Ireland XO
Back to Message Board

Thomas Kearnan 1840 - 1884 Hannah Donaleson Kearnan 1840 - 1912

Hello, I am trying to determine the birthplace of Thomas Kearnan (spelling?) and his wife, Hannah Kearnan.

According tohttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18340593/kea, Thomas was born in 1840, died in 1884 and is buried in Port Byron, Cayuga County, New York, USA

According to the US Census for 1870 both Thomas and his wife, Hannah were born in Ireland in 1840.

Hannah was buried in Port Byron NY, USA in December 1912.

I have searched marriage records in both Ireland and the US and have had no luck.

I do not know when they came to the US other than it was before 1864.

Fun fact: Thomas was enlisted in the US Army for a year during the Civil War and used an alias - Thomas McCarl. I can find no records on Thomas McCarl other than army records.

Thank you for any help you can give.

irelandfor35

2 replies

Hello There and welcome, the best I can do is guess at this but leave you to decide, on reading I thought the names were Kiernan and Donaldson which are two names I recognise, so I searched for a marriage under Hannah Donaldson 1855 to 1865 and got 3, spouses were not as hoped but one sort of stood out were a Hannah Donaldson married a Thomas McCarron the church record is here and I also attach the civil record in Derry or Londonderry if you prefer, They are Church of Ireland which is Protestant, if you think these are the people you could look for birth certs, baptism only. 

Date of Marriage: 23-Feb-1860                  

Parish / District: LISSAN (CI) County: Co. Derry

Husband                                            Wife

Name:  Thomas Mccarron            Hannah Donaldson

Address:              Tullynure                             Tullynure

Denomination:  Church Of Ireland            Church Of Ireland

Occupation:        LABOURER                         

Age:       21                                                       19

Status:  Bachelor (Previously unmarried)        Spinster (Previously unmarried)

Husband's Father                             Wife's Father

Name:  William Mccarron             Thomas  Donaldson                                                                       

Occupation:        FARMER                    FARMER                                              

Witness 1                            Witness 2

Name:  John Cotton       Robert  Brown

It may also explain the Civil War name but all a leap of faith. You can see the address given here https://www.townlands.ie/ look under Londonderry and the townland of Tullynure, which is slightly north of Cookstown which is in Tyrone, this is all now in Northern Ireland and part of the UK so you may like to look at the PRONI website, that is the Public records Office of Northern Ireland.

The ages suit your information also.

Stay Safe

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for all the time you spent on this.  Interesting theory.  

Since I posted my request for info, I have seen a reference that both Thomas and Hannah were from Northern Ireland so that confirms what you have written.

I am not sure if Hannah's maiden name is actually Donaldson.  I can find no references to it on ancestry.com.  My only reference to that name is on a hand-written family tree done in the 1980's.  The person who did that tree is deceased.  

From the New York 1875 census, it looks like there was a James Brown, born 1803, and a Jane Brown, born 1805, living with the Kearnans.  I wonder if they were simply borders or if they could have been Hannah's parents?  I haven't been very successful finding information on them other than Jane was buried in the same cemetery as Hannah and Thomas.  Jane died in February of 1876.  Both James and Jane were born in Ireland.  

Again, thank you for your help.  Looking forward to a trip to Ireland in 2021 and hopefully visiting the towns of our ancestors.

Stay well. 

Maureen

irelandfor35

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.