It Takes A Little Persistence/1880 Mortality Schedule

     I spent this snowy Sunday adding to my online tree at Ancestry.  I was working on the Griffin family who lived in Palmyra, New York and later in Macedon, New York, those places being right next to each other.  Both Michael Griffin and his wife Sarah Browne, whom he married in 1852 at St. Anne's in Palmyra, were born in Ireland.  Sarah was the sister of my third-great-grandmother Margaret Browne Gunn who I believe was born about 1827 in Coolaclarig near Listowel in the county of Kerry.  Margaret stayed in County Kerry where she gave birth to my great-great-grandmother Mary Gunn, who came to America in 1879.  When Mary was married in Palmyra she asked her aunt Sarah Browne Griffin to be her witness.  I'm hopeful that studying Sarah Griffin will give me some clues about her sister Margaret Gunn.  

     For instance, an advertisement in the Missing Friends column in the Boston Pilot Feb. 9, 1856

Of George Brown, of Coolarig [Coolaclarig], parish of Listowel, Co. Kerry, who left Ireland in 1852 and landed in this country in 1853; when last heard from was in Virginia. Information received by his sister, care of her husband, Michael Griffin, Palmyra Wayne Co, NY.

     There was only one Michael Griffin in Palmyra in 1856, Sarah Browne's husband. Clearly Sarah, Margaret, and George Browne were siblings.  I couldn't find a baptism for any of those Browne's but I did locate one for a Mary Browne in Coolaclarig in 1831 whose father was George Browne and her mother Mary Moore.  Margaret Gunn named her children as one would expect if those were her parents, and so did Sarah in New York.  In fact Sarah named two daughters Mary, the first one having died in infancy in 1862.  Eleven years later she named another child Mary but sadly this daughter only lived to age seven.  She passed away in February of 1880 which got me thinking, she should be in the census mortality schedule of that year.  

     I checked the 1880 mortality schedule for Macedon, Wayne County, New York where the Griffins were residing in 1880 and naturally Mary Griffin wasn't in it, although others from Macedon were.  That made no sense, she should be listed.  In frustration I did a search of the whole county and the only Mary Griffin who came up was in a schedule Ancestry had labeled, Lyons, Wayne County.  That made no sense either.  Lyons, while in the same county, was no where near Macedon.  The month of death in the schedule was correct however, as was the age of the girl.  Looking at the top of the census page I noticed it didn't actually say Lyons at all.  It only said Wayne County, New York with the space for town left blank.

Mary Griffin age 7 is seven up from the bottom, cause of death meningitis

     The whole thing was odd, notice, in front of the nine names at the bottom was written the word, County.  What on earth?  I'd never seen a mortality schedule that looked like that.   I puzzled about the problem for awhile then decided the best way to go at it was to investigate the residences of everyone else on the page.

     First though, I did a newspaper search for Mary's doctor as shown in the schedule, Dr. Kingman, who it turns out was a physician from Palmyra, which as you recall, is right next to Macedon.  I obviously couldn't search the 1880 census for the individuals who appeared in the mortality schedule, so I did the next best thing.  I searched for them in 1870; and all those I could locate were living in Macedon.  Except the inebriate Lewis Arnold at the bottom of the page who was living in Walworth, which also borders Macedon. 

     I don't understand why the schedule was done this way, it looks like someone made a mistake back in 1880 and Ancestry compounded it, but I'm satisfied I have found Mary Griffin.