Jonathan Beattie is my great great grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Kirkcudbright, Scotland in 1829 and is the second child of Robert Beattie (b. abt 1804) and Elizabeth Gordon (b. abt 1807). He left Kirkcudbright for the United States in 1842 at the age of 17 and was the only one of nine brothers and sisters that came to the United States.  This family surname has always been a favorite of mine to research.  I have had tremendous success mapping out all the branches of Jonathan’s descendants and have even become good friends with some of the new found cousins.

Well, today the Beattie family tree just got much bigger.  I queried for a “Robert Beattie” born in 1804 in Kircudbright (Jonathan’s father).  Shoot… no direct matches found.  But the third listing from top was a Robert Beaty, born 10 Feb 1804 in Kircudbright to Robert Beattie and Ann Cameron.  Could that be him?

There was no real way to tell for certain based on the info in the record.  So I opened up my “Beattie” research folder and began looking around for clues.  One of the first things I looked at is the old letter of Beattie birthdays, marriages and deaths that was handed down through the generations.  The letter is in rough shape and is clearly missing several parts.   But at the top of what I believe to be the first page, it reads “…Feb 10th, 1804 in Kirkcudbright.  Elizabeth Gordon born Feb 25th 1804 in Gatehouse Fleet Parish…”

In my humble opinion, there is not a chance in the world that the “Feb 10th, 1804” date in the letter could be referring to anything other than Robert Beattie’s birth date. So Robert Beattie’s birth date is no longer “abt 1804”.  It is 10 Feb 1804! Armed with this information, I headed over to the scotlandspeople.gov.uk website and downloaded a copy of the actual records (below).

So the reason I was stuck at this “road block” for the last couple of years was a spelling issue.  Interesting!

Armed with some new motivation and the new records at beta.familysearch.org, I quickly discovered ten other brothers and sisters, including a a set of twin girls named Agnes and Ann, born in 1810.  It  appears that the twins did not survive as those names were later reused on subsequent children.  Because of the initial spelling issue I discovered, I changed my search strategy to find the eleven children.  This time I searched for all children born in Kircudbright who had a “Robert” as a father and and an “Ann* Cameron”as a mother.  Notice that I did not define the last name and used a wildcard search for the name “Ann”.  Good thing I did.  The children were found using three different spellings of “Beattie”.  Ann is also seen as Anne and Annie.

• John Beatie born 11 Mar 1802
• Robert Beaty born 10 Feb 1804
• Jonathan Beatie born 13 May 1806 (spelled as Jonathon on the original record)
• Mary Beatie born 27 Aug 1808
• Ann Beatie born 08 Oct 1810
• Agnes Beatie born 08 Oct 1810
• Ann Beatie born 09 Oct 1811
• Joseph Beaty born 02 Aug 1813
• Janet Betty born 09 Sep 1814
• Agnes Beaty born 12 Mar 1817
• Barbara Beaty born 02 Sep 1819

All names and dates of birth have been verified at the scotlandspeople.gov.uk website and have been added to my Family Tree at Ancestry.com. I have now begun to research this new generation of Beattie family members and already discovered some interesting facts.  For instance, Ann Cameron Beattie appears to have separated from her husband sometime between 1820 and 1841.  Ann is seen in the 1841 Scotland Census living alone and then with her single daughter Barbara on High Street in 1851.  The 1851 Census lists her occupation as housewife, so maybe there is another reason for them living separately. Ann’s husband Robert is found on High Street in the 1841 Census living with his single twenty year old daughter, Janet Beattie.

I have not been able to find a death record for Robert yet, but I did find one for Ann.  She died 2 Jun 1869 in Kirkcudbright.  Daughter Janet was listed as the informant.

This brings the known Beattie Family Tree back to 1776 with many more new cousins to look for.

Passenger: Johana Hayes
Arrival Date: 20 Sep 1875
Birth Year: abt 1820
Age: 55
Gender: Female
Ethnicity/Race­/Nationality: Irish
Place of Origin: Ireland
Port of Departure: Liverpool, England and Queenstown, Ireland
Destination: United States of America
Port of Arrival: New York
Port Arrival State: New York
Port Arrival Country: United States
Ship Name: Wisconsin

Also traveling with Johanna is a daughter named Brid. (Bridget), age 30 and a son name John, age 20.  The ages for all three passengers match the known ages of the Johanna, Bridget and John of Limerick, Ireland.  Based on these facts, it is safe to conclude that this passenger manifest positively identifies that that these three family members arrived in the United States on 20 September, 1875.

This death certificate is for a Robert John Beattie who died in the Walton section of Lancaster, England. The death certificate indicates that he was found drowned at Langton Docks on May 20th, 1889. Robert was 24 years old and was a foreman at a business on Newark Street in Walton. Robert was last seen alive on December 8, 1888. How he got into the water is not known. The death record indicates that a death certificate was received from a coroner’s inquest held on May 21, 1889.  I will have to see if I can get a copy of the Coroners Inquest Report.

Based on the information in the death certificate, I am fairly certain that this Robert John Beattie, is the son of Robert Beattie of Kirkcudbright, Scotland and the Robert John Beattie who born in Hong Kong, China. We know that there is a Robert J Beattie (b. circa 1866), listed as a nephew, living with the family of John and Edith Mann Beattie in Everton (1871) and Kirkdale (1881). These two locations are just mile or two from Langton Docks (see the map) where this Robert John Beattie was found.

This Robert was 24 years old at the of time his death. That would place his date of birth crica 1866, which matches what we know about our Robert John Beattie based on those Census records.

What makes this story even more tragic is that his father, Robert Beattie, was reportedly murdered in Hong Kong. As the story goes, brother John Beattie sailed to China to bring his young nephew home.

So now the big question…  Was he murdered?  Did he take his own life?  Or was this just a tradgic accident?

GROOM:
Groom: Harry G McNeill
Address: 257 Merrimack Street, Manchester, NH
Occupation: Cigarmaker
Father: Irving McNeill (Deceased)
Mother: Esther Louise Sanborn
Mother Address: 257 Merrimack Street, Manchester, NH
Mother Birthplace: Manchester, England

BRIDE
Bride: Jane Josephine Hayes
Bride Address: 35 Front Street
Occupation: Brushmaker
Father: John J Hayes (Deceased)
Father Occupation: Watchman
Father Birthplace: London, England
Mother: Jane B Keelty (Kelty)
Mother’s Address: 35 Front Street

Click To Enlarge

So working with the information I found at pilot.familysearch.org, I went over to a site I seldom use because it is so incredibly expensive to do research on it.  In fact, it is more of a site to go to when you know EXACTLY what you are looking for. The site is run by the Irish Family History Foundation and can be found at brsgenealogy.com.  The Irish Family History Foundation is the coordinating body for a network of county based genealogical research centers on the island of Ireland. These centers have computerized millions of Irish genealogical records, including church records, census returns and gravestone inscriptions.  But their search tools are pretty week.  It is very difficult to narrow down your searches using known information about an individual.  I think they are hoping you will pay the $7.50 US per record to look at a set of possible records.    Obviously, that can add up quickly.

I can’t afford to do a bunch of research here, so I started with a sure thing.  The first thing I did was find the matching civil birth record for Patrick Hanly and purchased the information for about $7.50 US.

CIVIL BIRTH RECORD
Patrick Hanly
DOB: 13-Sep-1865
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Daniel Hanly
Mother: Ellen Hayes
Sponsor 1: Edmd. Hayes
Sponsor 2: Hanora Fiitgerald

While I was looking for Patricks civil birth record, I came across a matching baptism record, with the last name being slightly different. But it was another match.

CHURCH BAPTISM RECORD
Patrick Hanley
DOB: 14-Sep-1865
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Daniel Hanley
Mother: Ellen Hayes
Sponsor 1: Edmd. Hayes
Sponsor 2: Hanora Fiitgerald

According to the Irish Family History Foundation web site, civil birth record recordings did not begin until 1865 in Ireland, so anybody born before than will not have a “Civil Birth Record”.  Patrick was one of the first Irishman to receive a Civil Birth Record.  If a persons birthday is before, you need to hope that you can find a Church Baptismal Record.  So since most of the people I have been looking for were most likely born before 1865, I switch focus and began looking for Irish Baptism Records in County Limerick.  While I did not find any matching records for Catherine Hanley (Hanly), I did find a matching record for William Hanley.

CHURCH BAPTISM RECORD
William Hanley
DOB: 26-Jul-1863
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Daniel Hanley
Mother: Hellen Hayes
Sponsor 1: Ptk. Riordan
Sponsor 2: Maria Hayes

At this point Thursday night, I composed a real quick blurry-eyed email to my Hayes cousins on my mothers side.  I was every excited to have made even this little bit of progress and wanted to share my findings with everybody

Feeling a little fresher the next morning, I decided to revisit the Irish Family History Foundation website to see what I could come up without breaking the bank.  This time, I tried a slightly different strategy.  I narrowed my search focus to include ONLY from the Rockhill / Bruree parish…..  BINGO!  The first thing I found was the marriage certificate for Ellen Hayes and Daniel Hanly.

CHURCH MARRIAGE RECORD
Daniel Hanly and Helen Hayes
Date of Marriage:  18-Feb-1860
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Husband: Daniel Hanley
Wife: Helen Hayes
Denomination Roman Catholic
Witness 1: Patrick Hayes
Witness 2: Joanna Fitgerald

The Hayes Family Of Bruree Found!

Then digging deeper and widening the possible range of birthdays, I was able to come up with a bunch of records the clearly establish the Hayes family of Bruree

CHURCH MARRIAGE RECORD
Patrick Hayes and Joanna Currey*
Date of Marriage:  27-Jan-1837
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Husband: Patrick Hayes
Wife: Joanna Currey *
Denomination Roman Catholic
Witness 1: James Naughton
Witness 2: Maria Currey
*THEY BELIEVE THAT “CURRY” SHOULD ACTUALLY BE READ “COWHEY”

CHURCH BAPTISM RECORD
Maria (Mary) Hayes
DOB: 24-Apr-1843
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Patrick Hayes
Mother: Joh. Cowhey
Sponsor 1: MI Russell
Sponsor 2: Mgt. Kennelly

CHURCH BAPTISM RECORD
Patrick Couhy Hayes
DOB: 08-Jul-1851
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Patrick Hayes
Mother: Joh. Couhy
Sponsor 1: Edmd. Calleghan
Sponsor 2: Maria Kennelly

CHURCH BAPTISM RECORD
Edmond Hayes
DOB: 09-May-1848
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Patrick Hayes
Mother: Joh. Couhy
Sponsor 1: Edmd. Hayes
Sponsor 2: Maria Hayes

CHURCH BAPTISM RECORD
John Hayes
DOB: 11-Jun-1854
Parish / District: ROCKHILL & BRUREE
County: County. Limerick
Father: Patrick Hayes
Mother: Joh. Cowhy
Sponsor 1: John Toohill
Sponsor 2: Ellen Nunan

For some reason, the only female baptism record I have been able to find is for Maria Hayes.  I am thinking it has something to do with the spelling of their names. For instance, the person I knew as Mary Hayes was actually recorded as Maria Hayes.  And I have seen Ellen Hayes listed as Helen Hayes

In Summary

Based on this information we can safely assume that the Hayes family inhabited the Bruree Parish between 1837 and roughly 1877 when Patrick, the father of Maria, Patrick, Edmond, John and Ellen, died.   Before that, Ellen (Helen) Hayes Hanley came to the United States in 1867 with her husband and three Irish born children.  Ellen’s husband, Daniel, died shortly after arriving and contracting TB from one of the worsted mills in Pennsylvania. According to information from Edward Hayes,

I had initially given up hope for finding any real records of the Hayes family in Limerick. Some time ago, cousin Jim Hayes had a genealogy report created by a “professional genealogist” in Ireland.   The genealogist had stated that at that time, the Parish Register for the Rockhill / Buree area started in 1842,  Based on what I have found, that is clearly incorrect.  I was able to find a marriage record from 1937.

I have learned several lessons form this wonderful find.

1.  Never give up.  New records and information appear every month on various web sites.  It is always good to revisit a troubled branch with a fresh brain after giving yourself some time off to contemplate new options.

2.  Further research will require us to look at numerous naming alternatives.  For instance, when researching for Johanna Coughy, we need to consider the following name variations:

• Johanna
• Joanna
• Joh.
• Coughy
• Coughey
• Cowhey
• Couhy
• Cowie

So while I have not positively linked my branch of the Hayes family to the Bruree Hayes family, there is enough circumstantial evidence to say they are all related.  Maybe the baptism record for Ellen Hayes will show up sometime in the future.

These papers also state that Thomas Kelty was born on or about 28 October 1919.  They do provide us with a location of where this Thomas Kelty was born (see the image below), but I have not been able to match it to an actual County in Ireland.

Thomas was 40 years old at the time of the naturalization. According to the 1841 United Kingdom Census and the 1860 & 1870 United States Census, Thomas Kelty was born between 1811 and 1818 . This makes the Thomas Kelty in these papers a reasonable match for the Thomas Kelty in our family tree.

According to this filing, Thomas first came to New York on or about the 2nd day of October 1835 at the age of 17 years old.  It does not tell us the name of the ship he was on.

These papers do raise several interesting questions.

1. If this is indeed the Thomas Kelty from the Hayes Family Tree, how did  his first five children come to be born in the United Kingdom between 1841 and 1858? Did he return to the United Kingdom before bringing his family back to the United States?
2. If this is not the same Thomas Kelty, then who is it?  There are no other Thomas Kelty’s in New Hampshire.
3. Could he have lied to protect his family from deportation?

View the Thomas Kelty Naturalization Papers in PDF format by clicking this link.

Follow-up To The Original Article

My friend, Bob Naughton, has identified the County of Birth as Roscommon.

County Roscommon (Irish: Contae Ros Comáin) is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Connacht. It was named after the town of Roscommon. The county covers an area of 2,547 square kilometres (983 sq mi).

Roscommon is the 11th largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area, the fifth least populous county in Ireland and has the second least population density after Leitrim. It’s the third largest of Connacht’s 5 counties in size and fourth largest in terms of population. In 2008 it was revealed that statistically, Roscommon has the longest life expectancy of any county on the island of Ireland.

Then in July 2009, I found an interest post on a genealogy message board that gave me the name of Leta’s great grandson.  His name was Shawn Butler.  He was looking for information about his great great grandmother Julia Geeslin Smith, for which I have lots of info about.  I tried to contact him without success. The problem was that his email address that he provided was no longer valid.  I even tried contact some Shawn Butlers on Facebook.  No good.  You can read more about that part of the story here:

http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/07/17/great-grandson-of-leta-smith-found-sort-of/

So with that dead end, I gave up on her for a while, until this morning.  I’m not sure why I selected her  for my research effort again.  I guess it was because I just couldn’t accept the fact that I couldn’t  find her or her family.  With such unusual names involved, you would think finding a mother named Leta and two children name Merle and Berle would be easy.  No way.  It has been a nearly impossible task…  until this AM.

This morning I decided to do a fresh search of Leta using four know variations of her name, including Leeta, Leda and Leeda.  I stripped out almost all other search criteria except for her birth year and birth state and asked for exact matches.   Then I added what was believed to be Leta husbands first name… Bert. Since I had no idea what the last name could be, I left it blank.   I confined the search to the 1920 Census.

When I pressed the search button, there,  at the top was a Leta E Record, married to a Bert Record with two children; Muyrell and Burnes (at least according to the person who translated the record into the Ancestry.com database).  On closer examination of the actual 1920 Census record, I found the Leta E was born in Iowa, her mother born in Iowa and her father was born in New York.  This information perfectly matched what I knew about Leta.  Now, my concern was of the two children’s names.  They looked similar to the names I was looking for, but far from a match.  In addition, this Census Record was taken in the Rock Island, Illinois area.

What would Leta be doing in Illinois?  But then I remembered.  Back when I was looking for Leta’s son, I tracked down Shawn Butlers Internet Service Provider and they were in Illinois.  Hmmmmmm.  That’s interesting!

So I went back to the original article I wrote about Shawn’s inquiry to see if there were any clues that I missed. Nope, nothing there.   I then went back to the original postings he made at geneaology.com.  Nope… didn’t miss anything there either.  But….  he had made inquiries into other surnmes at geneaology.com.  So I went to check on his other postings.  Sure enough, there was the confirmation I needed.  He posted several messages indicating that he was in possession of the “Record Family Bible”.  And the details of his post was even more interesting.  In one post, he said:

“I have a family bible handed down to me with my great-great grandfather listed as well as his brothers and sisters. Grandfather Bert Record is buried in rock Island .”

Bingo..  Now the pieces have fallen into place.   Leta Ethel Smith married Bert Record.  And Merle and Berle do not appear to be twins, at least according to the 1920 Census.  Now I just need to make the rest of the connections!  Say tuned!

Angelo was born 14 May 1872 in Mantova, Lombardia, Italy.  He was the out of wedlock son of Carlos Bellizario (sp?) and Lucia Parmelli.  The old family story indicates that the sexual relation between Lucia and Carlos  may have been non-consentual.

Angelo died of Cirrhosis of Liver on October 18, 1913 at his home in 83 West 6th Street, Paterson, New Jersey.  He was 41 years old.  He left behind four daughters (Marie, Jean, Stephanie and Yolanda) and one boy (Michael). Multiple sources indicate that he was a cigar salesman.  He was buried at Laurel Green Cemetery just outside of Paterson.

]]> http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/12/01/the-death-certificate-of-angelo-anthony-baroni/feed/ 0 http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/07/16/the-marriage-certificate-of-cecelia-l-hone-and-edward-l-kear/ http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/07/16/the-marriage-certificate-of-cecelia-l-hone-and-edward-l-kear/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:02:25 +0000 Philip Hayes http://hayesfamily.us/?p=756 SOURCE: Cecelia Hone and Edward L Kear Marriage Certificate obtained from the Westchester County Archives.

Cecelia L Hone, of 37 Orchard Street in Mount Vernon, was born in Rye, NY on September 16, 1900 and was a bookkeeper when she decided to marry Edward L Kear. She was 31 years old. This was her second marriage. Her first husband died. Her parents were John Hone and Mary Buckley, both of Ireland.

Edward Kear was living at 1565 E. 28th Street in Brooklyn at the time and was an Architectural Draftsman. Edward’s parents were john Kear and Mary Day, both born in the the United States.

Cecelia’s brother, Victor J Hone and Mabel R Cashion were the Best Man and Maid of Honor. Victor was living at 16 Devonia Avenue in Mount Vernon.

The couple was married in Mount Vernon of February 13, 1933.

]]> http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/07/16/the-marriage-certificate-of-cecelia-l-hone-and-edward-l-kear/feed/ 0