Searching for great-great grandparents

Hello Patt,

As you don't mention what part of Ireland your ancestors are from, then I take it that information is not known?  So I tried to find Johannas baptismal record on www.rootsireland.ie and www.irishgenealogy.ie

Because you don't know what age she was when she died in 1946, I don't know whether she lived a long life into her eighties or a shorter life.  That makes the search papameters very wide and so throw up thousands of records.

I can't find her on the rootsireland site and having the name McCarthy (a real Cork name) then I would concentrate my search on the www.irishgenealogy.ie site (free government site)

Just put her name and Patricks name into the seasrch engine and gradually refine.   I don't have the time today to look at all the hits but I did come across a record for a Johanna Mc Carthy born to Patrick and Margaret McCarthy in 1855 of Stagmount in parish of Rathmore Co. Kerry.   There may be more possibilities but you can peruse the site at your leisure.

Hope this helps you on your way.  If you have any more information regarding ages or dates please let me know .

Kind regards,

Anne Dennehy

Hi. I'm sorry. This is my first time requesting information. I certainly have additional information. Johanna was born in County Cork, Eyeries. She was born June 21, 1876, according to her death certificate. She immigrated to the States in 1889. As stated, she died July 15, 1946 in Butte, Mont., where she lived.

Her husband was Quinn McCarthy. He was born June 21, 1876, immigrated in 1883 and died in Butte in Feb. 3, 1920.

There was a notation through your website of a John McCarthy being born May 14, 1870 in Kilcatherine, Cork, Ireland to Patrick McCarthy and Margaret Healy. I believe John was Johanna's brother.

Thank you so much for your quick response.

I will also do the searches that you suggested.

Again, my thanks.

Patt Quinn-Davis

Patt,

I cant find Johannas baptismal record anywhere.  If as you say she was born in 1876 then she was just 13 years old when she emigrated.  So did her parents emigrate too??  I went to the Ellisisland site and found a number of possibilities for her arrival.  

I'm assuming thast she married in the US? It would be great if you could locate her marriage cert.  I'm just puzzeled about her.

Most people who emigrated were illiterate and undocumented.  They didn't know how to spell their names and hadn't a clue as to what age they were.  At the port of arrival their names were recorded phonetically, their ages were only guessed, and this is the information that followed them for the rest of their lives.

The proof of this occured in 1909 when the old age pension was introduced into ireland.  People had to prove their ages and were forced to go through baptismal records to establish when they were born.  That is why there is such HUGE discrepancies between ages in the 1901 census and the 1911 census of Ireland.  Dates were found to be out by many many years in some cases.

Many people are startting out in their esearch with informtion taken from tombstones and census.  In some cases this information is incorrect, so I would advise you to keep a very open mind about dates of birth etc.

Just type in her name into www.ellisisland.org and look through the 38 entries .

Talk to you later,

Anne

Patt,

Just found Johanna in www.castlegarden.org.  Yes you are correct about her age and everything.   She was 23 when she arrived in 1889 so that makes her birth date about 1863?   However it's definitely worth looking at ellisisland where I believe she must have travelled back to Ireland at some stage?  Did she return in 1909?

There is also mention of a Johanna Mccarthy from Eyeries, Co Cork arriving in the states in 1921.  Did she have a niece join her at some stage?

Anne

Patt,

One last thing.  On the castle garden website I saw that Johanna arrived on 26 August 1889 on the ship Umbria.  When I typed in just the mc carthy name It showed that a Dennis Mc Carthy aged 24 and a John Mccarthy aged 20 also arrived on the same ship on the same day.  I believe they may be her brothers.

Anne

Hi Anne,

Thank you for all the information you have been able to uncover. I have not been able to find a marriage certificate for Johanna. Then I remembered that she and her husband Quinn spend a few years in Ironwood, Michigan, right after Johanna immigrated and where the first three children were born. I have emailed the parish there to see if there are any records for any of them.

I am also wondering about Quinn McCarthy. I can't seem to get anywhere with him. My sister said she thinks he was from County Kerry in Ireland. He was born in about 1865, according to information on his death certificate. His parents were Sylvester McCarthy and Margaret Sullivan. 

You are so right about the tombstone information. I went back and checked the picture of Johanna's tombstone in Butte. The dates were not correct in the least.

I used to do quite a bit of this genealogy a few years ago but had to stop because I was staying up too late :) However, my older sister was contacted by a woman who was searching for family background. Her grandfather and she thought my great-grandfather, Quinn McCarthy were brothers. However, after contacting me, she found that her grandfather's parents were the names of Johanna's parents, not Quinn's. So strange!

Anyway, if you could point me in a direction for Quinn, I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Patt

Hello Patt,

I can't find a record for Quinn.  The only Quinn Mc carthy that I can find is on www.irishgenealogy.ie.  This record has a father named Quinn and the record is for 1810 in Bandon, Co Cork

Is it possible that his name is a family name?  Many people in Ireland were named in records after parents and grandparents but were actually called something else.

I'm sorry that I can't help you to find Quinn,

Anne