GAVIN/FITZGERALD family...dead end.

[ahawkes]

Hello everyone. This is my first time posting on this forum, though I have lurked for some time.

I have reached a brick wall with my Clare families, the Gavins and the Fitzgeralds and would welcome any suggestions you might have to advance my research. Word has recently come back from the Clare Heritage Centre that no information was found in the parish registers regarding my family, which was a little dispiriting. I hope you can help.

Here is the family in question:

My great-great grandfather, Michael Gavin Jr., was born April 29, 1849 (according to his death cert in Niagara Falls, NY), in Co. Clare. Nowhere in his obituary or the death cert was a township mentioned. He died in Niagara Falls in 1905.

His parents, Michael Gavin and Elizabeth Fitzgerald, were also born in Co. Clare, in 1816 and 1818. Neither their obits nor death certs nor, in the case of Michael Sr., the naturalization records mentioned the townships in Clare from which they came. They came to the States in 1850-1851, and died in Niagara Falls in 1892 and 1904, respectively.

Michael and Elizabeth had three children, including Michael Sr., who were born in Clare:
Patrick, b. ca. 1845
Bridget, b. ca. 1847
Michael Jr. April 29, 1849
Neither the obits or the death certs for Patrick or Bridget, who lived until 1893 and 1897, respectively, and died in Niagara Falls, mentioned a township of birth in Clare, although they are mentioned as having been born in Clare.

As mentioned above, Clare Heritage Centre could not find any record of Michael and Elizabeth's marriage or the births of their children.

Elizabeth's death cert in 1904 records Michael Fitzgerald and Mary McMahon as her parents, though of course that information would have come secondhand. Clare Heritage was not able to find record of their marriage either.

I have a few tiny unsubstantiated leads to work with. The first is based on naming practices. Michael and Elizabeth Gavin's children were as follows, in order of birth:
Patrick
Bridget
Michael
Mary (born at sea)
Margaret (born in NY)
Ellen (NY)
Ann (NY)
John (NY)
If we are to believe that Elizabeth's parents really were Michael Fitzgerald and Mary McMahon, and their names were reflected in Elizabeth's third and fourth children, there is a slight possibility that Michael Gavin Sr's parents MAY have been named Patrick and Bridget (the names of his first and second children). Grasping at straws here.

Clare Heritage suggested that the reason the families weren't reflected in the parish registers might be because they lived in parishes in which the registers began after the marriages and births occurred. Frustrating, but what can you do?

Forgive this long message, but that is where I stand at the moment. I would dearly love to find some record of at least the parish from which my family came. I am currently going through the Tithe Applotments to see if I can find the Gavins and Fitzgeralds living in proximity anywhere in there (civil parish Kilchreest near Clondagad seems a possibility: there is a Pat Gavin and a Michael Fitzgerald mentioned, and the Clondagad RC parish registers don't begin until 1846...maybe a bite there), but other than that I am at a dead end. Any suggestions would be deeply, deeply appreciated.

Thank you,
Amy

[smcarberry]

Hi, Amy,

Those of us with a generation of family members who lived in Western NY are fortunate to have Old Fulton Postcards as a newspaper resource: http://www.fultonhistory.com/fulton.html

The highlights in a family's life are well reported, including the trip back to Clare taken by Michael Gavin and his wife the month after the death of his mother Elizabeth in April, 1904. However, since this was a two-month visit, it is highly likely that the planning took place much earlier in that year and likely would have included their applications for passports. Although both travelers were born in the U.S., the applications may have good details. If not naming the exact location of the relatives in Clare expected to receive them, then at least the outgoing voyage details should be listed so that you can have a search done of the Clare newspaper for a similar article heralding their arrival and hopefully naming the involved Clare relatives. If you have a good powerful computer, you can do a search of the official passport applications (which neither Ancestry.com nor Footnote.com/now Fold3 have) by viewing online NARA microfilm images, using this link to the list that includes 1904:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query ... 29&page=14

Unfortunately, the Ellis Island online database of arrivals has the wrong ship manifest for the return voyage, which brought Michael and Annie into NYC on 18 Jul 1904 on the Columbia out of Londonderry. There is a way listed on the "Morse One Step" site for a workaround to reach the correct manifest, so you might want to do that just to see if the manifest has any useful detail on it, which is doubtful. However the arrival date nicely matches the Niagara Falls Gazette item of July 21st (see screenshot below).

Hope to hear that this approach has paid off for you. Good luck. I include below Elizabeth Fitzgerald Gavin's obituary as it appeared in the 8 Apr 1904 edition of the Niagara Falls Gazette, for the benefit of other readers.

Sharon Carberry
USA

U.S.-born Gavins' trip back to Ire. 1904

Trip back, 21 Jul 1904 NiagFallsGaz.jpg (6.83 KiB) Viewed 5827 times

Eliz's obit 8Apr04 NiagFlsGaz.jpg (43.21 KiB) Viewed 5827 times

[ahawkes]

Thank you so much for your response!

I love that website--it has been a godsend and is the reason I know much of what I know about the Gavins. I'm on it at least once a week, and I'm delighted to see that the PDF loading time on the site has gotten loads faster over the past few months.

Sadly for my research, Michael and Annie (Jennings) (his second wife, who was born in Co. Monhegan in the 1860s) weren't in Ireland in 1904 to visit Clare--they were visiting Annie's brother James in Monhegan. So I've pinpointed the townland SHE'S from via the 1901 Ireland census, but I'm no relation to her.

Still, I am going to follow up on your suggestion re: passports. That's a great tip and an avenue I hadn't explored yet. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my query. Here's to Irish Western NY roots!

Thanks a million,
Amy