Catherine McParlan 1837 to 1913

I remember that I mentioned in a previous post, that my great great grandmother was named Catherine McPartland and she married Peter McConville in England.  While doing this recent research, I was looking for census records for Catherine McPartland in Manchester, Lancashire, England and I could not find any - even though the 1861 census says that both Peter and Catherine were born in Lancashire.

See?  It says that they were both born Hulme, Lancashire.  So the next thing I did was to search for a marriage record for them.  I located an index of marriages from 1857:

Yeah, I know, it's hard to read, but she is listed towards the bottom of the page as Catherine McParlan, registration district is Manchester, then it lists the index volume and page as Volume 8d, page 561 and it is for the fourth quarter of 1857.  This means that it lists marriages for Oct, Nov, and Dec 1857.  There is a separate entry for Peter McConville with the same volume and page listed, but I did not show it here.  So I know they were married in Manchester in October 1857.  But the best part is that I now know that her last name is spelled McParlan, not the McPartland that I had been searching under.  Just so you know, I got the McPartland spelling from a family tree my mom's cousin did, quite awhile ago.  (Probably back before I cared).  But the point is that she gave me  a starting point - and a real close one - for my great great grandmother's maiden name.  If not for her effort, I wouldn't have had a "McClue".

So with the proper spelling of her last name, I now found a census listing in 1851 - before they were married.  The 1851 census lists the McParlan family living in Manchester:

The family consists of Edward McParlan, age 58, born in Ireland, and I think his occupation is "confectioner", which I think is a candy maker. His wife, Mary Ann is 40 years, born in Ireland, and is at home, then we have the children:  Ann is 14 and is employed in Waterproofing - she was born in Manchester, as were the rest of the children, Catherine is 11 and works as a bread maker, it looks like Catherine has a twin sister Mary, who is also a bread maker, Margaret is 5, and Emma is 9 months old.  So Edward is the only male in the household - he has a wife and 5 daughters.  So this looks like the second set of twins that I have found - one on Peter's side and one on Catherine's side.  Now that I think about it, my mom always said that twins ran in the family and she always wanted to have a set of twins in our bunch.  Now I know where the twins came in.  But in all my research, these two sets of twins are the only ones, so I guess twins did not run very far - just in that generation.  Interesting.

The other thing I find interesting is the occupations - a confectioner? Really? and his daughter at age 14 is in waterproofing.  Somehow that just sounds backwards - he should be in waterproofing and she should be the candy maker.  But the twin daughters are both bread makers (or bakers I guess).  Even on the McConville side  of this marriage you had weavers,  dyers, and packers of cotton.  I guess the area where the McConvilles llived may have been more rural and the confectioners, waterproofers, and bread makers may have lived in a more urban area.  This, of course, is all speculation on my part but I am thinking that employment opportunities depended on the area that you lived. in.  

The other thing that I noticed is that Peter's parents - Edward and Alice - were both born in England, but Catherine's parents - Edward and Mary Ann - were both born in Ireland.  So the McParlans are can be traced back to the old sod easier than the McConvilles.  I think I have some more research to do, but I'm not doin' bad so far.

The McConvilles of Manchester England

Yeah, you read it right - England.  Mom always said that the McConvilles came from England - Manchester to be more precise - but, she said that they had moved there from Ireland because there was no work on the Emerald Isle.  So I figured that one generation back I would find them in Ireland, but apparently that is not the case.  I am pretty sure that I located the family in Manchester England back in about 1800.  So it looks like my mom's peeps (on her mother's side anyway) were limeys.

So I found the 1861 census for Manchester England on Ancestry.com, and there at the bottom of the page is Peter McConville - Boat Maker, age 25,and it says that he was born in Manchester:

Below him is his wife Catherine, age 24, weaver, also born in Manchester.  Last, but not least, is my great grandfather, Edward S. McConville, age 1, and born in Manchester - like he had a choice!  I was kinda surprised to see that Peter McConville was born in Manchester, I really thought he was my connection back to the old sod, but apparently not.

So next, I looked up Peter McConville to see where he lived before this, and I found another census from Manchester, England, this one from 1851:

So once again at the bottom of the page we see the McConvilles, starting with James, age 52 and his wife Alice, age 54.  James is a Lodge Porter, and looking to the right it says that he also was born in Manchester, as was his wife Alice.  So if this is the 1851 census - I am no math wizard, but - that means that both of them were born in Manchester somewhere around 1800.  I'm almost scared to go back any farther, I may have a relative who fought against the colonies in the American Revolution.  Any way it looks like Peter had a sister Elizabeth, age 20 in this census, who was a cotton spinner, and a brother Richard, age 17, who worked as a packer (of cotton - I guess), and then there is Peter, age 15, employed as a dyer (also of cotton - I guess).

Then I figured that I would push my luck and shoot for 1841, and Presto:

So ten years earlier, there are older children - at least four of them.  In 1841, James is working as a weaver, so it looks like the family works in the textile industry.  So, here is the rundown on the 1841 census:

We have James age 40, working as a weaver, and his wife Alice age 40, then we start with the children:  John is 20 and working as a  weaver, next in line appears to be fifteen year old twins - Mary and Alexander.  Mary has no occupation listed and Alexander is a weaver, next is James age 13, employed as a packer, then we get to the children listed in 1851 (only younger) Elizabeth is 10, Richard is 8, and Peter is 5.

So I'm really on the move now, but I don't want to get crazy here.  I'm not absolutely certain that these are my ancestors - but it sure looks like them.  The ages fit and even the names are  basically the same a few generations later.  You have Peter, James, John, Mary and even Alice.  But some of them are different too like Elizabeth, Richard, and Alexander.  I really believe that these are my McConvilles and I'm gonna work on proving it.

Next post is going to be some more English records that I found about Peter McConville's wife Catherine (McPartland).   So until then, Ta Ta.

The Davis family in Schuylkill County

Okay, so it's been awhile since my last post.  I have actually done a lot of research in the past month, some on mom's side and some on dad's side.  So I have been trying to figure out which one to write about.  So Dad won the  coin toss.  I recently drove up to my sister's house in Scranton, so on the way I had to detour through Schuylkill County - Pottsville to be exact.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but when my Bradys lived in Gordon, there was a family named Davis who lived right near them.  The Davis family was always listed right near the Brady family on each federal census.  In 1900 and 1910, my great grandfather James Brady is listed as a boarder living with the family - this is after the rest of the family moved to Scranton.  I also noticed that one of the witnesses at my Great Grandfather's wedding was a Davis, and I think one of my Grandfather's Godparents was a Davis. This got me to thinking that the Davis' are related somehow.

When the database of Pennsylvania Death Certificates became available on Ancestry.com, I located a death certificate for Patrick J Davis of Gordon.  He died on 14 May 1916 of apoplexy.  The Doctor was signed the death certificate is Thomas McCutcheon - the same doctor who signed my great grandfather's death certificate,.  The funeral home was Burke Brothers - also the same - and place of burial or removal is listed as Ashland - also the same as Great Grandpa.  The informant of the death certificate was listed as Mary Davis - not his wife, but probably a daughter.  This added to my curiosity.  So I went to Pottsville to look for the obituary for a dead neighbor of my dead ancestor.  Man I think I got it  bad now.  I checked for the obit and could not find one, so this is another similarity.

My next move was to go to the Courthouse and check for a will.  Again, I hit a dead end - please pardon the pun.  But then I thought "what about his wife Catherine? maybe she had a will"   Mind you, I never found a death certificate for her in Pennsylvania, but I figure it couldn't hurt to check - I even had time left on the parking meter.  There were three Catherine Davis' listed and I quickly ruled out two of them, and the third one was for a Catherine Davis who died in New York, but had property in Gordon.  This is when the bells started ringing, then I saw the executrix - Mary Davis.  This had to be her.  So I open the envelope, and the first line made me certain.  It said "I, Catherine Davis, widow of Patrick Davis".  So now I know why I couldn't find her in the Pennsylvania database - because she died in New York City - didn't see that coming.

She listed her three daughters: Mary Davis, Delia Davis and Rose Davis of the City of New York as the executerixes, as well as, Nellie Holleran of the Borough of Ashland, County of Schuylkill and State of Pennsylvania.  No I don't know who Nellie Holleran is.  Anyway it says that she leaves property in Gordon to be sold and the proceeds divided among her three daughters. One of the last lines in the will states "decedant died October 15, 1922, which is actually 92 years ago tomorrow, but the will was not probated until August 1930 - makes you wonder what the delay was.  I wonder if the daughters just came across the will one day and did not even realize that the property was in their mother's name.  One more thing before I move on, she signed will was "her mark", which was an "X", so she could not write

Next stop is the Recorder of Deeds, right here in the same building - but two floors up. I found the deed to Lot 12 in Gordon issued on 1 Jan 1869, describing the sale of the lot by David McKnight and his wife Elizabeth of the City of Reading, County of Berks, State of Pennsylvania, andJames McKnight of the same place, party of the first part, and Patrick Davis of the Town of Gordon, County of Schuylkill,party of the second part - no mention of his wife - for the sum of $125.00.  I may have mentioned this in a previous post about the Bradys, but in case I haven't, I previously found the deed for property in Gordon between Thomas A Brady and the same McKnights for Lot 11.  The kicker is that the sale took place on 1 Jan 1869.  Don't have to hit me with a brick, these two families bought lots next to each other on the same day and from the same people.  There has got to be a connection between these families - but what.  Looks like I opened a whole new can of worms and now I have some fishin' to do.