Sunday, June 1, 2014

A Little O’Connor Addendum


Bridget-cum-Elizabeth Kelly O’Connor gave out her birth year for Chicago census enumerators with wide abandon. Depending on the decade, her birth was documented in the Joseph O’Connor household as 1880 (for 1910), 1878 (in 1920 and 1930) or 1875 (for 1940). Sure didn’t help when it came time to figure out exactly which Kelly daughter she was.

Ancestors: when you leave a trail of governmentally-documented birth dates behind you covering a span of five years variance, you make it difficult for your descendants to properly trace you. Really. Get your story straight!

But I think I’ve got her number. It was Ancestry.com that helped me figure it out this time, with an index of Cook County marriages that provided the date of her marriage to Joseph P. O’Connor: February 10, 1900. Added bonus? The bride’s name was entered as Bridget E. Kelly. But wait! Her age, given as a demure twenty one to his twenty seven at time of marriage puts her birth in 1879. Go figure.

Elizabeth didn’t make things any easier when it came time to determine her eldest daughter’s date of birth. Catherine—or Katherine, as it was alternately spelled in one census record—had dates of birth varying from 1898 to 1901. It made me wonder when I found this marriage record for one Catherine O’Connor marrying someone by the name of Harry Edwards: was this our Catherine O’Connor? Or just a coincidence with a similar birthday? Perhaps these reporting errors are genetic.

A birth record showed a Catherine born November 15, 1898: would this be our Catherine? It seems to match the 1910 declaration by her parents that they were married, by then, for twelve years. Of course, that’s as long as you don’t pay attention to Catherine's age as listed in the 1920 census—that one seemed to indicate she was born in 1901.

On the other hand, I have to cut this family some slack, especially after finding one official record which included details not ordinarily supposed to be listed on such governmental documents.

We hit the jackpot on Joseph O’Connor’s death record. Apparently, the 1932 certificate included not only the names of Joseph O’Connor’s parents Thomas and Catherine, but it also revealed the very place in Ireland where Joseph was born: Kilkenna.

I love you, Chicago!

Now…if only I can figure out exactly what you meant by that “Kilkenna.” Could it mean Kilkenny?




Photograph: a door on the south side of Kilkenny Castle, Ireland; in the public domain; courtesy Wikipedia.

7 comments:

  1. I find the Bridget/Elizabeth dilemma quite interesting. My husbands great grandmother was know as Olive Bowser Stephens. I have her death certificate, obit, and application for her second marriage that lists her parents. Only the second marriage certificate lists her mothers actual name.

    In the 1880 census Olive is listed as Maud; after searching for years I finally decided the reason she was Maud is that there was another Bowser cousin named Olive born the same year and it was to tell them apart. I have yet to find if Maud was her middle name or something her parents liked.

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    1. Claudia, you have that right! Sometimes it takes searching for years to find stuff like that. The assignment of first names, middle names and nicknames sometimes seems to have no bearing on reality whatsoever.

      But isn't that part of what makes the chase so irresistible?

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  2. Seems you have conquered part of this puzzle:)

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    1. Amazing how many branches of the family tree are now opened up for further pursuit...why genealogy research is never truly finished...

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  3. I've seen some census records where it wasn't even a family member supplying the information -- it was a neighbor, so noted by the enumerator. I get it: "Oh, I guess he was born oh about ...." It makes me wonder why the family wasn't more cooperative -- were they just away on vacation? Suspicious of strangers at the door? Suspicious of any government interaction? Rebels?

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  4. Kilkenna .. what a mystery. It was a place - but like some of the previous Irish places, hard to find!!

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    1. I think where you are looking for might be Kilkeana Co. Kerry Ireland

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