I Finally Found Ellen or, Transcibers Don't Get the Last Word

 

     This week I've been taking another look at the family of Darby Hogan.  From the information I've assembled, it seems Darby had a connection to my White/Ryan family, though as of yet I've been unable to find the link.  Over the years I was, however, able to prove Darby Hogan had two marriages, both of which took place in Tipperary's North Riding.  His first wife was Dora whose maiden name appears to have been Hogan as well; the second was Maria Callanan or Cooney depending on which record one is looking at.  Three children were born of the first marriage, Darby Jr., Ellen, and Hann, but only Ellen left a trail I've been able to follow.  She immigrated to Palmyra, New York in the 1860's, the same place her father Darby was first seen in an American census- the 1855 New York State Census, living with his second wife Maria and their fourth child Michael.  Oddly enough, Darby's three children with Dora, and his first three with Maria did not immigrate with him but remained in Ireland.  His three eldest children with Maria as well as Dora's daughter Ellen, as mentioned above, came over at later dates.

     I've pretty much exhausted all the sources I've located for Darby and his wives Dora and Maria, so it was time to take a closer look at Ellen whose baptism I had yet to find.  Hopefully it would contain something new, especially about Dora Hogan who must have passed before Darby married Maria around 1842 give or take.  Dora's last child, Hann, was baptized in 1840 making me wonder if perhaps she died giving birth to another child in 1842?  Darby and Maria's first child, Anna, was born in July of 1844 so I think 1842 is a fair guess at his second marriage date. 

     I first tried finding Ellen at Find My Past in their Irish Roman Catholic Baptisms.  I found Darby Jr. and Hann, but no Ellen.  There was nothing for it, but to do a line-by-line search.  This was going to take a while since I had no clear birth year for Ellen.  The transcription of the 1870 census at Ancestry gave her birth year as 1820 but that was a transcription error.  The 1860 census said born in 1840, and Find A Grave had 1837.

     I went to the NLI site and began searching at 1830.  Since I didn't have a firm date for Darby's birth either it was possible he had been born a few years earlier than I believed.  Thankfully, the parish registers were in fairly good shape, and I was making progress until I realized I was looking in the parish Darby had moved to after his second marriage, Birr and Loughkeen, rather than Lorrha and Dorrha parish where Ellen's two sibling were baptized, so back to square one.  After about thirty minutes I came to the entry below:

     That was her alright, why didn't that come up in my search at FMP?  I checked there again using just the parish of Lorrha and Dorrha, the year, and the name Ellen.  There it was, Ellen born to "Daily" and "Dolly" "Hoyer".  Good grief.  Ellen was baptized 19 July in 1836, her sponsors were Thomas and Mary Hogan.  While all the other mother's last names on the page differ from their husband's, in this case it gives Dora's maiden name as Hogan just like her other two children's baptisms did.  Unlike the baptisms of Darby Jr. and Hann, however, Ellen's did not give an address.  Since Ellen was the middle child and her siblings were both born at Killeen in County Tipperary, I would think she likely was as well.

     Other than the two sponsor's names, who could be relatives of either parent, and Ellen's real birth year, nothing new was found in the baptism record.  I still had nothing about Dora's passing or Darby's second marriage.  Unless. What if the anonymous transcribers had messed that record up as they had Ellen's age in 1870 and her parent's names in her baptism?  Hold on a sec while I check... Wow!  I just found it, "Dorny Hogan" and "Mary Collonan" were married on 1 November in 1842 at the parish of Lorrha and Dorrha!  That meant Maria likely lived near Darby before their marriage.

     This has been a great reminder to not take indexes at face value and try to look at the original document.  Transcribers make mistakes as we all do, though in the case of the Irish records here, it would appear the real fault lies with the parish priest, he did mangle those names pretty badly and his handwriting would not win any awards.  These are official church records, a little care would be in order! I'm looking at you Father...