Unknown John Gunn Now Known?

     

     I think I may have the identity of John Gunn aged 20 who appeared in the census pictured in yesterday's blog.  I returned to the Irish Genealogy.ie site where I found a John Gunn being baptized in Listowel in 1879.  He was the son of John Gunn and Debora Neill.  His godfather was George Gunn, and there was indeed a brother named George in this family.  I'm not sure he was exactly godfather material, but who am I to judge?

     If  the elder John Gunn is in fact another son of Margaret Browne and John Gunn, his birth would most likely fall into the large gap between George who was born in 1854, and my 2nd great-grandmother Mary Gunn/Power, born six years later in 1860.  I have found both of their baptisms on the site, along with those of their siblings Sarah and Francis but nothing for John or Johanna.  Of course their records could have been mis-trancribed or illegible. 

     I've found some interesting, though confusing entries for my Gunn family in the church records.  There is a connection of some sort with the Stack family, and many Brownes are mentioned as godparents and witnesses, but who were they?  Sisters, cousins, brothers, uncles--it's impossible to tell from just the church registers.  But every name helps, and may turn up in another document that makes the relationship clearer, like yesterday's 1901 census that spelled out Johanna was Margaret's daughter.  And a scrapbook in an historian's office in America that informed me Sarah Browne Griffin was Mary Gunn/Power's aunt.  Sometimes you get lucky!

     Below is the baptism of Ellen Nash, quite likely the same Ellen Nash who was godmother to John Gunn at the top of this page.  Her mother was Bridget Browne, (a sister of Margaret?) and her godfather was John Gunn, (Margaret's husband?).  I wish the godmother was included here, but alas.

     
     While we are on the subject of names, some records use the spelling "Gun" and others "Gunn".  I'm sticking with the double n for continuity though if I come up empty in a search I try the single n spelling also.  I'm hopeful that when the actual images of the church registers come online this summer (keeping my fingers crossed) I will find more on this and other families.