the 1871 English Census, the Dillon family seems to have disappeared from the Liverpool area.  No close matches could be found for any of the family members.  Does this mean they came to the US?

According to Lloyd Lewis’ notes, Francis Dillon “returned to Liverpool in 1880 and died about 1883″.  This seems to indicate that Francis Dillon Sr., was in America for at least a small period of time.  I did find him back in Liverpool in the 1881 Census.  The Census taker wrote his name as what looks like “Francis Delane”.  He was listed as a patient at the Catholic Institute at 70 Hope Street in Liverpool and is still listed as married.  His occupation was “Former Feather Merchant”.

Searching death registrations in the Liverpool area for the time period that Lloyd Lewis indicated he believed Francis Dillon died, I found a Francis Dillon who was 67 years old at death and was living at 70 Hope Street, the same address as above.  Taking 67 years away from 1883 gives us an approximate birth date of 1816.  This Francis Dillon’s death certificate also states that he was a feather dealer.  This information appears to confirm that the Francis Dillon in the Death Certificate is the same one in the 1851, 1861 and 1881 Census, leaving him missing from the 1871 English Census.

Hypothesis #1

So, the big question is…  Is there a Mary associated with the Dillon family of Liverpool that left before the 1851 England Census?  Both, the 1900 and 1910 US Census indicate that Mary Dillon arrived in the US in 1850 at the age of 16, one year before that 1851 England Census.  Her early arrival would explain why there is no Mary in the 1851 England Census of that Dillon family in Liverpool.  We also know what there is a Sarah McDermott buried with the Beattie’s who was born circa 1840 and lived to age 55..  Could Sarah Dillon have married a man named McDermott and / or had a daughter named Sarah?

Hypothesis #2

Or here is the other possibility… According to US Census records, Mary Dillon Beattie was born circa 1834. This is within 2 years of the Sarah Dillon in the 1851 English Census.  Sarah Dillon disappeared from the Liverpool Dillon family after the 1851 Census .  Could this mean that Sarah came to the US and decided to change her name or go by a middle name that could be Mary?

Conclusion

I tend to be leaning toward my first Hypothesis.  The  Dillons of Liverpool are somehow related, but I still lack the proof necessary to concretely make the call.  And if I am right, what happened to Mary Crilly Dillon, Mary Dillon Beattie’s mother? Was she  Mary Crilly Dillon or Sarah Crilly Dillon? Did she die in the United States?  Was it before or after Francis returned to Liverpool?  Did Francis return alone?  If so, why?  Was is because of a health issue?

]]> http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/11/17/looking-for-the-dillons/feed/ 0 http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/08/07/eneclann-genealogical-assessment-for-the-roche-family-of-dublin/ http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/08/07/eneclann-genealogical-assessment-for-the-roche-family-of-dublin/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:14:36 +0000 Philip Hayes http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/08/07/eneclann-genealogical-assessment-for-the-roche-family-of-dublin/ The following is part of an Genealogical Assessment provided by the nice people at Eneclann.  The purpose of the assessment is to help me evaluate whether it makes sense to move forward with a more in-depth investigation of my Roche (Roach) relatives of Dublin, Ireland..  The people there are very nice and curteous.  They did lose my initial request for the assessment which delayed the results by more than four weeks, but they did most certainly make the situation right with me in several ways.  Thank you Eneclann.  I do plan to use them for additional assessments and so far, would recommend them to others who need help researching in Ireland.

You can learn more about  Enclann’s Genealogy  Experts at:

http://www.eneclann.ie/Research/research_genealogy.html

The purpose of this initial assessment is to review the information you have given us on your Irish ancestors and, if possible, to develop a search strategy. As I am sure you will understand, we do not like to recommend commissioning research if we are not confident of finding more material about the family.

The initial information that you sent was that Margaret ______ was born ca. 1818 in Dublin.  It is believed that Margaret trained as a doctor in Dublin.  Margaret married Andrew Roche.  Three known children issued from this marriage, namely Bridget (b. ca. 1831, Dublin), Anna (b. ca. 1838, Dublin) and Mary (b. ca. 1845, Dublin).  Margaret Roche emigrated with her three daughters ca. 1851 (possibly on bard the Princess arriving in the US ca. 21^st June 1851).  Andrew Roche was not travelling with the family (the Andrew recorded on the ship’s manifest appears to be too young and is believed therefore to be an issue of the marriage).  It is possible that a Patrick (b. ca. 1835, Dublin), John (b. ca. 1848), Michael, James, Rosanna and the aforementioned Andrew also issued from this marriage.  Margaret Roche died in the US, most likely in Cleveland in 1875.  A Patrick and John Roche resided in Cleveland, where the burial of a Margaret Roche has been located (27^th April 1875).

Civil registration commenced in Ireland in 1864.  Therefore, we will not be able to locate civil records for the births of the Roche children above or the marriage of Andrew and Margaret.  Instead we will have to see whether we can determine an address for the Roche family in Dublin to allow us determine the relevant parish in which to search for family events.

Griffith’s Valuation was a nationwide survey of property holders, taken between 1847 and 1864 for the purpose of assessing the rate of local taxation, which was levied for the upkeep of the poor and destitute of the parish. Most of the census returns for the 19^th century have been destroyed and now Griffith’s acts as a valuable mid century census substitute.

At the time of the valuation the individuals who would have been heads of household were:

• Andrew Roche, should he have been alive and residing in Dublin at the time of the Valuation in his parish of residence
• Margaret Roche, should Andrew have died prior to the Valuation in her parish of residence, and should Margaret still have been resident in Dublin at the time

An open mind is necessary in relation to surname variants: widespread illiteracy made consistency and exactness of spelling extremely rare. Therefore, individuals of the following surnames may be related to your ancestors – Roche, Roache, Roach etc.

Griffith’s Valuation did not record any ratepayers named Andrew Roche (all surname variants) in Dublin.  The Valuation did however record one ratepayer named Mrs. Margaret Roche residing in Dublin:

Occupier		Lessor		County	Parish	Townland
Roche	Margaret	Murphy	J.	Dublin	Booterstown	Merrion

Date of Printing: 10^th March 1849

It is possible that this individual was the wife of Andrew Roche given that the Valuation was taken in March 1849.  However, it is also possible that Margaret resided in a property for which she was not the recorded ratepayer and is therefore not recorded by the Valuation.

Mrs. Margaret Roche leased No. 24 Merrion House, Merrion Avenue from the Reps. of J. Murphy in the townland of Merrion, civil parish of Booterstown, which consisted of a house for which the total rateable annual valuation was £1. 10 shillings.

Without further corroborative information we have no way of knowing whether this information is relevant to your family.

A copy of the Valuation for Merrion Avenue has been enclosed with our assessment.

The destruction of the 19th Irish Census returns is probably the greatest loss that genealogy in Ireland has suffered. Irish genealogists have tried to fill this gap using extant documentary sources from the 19th Century, as ‘census substitutes’.  One important census substitute has survived for the capital city, and that is an index of the heads of households in Dublin City from the 1851 Census of Ireland as compiled by Dr. D. A. Chart.  This census only covered the part of the Dublin city situated between the two canals (which does not include the parish of Booterstown noted above).

We examined this index for evidence of an Andrew or Margaret Roche (of course it is possible that Margaret had emigrated prior to the enumeration of this census).  We noted the following:

First Name	Last Name	Street Number	Street	Parish	North/South of River Liffey
Margt.	Roach	36	New Row West	St. Catherine’s	South

However, again, we cannot confirm at this juncture whether this individual is of any relation to the family of your ancestors.

You state that it is believed that Margaret Roche trained as a doctor in Dublin.  At the time Margaret was residing in Dublin, there were restrictions on woman obtaining a medical degree.  In fact, Dr. Blackwell, an Englishwoman brought up in the United States, after much difficulty obtained a medical degree. Blackwell was the only woman able to have her name entered on the newly established General Medical Council’s register (under temporary provisions for overseas qualified doctors immediately after the passage of the 1858 Medical Act).  Knowing the restrictions on woman with relation to obtaining medical qualifications at the time, the only source, which we could recommend searching, would be the Lists of Midwives.  These registers are held in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin and date from the late 1600s.  They record the name and date of licence for all midwives licensed by the college and may hold a record of your ancestor should she have worked as a midwife in Dublin prior to emigration.  Alternatively, Margaret Roche may have worked as a nurse in Dublin. However, no record source survives which would allow us to confirm this.

Can you inform us of what occupation Margaret Roche recorded on her US census returns?  This may assist in determining whether a search of the above source would be worthwhile and likely to produce a positive result. Again, we do not like to recommend commissioning research if we are not confident of finding more material about the family.

We searched, Slater’s Commercial Directory of Ireland, 1846 for evidence of Andrew or Margaret Roche.  This book includes a full commercial directory for the entire country. Organised by Province, and then town, it lists all the principal office holders, gentry, professionals, trades, hotels, schools, public institutions, churches, and even pubs for each town in Ireland.  However, our search of this directory did not locate any entries under either name.

We also searched the Dublin Heritage Group’s databases, which include indices to selected Dublin parish registers being developed by staff of Dublin City Public Libraries.  We searched these parish registers for evidence of the baptisms of the Roche children (using all surname variants), searching across five years for each centring on the provided years of birth.  We noted a Patrick Roche baptised in St. Mary’s RC parish on 24^th March 1836, and two John Roche baptised in St. Andrew’s parish on 14^th May 1849 and 22^nd February 1850.   However, the original registers would need to be examined in order to determine the names of these children’s parents.  Unfortunately, we did not note evidence of any of the children confirmed as issuing from this marriage – Bridget, Anna and Mary.  Nor did we note a marriage record for Andrew Roche and Margaret _____

The Dun Laoghaire Heritage & Genealogy Centre and the Swords Historical Society have made parish registers for these areas available digitally.  Although these only cover small sections of South and North county Dublin respectively (not including Dublin city), we searched these for evidence of the baptisms of the Roche children.  However, our search did not yield a positive result.

The difficulty in developing this search, is that the only event that you have positively identified as occurring in Ireland – the baptisms of the Roche children and the marriage of Andrew and Margaret – occurred in the first half of the 19^th Century.  Unfortunately, there are no vital records sources (Census returns or civil births, marriages or deaths) for this time.  Indeed, prior to the introduction of civil registration in 1864, there is no one indexed source that provides coverage for all 32 counties in Ireland, for all economic classes and religious denominations.  In order to develop this search, we would need to know an address or parish for the family in Dublin. Without a piece of information, which unequivocally ties us to a specific location, we will have to work systematically through a lot of records, which will take time and money.

At this stage, I would recommend that you do some more research in the US to try and find some additional evidence to work from, before commissioning any research in Ireland, otherwise you’ll pay for your lack of information, and the chances of finding anything definite are less likely.  The following sources are those most worth consulting:

1)        A death certificate for Margaret Roche  – U.S. civil death certificates usually give the name of one or both parents, and this would help us to develop the search in Ireland.

2)        A gravestone inscription or newspaper obituary for Margaret Roche or any of her children. These often give the person’s place of origin in Ireland.

3)        Immigration papers. After 1883, immigration papers gave quite accurate information about the person’s place of origin. However, even earlier immigration papers sometimes record this information and so should not be overlooked.  Earlier papers would also be of use in indicating whether Margaret wasmarried at the time of her arrival in America.  These papers are kept in the National Archives in Washington DC. Their e-mail address is: inquire@nara.gov, or see their web site,http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/immigration/immigrat.html – this will tell you which records they have.  It would appear that you may already have consulted this source.

4)        Census returns from the late 19th century can be a useful source of genealogical information.  We have found that later census returns tend to record more accurate information on a person’s place of origin in Dublin.

5)        Family letters / bibles. Through talking to relatives, people often find that old papers are still in existence that can help with this research.

I am sorry that we cannot give any more positive recommendation at present. However, the nature of genealogical research is such that it is necessary to work methodically backwards from each generation to the previous one. The more information you find on the family in the US, the more likely we are to be able to focus the research in Ireland.

When we hear back from you, I hope that we shall be in a better position to develop a search strategy (you do not need to complete another search assessment form).

Yours,

Elizabeth Cuddy
Research Manager
Eneclann Ltd.
Unit 1, Trinity Enterprise Centre,
Pearse St., Dublin 2, Ireland
Tel: +353 1 6710338
Fax: +353 1 6710281
Web: www.eneclann.ie

“Anna Roche was born in Brooklyn, but her mother came from Dublin, Ireland, where she was educated to become a doctor at the University there. If it was not that she was your great, great grandmother, we would not be writing this today. Your grandfather (Thomas) was about 4 pounds when he was born and she kept them alive in a little cigar box in the back of one of those old-fashioned coal stove’s. She kept him for one year, until he was a very strong baby.

Your great great grandmother had other children besides Anna Roche. She had Rose, Anna and another daughter and a son. I do know the boy moved to Cleveland Ohio and had seven sons. Rose married a man named Booth and had no children. Rose moved to Port Chester after her husband died and lived with one of her sisters who married a man named Gackstetter. They had David, Walter, John, Harold and Mabel. They were the ones I visited for many years and enjoyed very much. At one time Mabel and I, and one of her brothers came to visit you at your home in Larchmont. That it that is what you remember. No one in the family kept up with them but myself and now I have not heard from them in years. The other sister, Anna, lived up in Port Chester too, and had six girls and one boy. Their name was Hickey, bur all are married with different names. At one time they had a family gathering and there were 15 members of the family. Many more did not come. I do not know anything more about them today.”

But as I began gathering evidence of Anna and her children, I found that close to 100% of the researched documents cited Anna’s maiden name as Roach, not Roche. These records include death certificates from New York City and Census records. For example, the 1860 Census record which clearly shows Anna’s mother Margaret living with them, has Margaret’s last name spelled as “Roach”. Anna’s Death Certificate has her maiden name listed as “Roach” also.

In hopes of putting the name issue to rest , I decided I would visit Anna’s grave at Greewwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. But when I saw here grave stone, it had her name spelled as “Roche”. So at this point, I had believe that my relatives didn’t know how to spell her last name and,and just guessed that it was “Roche”. Since no legal documents pointed to the “Roche” spelling I could only go with the “Roach” spelling.

So moving on and using Aunt Grace’s letter as a base for my further research, I was able to track down those relatives in Port Chester, mentioned in the letter. I thought by solving this branch of the family tree, it might give me some useful clues in solving the mystery of the Roche/ Roach spelling issue. It took me a while because Aunt Grace was a bit confused. She thought that Anna’s sister, Rose, married “a man named Booth”. In fact, Rose did marry a Samuel Booth, but Rose was the daughter of Anna’s sister Bridget, not Anna’s sister.

Bridget married a man named David Reekie. Bridget and David had at least 7 other children, in addition to Rose. One of Rose’s sisters, Susan, married John Gackstetter and eventually wound up in Port Chester as told to us in the letter of Aunt Grace Lewis. Using Census records for the majority of my research, I was able to track down two living descendants of the relatives in Port Chester. We have exchanged addresses and telephone numbers and converse occasionally via email. It took some time, but I eventually tracked down the death certificate for Bridget Roach. She died in Dover, NJ on 29 June 1908. The Reekie’s spent about 10 years in Dover, before two of the surviving descendants moved to Port Chester, NY. The death certificate revealed Margaret’s husband’s name for the first time. It was Andrew. But it still cited their last name as “Roach”.

As a result of this research, I am now regularly in touch with cousin David Feser, another descendant of Bridget Reekie. He is also an avid genealogist. He is the great grandson of Robert Reekie, brother of Rose and Susan Reekie. He now lives in Chesapeake, VA.

When I first started the research on Anna Roach way back wehn, I made a half baked attempt at querying for a Roach connection in the Cleveland area using Ancestry.com’s Census Collection. It returned hundreds of possibilities. I quickly gave up. Without some basic information, I figured trying to find the Cleveland relatives would be impossible.

But several things changed recently. First, Ancestry.com began something called lifespan filtering. This simply removes results that are outside the possible lifespan of the person you are querying. So I decided to take a guess and enter the birth year of Bridget Roach as the birth year of someone with a last name of Roach who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. I also asked for results that only fall within 10 years, either way of that birth day. I figured a brother of sister would most likely be within 10 years of Anna. Then I also asked for an exact match birthplace of “Ireland”.

The very first match in a set of 168,373 records, showed a Patrick Roach in the 1880 Census. Patrick was born in 1835 in Ireland and was married to Elizabeth, also of Ireland. Together, they has one daughter AND SEVEN BOYS! Could this be Anna and Bridget’s “brother who moved to Cleveland and had seven boys?” It look promising, so I built a separate research tree to investigate this line of Roach’s. I spent hours looking for him and his kids in the 1870 Census without success.

From the 1880 census, I learned that Patrick was the Sexton of a Catholic Cemetery. The 1880 census also indicated that they lived at 928 Woodland Avenue. So with a quick Google, it was easy to figure out that they managed and resided at St. John’s Catholic Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

I immediately found an online form for the diocese and asked if they could help me with any information about the Roach Family. The same evening I also sent out an email for help on the Cuyahoga genealogy mail list and requested assistance from a RAOGK (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness) volunteer. I asked RAOGK volunteer Norm Davis if he could possibly find a death certificate for Patrick. I had hoped that the death certificate would name his parents as Andrew and Margaret Roach.

The next day, Norm wrote back…

“Here is the obit. Unfortunately there were no death certificates in 1882. They started in Dec.1908 but there was a death ledger in place at the time and I will get a copy of it for you early next week.  The ledger will not give much info but sometimes it will verify some facts for you.  Being he died at such a young age I will see if there is a coroner’s report available.  I will keep you posted.”

Norm Davis
RAOGK

Id#: 0297665
Name: Roach, Patrick
Date: 11/15/1882
Source: Cemetery record;  Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #068.
Notes: Age 47. St. John’s Cemetery Cleveland, Ohio.

What a major set-back I thought. Without a death certificate, how could I ever prove that he was the long lost brother I was looking for? I had tried searching the Cleveland Necrology file before, but without a clue on what to search for, it returned hundreds of results. So I decided I would try to learn more about Patrick and his family. I also wanted to track down the descendants of the children of Patrick and Elizabeth.

I soon began receiving responses from people on the Cuyahoga Mail List. The first came from LAS500.

Footnote.com has the Cleveland Directories- There is a Patrick Roach listed
as Sexton at Woodland Ave Cemetery. I looked at the 1871 directory because
that  info was probably collected in 1870.  There are several other Roach
families listed with home addresses.

So that confirms that Patrick was in Cleveland in 1870 and that for some reason he is either not in the 1870 Census or there is a gross error in the recoding of information about him and his family.

Holly Timm wrote:

Below is something of a timeline for Patrick Roach using the known census
plus the available Cleveland city directory information from Footnote.com

1860 CENSUS living in the 6th Ward, carpenter
1861 not listed
1862 (not on site)
1863 (not on site)
1864 2 listed: one as hostler, Franklin House, w.s.
the other as joiner, h. Wheat
1865 carpenter, h. 5 Forest
1866 (not on site)
1867 carpenter, h. 28 Harper
1868 not listed
1869 not listed
1870 CENSUS not found
1870 sexton, Woodland cemetery
1871 sexton, Catholic Cemetery, res 923 Woodland
1872 carpenter, res. 30 Pier
1873 sexton, r. Catholic Cemetary [sic]
1874 sexton, Catholic Cemetery, r. 923 Woodland av.
1875 sexton, r. 923 Woodland av.
1880 CENSUS Supt Catholic Cemetery, res 928 Woodland Ave

Looks like he *may* have been gone from the city in the late 1860’s and
returned in time to be listed in the 1870 directory but missed in the 1870
census, either not in residence or missed by the enumerator.

The title page for the 1870 directory states it was published in 1870 for
the years 1870-71

This provided me with a work history for Patrick. I also soon received a response from Janet Tomaro at the Cleveland Dioceses.

Dear Mr. Hayes,

In reference to your recent request on Patrick Roche. I can confirm that he was the Sexton of St. John Cemetery in Cleveland and that he is buried there in a family plot. Unfortunately, I do not have any family history, but following is a list of all those buried with him.

This is all the information available to you.

*Margaret Roche age 63 4/25/1875 abt 1812
*Patrick Roche age 47 11/15/1882 abt 1835
Clarence Roach age 6 mos 12/27/1891 abt Jun 1891
Joseph S. Roach age 7 days 12/3/1899 abt 26 Nov 1899
Julia Roach age 34 yrs. 1/29/1900 abt 1866
Margaret Roach age 46 yrs 3/28/1901 abt 1855
Lillian Roach age 28 yrs 5/28/1901 abt 1873
John Roach age 73 yrs. 2/25/1902 abt 1829
George Roach age 2 mos. 8/12/1902 abt Jun 1902
Mary v age 65 yrs 12/8/1904 abt 1839
Catherine Hull age 40 yrs 2/4/1905 abt 1865
Valorie Hull age 15 yrs 7/7/1910 act 1895
Elizabeth Roach age 81 yrs 11/25/1912 abt 1844
Elizabeth Long age 43 yrs 8/22/1925 abt 1882
*Andrew Roche age 73 yrs 1/13/1934 abt 1861
*Patrich Roche age 70 yrs 3/5/1934 abt 1864
*Margaret Roche age 88 yrs 9/9/1950 abt 1862

The lot is in Section 7 row 5 Lot 2 Part 9/10.

It has been my pleasure to assist you in your genealogy search, and I hope this information is helpful. We usually provide 4 names at no charge and gladly accept any monetary donation.  Your contribution will help maintain the cemetery grounds, and provide a place where meditation and reflection can be enjoyed by all visitors. Should you have any questions please contact the cemetery by email, or (216) 641-7575. Sincerely

Janet Tomaro

WOW! Interesting! Some of interments are listed as Roach, others as Roche. This brought me closer to the idea that I had found the family of the brother I was looking for. This group of Roach/ Roche had conflicting name issues too. Using the Cleveland Necrology File, I quickly began piecing together who was who. The necrology file is a database of obituaries from the Cleveland area, dating back to the early 1800’s. It soon became apparent that there were members of two families here. One line came from Patrick’s family (d. 1882). The other came from what appears to be another brother named John (d. 1902). I was able to match all but two internment’s with a listing in the Cleveland Necrology File. And then there is a Margaret Roche who appears to be the mother of Patrick and John. She is about the same age as the Margaret I was tracking in New York. So now it appears that Anna and Bridget’s mother, Margaret, may have come to Cleveland to live with her son Patrick in her final years. Wow… everything seemed to be falling in place.

Using Ancestry.com’s Census Records, I quickly began building on the descendants of Patrick and John. I easily found members for the next 3 – 4 generations of family members along with numerous death records and obituaries.

THE BIG MYSTERY SOLVED

Over the last several weeks, Norman has slowly been sending me a variety of interesting documents. These included:

• The Last Will of Patrick Roach and associated Probate Records from 1885.
• A Death Ledger for Patrick Roach who died Nov 14, 1982.
• A Naturalization Record for a James Roche

Then just today, I receive the absolute confirmation I was looking for… from a surprising source… A second Death Ledger. Norman Davis, the very dedicated and generous ROAGK volunteer who first responded to me weeks ago, retrieved some additional records form me. He scanned them in and sent them to me via email. One of them was an additional Death Ledger from another source which gave many more details than the first one he sent many weeks ago. This one provided me with the following information.

• Namer: Patrick Roach
• Date of Death: November 14, 1892
• Age: 48 years, 4 months old
• Address at Death: 923 Woodland Avenue, Cleveland, OH
• Born: Dublin, Ireland
• Cause of Death: Dropsy ( An old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water. Usually caused by Congestive Heart Failure)
• Burial Location: Woodland Catholic Cemetery
• Father: Andrew
• Mother: Margaret

That was the confirmation I needed. He was born in Dublin and his parents were Andrew and Margaret. That is consistent with the research of the New York Roche / Roach’s and makes him the perfect fit for Anna and Bridget’s brother.

So now that I have the confirmation I was looking for, I will try to make contact with some of the cousins related to the Cleveland Roach / Roche’s to see if they can contribute any additional facts.

Also,stay tuned for some additional news concerning the name issue. Some recently discovered documents may help explain things.

I have been deeply curious about the Roach’s because of the mis-spelling of her last name on Anna’s grave. Initially, I though the grave was correct and that the Census record keepers were just sloppy. But as I collected various death records, I became convinced that “Roach” is the proper spelling of her last name.

Back in 1977, my Great Aunt, Grace Lewis, wrote a letter to my Uncle telling him what she knew of Henry Lewis and Anna Roche Roach. She indicated the Anna’s mother, which I later determined to be Margaret, “was educated to become a doctor in Dublin at the University there”.

Now Grace, left out an entire generation of people when describing one of the sisters of Anna, but she did mention one VERY interesting point which appears to have panned out. She stated that Anna Roach had at two sisters and a brother. She said her “brother moved to Cleveland, Ohio and had seven sons”. In Anna’s obituary, there was an editor’s note for “Cleveland, OH papers please copy”. This confirms at least this part of Aunt Grace’s history of the Roach’s.   There was a boy who went to Ohio. But how do we find him?

When I used Ancestry.com last year to see if I could quickly figure out who it could be, I was overwhelmed with results. I quickly gave up that battle and decided to save it for another day.

Well… that day has come. With a clear head, I took a fresh attempt at trying to figure out who the boy was that went to Cleveland, Ohio. I started by once again looking at the Cleveland Ohio’s necrology file which had “paid obituaries” from the early 1850’s to the mid 1900’s. I carefully paged through all records starting in 1850 and found nothing in the text that clued me in to a New York connection.

Then I went to Ancestry.com again and did a bare bones search using the folloing criteria:

Birth range: 1828 – 1848 (based on the ages of the known children of Margaret)
Lived In: “Cleveland, Ohio, USA” (Using the exact data feature)
Sex: Male
Birthplace: Ireland

Now because Ancestry.com has recently changed their search results criteria to filter out results outside the possible lifespan of the date ranges provided, I only got a handful of results. Most of the results came from the 1880 Census in Cleveland. Next I looked for someone who had seven boys… BINGO.

I found a Patrick Roach (b. abt 1835 in Ireland), married to an Elizabeth with one daughter and seven boys. When looking even closer, it turns out that Patrick’s first daughter, Margaret Roach ( the same name as his Anna’s mother), was born in New York circa 1856. Then when looking at Patrick’s first Boy born, I see that his name is Andrew, which is what I believe to be the name of Anna’s father.

So finally, I have something to work off of. Just when you think all trails are going cold, you make a break through. That is why this hobby is so much fun! Now lets see where this takes us.

Patrick lived on Woodland Avenue and was a Superintendent of a Catholic Cemetery.  That should be enough to get me going!

Click to enlarge census image

Several months ago, I had found a Tierney cousin by gambling and sending a letter to a him in hopes that he he had the same name and followed in his father’s footsteps in being a lawyer. Well it worked. But not because he followed in his father’s footsteps.  In fact, the Raymond Tierney I found turned out to be the son of the person I was looking for.  This Raymond’s father had nothing to do with legal profession.  I guess I just got lucky!

Since that strategy worked once before in finding relatives on the Tierney side of the family, I took a chance and thought it might work again.  So last month, I sent an email to an attorney named James V. Hayes who I found on the interent.  He was part of a Law Firm in New York City.  After several weeks, he responded back to me to let me know that he did not believe that we were related. His family came from the Boston area.  Bummer… so it wasn’t going to be that easy.

Last week  I came across several articles, which I’d seen before, but had dismissed because the generations didn’t seem to match up with what I expected. After reviewing two obituaries and a marriage announcement, I became convinced that I had found the correct descendants of James B. Hayes. So using Google and other tools on the Internet I found a bunch of possible snail mail addresses. I decided to send them a letter in hopes that they would respond.

Once again I quickly received an excited phone call from Mary Ann Mummma of Larchmont, New York, confirming that I had found the correct descendants of Patrick Hayes and Johanna Cowhey.  We had a very nice conversation in which she told me that she didn’t think she had any cousins.  Well, I let her know that she had twelve cousins in Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.    She gave me her brother’s telephone number in Colorado and told me that he had been extensively researching the Hayes’ of Limmerick, Ireland for sometime now.  In fact, he had even been to the place where they were allegedly from.

Now here is the kicker.  I am her second cousin, twice removed!  My branch of the family tree had squeezed in two additional generations.  So while she was talking about her great grandparents Patrick and Johanna, I was talking about my great-great-great grandparents Patrick and Johanna.  That explains the generation issue I had trouble with early on.

After speaking to cousin Jim in Colorado, I learned that the Hayes’ came from a little place called Bruree, which is just outside of Limerick, Ireland.  We agreed that between the two of us, we should be able to put together a well documented history of the Hayes’.  So the work begins…

Related articles

• James V. Hayes Obit
• Agnes B. Hayes Obit (wife of James)

Knowing that Jonathan’s family were all sailors back in Scotland and England, it makes sense that he served in the Navy…. but where and on what ship?

So with a little advice from some friends on the internet, I ordered the “Rendezvous Reports” index for the Civil War from the local Family History Center.  Rendezvous Report indexes are like Muster Rolls, but for the Navy.  They arrived in just about a weeks time.  I was very excited, thinking that these indexes would answer all my questions… or at least point me in the right direction on where to go next.

Unfortunately it was not going to be as easy as I had hoped.  The Rendezvous Report indexes are basically index cards with some notes typed on them.  At least they are not hand written.  The problem was that I didn’t find a direct name match.  The closest name match I could find to Jonathan J. Beattie, was John Beatty.  The encouraging news is that this John Beatty’s card was out of New York and it appears he served in the Savannah area.  So could this be him?  Maybe.

I plan to order this person’s Civil War Rendezvous Report from the National Archives.  But I have five other possible matches.  I sure don’t want to have to pay for all of them, just to do the research.  In addition, I have to do the same type of research for another person in the Navy that comes another branch of the family tree.  For that person, I found more than 15 possible matches.

Is there a better way to research this?