Well, this person was a veritable goldmine of accurate information about early Irish immigrants to Rondout, a village later absorbed by Kingston. By early, we're talking the 1840s and before. She took the time to point out that she was believed that I had an error in my Ancestry family tree, and convinced me.
Mary Dougherty, who joined her siblings Michael, Margaret, Bridget and Isabella in Kingston, New York, wasn't married to Andrew O'Reilly, let alone had several children with him, as I had mentioned here in August 2016. When I look back at my research, I'm not even sure why I had made this connection.
Once I started researching Mary anew (for the first time in several years), I quickly saw that, absolutely, she was married at St Patrick's in Dungiven, where so many of my ancestors lived, to Edward McElvare on 29 Sep 1829 -- this is in the Irish Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915 in Ancestry's catalogue. Oh my. McElvar, it turns out, is probably mispelled even more than Dougherty. It took some time to connect the dots, but as I did, I had some of those always delightful ahah moments that left me slapping my head.
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| Kingston Daily Freeman 31 Jan 1933 |
First, I searched the Kingston Daily Freeman newspaper archive and found a 31 Jan 1933 death notice for one Catherine McElvare, who was the daughter of the late Edward and Mary Dougherty McElvare. Catherine died at a cousin's home, and had another cousin who was a noted local priest. Both those cousins' names I recognized.
Hoping for more clues, I found Catherine's grave marker. But hers is the only McElvare marker I found at St Mary's Cemetery in Kingston.
Next, I found the 1860 census in Kingston using the name McElvar, where I found that Mary and Edward had three children: John, Mary and Kate. But wait, they lived next door to Isabella and Bernard McReynolds, who are also mentioned here. Both Edward McElvare and Bernard McReynolds were listed as clothiers.
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| 1860 US Census, Rondout, New York |
According to Kate's 1898 US naturalization documents, which I next found, she arrived from Ireland in 1848, suggesting that the McElvare family arrived then, but I can find no records for the others. Another family link is found in her naturalization petition: the person attesting to the truth of her statements and that he has known her for 38 years, is the husband of another cousin, who is the daughter of Margaret Dougherty McGranahan.
More searching produced the 1850 Roundout census, when I realized that that Mary's son John was then listed as living with her brother, Michael Dougherty and his family. How had a missed that? I haven't found the rest of his family in the 1850 census, but am still looking. I wonder why John was living with his uncle. By the way, Michael was also a clothier. The six year old James listed below grew up to become the priest who presided at Catherine McElvare's funeral mass. It was in the home of James' sister Mary Ann Dougherty Hallahan, where Catherine died. Also living in Michael's 1850 household was his brother, Thomas (1823-1854), who was the only Dougherty who returned to Dungiven, where he died in 1854. Yes, the handwriting in this record is definitely hard to decipher, but again, I connected more dots.
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| 1850 US Census, Kingston |
The 1870 census shows the McElvares still living in Rondout Village (the McReynolds appear on the preceding page), but John has taken over the clothing business from his elderly father.
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| 1870 US Census, Rondout, New York |
Edward died before 1877, when I find Mary and her daughter Catherine in a Kingston city directory working as dressmakers. Of the daughter Mary I can find no further trace after 1870 right now, nor can I find any record of her mother Mary's death.
At some point after 1877, John and his sister, Catherine, were living in Manhattan, but the next official record I find of them is an 1898 New York City directory entry, where they're living together. John died in 1913, and as you already read above, Catherine in 1933.
All three McElvare children, John, Mary and Catherine, were born in Ireland. never married or had children, so that's the end of that line of potential cousins.
My reminder to self from this experience is that every single detail in genealogy research is important. Always. No O'Reillys here, except for Michael Dougherty's wife.
The never ending story continues....
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