A Singular Sunday, in Which the Mystery of Johanna Gunn is Finally Solved and a Lost Child Found

      

    The damp, cold weather continues here in New York.  Add to that a newly spayed puppy and I find myself housebound.  Since little Suzie is pretty high on pain meds and sleeping, I saw an opportunity to spend the day doing genealogy.

     I've long been curious about Johanna Gunn, the sister of my great-great-grandmother Mary Gunn Power, both of Ballygologue in County Kerry, so I chose her as my subject.  It appears Johanna was the oldest in her family, born around 1850 to John and Margaret Browne Gunn.  Johanna's first child, Edward, was born out of wedlock in the spring of 1867 there in Ballygologue.  I never found another scintilla of information about him and assumed he had probably died young.  

     In 1871, Johanna married Thomas O'Connor and gave birth to five more sons and a daughter. Thomas died in the Listowel Work House in1889, but what of Johanna?  No death registration ever came to light for her in spite of many hours of searching.  She appeared in the 1901 census as a poverty stricken widow living in a two room, 3rd class abode with her mother, three of her children, and a nephew. After that she seemed to vanish.

     Today at the Civil Registration site I pored over every death entry that could conceivably be hers, using all manner of search terms with no luck.  Over and over I tried, growing very discouraged, but a feeling of dejavu was slowly creeping in.  I had run into this situation before with another great-great-grandmother.  I only found her when I chanced upon an obituary naming all her children, the lady had remarried well into her sixth decade and assumed a new surname.  Could Johanna have married again?  Back to the registrations, and indeed, there was a marriage!  In 1910, when she was about 60, Johanna had married John Granville of Ballygologue.  No wonder I never found her death registration.

Marriage of Johanna O'Connor, widow, Ballygologue, father John Gunn-- it all fits!

     Now that I had Johanna's new surname, not to mention her newly found entry in the 1911 census, finding her death date should be a breeze right? Nope. There were three possibilities, one of which I quickly discounted since that lady's husband was a shopkeeper, which from the 1911 census I knew John Granville was not.  That left two Johanna Granville's in Ballygologue, one born in 1849 who died in 1924, and one born in 1858 who died in 1930.  Unfortunately, neither seemed to fit. The registration with the birth year of 1849 seemed promising at first, but the informant was Michael Granville, son of the decedent.  Johanna didn't have a son named Michael. The birthdate on the remaining registration was way off, if Johanna was born in 1858, she would have been nine years old when Edward was born.  Also, the informant was Michael Burke, grandson.  Johanna didn't have a grandson named Michael Burke. Now what?

     I did a little research on the Granville's that's what.  Maybe Johanna's new husband John Granville had a son named Michael who would have been Johanna's stepson? That did not pan out, the marriage record seen above refers John as a bachelor, not a widower, and in the 1901 census he was single. No children for John.  I did find his father Thomas Granville's second marriage to Johanna Nolan.  They too lived in Ballygologue and they did have a son named Michael, probably the 1924 death registration was hers. She was younger than her husband Thomas and was in worse circumstances in 1901than my Johanna was, sharing a one room cabin with five other people.  

     It seemed 1930 must be the right year for my Johanna's death, but who was Michael Burke, grandson? To answer that question, I looked for the birth of a lad by that name in the civil registrations and found this--

Michael Burke, son of Edward Burke and Mary Deenihan, born Ballygologue, 1906

     That was possibly him, but who was Edward Burke?  Or Mary Deenihan?  I needed to see their marriage registration--

Marriage of Edward Burke in 1898

     

     Wait, what!  Could it be?  After all my years of searching?  Edward Burke born in 1872?  Living in Ballygologue?  Marriage witnessed by Johanna O'Connor?  Oh, my Lord!  It was Johanna's firstborn son Edward!  I was sure of it.  Now the "Michael Burke, grandson", on the 1930 death registration made sense.  Edward hadn't died young; he had grown up in Ballygologue with his mother.  Although his parents never married, and he was baptized Edward Gunn, at some point he had adopted his father's surname.  Right there in his marriage registration was his father, Edward Burke.

     I've always seen Johanna as a tragic figure who gave birth to seven children, only two of whom outlived her.  Those two, along with her surviving brothers and sister, were gone to America by 1902, never to return to Ireland.  She had eleven grandchildren living in the states she would never meet.  I used to believe Johanna was left without any close family nearby in her last decades.  Now however, I know she had a husband, her son Edward, and even grandchildren on her side of the Atlantic. Knowing all this makes me feel a small sense of relief for her.  In spite of  Johanna's many losses, she wasn't alone.