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John Gaven/Gavin and wife Bridget from County Mayo

I am searching for the family of John M. Gaven/Gavin and his wife Bridget.

In the 1860 US federal census of Baltimore, Maryland, we find John M. Gaven.Gavin, a Laborer, age 35, born in Ireland with his wife Bridget, age 30, born in Ireland, and son John M. Gaven/Gavin, age 8, born in Maryland.  The history passed down in my family is that the Gavin's came from County Mayo, Ireland.  This is all we know for sure.

Bridget died in Baltimore in 1892, a widow. We have not found evidence of John's death.

In November 1850, a John Gavin married a Bridget Corgan in the Tuam diocese, Kilcolman. I cannot read who the witnesses were. I don't know if this is our John and Bridget. The timing works out to marry in Mayo, arrive in Baltimore and have a child by 1852.

 

robert.youngii…

3 replies

Gavin/Gavan is  a prominent Co. Mayo name. I looked at the parish register entry and it appears Bridget's surname was Cosgriff. The subscription site Roots Ireland also has Cosgriff. One witness was Maria Coghlan. The other witness might be Margret Henen.

You may have the correct couple but there are a number of RC parishes that don't have records back to 1850 so the possibility exists that the marriage occurred in one of those parishes.

Have you considered a general DNA test? Your matches might have more info on the Gavan/Gavin line.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Roger.  I have done the Ancestry DNA test. So has my mother (Gavin) and her brother.  I do find several trees that point back to County Mayo with Gavin's in the tree but nothing with the same people ending up in Baltimore.  I would love to know how to use Gedmatch or another similar tool to compare known Gavin's to potential matches at the chromosome level.

robert.youngii…

Hello,

Gedmatch is very user friendly....just go to Gedmatch.com and sign up for their basic free subscription. After that, on the right side of the page, you will see a link to "upload your DNA"....it can be uploaded from a variety of sites. Then you will get a "kit number", and the site explains how to enter your kit number. It takes a few days to generate your matches. 

Good luck,

 

carolyntoohey@…

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