Or: What a Difference Twenty-Some Years Can Make Death and Burial of Margaret Jamieson When Margaret Jamieson, widow of James Moran, died on 12 July 1882, her death generated two records: a Roman Catholic church burial record; 1 and an…
Catholic Records
Strange Surname Spellings: Hohanlan for O’Hanlon
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
As I’ve mentioned before (e.g., in Spelling Doesn’t Count! [in Genealogy]), it’s extremely unlikely that an ancestor had a strong attachment to a certain spelling of his surname, if that ancestor never had occasion to personally spell his own name. If…
Bridget McCann: Friend or Relation?
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
In records pertaining to my McGlade-Dunne ancestors, who emigrated from Co. Armagh, Ireland to Counties Leeds and Lanark, Ontario, the name McCann turns up at several key points. For example, two of the children of John McGlade and Bridget Dunne…
Cause of death: puerperal (childbed) fever?
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
On 7 April 1885, Bridget Adeline Lavelle,1 wife of James McCann, gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Margaret Adeline McCann. Ten days later, Bridget Adeline Lavelle was buried at “the new Catholic Cemetery of Perth” (i.e., St.…
Where did my great-grandparents meet?
by M.C. Moran • • 1 Comment
Here is my great-grandmother Anna (“Annie”) Maria Benton in the Ottawa city directory of 1895-6:1 Miss Annie Benton, dressmaker, lodger at 103 Cambridge St. The Ottawa city Directory, 1895-6: embracing an alphabetical list of all business firms and private citizens,…
Funeral Prayer Cards
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
I tend to think of funeral prayer cards as a Catholic thing, though this assumption may be a function of my own, somewhat limited experience: the vast majority of funerals I have attended have been Catholic (at the moment, I…
The Queen vs. Kelly: Part V
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
Continued from The Queen vs Kelly: Part IV (see also Part III, Part II, and Part I). What Happened to John Kelly and Mary Hourigan? When I wrote Part I of “The Queen vs. Kelly,” I had no idea what had…
Disparité de culte/disparity of worship/disparitus cultus
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
When Rose Ann Muriel St. Jean married Max Glatt at a Catholic church in Ottawa,1 the couple had to obtain “une dispense de disparité de culte” (a dispensation for [the impediment of] disparity of worship): The reason for this dispensation…
A marriage blessing (John Delaney and Emma Dean)
by M.C. Moran • • 1 Comment
From the parish register for Notre Dame de Grâce, Hull (Ottawa County, Quebec), here is an interesting (and highly unusual) marriage record. As I read it, it is not a record of the performance of a marriage act at Notre…
Early Baptisms, St. Francis de Sales, Smiths Falls: Part I
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
Early Baptisms (May 1848-Dec 1849), St. Francis de Sales, Smiths Falls, Montague township, Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada This is my own transcription, some of the names were hard to make out. I have resisted the urge to “correct” the spellings.…