An Irish Family

in Kingston, Ontario, Canada,

from about 1849

The facts as presented:

An independent research outline was provided which referenced a few documentary tidbits – circa 1855, 1857, and 1890s city directory listings from Kingston, Ontario; an 1871 Census of Canada record from Kingston; an 1880 Ontario civil marriage registration record, also from Kingston; and a few random items from Michigan. All of the independently discovered records offered clues which suggested that the interested party’s great, great, grandparents had possibly originated from County Cork, Ireland, and had possibly emigrated from Ireland to Kingston, Canada West, in about 1859.

The challenge:

To discover additional documentary evidence which would expand on the great, great grandparents’ family, and pinpoint with more accuracy where they might have come from, when they might have emigrated to Kingston, and to positively identify all of their children.

The records consulted:

additional Kingston (Ont.) City Directories; 1861 Census of Canada West schedules from Kingston, Ont.; 1881 & 1891 Census of Canada schedules from Kingston; Roman Catholic registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, St. Mary's Parish, Kingston; additional Ontario civil birth, marriage and death registration records; assorted pertinent Michigan records; pages of the Daily British Whig (Kingston, Ont.) and the Kingston Whig-Standard newspapers; etc.

The results:

Within the span of almost 20 hours, a specifc parish in County Kerry, Ireland, was identified as the place of the great, great grandfather’s birth. It was also established within the allotted time that the great, great grandparents had married in Kingston in the spring of 1850. Their birth years were established, and the names of both parents of both of the great, great grandparents became known. Baptismal records for 8 children in total were located, as the family moved within two Wards of the City of Kingston - Frontenac Ward and Sydenham Ward. Also found were marriage records for most of the children. Most of the children remained in the Kingston area, married, and died there, but some moved on to Michigan in the 1880s and 1890s. In the end, a specific place of origin in Ireland for the great, great grandfather was identified, and the probable period of emigration had been pushed back at least to the fall of 1849. All of the identified children were tracked as far as was deemed reasonable in order to find the most informative set of records about the 2xgreat grandparents as was possible.