Eliza Donahue/Donaghue daughter of Peter Donohue and Jane
Good afternoon,
For years I've been searching for my 3rd great grandmother's parents. There are so many documents that do not give her real year of birth but I've narrowed it down to 1839. She immigrated from Ireland to Canada before 1851 and can be found by the Florence Donahue family in Hastings County, Ontario, CAN. She married in that county to William Joiner 25 May 1858 in Belleville, Hastings County, Ontario. they had a daughter Mary Ann Joiner and he died before 1861 because Eliza is a widow in the Canadian 1861 Census. She left Canada about 1866-1867 and moved to Port Huron, MI. She was not married but had children with a Dr Caleb Gilbert who was also from Hastings County, Ontario and appeared to have worked in the store owned by Florence Donahue. Dr Gilbert was married and had a family in Detroit but appeared to keep one with Eliza in Port Huron. They had the following children: Sarah (my 2nd great grandmother), Caleb "James", Walter John (father of famous baseball player Wally Gilbert), and Dency. There may have been two other babies.
She appeared to give up on Dr Gilbert and is found in 1880 US census as the wife of Thomas Woods. There are no records of what happened to Thomas.
In 1892 Dr Gilbert dies and that seems to be when the family decided to leave Port Huron, MI (probably no more financial support). Eliza, Walter, and James went to Duluth, MN to live and Sarah and Dency stayed in Michigan and were married.
James was killed in 1909 being hit by a train and she died 22 Jun 1915. No parents listed on her death certificate. Walter had her headstone say Eliza Gilbert but her death certificate says Eliza Woods.
Any idea on finding more for her parents or her baptism record? I tried looking through Killarney from 1839-1844 and Valencia with no luck.
