Locating an Ancestral Homeland in Ireland

In an early Chicago history from 1912, Josiah Seymour Currey mentions James Carney as one of the earliest Irish settlers in the muddy, swampy area that was to become Chicago. He joined with other intrepid and enterprising people (including Native Americans, French Canadians, the offspring of the unions between French and Native Americans, and Americans from other established cities and towns) to build a village that would become a great metropolis in a few decades.

Fort Dearborn & Chicago in 1831.jpg,
probably engraved from a sketch by Juliette Kinzie, wikimedia

James Carney is listed in the Robert Fergus’ Chicago Directory, 1830 as having a “grocery and provision store, 133 Lake Street.” p. 9 A Patrick Timoney is listed as a laborer, boarding with James Carney. p. 33.

As mentioned in a previous post, this James Carney was a merchant, grocer, and finally a brewer in the 1830s-1850s in Chicago. He belonged to a stellar group of early businessmen who laid the economic foundations for the young city. But who was this Irish Chicagoan? Where did he come from in Ireland? Or did he come from Northern Ireland? On the map below, Northern Ireland is at the top right and the rest of the country is Ireland.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/archive/d/d7/20070313214912%21Ireland.svg

Where did he learn the trading, marketing, operating, brewing skills that brought him such success in Chicago? With whom did he associate in Chicago? This became my challenge – learning as much as I could about James’ life in Chicago from available records and maybe getting some clues as to where in Ireland James Carney was born and lived until his emigration to America. In a later post I will explore possible connections between James and John Carney, my great great grandfather.

If you have done any research on your Irish American ancestors, you have probably faced this obstacle: a minimal number of records both here and across the Atlantic. If you’re lucky, you might have a family bible, oral histories, photos, or maybe an heirloom or two. In my case I had none of the above about James Carney. Despite the scarcity of official records, the fact that James participated in local politics and joined in some social groups earned him a mention or two in some local histories of Chicago. Let’s start there.

James Carney was an early Irish immigrant and successful merchant who recognized that participation in local politics could be an entry into acceptance as an “American.” In 1840 he ran for alderman of Chicago’s second ward and was elected as noted  on p. 102 in M.L. Ahern’s Political History of Chicago: 1837-1887.

In addition to his work as a businessman and his political service, James also showed a passion for the independence of his birth country. In the 1844 Chicago City Directory, reprinted in 1902 by Ellis and Fergus, he is listed as the treasurer for The Chicago Repeal Association. This group’s mission, as was of the original group in Ireland, was to advocate for the repeal of the 1800 Acts of Union that joined England and Ireland into United Kingdom of Great Britain.

James was also active in the intellectual life of his Catholic parish of Old St. Mary’s. The photo below is the third structure of the church which was built on Madison and Wabash in 1842.

St. Mary's Cathedral of Chicago, from Robert N.
Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg;
NY Public Library, digital ID G90F170_001F

The 1844 City Directory lists him as the treasurer of the Catholic Library Society (p. 68) I could find no information about this society after a google search and an inquiry to the Archdiocese ofChicago. But the name of the society, the fact that it met in the basement of Old St. Mary’s Church, and the time of its existence (1840s) provide some clues. At this time in Chicago’s early history, public libraries were non-existent. It wasn’t until after the Great Fire of1871 that a public library system was created. Religious, civic-minded businessmen with an interest in both local, national and world affairs would require a comfortable and private place to read/discuss both Catholic and secular newspapers, magazines, and books.

We now have some knowledge of James Carney’s business, civic, and social footprint in early Chicago, but where did he come from in Ireland? To begin to answer this question, we need to re-visit that research technique called “cluster genealogy” that I discussed in my blog post  Immigrants to America tended to travel from the old country in groups of people known to each other. This historical phenomenon is known as "network migration."  (p. 83-84.) Once in America, they lived near the same people and others from their country of origin. Since we don’t know where James Carney lived in Ireland, maybe we can find out some answers from the people he lived with, worked with, and worshiped with. Who were James Carney’s associates? 

The 1850 Chicago, Cook, IL federal census provides a detailed look at James Carney’s household; we see who worked for him in the brewery and lived in his household: Patrick Timoney, Daniel McElroy, John O’Neill and Mary McGillen. But how long had these families been in community? Let's start with US records.

The earliest documents in Chicago of James Carney and allied families are in the marriage records from Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in its second structure at Michigan and Madison.

Chicago History Museum, ICHi-37096.
J.H. Murphy, photographer

As early as 1836, James Carney and several Timoney family members are witnesses for weddings:

• 10-01-1836 Marriage of Joseph Brown & Elsie Donnelly; Witnesses: Patrick Kelly, James Carney p. 8

• 07-06-1837 Marriage of Denis McCarty & Marguerite McCloghart; Witnesses: Francis M. Crogha, Esther Timoney p. 9

• 12-26-1837 Marriage of Lawrence Dorsey &Jane Strickland; Witnesses: William Dorsey, Catherine Timoney p. 10

• 09-18-1839 Marriage of James Summer & Elleanor Summers; Witnesses: Patrick Duffy, Catherine Timoney p. 13

A researcher, who wishes to be anonymous, on the O’Neill and McGillen lines, found baptism records at St. Mary of the Assumption, (Old St. Mary’s on Wabash,) that reveal more connections among the families:

• 1 Jan 1850 - Marriage of John O'Neill and Ann McGillen; Witnesses: Daniel McElroy & Bridget Carney

• 15 Dec 1850 - Baptism of James Edward O'Neill; Sponsors: Daniel McElroy & Mary Timoney

• 12 Nov 1852 - Baptism of Mary Anne (Mollie) Victoria O'Neill; Sponsors: James Carney & Ann Carney

• 19 May 1854 - Baptism of Alice (Sr. Cornelia) O'Neill; Sponsors: Patrick Timoney & Margaret O'Kane

A pivotal point in the web of familial relationships is James Carney’s kinship to the McGillen line; he was the grand uncle of Edward McGillen, a fact that I found in a 1909 history of Chicago:

“Edward McGillen…came to Chicago (from Ireland) in the early 1830s when he was only eight years old. He was brought here by a grand uncle, James Carney, who was a merchant and traded with the Indians in Fort Dearborn days of Chicago history.” p. 712.

A geographic anchoring for Edward McGillen comes from a death certificate for his son, John McGillen, dated 01 March 1924 in Chicago, IL., stating that he was born in Fermanagh County, Northern Ireland.

Wikimedia, GNU Free Documentation
License, Fermanagh_Ulster.png 2007
(Fermanagh is in red, NI in bright green)

Thus we have established a family foothold in Ulster for James Carney’s grandnephew, our first placing of a cohort across the ocean.

The aforementioned researcher also shared with me that some of her McGillen ancestors lived in Leitrim County, Ireland in the townland of Kiltyclogher near the Fermanagh border. In the 1911 Ireland Census, a Bessie McGillen, age 74, is listed as mother of Patrick McGillen, age 39. Bessie’s birthdate puts the family in County Leitrim prior to 1837.

By Island_of_Ireland_location_map.svg:
Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa)derivative work:
Rannpháirtí anaithnid (talk)derivative work: Mabuska
 (Island_of_Ireland_location_map.svg)
 [CC BY-SA 3.0  (https://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons
(County Leitrim is dark green)

What about the rest of the cohort families: McElroy, O’Neill, and Timoney? Did they originally hail from Northern Ireland, around Fermanagh near Leitrim or Tyrone? Dr. Tyrone Bowes has created a tool that was just right for me to use to begin my search. He made a geographical distribution of surnames in Ireland/Northern Ireland and plotted them on a map, and it is available for purchase on the website. 

To spread out this large map and see the names of your target families jump out at you is truly an awesome experience. Three names (McCarney, McElroy, and O’Neill) appear in the Northern Irish county of Tyrone (bordering on Fermanagh to the north) and the name Timoney is shown just across the northwestern border of Fermanagh with County Donegal.

With this information from Bowes site to orient me, I moved on to Griffith’s Valuation which is like a census in that it recorded where people lived and what property they owned in mid-nineteenth century Ireland. This record is arranged according to the levels of administrative units in Ireland/Northern Ireland: townland (village,) civil parish, religious parish, Poor Law Union (based on neighboring townlands around a central market town,) barony, and county. A civil parish often included more than one barony or county. The website Ask About Ireland provides free access to those who want to search Griffith’s Valuation. 

Where to begin my search in the database? I thought the best place would be the important clue we have: County Leitrim, near Kiltyclogher by the Fermanagh border, where the McGillens once lived. From here we might see if any of the families were in nearby Fermanagh also.

When we look name distribution in County Leitrim near Kiltyclogher and the Fermanagh border, we see an interesting picture. Members of the Carney family are found in two townlands in Leitrim County in the barony of Drumhaire. The first townland is Manorhamilton, in the Civil Parish of Cloonclare, which is 7 miles from the second townland of Cashel, in the Civil Parish of Killanummery. Members of the three of the four associated families all lived in the same barony between 5-9 miles of one of these townlands. One family lived in the barony of Roscloger which is only 6 miles from Manorhamilton. This can be shown more clearly on the map below. 

Map data @Google 2018

When we turn to the locations of Carney and associated families in County Fermanagh, we also find an intriguing picture. Carney family members settled in the townlands of Culky and Laragh, about five miles from the large market townland of Enniskillen. The other families all lived within 8-13 miles of Culky. As can be seen on the map below, Enniskillen is about 15 miles from the County Leitrim border.

Map data @Google 2018

The results of my search were no surprise; members of the five different families were scattered in, around and between the townlands of Kiltyclogher (County Leitrim, bordering Fermanagh) and Enniskillen in County Fermanagh near the Leitrim border.

I started this project with two goals:

• To find out if the four families that lived in the Carney household in Chicago in the 1850 Federal Census might be known to each other before they came to the US

• To find out where in Ireland/Northern Ireland James Carney was born and lived before his emigration to America.

I am very happy with how far I have come in my effort to find the homeplace of James Carney and his associated families in Northern Ireland. I have used Irish records to show that the five families did indeed live near each other in Northern Ireland along both sides of the border of County Leitrim near Kiltyclogher and up to Enniskillen in County Fermanagh. However, more research is needed to try to identify more exactly the Carney townland/village. In a subsequent post, I will explore the possible connections between James Carney and my great great grandfather, John Carney.



Labels: Irish, immigrants, Chicago, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Carney/Kearney, Chicago city directories, cluster genealogy, cohort, collateral families

City Directories: the Who, the How and the Why

By engraved by John C. Moss - [1],
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=44967267

If you want to learn about a city, a great source is the city directory. Even after doing some research with Chicago city directories, I realized that I didn’t know much about directories. I had three main questions:

1. why were directories created
2. who gave the information found in the directories
3. who collected the information

I went to Familysearch.org and found the origin of directories:

“Directories were created for salesman, merchants and others interested in contacting residents of an area.” 

I read several web articles about directories in search of answers to the next two questions. A book I found on books.google, Critical Toponymies: The contested Politics of Place Naming, edited by Lawrence D. Bert and Jani Vuolteenaho revealed a great deal on the subject. Chapter 10 in the book, “Indexing the Great Ledger of the Community: Urban House Numbering, City Directories, and the Production of Spatial Legibility”  by Dr. Reuben Rose-Redwood  presents the history of city directories. On p. 208, Dr. Rose-Redwood answers the question of how the data is found:

“Although some directory compilers utilized tax assessment records to produce their directories, the majority of publishers hired a team of men to ‘canvass’ the city door-to-door, or did so themselves.”

  On the subject of who actually provided the information to the canvassers, the author gives us a glimpse into the sociology of the 1800s: 

“Although servants, women, and children were generally excluded from the city directory, they were ironically the main sources of the information that filled its pages.” p. 208

Heads of household were most likely in the workplace when canvassers were on the job. We can see the status of women clearly in this record of households, the humble city directory. Women were usually only listed if they were widows. 

Something I found very interesting about the process of collecting data for the directories is the fact that many people were very reluctant to answer the canvassers’ questions. Dr. Rose-Redwood addressed the reasons for this lack of cooperation from many members of the public in a quote from the Mobile Directory or Stranger’s Guide 1839, n.p.:

“Sometimes people would refuse to give their names fearing it would cause them to be taxed, or stand a draft in the militia, or for the jury.” p. 209

 In his book, Basics of Genealogy Reference: ALibrarian’s Guide, Jack Simpson  quotes R.H. Donnelly, editor of the Chicago city directory for 1892, who gives two other reasons behind people’s objections to parting with personal information:

“Others want their names left out on all manner of pleas. Divorce cases cause many people to request that their names be suppressed. This year, particularly, there were many who said they did not want their names to appear on account of the World’s Fair. They say they don’t want their cousins to find them in 1892.” p. 46

From these accounts, it is amazing so many households appear in the directories! The directory canvasser unfortunately did not have the government behind him as did the census taker!

https://www.census.gov/history/
www/sights_sounds/photos/
1850_photos.php#, The Census Taker

For more information on how city directories can help you in your research, a very helpful web article is City Directories  by Bryan L. Mulcahy, Reference Librarian for Fort Myers-Lee County, FLLibrary. Mr. Mulcahy discusses how directories are organized. But most helpful is the section where he alerts the researcher as to what can be gleaned from a directory and what one might infer from a particular listing.

With this background on city directories, we come to my experience with directory research. In a separate post, I will unveil the details of my project using the Chicago city directories from 1844-1880 as a source to track my target ancestor (paternal great grandfather John Carney/Kearney and great grandmother Mary Duffy) and seven cohort families. This is another effort to go through the back door, to coax data about my ancestor out of the few records I can find. In brief, I found a way to go beyond what one can normally get from a city directory: individual names, addresses, and occupations for one year. My strategy is this:

1. Create a list of the families associated with your target ancestor.
2. Decide on a span of years to use to track the whereabouts of these people.
3. Create a spreadsheet to track addresses, changes in spelling of surnames, and occupations over time for your ancestor and the cohort families.
4. Consult the target city directories for the years in your range and use the data to fill in the spreadsheet.

Below is a brief snapshot of the much larger spreadsheet. It shows a few of the cohort families who lived on the Near North Side for the period of 1844-1856. 

Carney/Kearney, Duffy and Cohorts in Chicago City Directories 1844-1856
Year	Last Name	Surname Spelling Variation	First Name	Occupation	Street #	Street
1844	Carney		William	sailor		Michigan bt Rush and Pine
1845	Carney		William	tailor		Mich Av bt State and 1st sts
1849-1850	Ward		Ebenezer	ship carpenter		Illinois, east of Pine
1849-1850	Ward		H.P.	clerk, Gurnee, Hayden & Co.s	86	Dearborn
1849-1850	Duffy		Mrs. Mary	laundress		Dearborn bt North Water and Kinzie
1849-1850	Carney		David	sailor		Michigan bt Dearborn and Wolcott
1851	Carney		William	tanner		Indiana east of Pine
1851	Duffy		Mrs. Mary			Dearborn bt North Water and Kinzie
1851	Ward		John	laborer		Ohio and LaSalle corner
1851	Duffy		James	mason		Ohio bt Pine and Sand
1852-1853	Duffy		Mrs. Mary			Dearborn bt Kinzie and N. Water
1852-1853	Duffy	Duffey	John			Dearborn bt Superior and Huron
1852-1853	Duffy	Duffey	Michael			Ohio bt Dearborn and Wolcott
1852-1853	Duffy	Duffey	James	mason		Ohio bt Pine and Sand
1853-1854	Carney		William		11	Indiana
1853-1854	Kreis	Kres	Carl	laborer	154	Indiana
1853-1854	Ward		George	ship carpenter		Indiana near Market
1853-1854	Ward		Ephraim Jr.	attorney	102	Ohio
1854-1855	Duffy		William	constable	22	Indiana
1854-1855	Ward		Ephraim A.	attorney	102	Ohio
1855-1856	Duffy		Mrs. C.		98	Illinois
1855-1856	Ward		George	ship carpenter		Indiana near Market
1855-1856	Sweeney		Mrs. Mary		94	Michigan Avenue
1855-1856	Duffy		James	plasterer	20	Ohio
1855-1856	Ward		Ephraim	attorney	104	Ohio

An observation that jumps out from a quick look at the data above is the absence of street numbers in the 1840s and early 1850s. Chicago was still a young city. The first Chicago city directory was published in 1844* and as Dr. Rose-Redwood states on p.203 of his essay:

"...the introduction of house numbering into American urban life was directly tied to the development of city directory publishing in the United States."

I hope this post has provided the reader with more insight into the history of the city directory and some ideas on how to mine the data contained in these publications.

*In 1839 Robert Fergus compiled and published a small run of a city directory. About 50 of the 500 copies were bought. It was forgotten until 1876 when the Fergus Printing Company added to the original and re-published it as an historical artifact. (This information came from the introduction to the re-published 1839 City of Chicago Directory in1876. Copies can be ordered at Amazon.com.)

categories: genealogy tools