Former Articles at Genealogy Today

Since my website is no longer active, please visit the following link for articles I wrote a decade ago.

www.genealogytoday.com/articles/writers/Kevin_Cassidy.html

Census Records

Census records are some of the best if not the best records to utilize in your family history research quest. The United States Constitution requires that a federal census is taken every ten years. Since 1790 a census has been conducted and most of those records are available for searching once 72 years have passed for privacy concerns.

The 1890 federal census is almost completely lost due to water damage trying to put out a fire in the Commerce Building on 19 Jan 1921. Almost all of the census was destroyed by government order by the mid 1930s. Fragments remain for Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas, and the District of Columbia. There are some missing records from both the 1800 and 1810 federal censuses as well; 1800 is missing GA, KY, NJ, TN and VA  while 1810 is missing the District of Columbia, Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio and almost all of Tennessee. 

Despite its missing records the census provides an every decade snapshot of a person over the course of his life, as a child, a young adult, married and finally his later years. Starting in 1850 every member of a household was identified by name, sex and age. There were property questions which revealed their real and personal property values. Starting in 1880 the relationship of each household member was referenced back to the head of household. In 1900 the month and year of birth of every person was recorded. 

Naturalization and immigration questions were asked over the years and 1900-1920 are particularly helpful when researching an immigrant ancestor. In 1900 and 1910 mothers were asked how many children they gave birth to and how many were still living. The length of a person’s current marriage was recorded in 1900 and 1910. Age at first marriage was asked in 1930. These can provide endless clues in finding marriage records.

The goal is to find every ancestor in each census that he appeared in over his life. This could  be several or just a single one. If an immigrant ancestor died young enough he may not appear in any census records at all. In addition to your direct line be mindful of looking for your ancestors’ other children. These collateral relatives may provide better insight into family dynamics and migration stories. 

Most states and a few localities also conducted censuses. The federal government subsidized part of the cost of 1885 censuses taken by the states of Colorado, Florida, Nebraska and the territories of Dakota and New Mexico. With the loss of the 1890 federal census this count became more helpful and important. 

Some states like New York and Iowa conducted censuses almost every five years in the middle of a decade; Iowa’s 1925 state census is possibly the best census ever conducted. It asks for the names of each person’s parents and details about their places of birth and marriage. 

Be mindful that in 1870 both New York City(Manhattan) and Philadelphia were allowed to conduct additional censuses because of complaints by their civic leaders that their cities were undercounted. Therefore, for example, the island of Manhattan was counted in Jun 18709 and following and then again in Dec 1870 into Jan 1871. 

In 1890, New York City(Manhattan and parts of the Bronx) were counted again from 19 Sep until 14 Oct 1890 by the NYC Police Department. This census included the name, age and sex of each individual in the home but did not list birthplaces or jobs. It is essential given the loss of the 1890 federal and 1892 state census for Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. 

Pay attention to each member of the household and do not dismiss a lodger or a boarder as not related. Oftentimes blood relatives are misidentified as such and only reveal their close relationship in subsequent records. In 1910 Patrick Charles was listed as Mary Gillen’s boarder. Later in the year when Mary died, Patrick buried her in a grave he had purchased a few years earlier. It would be odd to have a tenant bury his landlady. In the 1905 state census Patrick Charles was listed as Mary Gillen’s cousin which makes much more sense. Their mothers were sisters and both women interchangeably used the surnames Conry and Greaney. 

Another misidentification is of stepchildren with their father’s surname. Be mindful to look for your relatives under both their own surname and that of their stepfather even if they did not like him and he never adopted them legally. 

Vital Records

Unless you are already 72 years old you will not likely find any census records that your are enumerated in. Therefore, I would begin with your birth certificate. Get the actual certified long form and see if there might be a surprise or two in terms of where you born or your parents’ names.

Vital records are an excellent resource and you should try to obtain the birth, marriage and death certificates for your immediate family members. This might be sensitive for living family members so tread lightly and do not press to get a look at an official record unless you have reason to.

One can only be born and die once so everyone most likely has but one certificate for both of those events. A person cannot only marry more money in a minute than he can earn in a lifetime, he can also marry several times over the course of his life. Aim to obtain every civil marriage record that your ancestors and close collateral relatives created over their lives. 

Marriage records often predate the other vital records by several decades. Marriage records come in a variety of forms from one line ledger entries to full page certificates. There might also be a license before a wedding took place. There may only be a certificate to record that the wedding occurred. Bonds, banns and other unique marital tools might be created. They will vary from the very informative to the barely helpful and everything in between. Be mindful of duplicate and competing marriage records that may be kept within a municipality. Two city offices may have collected marriage records during the same timeframe. 

If you are trying to determine when a couple married consider birthplace and year of their first child. Was there a newspaper announcement of the engagement? Sometimes plans change and the Episcopal wedding in the rectory is instead actually a courthouse wedding by the Justice of the Peace. A very helpful but ironic place to learn of a wedding location is the first few paragraphs of a divorce petition. Pension files are a potential resource to discover where and when a couple married. Lastly, obituaries and personal interviews can reveal wedding dates and places.

There are multiple indexes available that may assist you in your quest. Both FamilySearch and Ancestry have indexes online. These will not reveal all there is in the full record but it will point you in a certain direction for success. 

Once localities required them, death certificates are a user friendly, straight forward record to track down. There are multiple indexes available. Compliance with the law is almost universal. Apparently it was simpler to regulate and supervise a fixed number of funeral directors and cemetery offices than the inordinate number of pastors, physicians and midwives at marriages and births, especially in large urban areas.

Determining when someone died is not always simple but we will all die and our ancestors mostly have all died off by now. There may not be a death certificate before a certain year but obtain each and every one that you can because of the helpful information to be potentially found there; birthdate, birthplace, parents’ names and birthplaces, spouse’s name, marital status, cause of death, burial location and date to name but a few. 

Birth registrations may not begin in certain states until after 1900. This can be a challenge but again work with what vital records one can. Births provide the names of the parents including mother’s maiden name. The location and date of birth is standard. The ages of the parents and the birthing history of the mother may also be included on a birth record.

Be mindful of what the record keeper was asking. Number of child born to this mother and number of previous children born to this mother necessitate different replies because the former includes the subject of the birth certificate while the latter specifically ignores him. 

This record also helps to track our families social history and shows when the pregnant woman brought to bed surrounded by female friends and relatives to deliver was replaced by a delivery run by a physician and later in a hospital with physicians and nurses. Doctors are more likely than midwives to record a birth with the state. Also be mindful that delayed birth certificates can be issued for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there may be a birth certificate submitted by a midwife and then a second one submitted by the doctor. Make sure to obtain both and compare their answers. 

There will be a lot of cross referencing between records sources. Once you know where an infant was born you might have an easier time finding a baptismal record. If you are able to establish where a person is buried you may be able to find out who else from the family is buried in that grave or that same cemetery.

Out of One Rabbit's Hole and Down the Next

I finally found my grandmother’s uncle’s wedding details from 1890. It verified that the names of his parents were the same as a couple I had stumbled upon years earlier.

Now I want to clean up the life details for his widow, Mary Cunningham Goodwin(c.1865-1903). Her death certificate stated that she was the daughter of Patrick and Ann Cunningham. He marriage record from 13 years earlier listed them as Owen Cunningham and Ann Martin. Martin seems a rather straight forward name easy to spell. 

Upon checking both the civil birth registry through Ancestry and the baptismal registers through both Ancestry and RootsIreland, no Owen Cunningham and Ann Martin appeared as parents. I did however find an entry for a Mary Cunningham baptized on 24 Jul 1859 at Crossmaglen, Upper Creggan, County Armagh the daughter of Owen Cunningham and Anne MARRON. 

The marriage record from 1890 is a transcription. I await the digitized scanned image that FindMyPast will post in the future. 

In the mean time I did discover that Owen Cunningham and Anne Marron/Marrin lived at Monaguillagh townland. From townlands.ie we learn Monaguillagh is in the Civil Parish of Creggan. Monaguillagh is in the Barony of Fews Upper. Monaguillagh is in Co. Armagh

The Irish name for Monaguillagh is Móin na gCailleach

They baptized 5 children there from 1859-1870:

24 Jul 1859 Mary Cunningham Pat Cunningham & Ann Boyle sponsors

18 May 1863 Bridget Cunningham Michael Corrigan & Mary Cunningham sponsors

25 Jun 1865 John Cunningham Hugh Kelly & Bridget Kelly sponsors

25 Jul 1868 Ann Cunningham Thomas Murphy & Jane Cunningham sponsors
19 Mar 1870 Patrick Cunningham Edward Callaghan & Bridget Cunningham sponsors

Owen Cunningham died 25 Aug 1896 at Monaguillagh

Ann Cunningham wed Felix Morris((1865-1905) on 11 May 1897 at Crossmaglen

Anne Marrin Cunningham died 17 Sep 1904 at Monaguillagh

Patrick Cunningham(1870-1907) appeared in the 1901 Irish census. He died 29 Dec 1907 with his sister Anne Faughey(1868-after 1910) as informant, Monaguillagh. The widow Anne Cunningham Morris wed Peter Faughey on 30 Aug 1906. She hand no children in either marriage. 

If this is the right family for Mary Cunningham Goodwin it would move her age up 7 years. She would be older than her sister-in-law by 6 months and the following ages when she married and delivered her six children: 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39 and 42. Her reported ages were: 24, 25, unknown, unknown, 29, 32 and 35.

Exhilaration

Recently, I was excited with two new updates in my genealogy research. First, Ancestry DNA has updated their testing pool and the significant updates were made to their ethnicity percentages provided to clients.

Initially, my results indicated 77% Irish, 12% British, 4% Scandinavian, Caucasus 3%, Iberian Peninsula 2% and Finland/NW Russia 2%. The newer stronger ethnicity results stated 100% Ireland/Scotland. This does agree completely with my paper family tree; 8 great-grandparents born in Ireland between 1849-1870.

The more significant finding was thanks to FindMyPast’s Catholic Heritage Archive for the Archdiocese of New York. The initial upload was in March and another huge upload just occurred. I have spent several years painstakingly trying to prove that Hugh Goodwin(1842-1926) the son of Patrick Goodwin and Catherine Rogers was the full brother of my great-grandfather John Goodwin(1860-1897) and his brother Peter(c.1853-1901); sons of Patrick and Catherine Goodwin.

I had found numerous circumstantial connections and never a shred of evidence that challenged my supposition. Finally, I found a transcription for Peter Goodwin’s 1890 marriage to his wife Mary Cunningham. They wed at St Paul the Apostle, 6 Jul 1890. The priest recorded that the groom was the son of Patrick Goodwin and Catherine Rogers. Exhilarating to finally have the answer and have conclusive and solid evidence to support my claim. 

Keep Looking

Recently I have been checking the FindMyPast website hoping to find new transcriptions or scanned images to check. I thought to check and see if children of Robert English might have shown up and I hit pay dirt.

Robert’s younger son, Martin, married two Catholic women and baptized all 6 of his children with them in Catholic ceremonies. Martin, his children and wives were buried at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside. I had not been able to find birth or baptismal records for Martin or his siblings and half-siblings. 

I had found an 1854 marriage between Martin’s parents at Twenty-eighth Street Presbyterian. Robert’s first wife died and he wed a widow, Fanny Wilson Mulligan. Mrs. Mulligan had married in Ireland in 1856 in a Presbyterian ceremony. No record of this second marriage has been found. 

Robert and Fanny had three daughters. These daughters and their half-siblings(two English brothers and four Mulligan siblings) were often found in Episcopalian records. 

One, Sarah, married John Rogen in 1890 at St. Raphael Catholic and baptized their daughter in the Catholic rites there in 1891. This little girl died in 1893 and was buried in Evergreen, a non-Catholic cemetery. 

Sarah’s second marriage to John Baker was at St. Chrysostom Episcopal in 1901 but their children were baptized at St Raphael in 1905 and 1907. Despite a Catholic baptism, the little boy born in 1905 was buried at Evergreen in 1906.  

Sarah had been a baptismal sponsor in 1893 at St. Chrysostom for her nephew.(Interestingly, this nephew would enter a mixed marriage and marry a Catholic woman in 1915 at St. Raphael. Their sons were baptized at St. Raphael in 1917 and 1919.)

It had been unclear what religion Martin English was raised in. He joined the Catholic Church on 27 Apr 1884 by being baptized at Holy Cross. It neighbors St. Raphael in Hell’s Kitchen. This entry recorded his middle name as Francis. He was formerly a Presbyterian. His parents were Robert English and Lizzie Morrison. He was born in 1857. His sponsors were Patrick Sweeney and Maggie Healy. This provided a tidy bit of information all because he was an adult convert to the Catholic Church. There is no notation that the baptism was conditional. It is possible that a Presbyterian ceremony may be found earlier in his life but it might be that he had never been baptized previously. He remained a practicing Catholic. He married in the Catholic Church in 1888 and 1900. His children were baptized Catholic in 1889, 1891, 1893, 1895, 1901 and 1903. He was buried in a Catholic cemetery in 1908.

Baptismal Proximity

Not surprisingly one will find family groups living, working and worshipping near each other. As I eagerly await the further uploads of the rest of sacramental transcriptions of the Archdiocese of New York at FindMyPast, scanned images of the original registers are slowly appearing online. As I compiled my family details I realized that my paternal grandfather and both his maternal and paternal first cousins frequented primarily just the Church of the Immaculate Conception and St. Gabriel.

Grandpa’s father and uncles were Joseph, Patrick and Michael Cassidy. Joseph and Michael married McKeon sisters at Immaculate Conception in 1878 and 1882. Their wives bore children that were baptized there in 1882 and 1883. Patrick Cassidy arrived in America already married but he and his wife baptized their American-born children at Immaculate Conception in 1882, 1884, 1889, 1891 and 1895. 

Joseph remarried twice more. His daughter by his second wife, my grandfather and 5 of 6 of Grandpa’s maternal cousins were all baptized at St. Gabriel in 1882, 1886, 1888, 1888, 1890, 1893 and 1893. The one Benson cousin not baptized at St Gabriel was christened at nearby St. Stephen in 1884. 

I realized too that my paternal grandmother was baptized at St Raphael in Hell’s Kitchen along with her half-brother, three paternal cousins and three maternal cousins. The Goodwins were baptized in 1894, 1896, 1896 and 1898. The Gormley half-brother in 1905. The McGinn cousins were baptized in 1903, 1907 and 1912. 

The neighboring parish is Holy Cross just blocks away. Not surprisingly Grandma’s Goodwin cousins and brothers were baptized there in 1890, 1891, 1892, 1892 and 1894. Her widowed mother remarried there in 1903. Three McGinn cousins were baptized there in 1902, 1905 and 1914. Three of the Goodwin siblings were godparents to their McGinn cousins in 1905 and 1914. 

Sacred Heart, also in Hell's Kitchen, was the site of baptism for a Goodwin baby in 1901 and a McGinn baby in 1905. A McGinn baby was baptized at St Ambrose in 1909.

It is important to check and identify the witnesses to weddings and sponsors at baptisms.  

Cousins and proximity to baptism

Cassidy Benson

Immaculate Conception

1882 Mary 

1882 Mary 

1883 Joseph M 

1884 Joseph A 

1889 Patrick 

1891 Edward 

1895 Francis

St Gabriel

1882 Dominick 

1886 Mary 

1888 Ann 

1888 George 

1890 James 

1893 Joseph 

1893 Edward

St Stephen

1884 John

Goodwin McGinn

Holy Cross

1890 Patrick 

1891 Owen 

1892 Francis 

1892 Owen 

1894 Hugh 
1902 Patrick

1905 Catherine 

1914 Mary 

St Raphael

1894 Peter 

1896 Sarah 

1896 Thomas 

1898 Catherine 

1903 Johanna 

1905 Francis 

1907 Margaret 

1912 John

Sacred Heart

1901 John
1905 James

St. Ambrose
1909 Alice

Catholic Marriage Notations at FindMyPast

FindMyPast is slowly but surely adding scanned images of the actual sacramental registers to their Catholic Archives collection. Recently I was able to view the baptismal entries for several cousins and uncles at both Holy Cross and Holy Rosary. It is crucial to always view as close to an original source as a researcher can.

The registers vary in legibility and organization from period to period. Compliance with canon law was not complete which is rather bothersome. There are several examples where children that later married in a Catholic ceremony after 19 Apr 1908 did not have the appropriate notations next to their baptismal entry. 

This notation is an excellent way to track a potentially missing relative through the years. I did find a woman who was baptized in 1874 marrying a second time in 1945. This marriage notation helped to discover her last married name and a possible death certificate. Her second husband was recorded in the register as Cornelius Hayes. The civil marriage index listed him as C. Griffin Hayes. They applied for their license on 20 Aug 1945 and wed 29 Aug that same year. 

Waiting Patiently for New Databases and New Uploads

Genealogy research has its ups and downs. Currently, I am treading water waiting for a few databases to be expanded and released for public access.

There are a few marriages I hope to find when the rest of the Archdiocese of New York's sacramental registers are released hopefully later this year. About half their holding were released recently in transcriptive form. I await the rest of the transcriptions and also the full release of the scanned images of the baptismal and marriage registers.

Who Do You Think You Are and Irish Roots

Who Do You Think You Are? Is a well established television series. I wish it were a bit more research oriented but the best episode in my biased opinion was the Rose O’Donnell episode from several years ago. It can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A64BmSUqzVM

Recently another episode earned my praise. Like Rosie O’Donnell, Molly Shannon lost her mother as a child. I strongly encourage anyone with Irish roots to watch both these episodes to gain knowledge about US research strategies and Irish records once one identifies the townland of origin. 

While these episodes were very interesting to me as a fellow American of Irish descent, they highlighted a few archival realities. The microfilm and scanned images we rely upon are wonderful but the original paper forms of the records often exist too. Rosie O’Donnell was able to view the bound paper form of her ancestor’s first wife’s death record. Molly Shannon was able to hold the 1911 Irish Census record for her grandfather’s family. 

Rosie’s episode  involved several record trails tracking her family to the past. They found census records from NJ, vital records from NYC, and then to Canada before arriving in Ireland. Once there they visited a workhouse from the Great Famine era.

Molly Shannon’s grandfather’s story was perhaps the easiest straight forward bit of research for this series I have ever seen. He was naturalized in 1923 and born about 1902. The declaration of intent clearly identified his place of origin which made finding him with his parents in the 1911 Irish census a snap. This led to further simple research on Achill Island and a great family reunion. 

Out of Nowhere

It was a thrill to finally find a religious record for the family of Ann Taylor McTee McCauley Dier. My late wife was a descendant of Henry McTee(1859-1920). Henry was the son of Irish immigrants and born in Chicago. The family traditions varied with some suggesting that the McTees were Catholic and others that they were Protestant. 

Marriage records and obituaries indicated that the family was not overly religious but frequented the Methodist church on occasion. A few days ago I found a baptismal entry on FindMyPast for Andrew Dier the 12th and youngest child of Ann Taylor(1837-1910). He was christened at Holy Family Catholic Church. This makes it plausible that checking for his siblings’ baptisms in 1874, 1876 and 1879 will be fruitful. Likewise a marriage record might turn up for Andrew Dier and Ann circa 1873. 

This was a third marriage for Ann. Her first husband was Samuel McEntee/McTee. 

Her second husband, Richard McCauley, perished in the Chicago fire.

A meticulous research approach needs to examine the various parish records that survive. The known surviving children of Ann Taylor are:

Henry McTee born 1859

John McTee born 1869

Sarah/Sadie McCauley born 1872

Amelia Clara Dier born 1874

William Dier born 1876

Maude Margaret Dier born 1879 

Andrew Dier born 1883

If a confirmation record could be found for Henry McTee or baptisms for children likely born between him and his brother John, this might fill in in a lot of the picture. Before 1910 the confirmation age was much younger than today. I will need to examine records for children ages 7 or so for the confirmation. 

Following a Wrong Course

Ancestry.com continues to provide more and more databases and several more indexes. I recently thought I was on the path to find a long lost cousin who disappeared about 1912. The NY state death index listed a Peter F. Goodwin that died in a state institution on Long Island based on the village. I was able to get the 1914 death record for him only to learn that it was a completely different fellow. The names of this gentleman’s parents were found to match his birth record in the index at FamilySearch.org 

As with scientific experiments, family history researchers will often have their hypothesis and working theories challenged and conclusively proved incorrect. Persevere nonetheless and never give up. 

Optical Character Recognition Makes Reading the Newspaper a Dream

Newspapers have always been a vital resource for genealogical research. The challenge for the family historian was to identify times and places to search various newspapers for articles or blurbs about their families.

The technological advancement known as optical character recognition(OCR), has made newspapers a much easier resource to utilize. I was able to find quite a bit on a collateral relative's wife because of her somewhat unusual nickname. 

Once I identified her shopping trip to Chicago in a small local newspaper, I was able to search for all references to her from bits as a teen and young woman to her moving away from the community in 1945 with her new husband.

One interesting 1939 article, including her photo, detailed her nuptials in another state to a previously unknown husband. Later that year she made the social columns for her visit and a year and a half later she ceased being referenced by her married name but resumed being identified by her single moniker.

I found a man that fits her first husband exactly and he did not die until 1994 so I trust that they divorced circa 1941. This is important because while I know that her second marriage was said to have been in a large metro area, I think they may have married in a smaller community. I will have to remember to check for her in the index under both her maiden and married names. 

As her second husband was a Catholic, I do not expect to find a marriage notation next to his baptismal entry. His wife was married(presumably validly) in a Presbyterian ceremony in 1939 so she would have needed an annulment to marry him in the Catholic Church in 1945. My understanding is that those remedies were much harder to come by in that time period. One possible exception would have been if her first husband had been previously wed.

Beware the use of OCR. You will invariably come upon stories where your relatives may not have been the innocent party in a conflict or scandal. Research is not for the faint of heart.  

Look Next Door if You Must

Where might a couple have married if not where one expected them to wed? Family tradition often preserves the place of marriage along with an approximate or definitive wedding date. Researchers occasionally come upon a stubborn set of nuptials that just don’t want to be discovered.

One thing to consider is the birth of the first child. That is usually an identifiable event either through a civil birth record or a church baptismal registry. While we know that conception always preceded delivery it may not have been preceded by matrimony.

Broaden a time range for a wedding. It is very likely that doing so my discover a formerly difficult record to find. 

Broaden the range of locations that might have served as a place of marriage. For example a couple that lived for years in Hell’s Kitchen did not marry in New York City. They were single and not enumerated together in the 1910 federal census. However, just months later Thomas Moore wed Mary English in West New York, NJ. This record was found in the NJ marriage index and quickly explained why no record could be found through the Department of Health or the City Clerk in NYC.

Caroline Herzing was married twice and both were a challenge to track down. First, she married Peter Stephan and started a family with him in Brooklyn. Surprisingly once the Archdiocese of New York sacramental records went online a wedding was transcribed that stated they had married in Manhattan in 1887. It identified both sets of their parents. 

Several years later after she was widowed she remarried to an Albert Stevenson. The similarity of her married surnames made it no easy feat to identify what her children’s surnames were. She wed Mr. Stevenson in 1901 in New Jersey. This explained why no record had been found in NYC despite her appearances in their census records.  

John McGinn married Lillian Waters in Jersey City on 27 Jun 1937. Francis Xavier McGorry and Anne Borkstrom married in NJ in 1941. Both these men were native New Yorkers whose siblings married in NYC.

If your ancestor’s life event is missing or they are missing from a census, consider they may be just across the state border in the Garden State. They may not have left the Empire State for NJ but consider it. These were three dimensional people that lived in a real world. They were born, married and died. If you are not finding a record it might be because you are searching the wrong city, the wrong county, the wrong state and a few times even the wrong country. 

Some couples like the McGinns and the McGorrys settled permanently in NJ but others like the Stevensons and the Moores resume their lives in NYC very shortly after their nuptials.

If you are not finding a record try something new and outside the box a few miles away. Age requirements or other legalities may have incentivized or necessitated a wedding away from home. 

If at First You Don't Succeed

One of the strategies for family history research is to collect marriage records for more than one’s own ancestral line. I have collected numerous marriage records for my grandparents’ siblings and first cousins. 

My paternal grandfather had 5 paternal cousins and 2 maternal cousins marry. The weddings took place in 1909, 1910, 1914, 1919 and 1921 and 1910, 1920 and 1950. 

My paternal grandmother had 2 brothers that both married in 1916. They had 2 paternal cousins who married in 1916 and 1919. They had two maternal cousins who married in 1930 and 1937. 

My maternal grandfather had 6 siblings that married in 1919, 1921, 1924, 1927, 1933 and 1944. Their paternal cousins married in 1917, 1923, 1937, 1940 and 1944. Their maternal cousin married in 1941.

My maternal grandmother had 6 siblings that married in 1920, 1925, 1929, 1936, 1949 and 1950. Their paternal cousins married 1916, 1928, 1929, 1929, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946.

As a research aid I especially try to get marriage records for immigrants and the children of immigrants in case the place of origin is provided in either the civil or church registers.  These clues may be either in the marriage license or certificate from the state or the notations from a Catholic sacramental register. I have found specific localities in Ireland mentioned in various marriage records. 

I had struggled to track down a 1937 wedding for one of these cousins. The groom was baptized in 1912 in Manhattan. Although he married there was not the marriage notation I had expected next to his baptismal entry.

I was able to find him in the New Jersey Marriage Index (Brides) through his beloved but it did not provide a date or place for the nuptials. 

I was able to view the 1911 baptismal entry for the bride today. They were married 27 Jun 1937 in an urban area in New Jersey. I had provided this information in my request but it was returned with a letter that they had tried their best and not found it.

Now that I have the church notations I trust that a new search with the exact date and place will result in a find. (I am happy to update the report that a civil marriage certificate was sent to me recently. It detailed the occupation and address of the groom which was helpful in developing his life story.)

Irish Birth Registers

Irish birth registers are often beneficial because of the extra information that is listed on the page entire. A pair of cousins were listed on the same page months apart in Oct 1890 & Apr 1891 Ireland. Male cousin and his younger Female first cousin shared both a surname and townland of birth They lived very differently over the course of their lives. 

Male cousin was a fourth born son but he eventually took over the family farm and lived his entire life in Ireland from 1890-1978. He was one of ten children with seven living to adulthood. He was enumerated at the family farm in 1901 and 1911.  In 1933 at age 42 he married a young woman and raised a family of nine.

Female cousin was a second born daughter of eight children. Three of the children died as toddlers and two sons died as young adults without issue. The remaining three daughters lived to adulthood. Female cousin was enumerated with her parents and siblings in 1901. She set off to America in 1911. She settled with their fathers’ youngest brother who was the first of their clan to emigrate in 1897. She married a German immigrant in 1917 and had 5 children from 1919-1926. She would bury her eldest child before his tenth birthday and eventually was divorced by her husband in late 1943. The divorce petition and final decree were reported in the Nevada newspaper while she resided in New York. She became a citizen at about the same time and did not have to file a declaration of intent as the wife of a citizen. She was dutifully enumerated in the 1920, 30 & 40 federal censuses and both the 1915 and 1925 NY state censuses. She was also recorded in church and civil marriage records and newspaper accounts. She died in 1972. 

Two children, paternal first cousins, bookended a birth register page in 1890s Ireland but spent the rest of their years living individual lives and their unique record trails clearly show this. 

Male cousin had a sister that was just ten months younger than him and four months younger than (their) Female cousin.(While birth registers are often filled with inaccurate birth dates the baptismal register showed that Male cousin was baptized 5 Oct 1890 and his younger Sister was baptized 4 Aug 1891. Sister was registered as born 4 Nov 1891.) Sister was also enumerated in 1901 at the family farm but in 1911 she was living with their mother’s brother and his children. 

Sister, at age 14, had been sent to the neighboring farm after her uncle’s wife passed in 1905. This apparently did not sit well with her and she resented that for the rest of her life she was always a visitor in her father’s home and never slept overnight there again. Not surprisingly she emigrated in 1914 to live (initially) with their father’s youngest brother in NYC. She married an American born man in 1919 and became a citizen at the same time. They too had 5 children and remained married until his death in 1953. Sister couldn’t be found in the 1915 state census but otherwise she left a clear paper trail. She died in 1962. 

Remember to throughly examine records and look for unexpected relations to show up in the next cabin or the next entry. These three cousins had noticeably different lives although they were all born within ten months of each other in the same townland. 

Census Recounts

Searching an urban area is a unique endeavor in the family history setting. Some records such as census and vital records are similar to their rural counterparts. Others offer unique opportunities to unlock family mysteries and delve deeper into the story. 

One unique situation is census recounts. Understandably urban centers want as high a census count as possible and certainly do not want to be undercounted. This would cause a lack of congressional representation and missed funding and infrastructure benefits. In 1870 the federal census was criticized as undercounting a few urban areas. A recount was ordered for both New York and Philadelphia. This gives an opportunity for researchers to potentially find dual enumerations for a family in Jun 1870 and Jan 1871.

Enumerated in the 20th Ward in New York county in New York state for both enumerations the following is found:

Date 29 Jun 1870 Jan 1871

Dwelling 140 Family 444 528 (West) 38th Street

Robert English 40 blacksmith Robert English 40 chair maker

Fanny English 30 Fannie English 42

James English 14 James English 15 driver

Edward Mulligan 12 at school Eddie (English) 13

Martin English 12 Martin English 12

William Mulligan 9 Wm(English) 11

Elizabeth Mulligan 7 Lizzie(English) 6

George Mulligan 5 Geo(English) 4

Sarah English 4/12 b. Jan Sarah English 3

Fannie English 1

The information between two decennial censuses often has disparities. These censuses above are a mere 6 months apart and show dramatic differences. Mrs. English ages 12 years in half a year's time. The original census properly identified the stepchildren of Robert English with their father’s surname, Mulligan. The recount listed them by age interspersing the step-siblings and listed all as English. The later count identified the Mulligans by their pet names and even added an English daughter Fannie completely missed in Jun 1870. Sarah’s age is way off and one must wonder if she was missed in 1870 and correctly added in 1871 partly boosting the second count by 2% over the original. 

Chicago was denied a recount but conducted one anyway that was published in a headcount city directory. It listed the head of household and the number or males and females in each dwelling.

In 1890, New York again questioned the federal count. It was not granted a recount but it sent its police force across Manhattan and parts of the Bronx in the fall of 1890. They listed only the address, name, sex and age of each resident. 

In 1890 the Robert English household lived at 524 West 37th Street.

Robert English, 65, M

Annie, 45, F

Fanny, 16, F

Margaret, 13, F