Don't Forget Your Shillelagh, in Which a Man is Assaulted With Sticks on His Head and a Traffic Light Turns Upside Down

 

     Ryan Whips.  That vaguely sinister sounding phrase appeared in my blog a few weeks ago.  I’ve found no relationship between that family, (for that is what the Ryan Whips were), and mine but they did reside in the same area of Tipperary as my Ryans and O’Dwyers.  Often written as "Ryan (Whip)" when speaking of one of them, it makes perfect sense that in a place where every second person was named Ryan, (the rest were Dwyers), a way to differentiate between them was needed.  I first encountered the Ryan Whips in an essay written by an Irish schoolchild in the 1930's describing that family as having a banshee.  That sounded right, I've heard all the old Irish families have one that laments their deaths.  Not much else turned up about this family in Google searches, but now that I had access to Irish newspapers for a short time, I thought I may as well run a search for them.

     It would be difficult to form a valid opinion of the Ryan Whips from just a few news articles, so let’s just say they seem like a fractious lot.  I wouldn’t want to anger them, but some of my ancestors apparently did.  The following article published in 1866 gave the circumstances:

     Andrew Dwyer/O'Dwyer, born in about 1780, was my fourth-great-grandfather, this clearly wasn't him but he did have a son named Andrew born about 1816, and a grandson of the same name born in 1838, at Churchfield in Tipperary.  I would think it was the son or grandson involved in this fracas.  A look at the map shows Rathnaveene, site of the attack, lies about halfway between Tipperary Town and Churchfield, anyone traveling between those two places would indeed pass through Rathnaveene.  Although Andrew was one of the less common forenames in the area, I still couldn't be positive this was one of my relatives.

     Since I was researching my O'Dwyers, I decided to check my old notes on them.  Some of those files haven't been opened in nearly a year and I like to skim them every once in a while to see if earlier finds fit in with more recent ones, and in this case they certainly did!  I opened a screenshot I had taken of a page in the Tipperary Petty Sessions Order Book and saw this:

     

     Andrew Dwyer of Churchfield, Parish Donohill Complainant.   Defendants, Philip Ryan and James Ryan (both Whip)!  When I first found this record I couldn't quite figure out what the word after Ryan was. Now, being older and wiser, I recognize the word as Whip.

                     

     The space containing a description of the charge gives the place of the assault as Rathnaveene and the date as the 9th; this was the prosecution of the crime detailed in the newspaper article above!  Unlike the news article, this document gave Andrew Dwyer's address, Churchfield.  This really was a member of my family!  Philip and James Ryan tried to counter charge Andrew, but the judge dismissed their attempt and sentenced them both,"To be imprisoned in Clonmel goal for two months and be kept to hard labor".

     Looking through the old newspapers it soon became evident, Tipperary in the mid 19th century was a rather violent place.  The Ryan Whips were often in court, not to mention goal, but they were far from the only ones.  There are numerous accounts of  physical altercations and arrests.  One article described a group of Dwyers from Donohill, bordering Churchfield, as fighting and throwing stones at the Ryans.  I've read that the phrase "Tipperary Stone Throwers" is a very old one, which reminds me of a tale from here in New York.

     On Syracuse's westside, about an hour from my home, lies the neighborhood of Tipperary Hill.  As one might guess, this section was home to numerous Irish immigrants, many of them from Tipperary.  Even today, Tipp Hill is a sea of green shutters, green doors, green roofs, and Irish flags.  The story begins almost 100 years ago, in 1925, when the city of Syracuse installed an electric traffic light there at the intersection of Tompkins and Milton.  That light, like every other traffic light in the USA and most other countries, had a red light on top, yellow in the middle, and green on the bottom.  That did not sit well on Tipp Hill.  To make their point, some youthful locals began a stone throwing campaign, regularly smashing the light until the city gave in and turned it upside down, placing the green on top as it should be.  And so it remains today. 

     In 1997 the community raised money to fund a small memorial park and erect a statue in honor of the stone throwers; a family dressed in 1920's clothing, the father gesturing towards the light where the green still proudly beams from the top.  

     We take our heritage very seriously in upstate New York...

     

A New Source. In Which a Seduction is Revealed and a Connolly is Cornered

  

     Last week I purchased a one-month subscription to a site featuring Irish newspapers.  I've came across several articles that mention family members so I can say I've found the small investment well worth it.

     One such member is Ellen Crotty, a perennial sticking point here at Ellie's Ancestors.  I'm not sure what to make of the clues I've discovered about her, though I have a pretty good idea.  I've written before about Ellen here and this blog will make more sense if you skim that blog, but here's the synopsis; Ellen was born around 1848 at Cullen Castle in County Waterford to Bridget O'Brien and David Crotty, the brother of my third-great-grandmother Honora Crotty Power.  Their townland is part of the Catholic Parish of Tramore.  Unfortunately, Tramore has a large block of missing records, from November 1831 to January 1857.  Given that loss, it's important to find any available scraps of information about even distant family members in the hope something may turn up relating to those closer.

     After sifting through conflicting, contradictory evidence concerning Ellen, I came to the conclusion she was, how do I put this?  A fallen woman?  It appears all three of her children were born out of wedlock, and though illegitimacy in Ireland was not as rare as I'd been led to believe, I would think three such births would make the neighbors sit up and take notice.  Especially since Ellen's children were born in the second half of the nineteenth century, after the devotional revolution, when the number of births outside marriage was declining.*

     The article I found in The Waterford Standard, 6 April 1867 edition, doesn't specifically mention Ellen, but her father David Crotty is named, and his residence is given as being within two miles of Tramore.  That fits, as Cullen Castle is indeed about two miles north of the town --

     

          

     It's interesting that in April of the previous year, Ellen gave birth to a son she named Patrick.  His baptism does not mention a father's name.  One might think the above-mentioned Patrick Connolly may be a good candidate.  It's a shame the Standard was so prudish, I would have liked to read the unfit particulars.

     Ellen gave birth again in 1876, to a son whom she named David.  This time a father's name is recorded in the church baptism register, it's David Connolly.  The forename could be a mistake by the priest or the transcriptionist; only transcriptions are available online for Tramore during this time period.  The following year Ellen delivered a baby girl, Bridget, whose father's name is absent from her baptism record altogether.  None of the births are recorded in civil records.  Later, the deaths of the two youngest children appear in civil records, but under the surname Crotty, not Connolly.  The oldest, Patrick, immigrated to America so he doesn't appear in the civil records.  However, the common tombstone erected by, "Nellie Crotty", uses Connolly for all three of her children.  The stone notes that Patrick died in America.  Likewise, the 1901 census shows Ellen Crotty and her son David Crotty living in a 3rd class house in Summerhill in Tramore.  Bridget had died of consumption two years earlier, and David would perish from the same disease in five more.

     The ten years between the births of Patrick and his two younger siblings makes me wonder if Patrick Connolly was the father of Patrick, and David Connolly fathered the two younger children?  I may never figure that out, but who can say?  I never thought I'd find an article like the one above either.

       

* This source-- Illegitimacy and Pre-Nuptial Pregnancy in Ireland before 1864: The Evidence of Some Catholic Parish Registers, can be read for free by registering at the JSTOR site.

     

That Old Black Magic

      

     In the spirit of the season, I return to the matriarch of my family "witches", Mary Williams King Hale.  Mary was born in England around the year 1606, as her deposition taken in a Boston deed transfer in 1656 states, she was "aged about 50 yeares".  In that deposition "Mary Hayle" at least three times referred to Hugh Williams as her brother.  Mary may have been born in or near London; in another Boston deed her brother Hugh Williams, (called a feltmaker in this deed and a hatter in another), sold property in Boston to his brother, John Williams, also a feltmaker, of Barnaby Street in London, England.  Nathaniel Williams of Boston may have been another brother of Mary's, but that has yet to be proven.  

     Further evidence of Hugh Williams being Mary's brother comes from two sources; one was a 1654 meeting of Boston's selectmen during which they agreed to allow Mary, widowed by this time, to reside there on security provided by Hugh Williams. The other is Hugh's will made on 1 October 1674 and probated on 12 October 1674 in which he left two thirds of his estate to his "sister Haile and her children".  The other third was left to his "brother Hilton's children at Charlestown".  During probate, "Mary Hale of Boston", was appointed co-executor of Hugh's will by the court.  I've found no records for a Hilton Williams. 

     Mary was twice married but the identities of her husbands remain elusive.  As she was using the name Hale by 1654, it can reasonably be assumed she was the widow of a man by that name.  Her first husband's surname can be inferred from the name of her daughter Winifred King, the notorious Witch of Wallingford.  From reading Hugh's will we know Mary had at least one more child in addition to Winifred.

     The relationship between Mary Hale and Winifred King is established by Winifred's deposition given in the same case her mother Mary Hale was deposed for.  In it, Winifred calls Hugh Williams her uncle.  The connection between Mary and Winifred is further strengthened by surviving depositions from a witchcraft case against Mary Hale in 1680, that mention her "granddaughter" Joanna Benham, who was the child of Winifred King and Joseph Benham.

     Mary Hale was not a reserved sort of woman who hesitated to speak her mind, a trait that landed her in hot water even before 1680.  A neighbor sued her twice in 1677, once for assaulting his wife and again for defaming both him and his wife; she lost on both counts.  Mary operated a boarding house in Boston and was learned in herbal medicine, indeed, she often took in sick people to care for them.  Here we have a quarrelsome, elderly widow with a knowledge of herbs, all the ingredients for suspicions of witchcraft; so when a young mariner named Michael Smith fell ill Mary became the prime suspect.

     Michael Smith boarded at Mary's establishment and the widow took a liking to him, so much so that she encouraged a match between him and her granddaughter Joanna Benham.  Although Michael was willing, Joanna refused to consider the match and eventually Michael found a new love interest, Margaret Ellis, and left Mary's roof.  Reportedly, Mary Hale was not pleased the romance had ended.  Witnesses reported her stalking Michael and slandering Margaret Ellis.

     Not long after, Michael stopped by Mary's house to see two friends lodging there, during that visit he consumed a drink made by Mary.  Before long, Michael was taken violently ill and insisted Mary Hale had poisoned him.  Though he recovered, he blamed Mary for his illness.  Before long, Michael was ill again, more seriously than the first time.  Joanna Benham visited him, bringing along a warm drink Mary Hale had prepared for him but Michael dared not drink it.   That evening however, Margaret Ellis brought Michael the drink claiming she had made it for him.  Within hours Michael was on his deathbed.

     To those gathered around him he again accused Mary Hale and wove a fantastic tale of being transported by her to a house in a nearby town where he saw a coven of twenty witches drinking wine. He called for authorities to arrest Mary and bring her blood to him, believing it would cure his bewitchment.  Raving and railing against her, Michael Smith died.

     Mary was brought up on charges of witchcraft following Michael's death and a number of witnesses testified against her.  One who spoke on her behalf was Joanna Benham who provided a deposition to the court that gave her relationship to Mary Hale as granddaughter, to wit, "Margaret Ellis told me that I and my grandmother Hale was the cause of his death and she hoped in the Lord to see my Grandmother Hale burned before she went out of the country".  That did not happen, Mary was acquitted and faded from the pages of Boston records.  Nothing more is presently known of Mary's life after her trial, she was in her mid-seventies at that time and probably did not live many years longer.  We do know history repeated itself when in 1692 her daughter Winifred Benham was charged with witchcraft for the first time.  In 1693 she was again investigated for witchcraft, and in 1697 Winifred and her daughter Winifred Jr. were both charged.  The elder Winifred was searched for incriminating marks and underwent the water test, eventually being released along with her daughter.  After this ordeal they left Connecticut, fleeing to Staten Island in New York State where Winifred had a married daughter residing.

     Hugh William's will can be found at Ancestry.com.  The land transaction and depositions, along with many other records from early Massachusetts, are available at the UMassAmherst website--  https://guides.library.umass.edu/c.php?g=672399&p=4737789    

     Never stop research with just the sources on Ancestry, there are many, many records online that are not available there.  County and state sites, Google Books, library sites, and Family Search are some of my favorites.

    

     

A Glimpse of the Past

      

     The dearth of new Irish genealogy records continues, so I continue to seek out new avenues of research.  Today I did some simple searches using terms like Goldengarden, Donohill, Churchfield, etc... along with the word, history, to see what the search engine could uncover.  The results did not disappoint.

     For instance, as we all know there are no extant Irish censuses before 1901 however, statistics from earlier censuses do survive at Google Books.  The earliest mentioning my little corner of Tipperary,  (the townlands of Churchfield, Donohill, and Goldengarden), was the 1871 census that appears in a bound British document, "Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, Vol. 87".  Fortunately, also included were statistics from 1841-1861.  It began -- Goldengarden contained a little over 330 acres; in 1841 there were 24 houses in the townland with a population of 161.  The 1851 statistics revealed a much different scene, only 14 houses and 103 people, a drop in population of 58 persons and 10 fewer houses.  Of course between 1841 and 1851 a catastrophic event occurred-- the famine, but this had the stench of a clearance.  Between the years 1851 and 1861, a further 16 souls and 3 more houses vanished.  At least half of the departed 16 that decade were my ancestors Cornelius Ryan, his wife Alice O'Dwyer, and most of their children who decamped for New York in the summer of 1860.  There was one more statistic for the year 1871 only, the status of the remaining houses.  It noted that of the 11 left in Goldengarden all were inhabited, with residents numbering 86.  Where an increase in the population over those forty years would have been expected there was instead a decrease of 75.

     Churchfield, where Cornelius and Alice lived at the time of their marriage, and where their first child was born, was surprisingly the opposite.  A much smaller townland of 108 acres, it's population nearly doubled, from 28 in 1841 to 54 in 1851 and the houses increased from 4 to 7.  There were 53 inhabitants in 1861, and 57 in 1871.  To what could the population jump during the famine years be attributed?  Here was another possibility for research.  

     Also among the search results was a link to the Library Ireland site which contained, The Book of Tipperary, published in 1889 with a mention of my Uncle Andrew Dwyer, a farmer in Churchfield   Another hit was, The Schools Collection, found at  https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes.  This project's goal is to digitize Ireland's folklore for future generations using manuscripts, photographs, and of course, The Schools Collection, which dates to the late 1930's.  That collection was a compilation of folklore as set down by schoolchildren in the Irish Free State who heard the tales they recorded from older community members, parents, and grandparents.  One of the essays written at Anacarty School, referred to Goldengarden and was titled, Fairy Forts, immediately piquing my interest.  

     The fort in this case was located on "Cooney's land".  That name was familiar to me, the Cooney families were a few names from my ancestor Connor Ryan in the Valuation records of Goldengarden.  The essay went on to impart the information that, "people never interfere with forts in the parish as they believe in the existence of  the good people."  It further discussed the forts being frequented by the Banshee who in that location especially laments the deaths of  the Ryan Whips, Kellys, and Briens.  Ryan Whips?  After a search, the only hits for that phrase were the original essay, a description of a wrestling move, and a porn site.  That perplexed me, so I consulted Dara at Black Raven Genealogy who graciously searched for and found a reference to a Ryan family who were whip makers and referred to as the Ryan Whips.  Thank you, Dara.

     The Schools Collection is a wonderful resource, it and the entire folklore collection, which is searchable, is probably the closest we will get to understanding what our Irish ancestor's thoughts and daily lives were like.  I wish collecting had begun decades earlier, though I understand citizens were busy with other things, like expelling an occupying army from their country.  As the past recedes further with every passing day, it's well worth a backward glance at the words of our ancestors through this important site.

     

     

The Graveyard at Donohill

      

     As a member of the group, Ireland Reaching Out, I receive regular newsletters from them in my e-mailbox.  One communication in April contained a fascinating discussion of Irish graveyards. The article noted among other things, ancestral burial grounds are the holy grail and finding yours is a huge accomplishment; it also reminded researchers not to underestimate the importance the Catholic Irish placed on being buried with their kin. Even if the death occurred in a different parish it was common for the deceased to be brought "home" for burial; and notably, this held true even if those kin were interred in a protestant graveyard.  Some of those ancient parish burial grounds had come under control of the Church of Ireland during the reformation and penal times; however, being buried with one's family far outweighed the importance of the burial place.  That could actually be helpful to researchers I would think, as protestants were much more likely to have kept burial records for us to find.

     But how, I wondered, could a graveyard have been in use for centuries and not be enormous?  An article online answered that question.  The graves were reused.  When a family member passed away the grave would be reopened for them.  In the 19th century laws were passed that limited this practice, but no doubt it continued albeit at a lesser rate.

       Recently, completely by accident, I may have stumbled upon my O'Dwyer ancestor's burial ground in County Tipperary.  I was attempting to get a look at Churchfield in the Parish of Donohill, on Google Maps, but the site wouldn't allow me to set the wee street view person down in that place.  The village of Donohill was the closest I could get, so I landed there and took a stroll down Davis Street, inching my way closer to Churchfield on the map. When directly across from Churchfield I turned the "person" and looked across the fields towards it.  There upon a rise was a large graveyard!  That's me on Davis Street down in the bottom left corner.  The red balloon on the map is Churchfield.

     I was not expecting that. I quickly opened another window to do a search for "Donohill Graveyard" and found that the place was an historic landmark located on the lands of Churchfield, but surprisingly little else, next to nothing in fact.  I'm not even sure it was designated a landmark because of it's antiquity or because Daniel Breen, leader of the Third Tipperary Brigade and considered the man who fired the first shot in the War of Independence in 1919, was buried there.  A photo online shows the remains of vegetation shrouded walls in the middle of the graveyard, making it appear to be quite old, it once may have been a church yard.  The Tithe Applotment Books actually refer to the place as "Church field of Donohill".  I find it odd there isn't more information available online about the place.  Not even Google Books has much.

     In looking at the old 6 inch OSI map of Churchfield from about 1830, my suspicions about a church yard were confirmed as was the supposition the burial spot was very old.  On this map the grave yard can be seen delineated from the church with the words, "in ruins", next to it.  Even at that early date there was nothing left but remnants of the church.  Above it on the map can be seen St. James' Well, a vestige from pagan times, converted after the coming of Christianity to a sort of shrine to St. James the Apostle.  Pattern day at this well was 27 July, when the faithful gathered there with Mass sometimes being said.  In my mind's eye I can see the O'Dwyer family walking the short distance to the well, gathering there with their neighbors to recite a Gaelic prayer to St. James.

     Of course, without knowing where my fourth-great-grandfather Andrew O'Dwyer was born I can't say this is positively the long lost burial ground of my O'Dwyers though it could well be given it's age and location.  All I know for certain is that Andrew's daughter Alice, my third-great-grandmother, was living in Churchfield in 1824 when she married Cornelius Ryan and that there were other O'Dwyers there as well, Jeremiah, Timothy, and Andrew, as shown in Griffith's Valuation.  Andrew in the Valuation may be Alice's father or her brother Andrew Jr.  The best bet I've found for Andrew Sr. in the earlier Tithe Applotments is an Andrew Dwyer living in Silverhill, about a mile and a half south of Churchfield.  In Churchfield itself, Timothy, Darby (being a variation of Jeremiah), and John Dwyer appear in the Applotment Books.  Perhaps Andrew had left Churchfield to find work nearby, ending up in Silverhill, and Donohill Graveyard, so close, is indeed the right spot?

     

     

What Was the Relationship? In Which a Pugilist Breathes His Last and a Family Disappears

Bridget Hogan Ryan (1834-1902)

     The Hogans; I don't want to call them a thorn in my side, but...  My third-great-grandfather Cornelius Ryan and his son Con Jr., from the Tipperary parish of Anacarty/Donohill, both lie buried in Darby Hogan's family plot at St. Anne's Cemetery in Palmyra, New York.  Why is that?  Cornelius Sr.'s older son Andrew Ryan married a woman named Bridget Hogan from Knockavilla, Tipperary though her father was Thomas Hogan, not Darby who lived far away on the other side of Tipperary.  Was Darby a brother of Thomas?  What was Darby's tie to the Ryan family, was it Bridget's marriage?  I can't say, and so I continue tracking the Hogans looking for that elusive link.  

     I'm currently researching the descendants of Thomas Hogan and Catherine O'Dwyer, parents of several Hogans who left Tipperary and settled in Wayne and Monroe counties in upstate New York.  That much I'm sure of since Bridget's marriage record contained her parent's names.  There's also that naming pattern that confirms it further.  Bridget had a brother named Michael Hogan who was a witness at her marriage to Andrew in Palmyra.  Michael married Mary Dolan and lived close to Bridget and Andrew in Perinton, New York near Palmyra.  Bridget also had a sister, Catherine Hogan, who married fellow Irish immigrant William Slattery at Palmyra.  Their marriage, while cut short by Catherine's untimely death three years later, did produce a son named Timothy born at Palmyra and named for William's father.  Catherine's is the only Irish baptism I've found, (this parish's records don't begin until 1835), and it names Thomas Hogan and Catherine O'Dwyer as her parents with their address as Knockavilla.  There are three others I believe were brothers of Bridget, Michael, and Catherine, though the links are somewhat tenuous.

    The oldest would have been James Hogan who in 1860 was married and living in Galen near Clyde, New York, about twenty miles from Palmyra. There are several indications James was a brother, the first being his only son was named Thomas, as was Bridget's second son, and Michael's first son.  Secondly, a newspaper article noted James' son Thomas worked at a glass factory in Muncie Indiana, the importance of which you will see in just a minute.

     Another probable brother was Peter Hogan who was two names from James in the 1870 census of Galen.  He and James were both railroad workers according to that census which may explain how they wound up in Galen. Peter died in 1875 at about age forty, afterwards his wife Ellen married the widower, Michael Carroll.  Peter's son Thomas died from consumption at his mother's home in the spring of 1902.  His obituary read: "Thomas Hogan, the pugilist who died in Clyde Monday night of consumption, is said to have relatives living in Perinton. Mr. Hogan had been employed for the past year at the Muncie Ind. Glass Works."  The clear implication being, this Thomas and his cousin Thomas both worked in the glass industry in Muncie and the relatives in Perinton, mentioned in the obituary, would have been the deceased's father Peter's two siblings Bridget and Michael.  In one of those strange twists of fate, Michael Hogan in Perinton lost his own son Thomas six months later when the man fell into the Erie Canal there and drowned.

     William Hogan is the individual I have the least information on.  He lived closest to Bridget and Michael and was a baptismal sponsor for one of their children.  William appears in the Palmyra census of 1870 along with his wife Mary and children Thomas and Sarah.  A burial record at St. Anne's in Palmyra memorializes, "Mary Lawler wife of William Hogan", who was buried 30 August 1874.  The 1880 census shows the widower William Hogan still in Palmyra with his children Thomas 25 and Mary 23.  After that year they simply vanish, I've never found another trace of any of them.  Sarah may well have married and changed her last name, but she, William or Thomas should have left some trace.  In years of searching however, I have not found that trace.

    Returning to Catherine Hogan who married William Slattery, it should be noted that after her death William married again.  This time to Sarah Ryan, none other than the daughter of Cornelius Ryan Sr., interred in Darby Hogan's cemetery plot.  And who do you suppose William Slattery's parents were?  Timothy Slattery and Johanna Hogan.  Another Hogan!  As if the four Thomas Hogans weren't enough.  It would seem I have come full circle and ended up where I began.

     The Slattery family is interesting not just for Johanna Hogan, but because it appears they had roots in Knockgorman, Tipperary, part of the very same parish Cornelius Ryan lived in.  I found baptisms for three of the Slattery children in parish registers, Sarah in 1822, Julia in 1825, and Timothy Jr. in 1832.  Timothy Jr. would later turn up near William in Palmyra as a young adult.  The one baptism I didnt find was William's, who married Catherine Hogan and Sarah Ryan. However, after playing with the search engine at Find My Past I came up with the following baptism in 1828 at Anacarty/Donohill;

 "Wm of Tim ??? & Judy Hogan, the address was Knockgorman.  FMP thinks Tim's surname is Mathew, I'm not so sure.  It could just as easily be the letters SL as the letter M beginning that name. The image below shows how the parish priest formed the letters M and the letter S in his abbreviation for Sponsors.  The man was S challenged.  To top it off, one of this William's sponsors was Patt Heffernan -- all the other Slattery children had a Heffernan as their sponsor too.  I'm not ready to rule this out as William's baptism just yet.

     Knockgorman was less than two miles from Churchfield where Cornelius Ryan was living when he married Alice O'Dyer in 1824.  These two families, the Slatterys and Ryans, knew each other in Ireland, but the question remains, did they know Darby fifty miles away in Killeen?

A Close Look at Those Cousins

   

     After decades of researching my direct ancestors, I'm able say most of their records currently online have been found; believe me, I try searching but lately it comes to naught.  Thanks in large part to the pandemic not many new records are being uploaded, forcing me to spend time on distant relatives whose information I haven't yet exhausted, if I want to do any research at all.  And I certainly do!  Today found me looking at the children of Daniel McGarr from County Kildare.  Not my 3rd-great-grandfather Daniel McGarr, but his cousin with whom he shared the same name.  They lived in the same area of Ireland, around Rathvilly and Ballyraggan, undoubtedly knew each other, and were close in age; but while my Daniel remained in Ireland, his cousin sailed off to America, settling near Auburn, New York.

     I've written before about three of Daniel's daughters who became nuns and have found birth and death dates for all nine of his children apart from Sarah who was born in Auburn in 1847 and was raised in nearby Owasco, New York, where Daniel established a large farm which was quite prosperous.  Sarah had proven elusive the last time I looked at her but perhaps today was the day I'd discover her story and hopefully by extension, more about her father.

     I had Sarah's husband in my tree as James Bryan and a date of 1926 for her death in Essex New Jersey.  I had however, neglected to add where I found the New Jersey information.  I almost deleted it; I could think of no reason why she would have been in New Jersey.  Then again, I must have had a reason when I entered it, so I decided to look further first.  Ancestry had a social security record for an Anastacia Mee, whose parents were James Bryan and Sarah McGarr.  That made sense, Sarah's mother was Anastacia Lyons.  Mrs. Mee lived in Minnesota though, far from Cayuga County New York, I wasn't positive I had the right person.  I tried doing a search for Sarah McGarr Bryan from her Ancestry page in my tree but that didn't get me anywhere.  I find that happens a lot.  A search done from scratch will bring up records, while one done using the "Search on Ancestry" tab on the subject's page misses them.

     A visit to the Cayuga County GenWeb site yielded Sarah McGarr's marriage to James Bryan at St. Mary's in Auburn in 1872, and after much searching some census records came to light.  One would think a name like Sarah Bryan would not be hard to find, but the 1900 census mangled it to, "Sirah Beyan", which Ancestry couldn't find until I tried a more creative path, searching instead for her son James Jr., who turned out to be a law student, using only his first name, birth year, and his residence as Cayuga County.  Then I could just scan down the list of hits till finding a surname that in another iteration could have been Bryan.  Ancestry didn't come up with a hit for Sarah in the 1880 census either until I employed those creative tactics. Sarah's husband did not appear in the 1900 census, although I found him in New York's 1892 census.  Using that to narrow the date of his death he was located in the New York State Death Index with a date of 19 February 1898. 

     I checked St. Joseph's Cemetery site in Auburn, looking for a James Bryan buried in 1898 and found him along with the section and lot number of his grave.  In the same place was buried his son Daniel Bryan and two other James Bryans.  One of them died in 1905 at age 10 months, (who I later found was his grandson), the other in 1932.  The second one must be James Jr. I reasoned, so a search for some obituaries was in order.  I found a notice placed in a Auburn newspaper in 1898 by a fraternal organization extending condolences to the Bryan family on the death of their patriarch, but nothing more.  The 1932 obituary, however, was the jackpot!  It read--

   One of Rochester's best-known attorneys, James S. Bryan, died unexpectedly yesterday afternoon at his home 1011 Highland Avenue.  He was 54 years old.

Last winter Mr. Bryan suffered a stroke and was confined to Strong Memorial Hospital and his home for several months.  He was apparently on the road to recovery and had resumed his law practice...  

   Mr. Bryan was born in Auburn, the son of James and Sarah Bryan and received his early education in St. Mary's parochial school and Auburn High School.  He was a graduate of Fairfield Military Academy and Albany Law School.  Shortly after his admission to the bar in 1904, Mr. Bryan formed a law partnership at Auburn with his brother Joseph W. Bryan, now a practicing attorney at New Rochelle, NY.  In 1912 he moved to East Rochester, where he established offices...

     The obituary proved his parent's names and revealed the law student had become an attorney, as had his younger brother Joseph.  But there were more goodies in this announcement--

   He leaves his wife Margaret C., daughter Mrs. James T. Hall, and son Thomas; two brothers, Joseph of New Rochelle and Dr. J.P. Bryan of Jersey City; two sisters Mrs. Francis Mee of Minneapolis and Sister Stanislaus Sister of Saint Joseph in Rochester, and a granddaughter. Funeral Friday morning at the home with burial in Auburn.

     This obituary really pulled it all together.  It explained why Sarah McGarr Bryan had passed away in New Jersey where her son the doctor was living, it proved Anastacia Mee in Minnisota was indeed his sister, and confirmed he was one of the James Bryans in St. Joseph's Cemetery.  It also gave the names of his wife and children.  A search of census records in New Jersey showed Sarah living with her son John T. and another son Francis, both were chiropractic doctors.  Most of my ancestors were farmers and didn't get the sort of obituaries Attorney Bryan did, but it certainly is wonderful when it happens.

     I sat down a few hours ago thinking I would perhaps find a few dates and spouses and instead wound up with another family story.  Best of all, I found something I never dreamed of finding, that most coveted family treasure of all, a photograph!  Below, from his passport, is Dr. John Theodore Bryan--

John T. Bryan

       The passport made fascinating reading, it confirmed all the information I'd already collected for this family and stated the reason John was going abroad.  The purpose of his trip to France and Great Britain was war relief, under the aegis of the Knights of Columbus, that charitable, fraternal, Catholic organization.   

     And then, another photo came to light; this one is of James S. Bryan the lawyer, from his obituary--

     Neither photo of the brothers is a very good image, but I'll take them.  John's passport even gave the birthplace of his father.  Not just "Ireland" as is usually the case, but a real place, Monavothe, Rathvilly, Carlow, Ireland!  James Bryan Sr. was from the same vicinity as the McGarrs.  As I've been investigating these far-flung relatives lately, I've found myself enjoying it much more than I thought I would--that flash of recognition when I realize the name of a newly found spouse is already somewhere in my tree.  It's been fascinating to see my cousins from different parts of Ireland meeting and inter-marrying in America and their children doing the same, my tree branches are beginning to cross.  I love discovering others in their adopted neighborhoods in America who were unrelated, but from the same townlands and parishes in Ireland and had known each other in the old country, long before they arrived in New York.  Maybe being reduced to studying distant relatives isn't so bad after all.