With this much information, what next?

VonVix · 31-01-2015 9:12pm #1

So, I'm stuck!

Years ago I was very much into trying to track down my family history, I've only ever made much progress with my dad's mother's (my grandmother) side. But I could never get anything from my grandfather's. I have started to get back into it all again!

All I know is his name is Patrick O'Connell, died 1992, wife is Eileen Leahy they had 6 children, they met in Chicago but moved back to and raised their children in Cahersiveen, Kerry. I'm 90% certain he is from Cahersiveen as well. His name isn't the most unique so I have found a fair few other people with his name but none of them have lined up quite right to inspire me to believe they would be him.

Any ideas about where to go from here?

Wyldwood · 31-01-2015 9:36pm

Well the first thing I'd do, if you haven't already, is get a copy of the marriage cert and see what information that gives

http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com/Search.aspx

Marriage record file number is 2148381 dated 28/8/1950

The US records tend to be quite informative. Have you traced the immigration record? That can sometimes give place of origin and a relatives name.

VonVix · 31-01-2015 9:54pm

Wow, thanks Wyldwood! I actually forgot all about them getting MARRIED in Chicago! You have already done better than myself in five minutes lol! This is the first time I have seen anything legitimately mention my grandfather, thank you!

I haven't checked out any immigration records at all.

Just bought the cert and there's no significant information, though I'm still really happy to have it now regardless, thank you so much.

Coolnabacky1873 · 31-01-2015 10:54pm

The marriage cert should give an age which in turn will give an estimated year of birth in Ireland. You can then search the Irish Civil Registration indexes on Familysearch to see if there is a Patrick O'Connell in the Cahersiveen Registration District (start with that one as there must be some reason they moved back there).

Do you know if he became an American citizen while in the US? If so, the application will have a lot of information. You can apply at http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy but you'll need to have some sort of time frame.

Do you know when he first emigrated to the U.S? Passenger lists in the 20th century also have a lot of information, such as name of a family member (usually a parent), last place of residence, etc.

VonVix · 31-01-2015 11:44pm

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

The marriage cert should give an age which in turn will give an estimated year of birth in Ireland. You can then search the Irish Civil Registration indexes on Familysearch to see if there is a Patrick O'Connell in the Cahersiveen Registration District (start with that one as there must be some reason they moved back there).

Do you know if he became an American citizen while in the US? If so, the application will have a lot of information. You can apply at http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy but you'll need to have some sort of time frame.

Do you know when he first emigrated to the U.S? Passenger lists in the 20th century also have a lot of information, such as name of a family member (usually a parent), last place of residence, etc.

Oooh, yes! Derp! Goes to show you have been doing this longer than I have. He would have been born around 1916 as he was 34 when he was married in 1950.

I doubt he became an American citizen, I think that is something I would have known (I think my dad would have bragged about that!), not long after getting married he moved back to Ireland, I know my dad's sister (first born) is a couple of years older than him and he was born in '55, not sure when she was born exactly. He wanted to raise his family back in his home country.

I know very little about him unfortunately as he died when I was a toddler.

Will try and have a look!

Wyldwood · 01-02-2015 12:03am

Vonvix, I don't want to send you off on a wild goose chase and you would want to do a lot of work to verify this but there's an immigration record on Familysearch.org that's a possibility.

I can't seem to be able to post a link but if you do a search of the New York Passenger and Crew lists of 1925-57 there's a record for a Patrick O'Connell who arrived by air in NY in 1947 and was from Ballinskelligs. He is 30. His occupation is farmer and his stated destination is Chicago to his brother Michael.

Ballinskelligs isn't very far from Cahersiveen and maybe Eileen Leahy was from there.

VonVix · 01-02-2015 12:09am

Wyldwood, Ballinskelligs is where Patrick was from specifically, so it saying that is even better than just Cahersiveen. Eileen was from Dingle.

Just found it, yes, that's him! Dungegan is where my dad grew up and where the family home was.

Coolnabacky1873 · 01-02-2015 1:51pm

Good find, Wyldwood.

If you strike out with research on Patrick, don't forget to research Michael's life, as you will get parental details too on his records.

As already mentioned, there is usually a lot of useful information on US records and there are many types.

VonVix · 01-02-2015 7:07pm

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

Good find, Wyldwood.

If you strike out with research on Patrick, don't forget to research Michael's life, as you will get parental details too on his records.

As already mentioned, there is usually a lot of useful information on US records and there are many types.

Good idea, any suggestions for what I should look for Michael under? I have his name and home address when he was in Chicago and a year when he was living there, but not much else on him specifically.

I got Patrick's date of death, he actually died Jan 15th 1991.

Coolnabacky1873 · 01-02-2015 8:08pm

The most recent, publicly available U.S. federal census is 1940, so if Michael was in the U.S. then I would start there. It is free to search in Familysearch.

I would also look again at the Cook County databases that Wyldwood posted for potential marriages for Michael.

City directories are also a good source for research over here, although in the larger cities, such as Chicago, they were slowly being phased out, beginning in the 1930s, to be replaced by telephone directories. Ancestry has a gigantic database of U.S. city directories.

As Chicago is a major metro city, I would get onto the websites of the city library, archives, to see what records they have indexed/digitized etc.

pedroeibar1 · 01-02-2015 10:55pm

VonVix wrote: »

Wyldwood, Ballinskelligs is where Patrick was from specifically, so it saying that is even better than just Cahersiveen. Eileen was from Dingle.

Just found it, yes, that's him! Dungegan is where my dad grew up and where the family home was.

Dungegan is a small place, a church and only one pub, Tig Rosie, a great place, my watering hole when in that area. Write to Rosie or JohnJoe, I'd bet you a pint they would know the family and send you a response! (No disrespect to Coolnab and the others, but that's the Kerry way of doing genealogy, a debate with customers over the bar counter and none of yer fancy online records stuff!):p:)

VonVix · 01-02-2015 11:14pm

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Dungegan is a small place, a church and only one pub, Tig Rosie, a great place, my watering hole when in that area. Write to Rosie or JohnJoe, I'd bet you a pint they would know the family and send you a response! (No disrespect to Coolnab and the others, but that's the Kerry way of doing genealogy, a debate with customers over the bar counter and none of yer fancy online records stuff!):p:)

Yep they would! And surely JohnJoe isn't still alive??? Unless there's a new guy in his place, ha!

With this much information, what next?

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