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.