Searching for Ellen Driscoll, Mike Driscoll and Jim Driscoll from Bantry
My great grandmother Ellen Driscoll emigrated to Boston, USA alone apt 1889. I do not have the shipping record but she had a trunk from the Cunard line. She has variously been listed in the records as Ellen, Helen, Helena. She married Patrick Lynch in 1892 in Boston. Her marriage record and various census records indicate a birth year of 1870. The marriage record lists her parents as John and Mary (no last name). My great aunt, Betsy, said that Ellen spoke of two brothers in Ireland, Jim and Mike and said that Jim was a bandmaster in Bantry. We have a photo of this and of the two men together. My great aunt said that Ellen told her that "grandmother was a Sullivan". I don't know if this means my g-aunt's grandmother (Ellen's mother), or Ellen's grandmother was a Sullivan. I do see a 1901 census record for a Mary (widowed) Michael, James and John on Barrack Row, and a 1911 record with just Michale and James. I also find a general Driscoll grave inscription at the Abby cemetery for Driscoll's of Barrack Row, but can't really connect them to Ellen for sure. As there are no forenames associated with the listing I can see online.
Patrick Lynch- Ellen's husband was also from Bantry. I don't know if they met there or in Boston. Patrick's parents were John Lynch and Johanna Healy married in Bantry about 1862. We believe that Johanna's mother was a Cronin. (Sponsors at Patrick's baptism in 1863 were Dennis Healy and Mary Cronin). I don't know much more about these families, either. Most of their children settled in the Chestertown New York area after emigrating to America.
If naming order is of help, Ellen Driscoll and Patrick Lynch's children, in order, were: John James, Anna Frances, Mary Agnes, Helen Louise, Jane Mary, Catherine Veronica, Margaret Patricia, Elizabeth Regina.
A group of family members will visit Bantry in late May. We'd love to know more about the Driscolls, as well as the Lynch and Healy families from that area, including where they are buried so we can pay our respects.
Thank you for any help you might offer.
Mary Catherine



