Kennedys and Rowans of County Clare Around 1850

[JMACD013]

Does anyone have access to any records that may help me with my genealogical research pertaining to two of my ancestors, Margaret Kennedy (born 1833-migrated to U.S. before 1852) and Timothy J. Rowan (born 1845-migrated to U.S. around 1857), both of whom were born in County Clare, Ireland? Margaret ended up in Vermont married to a slateworker, Michael Keenan, of County Tipperary and Timothy ended up in New York married to an O'Connor. I have been unable to locate any record of them to date. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[lenc]

.

Hi

Do you know the parents' names for either [or both] ancestor[s]?


Do you know whereabouts they were born in Clare?

.

[JMACD013]

All I know about Timothy comes from his obituary. I have made several attempts to locate a passenger list or naturalization record, but have been unsuccessful so for. All I know about Margaret is that she migrated to Rutland, VT, an area known for its slate work. In 1852 in Whitehall, NY, Margaret married Michael Keenan, who was a worker in the Rutland, VT slate query. Michael Keenan was born around 1833 in Tipperary County, Ireland according to his Naturalization record.

Here is Timothy Rowan's Obituary:

"Timothy Rowan, 85, died yesterday afternoon at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John T. Macdonald, 1205 Mathews Avenue, following an illness of about a year. A native of County Clare, Ireland, Mr. Rowan came to this country at the age of 19 (?) and located at Middle Granville, NY were he made his home until about 10 years ago, since when he had resided in Utica. Mr. Rowan was for several years engaged in various types of railroad work until about 29 years ago, when he retired. At Granville, 63 years ago, he married Elizabeth O’Connor of that place who died about 10 years ago. Mr. Rowan was a member of the Sacred Heart Church since coming to Utica and of the Holy Name Society of that church. Besides the daughter with whom he resided, Mr. Rowan is survived by three sons and a daughter; James P. of New York City: Paul, Middle Granville; Vincent, Troy; and Mrs. John F. O’Brian, Granville. Today the body will be taken to Middle Granville and the funeral held from the home of the son, Paul, at that place."

The Utica Observer-Dispatch, January 25, 1931

I appreciate any help you may be able to provide!

[lenc]

Hi

This may be nothing,or you may have already seen it.But just in case.....

I found this on Ancestry. Could this be your Timothy Rowan?

Here are some of the details:

Birth 1846 abt
Ireland

Arrival 1861 Age: 15

Residence
1870 Age: 24
Granville, Washington, New York, United States

Residence
1880 Age: 34
Center, Clinton, Indiana, United States

Residence
1892 Age: 46
Granville, Washington, New York

Residence
1915 1 Jun Age: 69
Granville, Washington, New York, United States

Residence
1920 Age: 74
Watertown Ward 9, Jefferson, New York
Boarding with the Hickey Family.

Residence
1930 Age: 84
Utica, Oneida, New York
Living with daughter Rose and her husband John McDonald.




And how about a piccie?




If this is the right guy let me know



.

[JMACD013]

It is the same person. As a matter of fact the person who found that picture in an antique shop is mailing it to me. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything else to help narrow down where in County Clare he came from.

[lenc]

Thats great.I'm glad you got that.

I found it via ancestry. if you are registered on there look up tree owner bulliebabie

best of luck in your researches

[JMACD013]

Thank you. We have been in touch. Most of my research has been through Ancestry.com. Any other sites you would recommend for County Clare?

[Paddy Casey]

Any other sites you would recommend for County Clare?

Have you exhausted www.clarelibrary.ie ? I didn't see it mentioned in this thread.

Paddy

[smcarberry]

I have been fairly interested in Roughan of Clare because in East Clare that surname appears in my Carberry family's records. In fact, I already had a screenshot of the Timothy Rowan obituary in the Utica newspaper. I am thinking that Mr. MacDonald is interested in pursuing the O'Connor line of Timothy's wife, so I am posting her 1921 obituary. I will leave the history between 1920 and 1880 alone to preserve the family's privacy. My advice is to thoroughly research those two parents in all the records of Washington and Jefferson counties. You will see Elizabeth O'Connor Rowan with her father John in a census record. I know this is expanding the research, rather than narrowing it, but at this point you need to collect more information in order to reach the best possible records that contain critical Irish place names.

Likewise, there is a lot more work to be done with all the Irish-born Rowan men listed in the 1880 census of Clinton Co., Indiana. It is unusual for an immigrant to change residences from the East to the Midwest and then back again. Railroad work is a good reason, and it is evident that Timothy's siblings were permanent residents of Clinton County. Contact with them continued after Timothy went back to upstate NY. See the 1900 census of Patrick Rowan's family (shown below), in which the nephew Vincent appears to be your Timothy's son.

You are likely aware that your Timothy's first son was James. Note that Patrick's first son is James, born in Massachusetts. That is a lead worth following. Using Familysearch.org, you can input the birth year and place of Patrick's James and you will see that he was born in Boston. There are three leads to follow:
(1) A working assumption is that your Timothy's father was James;
(2) Both your Timothy and Patrick of Clinton County state immigration years in the early to mid 1860s, and with a Boston birth in the family, searching Boston records for that decade makes sense for any spelling variation of Roughan;
(3) Finding an 1865 birth record for James Rowan, son of Patrick, seems do-able, and you might be lucky to see a Clare origin stated in it, something which I have found in records circa 1865 in RC parishes in Brooklyn NY and Philadelphia PA. You might also search Boston records for an 1865/late 1864 marriage of Timothy and Elizabeth, another record which could list a Clare parish.

Also note that the death record of Patrick's son Timothy, which fortunately occurred in Ohio where death records provide good details and are available online, states that Timothy was born in Middle Granville, the same New York place where your Timothy resided. Thus the family relationship between your Timothy and Patrick of Clinton County is quite evident. One more indication is that Patrick's sons are bear the names of Rowan men who may well be your Timothy's siblings, which include the Martin Rowan who was living in Washington Co. NY in the early 1900s, and maybe also Michael Rowan aged 55 in Clinton Co IND in 1880 (who might be an uncle but you can expect a younger Michael Rowan out there somewhere who was a brother). One final observation is that, in the variety of surname spellings used in the late 1800s, your family seems to have settled on Rowan rather than the more usual spellings of Roughan and Rohan. That is helpful.

The above is nothing more than a brief sketch of what more can be done. You are likely disappointed to hear that you don't have a 50-piece puzzle to assemble, but rather something more like a 500-piece one. It will take time and organization to collect and analyze all the clues/pieces of the puzzle. I wish for you the best of results.

Sharon Carberry
USA

Rowan, Mrs.Tim, 15Jan1921 Utica Herald-Dispatch.jpg (32.94 KiB) Viewed 16531 times

Rowan, Tim's Vincent 1900 with Pat IND.jpg (107.79 KiB) Viewed 16531 times

Rowan, Tim b.NY, Pat's son, of IN, d.OH.jpg (33.45 KiB) Viewed 16531 times

[smcarberry]

Just realized that I should post this census record, found on Familysearch.org:

1875 NY Washington Co. Granville [a census by the state, not federal government]
Rowan
Timothy 29 Ire works on RR tracks
Elizabett 21 "
James 4 Wash [meaning Washington Co.]
John 2-3/12 Wash
William 1-8/12 Wash
Father John O Conners 66 Ire works on RR tracks
Bridget Casey 13 Wash works for board & clothes [writing is not clear]