John D Downes : Short Biography

John D. Downes was born in County Limerick, Ireland. His locality of origin is believed to be the parish and market town of Ballingarry in south-central Limerick. His death record identifies his parents’ names as Cornelius Downes and Mary (Ryan) Downes, his obituary listing them as “Connor and Mary Downes.” Catholic baptismal records for that parish survive from 1825 through part of 1828, then resume in 1849. Similarly, Catholic marriage records survive from 1825 to 1836 and then began again in 1850. Civil vital record-keeping did not commence for Catholics until 1864. Cornelius and Mary’s marriage was not found in any of these sources, nor were the baptisms of their children. Only one sibling of John’s has been identified, Thomas, a younger brother who immigrated to Norwich ten years after John. The birth place hypothesis comes from the identification of his uncle Matthew Collins in the Tithe Applotment survey of 1827 and the subsequent residence of Matthew’s widow Mary (Downes) Collins, in the same plot in the 1851 Griffith’s Valuation. In the former survey, three Duane men, Thomas, Thomas Jr. and John, are among the heads of household in the parish. In the latter survey there was a Cornelius Downes listed as well as the Duane men, their surnames written as Downes. Duane and Downes were successive and somewhat interchangeable anglicisations of the Irish surname O Dubhain. John Downes left Ireland probably in 1861. As was common in Irish emigration during that time, he had been preceded to his destination by relatives and acquaintances. The widowed Mary Collins and two adult daughters, Mary and Margaret, emigrated to Norwich, Connecticut ca. 1856. About the same year, Mary (Gleason) Costello, widow of William, her two young daughters Johanna and Catherine and her nephew Michael Costello also arrived in Norwich. The boy’s parents were Michael and Johanna (Collins) Costello, the latter perhaps Mary Collins’ sister. William and Mary Costello’s 1838 marriage in Bruree, a parish adjacent to Ballingarry, was witnessed by Joanna Collins, this among other factors suggesting the families were already connected before their emigration.