The Answer Was In The Graveyard

   

     A large number of immigrants from that spot in Ireland where Counties Carlow, Wicklow and Kildare meet; from townlands like Rathvilly, Ricketstown, Castlerdermot, Ballyraggan and Baltinglass to name a few, arrived in Auburn, New York between the late 1830's and mid 1850's.  Initially drawn there by the promise of jobs and later driven there by famine, my McGarr and O'Hora families were among them.  Some of the McGarrs' were the earliest Irish arrivals in Auburn with the O'Horas' dropping anchor closer to the 1850's.  The McGarr surname is a relatively uncommon one, so would be easy to track if it were not for the astounding variety of different spellings, often bizarre, of their surname.  Perhaps even more confusing though, are the common surnames.  Like the multitudinous Burns/Byrns/Byrn families who also flocked to Auburn.
     
     In the fall of 1850, a tailor named William McGarr left his pregnant wife in Wicklow and with his fourteen year old son William Lannes McGarr in tow, made his way to Liverpool and then on to Auburn.  William's wife, Mary Doyle, followed the next year with their remaining six children ranging in age from thirteen to the newborn Eliza who was baptized a mere seventeen days before their voyage began in June.  Unlike the other McGarrs', and O'Horas' also, William's children were born at Delganey, Wicklow, near the coast.  I've spent quite awhile looking at this family trying to figure out how they relate to the other McGarrs' in Auburn without much success.

     Finding the baptisms of William's children in Irish church records was easily accomplished, all took place in Kilquade Parish.  When the clues among the older generation as to this family's ancestry ran out, I began researching those children.  Mary Ann, the oldest daughter, married  Patrick Byrne at Holy Family in Auburn in October of 1862.  Mary Ann gave birth to five children; John, Margaret, Mary, Michael and William who was born in 1874, just six years before Mary Ann's death in 1880.  The surname later changed to Burns, can you imagine how many John or Mary Burns were in Auburn?  A lot!  I almost gave up on tracing Mary Ann's children but I found a solution.

     Mary Ann's death was early enough that she was buried in the old Catholic cemetery, her stone, if she ever had one, no longer exists.  Her husband Patrick lived on however, at least until 1892 by which time the new St. Joseph's Cemetery was open in Auburn.  St. Joe's has a wonderful website with lists of interments.  I was dismayed however, to see how many Patrick Burns were entombed there.  After sorting out the Pats who could not be him due to age or date of death, I then wrote down the lot and section numbers for the remaining Pat Burns'.  Then I began looking for Burns' in those plots with forenames that matched Pat's children and it worked.  I found that Patrick and his son John had both died in 1897, his son Michael, his daughter Margaret and her husband Clayton Saxton were all there in Patrick's plot.  Mary wasn't there, she most likely rests in Rochester, New York where she lived with her husband Harry Hinde, (I kid you not).  

     William, the youngest child, isn't there either, locating him will be tricky, William was a popular name with the Burns clan.  I found this method useful, and I'll keep it in mind for the next time I get stuck with a common surname.