I am trying to find out where Cornelius Breslin was born, according to his US records he was born in June or July 1864 , family lure says in County Donegal. Father John Breslin mothers surname Ward. Cornelius emigrated to Chicago in 1884 where he married in 1886 with Mary Casey from county Mayo, I have all her information
Any help is much appreciated
Anne
Anne:
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!
In the mid-19th century, the surname Breslin was very much a Co. Donegal surname although there were some in other Ulster counties and small numbers in counties in the current Republic of Ireland.
Civil regisration for births started in 1864 but I was unable to locate a record for a Cornelius/Con/Connell Breslin. He may have been born a few years earlier. Unfortunately, when I searched on Roots Ireland for baptismal records in Donegal for children of John Breslin with a mother with the surname Ward and there were no records until 1876. Likely he was baptized in a parish which has records starting later than 1864.
Do you know of any siblings to Cornelius? Any other clues about the family?
Have you considered an autosomal DNA test?
Roger McDonnell
Going strictly off memory- I believe a Corneilus Breslin was in fact married to a Catherine Ward. They were from Donegal Ireland. I did a little search and found
Corneilus Breslin June 15th 1864 Born Mayo, Leitrim Ireland. Father was John Breslin (1837) Mom was Margaret Ward = Corneilus married Mary (May) Casey 1863-1942 in 1886. It seems he resided in possibly New York Philadelphia as well as Delaware. But He died July 29th 1923 Chicago. Some family trees have him with two wives. One was Mary C Breslin 1864=1942 with 8 kids and again to a Mary Breslin 1870 with 5 kids- Some born in Ohio- Connecticut New York etc. Look up family trees in Ancestry for Ekonomou- Breslin Klinger Fox etc. Hope this helps Joan Breslin Capo