Patrick Maroney/Moroney (c1822-)

Dear Mark

Apologies for the long delay in getting back to you. Have you managed to find out any more about the above?

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support

I never received an email notification in 2015. No, I haven't learned any more about this family.

Dear Mark:

I believe that I may have been in contact with you several years ago.

The surname White is noted in the West of Clare, but it is in other locations in East Clare too.

I could not find any reference to a Bridget White and Patrick Maroney/Moroney marriage record in Clare.  

I did find a baptism record for a Mary Moroney in 1849 in Tulla parish with parents noted as Patrick Moroney and Bridget Halloran.  

If you have further information about this family such as who sponsored them to go to Australia, other siblings who may have joined them, etc., that would be very helpful.

I look forward to hearing.

Kind regards,

Jane

My great-grandmother, Mary Teresa Moroney/Maroney, was born 17 October 1850 but they didn't go to Australia. They went to New York state, USA in the spring of 1851. Mary's Pennsylvania (USA) death certificate claims her mother was Barbara White but the informant was Mary's son Elmo so who knows where he got that.

The 1855 New York census calls her mother Bridget so I'm using that for now and I'm less convinced of "White" than I was. The big problem is that this family disintegrated in the 1860s. The mother was missing from the 1860 U.S. census but there there were 3 children. By 1870 I can find the daughter Bridget (b. 1854 in NY) but I can't find Mary. And I don't find the father or Mary's brother, James after 1860. By 1880 U.S. census Mary and Bridget are working at a hotel in Elmira, Chemung County, New York.

Julia Salmon arrived in Sydney NSW on 20 August 1841 as a Government assisted bounty immigrant on the Adam Lodge. Immigration records disclose that she was a farm servant and under the protection of William Crotty and his wife. Julia Salmon was born in Killaloe County Clare c1817, her parents were Patrick and Anne nee Hewitt. There is some information which suggests that she had a brother Patrick (who had gone to the USA) and two sisters Bridget and Anne. Any info.

Hi Mary:

The fact that this family was in Elmira, NY may be a good clue for you as many Irish were located there at that time.  I wonder if there were other family members (married or otherwise) who lived there and that is what brought this family to the area.  If Mary and Bridget (sisters) were both working at a hotel in the 1880 US Census, that would indicate that they stayed in contact regardless of the census.  I would look closely at the Census of 1870 and 1860 again as the transcriptions of those records can be very poor.  Do you have any death dates for Patrick and/or Bridget?  

Peter, I'm not sure what Julia Salmon has to do with a Patrick Moroney. Can you explain?

Hi Jane,

The sisters Mary and Bridget definitely stayed in touch. Bridget became a professional nurse and lived with her sister's family many, many years. She was Mary's executor in 1928 (Mary's husband died in 1927). 

I don't know when Patrick Moroney or his wife Bridget died. I've looked through the Elmira cemeteries and even stopped at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira to look through the pauper's list on paper. 

My aunt mentioned some Moroneys in the same cemetery where Mary, her husband, and several of her adult children are buried. She called them "shirttail relatives" but she was the youngest grandchild and had a lot of stories mixed up. I investigated t hem and could not find any connection whatsoever. 

3 of my father's grandparents were born in Ireland and the 4th was the daughter of immigrants coming together in Chemung County. There were a LOT of Irish throughout the New York / Pennsylvania border region but I haven't found a clear reason that any of them chose Chemung County. At least, not yet.

I'm having an email conversation with a guy who has a theory that the wife is missing from the family in the 1860 census because she was working and living in another house as a servant. The age doesn't fit though (by a lot). Patrick was a mason and laborer in some records but if he was ill or injured the wife might have worked out of the house, possibly relying on her eldest daughter to take over. I'm not sure how often a married woman would move into another home though. His theory also suggests the wife was alive as late as 1874 and she was working at the same hotel (Rathbun House) where both daughters worked. I need to rethink every record I've looked at and dig through other records from Elmira just in case his theory has legs. 

I had to rethink a long-held connction several years ago when I realized the math made no sense for a marriage. I was right, the math was wrong. I hate giving up 'settled' research but we, as family historians, really can't hold onto stories just because they've become familiar. I 'lost' a Mayflower descent when I found the error. It was a little traumatic after so many years, but I'd rather have a true story than a famous one. 

I need to block off time to figure out. Not quite sure how to structure this genealogy question/case yet. 

~Mark