When my paternal grandparents married in 1932, each was marrying into a familiar family. As I’ve mentioned before, my Moran ancestors and my Lahey ancestors have been linked by intermarriage since the middle of the 19th century. Not that my paternal…
Catholic Records
Bigamy in the 19th century: how common?
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
I’m going to guess: not very common. And yet, it certainly did happen. I’ve actually come across very solid evidence of a bigamy case in the 1840s in the parish register for St. Philip’s RC Church in Richmond. No relations…
A 9-year-old boy who died “of the disease of Irish emigrants”
by M.C. Moran • • Comments Off
This was posted on Facebook, by the Institut généalogique Drouin (but the screencap below is from ancestry.ca: Quebec, Vital and Church Records [Drouin Collection], 1621-1967). It is the burial record for a nine-year-old boy named Henry Gill, “décédé de la…
Link
If you are researching Catholic ancestors in the UK, you should definitely consult Michael Gandy’s Tracing Your Catholic Ancestors (Public Record Office, 2001). It is a brief (only 64 pages) but comprehensive guide to the Catholic records, and also (and alas! for anyone researching Catholic ancestors during the Penal Period of 1559-1829) to the dearth of Catholic records prior to Catholic Emancipation and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829. Highly recommended.
Death and Burial Records: c. 1857-1861 versus 1882
by M.C. Moran • • 1 Comment
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…
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…