My Old Ohio Home

While following up the article, Ellen Sloan, Killowen to Brooklyn, I found a few more Sloan families who probably trace back to Killowen, County Down, Ireland.

Mary Ann Sloan of Brooklyn, New York

David Sloan
"native of Killowen"

In that article, I mentioned David Sloan, son of David and Julia (Feran) Sloan, and a native of Killowen, who lived in Brooklyn, New York. David's wife, Mary Ann, was also a Sloan by birth. At the time, I thought Mary Ann was born in Ireland, since some of her records said so. But other records said England, including those for the birth of two of her children, where you would assume Mary Ann herself provided the information. Her death record said her parents were James Sloan and Margaret Sloan.

As it turns out, I am pretty sure that Mary Ann was baptized May 29, 1859, in St Patrick's Church, Liverpool, England. The parents' names on that record agree with her death record in Brooklyn, and the civil record also said her mother's maiden name was Sloan.

However, I wouldn't have looked there for Mary Ann Sloan, if I hadn't first found her brother ...

James Patrick Sloan, of Charleston, South Carolina

James Patrick Sloan was born April 27, 1861, and was baptized April 28, 1861, in St. Patrick's Church, Liverpool, son of James Sloan and Margaret Sloan.

(Note: His death record names those parents, but said James was born May 6, 1861, in Liverpool. I think this is close enough, since there were no other James Sloans in Liverpool with those parents' names. Also not everyone born in the 1800's remembered their exact birth date.)

Other children in this family were John (b April 18, 1855), Patrick (November 15, 1856), William (November 16, 1863), and Joseph (December 30, 1865.)

James Patrick spent much of his early life at sea, dating his immigration into the United States at 1887. He was naturalized in 1896, and married Ellen Theresa Prunty, in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 30, 1902. Ellen was born in South Carolina to parents born in Ireland. James worked for the Clyde-Mallory Steamship Company in their shipyard. He died February 28, 1946, in Charleston. He and Ellen had no children.

But, I wouldn't have found James unless ...

Memory Cards

... a Sloan descendant, now living in Co. Fermanagh, hadn't shared some information with me. Her grandfather was Thomas "Gunner" Sloan born in Ballincurry but later of Rostrevor. Thomas was the brother of Ellen Sloan, mentioned at the beginning of this article. Among Thomas' mementoes was a prayer book with memory cards for James P and Ellen T Sloan, of Charleston, and Alicia (Sloan) Baker, daughter of Mary Ann Sloan, of Brooklyn.

Now I knew that the same Sloan family in Rostrevor knew both these families in separate parts of the United States. That is what helped me connect James Patrick with Mary Ann, and then find their family in Liverpool, including the parents ...

James Sloan and Margaret Sloan of Liverpool, England

James and Margaret Sloan were married July 9, 1854, at St. Nicholas Church, in Liverpool. They were living on Surrey Street, Liverpool, at the time. It was the first marriage for both of them. The witnesses were William Sloan and Margaret Sloane of Greenland Street.

I found baptism records for six of their children, as already mentioned. And I am pretty sure they were living at 2 Court, Bell Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, in 1861, if Mary Ann was mistakenly recorded as "Margaret". James was a ship's carpenter, which might help explain why his son James went to sea. I didn't find them on earlier or later censuses, and the names are too common to be sure of their sons' information later on.

The Killowen/Rostrevor Connection

So if the family is living in Liverpool, what does all this have to do with Killowen or Rostrevor, you may ask. This: James and Margaret's marriage record named both sets of parents. James' parents were Patrick Sloan and Mary Fegan. Margaret's were James Sloan and Elizabeth Fitzpatrick.

1854 Marriage of James and Margaret Sloan

Now those names might occur together in more than one locality in Ireland, but I know they are definitely South Down names. Putting that together with the clues from the memory cards, I think we can safely say that both sides of this family were from the Killowen/Rostrevor area. Unfortunately, I never figured out how closely they were related to Thomas "Gunner" Sloan, of Rostrevor.

Conclusion

So the road ends there. The parents would have been born about 1800 or so, and there are not enough hours in the day or days left in my life to start sorting out the Sloans and Fegans on the Kilbroney parish baptism records. So we will have to be satisfied with what we have. Perhaps a descendant of one of the other sons will turn up and clarify matters. For now, we can be happy that we have tied a few loose American ends together, and traced the families back to their origin.

The sources and details for all people mentioned are in the Ohio Families tree on this site.

Credits

The photograph of David Sloan's headstone is on his page, David Sloan, at findagrave.com.

Introduction

Some people are easy to find, some are hard. Ellen Sloan would have been a lot easier to find if 1) she hadn't said she was the cousin of Minnie Keeves/Caves of Mullahead, County Armagh; 2) she hadn't taken a few years off her age as she got older, and 3) she had shown up on at least one United States census. Just one would have been good enough. But, for better or worse, here is her story.

Early Life

Killowen, Co. Down

Ellen Maria Sloan was born August 22, 1873, in Ballincurry Townland, Killowen, County Down, and was baptized the same day in Kilbroney Catholic Parish. She is the third known child of James Sloan and Mary Brennan, preceded by her sister Susan and a brother Peter. Following her in the family were Thomas, David, Francis and Matthew.

Ellen was still in Ballincurry in 1894 and 1895 when she was the informant on the death records of her father (July 10, 1894) and her brother Peter (April 17, 1895), but is not with the family in 1901. She may or may not be the Ellen Sloan on the 1901 census who was working as a servant in the household of Oliver Goldsmith, vicar of the Church of Ireland in Greyabbey, County Down.

Emigration and Citizenship

At any rate, Ellen Sloan left Ireland for America on October 5, 1907, from Londonderry aboard the Columbia. She said she was 30 years old, born in County Armagh, and last resided in County Armagh. She was travelling with Minnie Keeves [Caves] whose father Charles lived in Mullahead, Tandragee, Armagh. Neither had been in the U.S. before. They were both headed to Minnie's sister Frances' home at 536 North 40th Street, Brooklyn. They said their final destination was Philadelphia, but I don't think they ever got that far. They arrived in New York on October 14.

Now, this might not look like our Ellen Sloan, but I am pretty sure that it is, because…

Declaration of Intention,
Ellen Sloan, 1925

…on February 11, 1925, an Ellen Sloan declared her intention to become a citizen of the United States in the US District Court, Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn. On that occasion, she stated that she had been born in Killowen, County Down, on August 15, 1873, and had arrived on the Columbia on or about October 12, 1907. The dates match closely enough to what we have already seen to say that this is the daughter of James Sloan and Mary Brennan.

When Ellen filed her petition for naturalization on January 25, 1928, in the same court, she got the date of arrival exactly right, October 14, 1907. Both records required a physical description—Ellen was 5'6", 155 pounds, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. She also stated that her occupation was a food checker. She became a US citizen on June 12, 1928.

Return to Ireland

Previous to that, Ellen had made a trip back to Ireland. On June 9, 1924, she arrived at Moville, Co. Donegal, on the TSS Tuscania, and was headed to Mayobridge, Newry. On her voyage back to New York she stated that her last residence in Ireland had been her nephew Peter Sloan's home in Mayobridge, County Down. Interestingly, there was a Peter Sloan in Ellen's sister's household in 1901 in Ballincurry who later lived in Mayobridge before moving to Dundalk, Co. Louth. This Peter was likely the person Ellen visited.

On the passenger manifest, Ellen said that she was going to her sister Mary Sloan's home at 306 East 3rd, Brooklyn.

David and Mary Sloan, of Brooklyn

Let's take a brief interlude to consider Ellen Sloan's destination, her "sister" Mary Sloan. Ellen had no sister Mary, and definitely no sister at all born as early as 1859, which is what Mary Sloan's information said. Mary and Ellen may have been relatives in Ireland, or acquaintances. Or Ellen Sloan may have been related to Mary's husband David.

David Sloan was born about 1855, the son of David Sloan and Julia Feran. His tombstone said he was a native of Killowen, County Down. I didn't look through the baptism registers for David, but there was a Mary Sloan baptized April 19, 1850, in Kilbroney Parish, daughter of David Sloan and Julia Feran. David died February 3, 1908, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Brooklyn.

David's wife, Mary Sloan, was also a Sloan by birth, the daughter of James Sloan and Margaret Sloan. She died June 10, 1930, and is buried with her husband. The headstone gave her birth as May 14, 1859. I have a feeling that Mary was also from Killowen or nearby, but I couldn't find her on the Kilbroney or Kilkeel baptism registers, at least as indexed at ancestry.com and findmypast.ie. But Sloan is a common enough name throughout Ireland, so Mary may have been from somewhere else.

Later Years

Getting back to Ellen Sloan, you will remember that she was headed for 306 East 3rd, Brooklyn, in 1924. She is listed in the 1933 Brooklyn City Directory at that address. But alas, not on the 1930 Census at that address with Mary Sloan, her son, daughter, and granddaughter. Which kept her census slate clean, since I didn't find her in 1910 or 1920, in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, or Cleveland, where her brother Matt had settled.

Ellen Sloan died 22 Oct 1939, in Brooklyn. Her last residence was 306 East 3rd, Brooklyn, her occupation–food checker. The death record gave the names of her parents as James Sloane and Mary Brennan. Interestingly, it also said she was widowed and her husband's name had been John, no last name given. On all her earlier records–the passenger manifests and her naturalization documents–she said she was unmarried. I never found a trace of a marriage.

Ellen is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Brooklyn. There is no listing for her on findagrave.com, so I don't know the plot number or whether there is a stone or not; the cemetery might be willing to provide that information. There was no death notice in the Brooklyn Eagle for the dates October 23 to 25.

Conclusion

So in the end, I am about 99% sure this is the Ellen Sloan born in 1873 in Ballincurry. Which is about all the certainty you can expect from paper records, I guess. It would have been a little better, as I said at the beginning, if she hadn't claimed to be Minnie Keeves' cousin or, for that matter, if her death record hadn't said she was a widow. But in the first case, she may have needed a destination in the United States to be admitted, and may have known Minnie from working as a domestic servant. As far as "widow" on her death certificate goes, that information could only come from her survivors, probably a neighbor, or a relative of Mary Sloan. Although, they did get her parents' names correct. Well, we might just have to end it there…

Sources and details for Ellen Sloan are in the Ohio Families tree on this site.

Credits

The picture of Carlingford Lough and Killowen, "IMG_9643" by mary_mac_82, is licensed under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

Sometime in the 1940's, Mrs M G Lavin of 179 East 32nd, Brooklyn, NY, received a letter from Co. Roscommon, Ireland.¹ The name of the post office and the exact date were unreadable. Can we identify Mrs Lavin? Did she come from Roscommon?

When the 1940 census of Brooklyn was taken, Malachy and Mary Lavin were living at 179 East 32nd Street. Malachy was 49 and his wife was 47. With them was Anne Curley, 32, who was called Malachy's sister. The supplemental information for Mary said that she was married at 24 and never had children. (Note: I never established that Anne Curley was related to either Malachy or Mary Lavin.)

Mary (Gaffney) Lavin

I am fairly certain that this couple was married June 23, 1918, in Manhattan. If correct, then Mary's maiden name was Gaffney and her parents were Thomas Gaffney and Anne Finn. Working backward we find a Mary Gaffney arriving at Ellis Island on May 1, 1910, aboard the SS Carmania. Her nearest relative in Ireland was her father Thomas, of Gurteen, Ballymote. She was headed to her aunt Mrs. McKeever's home at 2055 3rd Avenue, New York. There was a Bridget (Finn) McKeever living at that address, according to the 1910 census and the New York City birth records.

So Mary (Gaffney) Lavin was from Co. Sligo, not Roscommon. Her father Thomas was actually in Cuilmore Townland, Sligo, in 1901 and 1911.

The Lavins

Cuilmore, Sligo, was near the border with Co. Roscommon, and not far from Clegernagh Townland, Roscommon, where Mary's husband, Malachy Lavin was born in 1885, son of John Lavin and Catherine Lavin. Malachy arrived in the United States on April 29, 1912, aboard the SS Caronia, headed for his sister Mary Lavin's home in Garden City, Long Island. I didn't find Mary in America, but she is on the 1901 Census of Clegernagh with her mother.

If I have everything correct, Mary and Malachy Lavin lived for a time in Orange, New Jersey, but spent most of their married lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Malachy died in November 1968 and Mary in August 1969. They are both buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn.

There is more about both of these families, including the sources, in the Other Families section of this website.

Caveats

I am not 100% certain of all the conclusions in this article. If this were my family, I would like to see the death record for the Mary Lavin who died in Brooklyn in 1969. It might give her parents' names. If they are Gaffney and Finn, then I have identified her correctly. Or, if Mary applied for a Social Security number, the information might be on the application. She didn't have a SSN in 1940. Ancestry.com has these records, but I don't currently have access to ancestry.com.

Edited

November 2019, I looked for a death notice for Mary E Lavin in the Brooklyn Eagle, but the online archives for the paper only go up to 1963. And the 1969 death records are not at familysearch or ancestry.com.

Footnotes

^1. The envelope was once on the Jim Forte Postal History site but has been sold. I am not connected with the site.

On September 18, 1907, Mr Harvey F Clary, of Rochester, Indiana, received a postcard from his sister Laura in Lima, Ohio.¹ It read:

Dear Brother,
We got here alright. Genova never cried a bit coming, and this afternoon she has been saying boppa all the time nearly. Will bring you something. And will send another card soon.
Laura

What was the occasion for the postcard?

The Clarys of Rochester, Indiana

Laura and Harvey were children of Elbert Elihu Clary and Nevada Belle Williams of Rochester, Indiana. Laura was born August 12, 1887, and Harvey on April 18, 1896. Both were in their parents' household in 1900 in Rochester where their father was working as a liveryman.

The Goodenows of Lima, Ohio

Robert Goodenow was born in Lima, Ohio, October 13, 1885, the son of Elvin Goodenow and Irene Underwood. He too was in his parents' home in 1900. Robert's father worked as an oil well shooter, but Robert became a railroad clerk, an occupation that evidently took him to Rochester, Indiana, where–in 1906–he was wed to Laura Clary.

"Over the hills and through the woods"

Laura and Robert's first child Genova was born on March 17, 1907. By September they must have felt that she was old enough to visit her grandmother Irene in Lima. Irene Goodenow's husband Elvin had died March 18, 1904, of liver trouble, but Irene was still at 367 Jackson. Upon arriving Laura, proud of her new daughter for saying "Papa" all afternoon, wrote back to Harvey to let him know they had all arrived safely.

Epilogue

Robert and Laura returned to Rochester, as hinted at in Laura's message to Harvey. Their daughter Edna was born in Indiana January 29, 1909, completing their family. By 1917 the family had moved to Los Angeles, and Robert had settled into work in the insurance business, which he pursued until at least 1940.

Robert Goodenow died in 1962 and Laura in 1972, both in Mendocino County, California. Genova (Goodenow) Crane died in 1991 in Butte County. They are all buried in Cuffys Cove Community Cemetery, Mendocino County, California.

Sources

Most of the sources used for this article can be found by following the links in Laura Clary's family tree at familysearch.org: Laura J Clary. Her father in law's death date came from an OCR scan of the Lima [Ohio] News of March 18, 1904 at newspapers.com: Alvin Goodenou. Elvin's wife Irene was located in 1906 in the Lima City Directory for that year at ancestry.com.

Credits

^1.The image of the postcard to Mr Harvey F Clary can be found on the Jim Forte Postal History site, unless it has been sold.

Bruckless, Donegal

In 1915, Mrs Charles Carpenter of 693 Meldrum Ave, Detroit, Michigan, received a postcard from her sister Cassie in Bruckless, County Donegal, Ireland. ¹ Here is a transcription of the text:

Dear Sister
Glad to get your letter and to know all are well.
Thank God we are all well at home. My thoughts were all about poor Jane these past few days, 2 years passed so quickly. I hope she is happy in heaven. Con's wife was in a great hurry.
Fr. Brennan asked me a week ago did you write lately. He is expect- soon to hear from all the Yankees.
The Bradys have not written yet + I wrote to Pat himself to send something in memory of Jane, but he has not answered. We miss the dear old church so much now in Lent especially.
Best love from all,
Cassie.

The 1915 Detroit City Directory at ancestry.com has a listing for a Charles M Carpenter, watchman, living at 693 Meldrum Ave in Detroit.²

In 1920 Charles was still at that address. He was 45, born in Michigan and working as a tower man for the railroad. His wife Margaret, the recipient of the postcard, was 46 and born in Ireland. They had a son William J. who was 11.³

In 1930 the family is at 2917 Meldrum, and with them is a niece, Mary O'Donnell, age 17, who had arrived in the US in 1926.⁴ In 1940 Charles, his son William, and William's family are all still there, but Charles is a widower⁵. Looking for a death record for Margaret, we find that she died 27 Oct 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. Her father's name, John O'Donnell, is on that record.⁶

Finally, the 1901 Census of Bruckless, (Dunkinelly, Donegal), Ireland, lists this family in house 2:

John O'Donnell, 65, head, postmaster
Mary O'Donnell, 62, wife, postmaster's wife
Cassie O'Donnell, 30, daughter, dressmaker
Lizzie O'Donnell, 27, daughter, dressmaker
Ellen O'Donnell, 25, daughter, dressmaker
Henry James O'Donnell, 23, son, station master

All were Catholic and could read and write. All could speak English, and all but Ellen could also speak Irish.⁷

So I think it is safe to say that Margaret (O'Donnell) Carpenter of Detroit, Michigan, was from Bruckless Townland, Dunkinelly, County Donegal, Ireland. I hope this helps her descendants find their Irish roots.

1. The image of the postcard once appeared at the Jim Forte Postal History website. The card has since been sold, and the image is no longer there. I am not connected with Mr. Forte's website or company in any way.

2. City Directories at ancestry.com

3. 1920 Census of the 15th ward of Detroit, Michigan; series T625, Roll 814, Page 158, at HeritageQuestOnline.com.

4. "United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X79T-MCQ : accessed 26 Sep 2013), Charles M Carpenter, 1930.

5. "United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KH9K-5K8 : accessed 26 Sep 2013), Charles Carpenter, 1940.

6. "Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KF71-41X : accessed 26 Sep 2013), Margaret Carpenter, 1934.

7. National Archives of Ireland,  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Dunkinelly/Bruckless/1168440/