We didn't have a Volunteer for today (sniff) so I'm here wondering what to throw together. And I do mean throw. Life has been hectic around the Edwards household recently. Work's been hell (but glad to be employed!), daughter's getting married in 3 weeks; daughter's also expecting her first baby in June; son's getting married at the end March; helped the daughter move out a couple of weeks ago, taking out with her most of the stuff -and pets - she accumulated during 10 years of moving out and back in, leaving behind plenty of stuff to clean and fur to vacuum up; son's preparing for back surgery in 4 weeks; stepfather's got issues; and oh I could go on and on and blah, blah, blah.
But I won't. Cuz that's life. I guess.
So I haven't had a hell of a lot of time recently to indulge in my favorite past-time, which makes me really cranky. And what really makes me even more cranky is when the little time I do have for my favorite past-time is spent spinning my wheels.
And I blame it on the Irish.
Genealogy & Family History Community
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What's with the Irish? Why can't I ever find out anything about Irish immigrants? Luckily for my tenuous sanity, I don't have any Irish ancestors, but I've every time I've come across an Irish ancestor while researching for friends and family, everything comes to a screeching halt. It's like dropping off into the ocean. Not even a splash. Just - Kerplunk.
So I'm in need of help or guidance or direction or a stiff drink or even a little luck of the Irish.
This family I'm working on now, the family of my future son-in-law, has one Irish ancestor (that I know of) and his name was James Lonergan. Here's the little that I know of him.
According to the 1900 St. Louis Federal Census, James Lonergan was born in Ireland in Dec of 1852 and arrival in U.S. was 1870, a shoemaker.
I first find James in St. Louis in the 1875 Directory, so he may have arrived there in 1874. Where he was between 1870 and 1874/1875 is anyone's guess. I don't find James in the 1876 Directory, but he's back on in 1877, occupation listed as "shoes" for the first time. His residence is "William's House". Ok, was that the name of a boarding house? Or was that supposed to mean William Lonergan's house, who was also a shoemaker in St. Louis? This William was born in St. Louis in 1849, his father was named Thomas, his mother Elisha or Alice Butler (according to William's death cert). IF James is related to William, he would probably be a cousin, since William's father Thomas immigrated before 1849, so cannot be James' father.
James moves around a lot, but I never find another Lonergan living at the same address as James. A couple of times, though, he lived very close to other Lonergans; one named Thomas another named Margaret, widow of a different Thomas; and James R, a painter who lived at the same address as Margaret. Does this mean anything? I dunno.
James marries a bonny Scottish lass named Ann Richardson on 6 Apr 1880. Ancestry had an image of their civil marriage record, and the St. Louis Public Library was so wonderful as to email me a copy of the St. Xavier Catholic Church record. No parents or birth information, not even ages, are mentioned. The witnesses are C. Hackey and G. Long. I haven't been able to identify either of these individuals - yet.
James and Ann had 7 children, 2 still-born and 1 died in infancy. The remaining 4 survived into adulthood, married, at least 3 died in Missouri. Their names were: Unnamed, Jeanette, Unnamed, Frank James, Mary Ellen, Agnes, and Thomas R (R for Richardson, perhaps?). Jeanette was Ann's mother's name. Perhaps the other names are linked to James' family.
None of the children's records that I've found so far list any other information on James other than that their father was born in Ireland.
James died around 1904/1905. I haven't found his death record, but the St. Louis death records of that time didn't list the parent's names, anyway. I assume he had a Catholic burial, and I'm going to ask the St. Louis Library to send me a copy of the church record (if they have it). I've received other St. Louis church records, but they haven't contained much information, so I'm not very hopeful James' church death record would tell me anything. But before I can ask for the record, I have to give them the actual death date, and I haven't found it yet.
There are 2 naturalization records for James Lonergan in St. Louis. I haven't requested them yet, but frankly, I've only once found a naturalization record that had any useful information in it. And the useful information that one contained was information I already knew.
Only one other thing to go on - in Ireland, the name Lonergan is mostly concentrated in the county of Tipperary, which is apparently where the name originated.
I've tried looking for Irish records. Unfortunately, James was born 12 years before Irish civil birth records were kept. There are a few church records indexed, but not for James. I looked for family trees that might fit - nada. Passenger lists - one possibility, but the age is a little off.
I want to find out where James was born, I want to find his Irish family, but I'm running out of ideas, not to mention patience.
I gotz the German research thing down pretty good, but I suckz at the Irish. So - Gotz Irish skilz? I'm all ears.
Or maybe you've been working on other things you'd care to share. It's an open thread, so have at it!
P.S. After throwing this together, I had a few minutes to google some things and came across this Tipperary website. A shot in the dark but perhaps may be helpful?