Ancestor #7: Those Flanagans

 

At the turn of the second half of this year, attention for my Twelve Most Wanted for 2025 will turn to the ancestors of my father-in-law. That means grappling with the shrouded identities of Irish men and women from before the time of the Great Famine. Worse, it means trying to trace the identities of Catholics in a land which by then had long become unfriendly towards Catholics.

Bottom line for all this: finding any clear direction regarding the roots of my father-in-law has long meant facing a struggle with lack of documentation. When it comes to finding his Flanagan ancestors, my approach has been to trace any collateral lines. This I had done in 2023, in hopes of finding a clue in the families of siblings—but those hopes have not yet materialized into anything helpful.

Still, I'm willing to give it another try. Reminded by the advances in search capabilities in programs like FamilySearch's Full Text and AI programs, I realize there may be more to come with such developments by next July. So I will not sell my goals short by limiting my research plans based on what is currently available at the beginning of January. This may, however, turn out to be a journey based on faith, not certain availability.

So, who are the Flanagans I hope to find? First is my father-in-law's great-grandmother, Anna Flanagan. She it was who received the enigmatic letter in 1849 from her husband Stephen Malloy with the message—likely an unexpected one—that he was sailing to America within hours. As you can imagine, it was not long after receiving that word that Anna, along with her toddler daughter Catherine in tow, set out to find her husband in America. 

In that quest, she never succeeded. Instead, she joined her bachelor brother in Chicago and raised her daughter there. Eventually, another Flanagan brother joined them in the Windy City, along with a niece and her family.

Who that mystery brother was, I can't yet say. But I suspect that, finding his name and learning more about his family will add to the collection of Flanagan names in that family circle which may point us to the right direction, back in Ireland.

While I can't vouch for Irish records from that time period in the suspected location of their home—County Limerick?—at least I can expand my search on the American side of the research equation for the relatives of Anna Flanagan Malloy.