Peter and Mary Ann (McMahon) Keegan of Boston, Massachusetts

In the first article in this series, John Aloysius Hankard, East Boston, Mass, we established that John Aloysius Hankard's parents were John Hankard and Hannah Keegan. Hannah's death record, May 15, 1899, said that she was born in East Boston and her parents were Peter Keegan and Mary A McMann, both born in Ireland.1

Her birth record is under the name of Joanna Maria Keegan, born Feb 25, 1859, at 61 Havre St, East Boston. The parents were Peter, a blacksmith, and Mary A, both born in Ireland and residing on Havre St. This matches what we know about Hannah (Keegan) Hankard.2

I also found a birth record for another Keegan daughter, Mary Ann, born in Woburn on October 1, 1855, but whose parents, Peter and Mary A, were residing on Havre Street at the time. Mary Ann died the following July of cholera infantum.3,4

There were three other children in this family:

James, born about 1850. He died 27 November 1892 at 357 Maverick St, East Boston.5 He was single at the time.
Sarah, born about 1860.
Ann, born about 1864.

They all appear on the 1870 Census of Ward 2, (East) Boston. The surname looked like Reegan on the census form and that is how they were indexed at familysearch.org and at HeritageQuestOnline.com.6

1870 Census, Ward 2, Boston, Series M593, Roll 641, page 612
dwelling 956, family 2102
found by looking for Reegan, which is what it looks like on the census

[K]eegan, Peter, 38, laborer, born in Ireland
Mary, 40, born in Ireland
James, 19, boilermaker, born in Massachusetts
Johanna, 11, at school
Sarah, 10, at school
Ann, 6, at school

Mary Ann (McMahon) Keegan died May 13, 1878, at Endicott Court, Boston, of heart disease. Her parents' names were given as Patrick and Catharine, but that is not enough to find her place of birth in Ireland.7

Her husband Peter Keegan died at the same address a few years later, on June 13, 1883, of pneumonia. His parents' names were unknown to the (unnamed) informant. He was living with the Cornelius Crowley family at the time of the 1880 census, but none of his children were listed with him.8,9

Beside that I know little about the Keegans. In fact the only trace I could find of the younger two daughters was that 1870 census.

So we struck out with the Keegans as far as finding their townland and county of origin in Ireland. Perhaps someone out there is a descendant and knows a bit more.

Footnotes

  1. "Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NWJK-CM2 : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Hannah Keegan Hankard, 1899.
  2. "Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FX4F-GSV : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Joanna Maria Keegan, 1859.
  3. "Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FXDT-HTM : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Mary Ann Keegan, 1855.
  4. "Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7PZ-JXX : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Mary A. Keegan, 1856.
  5. "Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7T7-59J : accessed 06 Jan 2014), James Keegan, 1892.
  6. "United States Census, 1870," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MD32-GBF : accessed 07 Jan 2014), Peter Reegan, Massachusetts, United States; citing p. , family 2102, NARA microfilm publication M593, FHL microfilm 000552140. Also at 1870 Peter Keegan household, at HeritageQuestOnline.com
  7. "Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7K8-XNL : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Mary A. Mcmahon Keegan, 1878.
  8. "Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7GT-VL6 : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Peter Keegan, 1883.
  9. 1880 Cornelius Crowley household, at HeritageQuestOnline.com.