John F Swan(n) was born in Dublin County @1840 and immigrated to the U.S. date unknown. He married Mary Lenihan in 1864. She was from County Clare. They resided for a time in or near Steubenville, Ohio U.S. then moved to Fairmont, Kansas.
John F Swan(n) died 5 April 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri.
His father also John F Swan(n) born @1800 lived in Ireland probably in County Dublin?
for reference John's Missouri death cert records his parents as John Swann and Anna Tracey.
Do you know what religious denomination your Swan family were ?
John's birth was long before the start of civil birth registration so a search of baptism records will be required.
Many Catholic records are online on the free IrishGenealogy website - mostly for Dublin city (plus parts of Co. Cork, Kerry etc). The National Library of Ireland has register images for most of the parishes in Ireland, but bear in mind that not all parishes have records for the early 1800s. The NLI images are Indexed on FindMyPast and Ancestry.
Other denominations, i.e. Protestant, are not as well covered online, IrishGenealogy has most of the surviving Church of Ireland records for the city parishes, plus some for parts of South County Dublin.
A search shows a possible baptism match for your John although not in Dublin city or county... the baptism took place at St. Mary's RC parish Drogheda - which is a town located about 50 km (~30 miles) north of Dublin city and at the time was split between counties Louth and Meath. St. Mary's parish is the the south of the town.
The informant on the death is John's widow and she has noted 'Dublin' as his place of birth, maybe he moved to 'Dublin' at some stage, or possibly his family did.. 'Dublin' usually refers to the city, but could mean somewhere in County Dublin - parts of which are about 16km (~9 miles) from the town of Drogheda. It's also possible that John left Ireland via Dublin - many ships left from there ...
The baptism took place 9th November 1837 - it's quite common for people to underestimate ages, the birth probably took place within a day or two of that, parents are noted as John Swan and Ann Tracey, as per the death cert, sponsors (godparents) were Pat Kelly and Cath. Callow, there's no residence noted.
See the register image at this link (right hand page, abt half way down)
John jnr. appear to have been the second eldest of at least five children, all baptised St. Mary's RC Drogheda
Thomas bapt. 20th August 1835
(John 1837)
James bapt. 5th January 1840
William bapt. 17th January 1842
Patrick bapt. 23rd June 1844
I did not locate any good match for a marriage of John snr and Ann
(let me know if you would be interested in links to the register images for these...)
Shane, thanks so much for such a quick response. I did find a record at St. Mary's Drogheda but I couldn't make out all the info. Yes, the Swan family was Catholic. And it is fantastic that you found further info on John jr's siblings.
I am very interested in the links to the register images for all of those listed. I am living in Kenmare, and would like to visit the church in Drogheda at some point.
I do think our family name was originally spelled with 1 "n". John jr came to the U.S. and over the years there he was recorded on the Census as John Swan and later as John Swann. I checked with the U.S. department of Naturalization and learned John jr did not become a naturalized citizen.
His father John F Swan sr came to the U.S. after his wife died in Ireland. I think you are probably correct that John sr. did live somewhere in Dublin County. He is buried in Fremont Kansas as he lived his few additional years in KS with his son and family.
Again, thanks so much for your response and additional information. That's exciting!
Rita Swan(n)
Baptism links in NLI register images - to parents John Swan & Ann[e] Tracy - all St. Mary's RC Drogheda (Louth/Meath)
Thos. 20th August 1835 - baptism register (left page near the end)
James 5th January 1840 baptism register (right hand page - near the middle - a later transcript/recreated page)
William 17th January 1842 - baptism register (last record on the right hand page)
Patrick 23rd June 1844 - baptism register (last record on the right hand page)
In the 1830s the Church for St. Mary's RC parish was located at Dublin Gate near the Shop street bridge to the south of the River Boyne, the church was extended over the years, and there's a still an active Catholic Church on the same site. The current church was originally built in 1880. There was also a chapel to the east at Mornington which appears to have been a chapel of ease for the parish.
The was no standardised spelling of surnames (and placenames) - so expect Swan/Swann Tracey/Tracy etc, most records would have been written by an official or priest anyway so any spelling would be up to what they thought was correct
MacLysaght's "Surnames of Ireland" notes that in some cases the surname Swan[n] was equivalent to Swaine, occurring in Leinster since Mediaeval times.
Given the timeline of your Swan/Tracey family it looks like the family left around the time the great famine started ... a very though time
During this period many people moved toward the large cities and towns looking for food and work, some as a step to migrating.
The map extract is from 1837 (Lewis) and shows a St. Mary - possibly the Church of Ireland one, but it was close to the Catholic St. Mary's
