Don't ignore random inquiries: lessons learned in family history research

Years ago, I first learned the hard lesson of never to make assumptions in genealogy research or inquiries. It's still a lesson I continue to learn.

Let's recap. As I mentioned here, I was contacted back in the late 1990s by a woman that I really just blew off, much to my regret. Mary had posted widely in 1998 and 1999 looking for information about the Kingston, New York Doughertys. Here is one of her posts, and it is remarkably detailed. It contains information that I later found in my own research. Mary wasn't a Dougherty descendant herself, She had married a descendant of my 1st cousin 3x removed, Bridget Dougherty Hayden.

Evidently, Mary took to the internet late in life. But she posted everywhere, looking for Dougherty family ties. She even reached out to my 4th cousin, Hon. Charles Doherty Gonthier QC (1928-2009), who at that time sat on Canada's Supreme Court.

How Mary had gathered her information, I don't know, but once I began my own documented research, it lined up exactly. I've not come across other descendants of Bridget who are researching their family history, but hope springs...

I'm trying to prove a connection to two other lines of Doughertys now. In one case, the owner of a family tree shares my belief that we're related, mainly because he descends from a Thomas Dougherty (abt 1820-abt 1888), born in Ireland and who first settled in South Hero, Vermont. This Thomas went to Nebraska with his family as a widower. Is he the mystery third brother that different oral histories and stories have mentioned? And as my yet to be confirmed cousin says, "nobody named Dougherty goes to South Hero for the weather" and likens to soap characters who go upstairs never to be heard from again. A sense of humour is always great. He hasn't yet done any DNA testing, which would help to confirm our connection. The family of this Thomas has some of the familiar names in my line: James, Isabella and yet another Thomas.

The never ending story continues....

Cousins killed in 1867 Harlow Bridge collapse at Northfield, Vermont

My great grandmother Rose had an older brother, Edward Caroline (1835-1867). They also had a younger first cousin, Thomas Caroline (1849-1867), the son of Michael Caroline and Julia Anne Ryan.

Original Harper's Weekly illustration 4 Jan 1868

Edward and Thomas both found work in just over the border from Granby in Vermont, working on railway construction for the Vermont Central Railroad.

I don't know how long they were doing this work before disaster struck, and this wasn't a work-related incident in the sense that it happened while they were working. Thirty-eight workers were returning by train to the construction site at Harlow Bridge from their lunch break. The engineer was asked to speed up so he could return to bring the rest of the workers back from lunch. The increased speed caused the train car to derail and plunge 25 feet before breaking in two, with the second piece plunging a further 60 feet. They were two of 15 fatalities in what was known as the Harlow Bridge Disaster on 11 Dec 1867.

Here is one relatively contemporary account written in 1878. And here is another:

"Harlow Bridge Train WreckThe accident near Northfield, Vermont on the Vermont Central Railroad on December 11, 1867, was the most destructive to life of any disaster which has ever occurred in the "Green Mountain State", since railroads were established. it occurred at which is known as the Harlow Bridge - a structure which spans a chasm some three hundred feet in width. Its abutments were sixty feet in heights, and its middle pier about seventy-five feet. This bridge was burned on December 8, and a heavy force of laborers had been employed in erecting trestle-work for temporary use. About a hundred of these men, having dined at Northfield, were returning to their labors on December 11 when the terrible calamity occurred. They were in a passenger car, and were being backed up to the works. By some unaccountable hallucination the engineer proceeded at an unusual rate of speed-sometimes running it as high as thirty miles an hour. He was reminded of his strange mistake by his fireman, but not till too late to avert the terrible consequences. The car, with its freight of some ninety men, was precipitated down a perpendicular distance of sixty feet. The tender broke from the engine and instantly followed. The scene was a fearful one. Fifteen dead men, with more than as many others suffering wounds more or less sever, lay in one heap, seven of whom were under the tender." -- Harper's Weekly Illustrated Journal, New York 4 Jan 1868

Local accounts identified the Vermont fatalities, but all uniformly didn't list the names of the Canadian fatalities, who numbered nine of the 15 killed.

The two Caroline families, large and close knit, were grief stricken. Thomas was only 18, with his whole life ahead of him. Edward was 32, the eldest child of Hugh Edward Caroline and Mary Donovan. He was unmarried.

Both were buried after a joint funeral on 16 Dec 1867 in the original cemetery of Notre Dame de Granby, which as I've mentioned in previous posts, was paved over for a parking lot decades later.

The never ending story continues....

Vermont lives lived: the daughters of Rev James Dougherty

As I wrote here, my 2nd great great uncle Rev James, the Congregational minister, married twice and had three daughters, none of whom married, and so after they died, he left no descendants. But his daughters have their own stories. Don't we all?

James and his first wife, Celia, had two daughters, Sarah Curran (1834-1861) and Isabella Celia (1836-1894). Sarah died aged only 26, "after a long and painful illness which was patiently born." She was, according to this lengthy obituary that appeared in the Lamoille Newsdealer on 25 Oct 1861, well loved by her students and a wide circle of friends. Her obituary starts in the first column and ends in the second column, and includes such praise as "Her attention to her textbooks did not hamper or mind or prevent general reading or liberal culture." Obituaries in the 19th century, particularly for women, were full of much flowery prose.


I think that the birth of Isabella, called Isabel, contributed to Celia's death, five days after Isabella was born.

Isabel Dougherty obit 

Isabel's passing on 1 Jun 1894 is briefly noted in a column of community and social notes. She died from pneumonia. She was the last of the three sisters to die, two weeks after the passing of her younger sister, Mary Louisa (1838-1894), called Louise, whose cause of death is listed as Bright's disease, something that today would be called chronic nephritis.

Isabel and Louise shared the same home all of their lives. They must have been very close. Their estates were wound up at the same time. Probate records are online and offer a snapshot into the household of two genteel ladies of the late 19th century, listing the household contents. Isabel had already started the paperwork related to winding up Louise's estate. Her signature appears in a court document. Both died intestate, and so on 22 Jun 1894, their cousin Judge Marcus of Montreal, signed a letter requesting the appointment of an administrator of both estates (who turns out to have been Emily Drake's husband). Always a small world. It took five years to wind up both estates. I tracked this from published legal notices.

I wonder if these three sisters, my 1st cousins 3x removed, knew their Kingston, Granby or Cincinnati cousins and their families, wrote to them or exchange visits with them. And did they know about their Irish cousins in Dungiven?

In the deposition signed on 27 Jul 1899 attached to Isabel's probate records, Judge Marcus mentions the surviving Cincinnati and Kingston cousins, and his own brother Paul in Dungiven.

"that the late Isabella C. Dougherty (and Mary Louisa Dougherty) ...was my cousin on her father's side and that she was also the cousin of Paul Dougherty, my brother, of the County Derry, in Ireland and of Catharine and Louisa, spinsters, of Cincinnati in the state of Ohio, and of  Isabella and Bridget Dougherty, both of the City of New York in the state of New York, all on her father's side also, and that all of these cousins survived the said Isabella C. Dougherty (and Mary Louisa Dougherty)..."

He definitely knew where everyone in his far flung family was -- almost. Judge Marcus notes in his deposition that Isabel's other surviving cousins on her father's side included:

"another cousin, Thomas Sullivan, who lived with Rev James in Johnson...Vermont who was much her junior, as also younger than all the above named cousins and might and would under certain circumstances presumed to have survived her ....but of whom this deponent can give no account as to his life or residence and that she had other cousins of whom this deponent can now affirm nothing on oath."

1877 Cincinnati directory

Judge Marcus doesn't include in his deposition the name of my great grandfather, John James Dougherty, who was also a first cousin of Isabel, as he predeceased her in 1893. I've never been able to find anything about Thomas Sullivan or his parentage -- and who were those other cousins about whom Judge Marcus was unable to provide any information? Were they the Marcus and Mary Ann Dougherty listed in the 1877 Cincinnati directory?

Mary Hoxie Dougherty obit

Louise's mother was Rev James' second wife, a widow herself, Mary Hoxie Drake (1795-1881), who brought one daughter, Emily Drake (1826-1892), into her marriage in 1837 to Rev James. He appears as Emily's guardian in several documents before she reached adulthood.

I've been unable to find newspaper stories or obituaries about Celia Hall Dougherty, Rev. James' first wife, who died in 1836 in Milton. So far.

Rev James, his wives and daughters are all buried at the Whitting Hill Cemetery, in Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont.

The never ending story continues...

Judge Marcus Doherty and his family 1

As I've written here, Judge Marcus Doherty was a lawyer and distinguished jurist who served as a judge in the Quebec Superior Court from 1873 to 1891. He was appointed to the bench by the government of Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald.

Marcus met his wife, Elizabeth O'Halloran, the youngest daughter of immigrants from County Cork, when he was studying law at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Marcus was a classmate of one of Elizabeth's brothers. She was only 17, but Marcus was smitten and so they married in November 1843 and settled first in Granby, where they began their family, which grew to 12 children born between 1844 and 1867:

• Ellen Elizabeth (1844-1919) never married
• Thomas James (1845-1894) Q.C., never married
• Marcus (1847-1856)
• Mary Louisa Cecilia (1851-1919) m Patrick Walter Kavanagh, three children
• Daniel O'Connell (1853-1878) never married
• Charles Joseph (1855-1931), K.C., MP, married Catharine Lucy Barnard, five children
• Anna Maria (1857-1944) never married
• Margaret Agnes Mary (1859-1894) took religious vows, known as Rev. Madam Mary of the Annunciation
• Elizabeth Mary (1861-1926) m Judge Henry W. Mulvena, three children
• Sarah Curran (1863-1863)
• Marcus Emanuel (1866-aft 1931), lawyer, never married
• Michael Joseph (1867-1907) accountant, never married

3462 (formerly 38) rue Ste-Famille, 2016

By 1851, Judge Marcus and his growing family had relocated from Granby to Montreal. He was an active member of Montreal's St. Patrick's Society, serving as its president in 1858 and 1861, and earning a good reputation. By the 1861 census, they were living at 38 Ste-Famille, a house that still stands today, but re-numbered 3462.

During those years, Marcus had offices in what today we know as Old Montreal, in a building that till standing today, mentioned here. In the 19th century, the building's address was 59 Little St. James Street. Today the street is known as rue St-Jacques.

59 Little St James Street

Following his 1873 appointment, Judge Marcus was assigned to the St. Francis District, in which the city of Sherbrooke is located. While in Sherbrooke, Judge Marcus was regarded as a leading citizen, serving as a member of the Sherbrooke chapter of the St. Patrick's Society and giving the English language welcome when St Patrick's parish was dedicated at its first mass in 1873. Judge Marcus is mentioned in Pioneer English Catholic of the Eastern Townships, published in the 1930s by Rev T. J. Walsh, SJ.

The family lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec, from 1873 until 1882, when Judge Marcus was re-assigned back to Montreal.

Judge Marcus must have liked Ste-Famille a lot, because he moved the family into number 24 Ste-Famille in 1882, when they returned from Sherbrooke. That house also still stands today, as number 3442 Ste-Famille.

3442 (formerly 24) rue Ste-Famille, 2016 

With such a large family, the censuses of 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 all included servants to help Elizabeth Doherty in running her household.

Three of Judge Marcus' sons also became lawyers: Thomas, Charles and Marcus E. They shared offices at 590 Sherbrooke St W, for many years, joined by their father after he stepped down from the bench in 1891. That building no longer exists. The space today is occupied by a large Universite de Québec à Montréal student residence at the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Urbain Streets, the always helpful staff at the Bibliotheque et Archives Nationale du Quebec (BAnQ) tell me. I walked this block during a recent visit to Montreal.

When he died in July 1903, Judge Marcus was memorialized in several newspapers, including this item in the July 6, 1903 edition of The Gazette.

Judge Marcus and several family members are buried in Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery on Mount Royal in Montreal.

The never ending story continues....

Our immigrant ancestors -- Judge Marcus Doherty QC

Judge Marcus Doherty

My 1st cousin 3x removed, Marcus Doherty (1815-1903) emigrated from Camnish, Dunvigen in what is now County Derry at the age of 18, arriving in Quebec City in 1833, and then travelling down to South Hero, Vermont, to join his uncles (my 2nd great grandfather) Marcus and (my 2nd great great uncle) James Dougherty.

Marcus was born in a house in Camnish, Dungiven, that was later occupied by the family of Irish nationalist John Mitchel.

The story is that Marcus was sent to Vermont by his mother after his father Thomas Dougherty died in Dungiven. He wasn't their eldest, but I think he was the brightest, and had attended grammar school in Dungiven, something one of my internet cousins tells me was quite rare for an Irish person to do in the early 19th century. One story has it that he was destined for the priesthood. Marcus attended college and also  taught at the Shefford Academy, where his uncle James was the principal. In 1838, he enrolled at  the University of Vermont where he received his BA and MA, and in 1848 was called to the Bar of Lower Canada in Montreal. He was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court in 1873. I've found many references in which Judge Marcus is mentioned. He first practised law as a newly minted lawyer in Granby, then moved on to Montreal. He was then posted in Sherbrooke for several years, before returning to Montreal.

Judge Marcus' eldest children were born and baptized in Granby. In my very early web research days, and before the Drouin Collection had indexed the Notre Dame de Granby parish records, another researcher, in an act of random genealogical kindness, pointed out to me that having a Marcus Dougherty and Marcus Doherty in the same small community at the same time was, well, no coincidence. My great grandfather John James and Judge Marcus were cousins.

In my family papers, we have for reasons still unknown to me, a copy the certificate attesting Judge Marcus' entry into the Bar of Lower Canada. The seal has been cut out. How did this come to be in my grandfather's possession?

Marcus was the first of six siblings to leave their Camnish, Dungiven home for America. Those siblings who came all used the Dougherty spelling. More about those siblings and their families will come. No, I don't know why Judge Marcus used the Doherty spelling. His siblings who remained in Ireland used both Dougherty and Doherty. Yes, all these same names do get confusing in the telling of stories.

Full disclosure: In 1998 and 1999, a woman posted on several genealogy message boards seeking relatives of Judge Marcus, and saying he was the brother of her late husband's great great grandfather. She even contacted me, saying we were related. But this was in my dark age of the genealogy research, and I brushed her off. Of course, it turned out she was absolutely right, but by then several years had passed, and I was unable to locate her. It was an early lesson to never make assumptions.

Montreal - Biographical Sketches

An early biography of Judge Marcus appeared during his lifetime in something called Montreal - Biographical Sketches. Note the inconsistencies about his year of birth and John Mitchel.

Here's another profile (in two images), from the Canadian Biographical Dictionary:

Note the inconsistencies in both with respect to Judge Marcus' year of birth and John Mitchel. It wasn't always easy in the mid 19th century to fact check, I guess. No Google, for one thing.

Judge Marcus died in Montreal on 4 Jul 1903. The Montreal Gazette carried a lengthy obituary about him and his remarkable career, which offers yet more conflicting information on his year of birth and other facts.

I will be writing more about Judge Marcus, his marriage and family. Note: For identification purposes in this blog, this Marcus will be called Judge Marcus, while my 2nd great grandfather will be referred to as Farmer Marcus. My small contribution to ending the confusion over the use of the same names even within the same generations.

The never ending story continues...

Rev James Dougherty, D.D. of Vermont

It's not clear when my second great grandfather Marcus' younger brother James (1796-1878) travelled to Vermont from Donegal, or whether he travelled with Marcus and Mary Ann and their young family, but arrive in Vermont he did. They were all first in South Hero, on Grand Isle, an island in Lake Champlain.

Luckily, there are many records about my 2nd great uncle, starting with this first fantastic find. In his 2002 book, Pre-famine Irish in Vermont, 1815-1844, Vermont historian Vincent Edward Feeney writes about James:

"Without priests, too many Catholics were being married by justices of the peace, and many drifted away from the Church. One had even became a prominent Protestant clergyman. This was James Daugherty. 50  From County Derry, Daugherty had been raised “a conscientous Catholic,” and emigrated with his two brothers at about age 20 in 1819 to South Hero, Vermont. There, under the instruction of a Congregational minister, the Reverend Asa Lyon, he prepared to enter college. Lyon must have been a profound influence on young Daugherty, for when the Irishman eventually graduated from the University of Vermont in 1830 he entered the ministry. He spent the next thirty-five years first as the Congregational pastor in Milton, and later in Johnson."

That's right, he left the Catholic Church, became a Congregational minister, married (twice) and had children. One biographical sketch includes this passage about his decision to leave the Catholic faith:

'His parents were devoted Catholics and he was reared in a conscientious regard of that faith, but as he grew to years he felt a want un-supplied. Having heard from the Scotch Presbyterians the doctrine of salvation by faith, "That", said he is what I want that; I can do, I can believe. He was converted while yet in connection with the church of his parents, and did not change his relation till after removing to this country at the age of twenty three.'

Another reference to his faith appears in one of the eulogies given after his death:

'Reared in the Roman Catholic church, he very early became dissatisfied with that faith and at length deliberately and utterly repudiated it."

That's pretty definite. James' parents were both deceased in Donegal by 1830, so they didn't know about his change in faith. Imagine disclosing that in a letter home that would have taken months to arrive at its destination! James graduated from the University of Vermont in 1830, before then studying theology, during which time he also taught at the well-respected in its time Shefford Academy in Frost Village, now part of St-Hyancinthe in Shefford, Quebec. He ultimately received his doctorate in divinity, and was known around the towns of Johnson and Milton and beyond as Dr D.

James was a man of strong conviction. As the University of Vermont notes in its obituary, his home was a station on the underground railway as former slaves made their way to Canada. Incredible! I'm very proud to be related to such a very fine man. There are several items about James, searchable on Google Books.

James married twice, first to Celia Hall (1800-1836) a daughter of the longtime South Hero town clerk in 1832. James and Celia had two daughters, Sarah Curran (1834-1861) and Isabella Celia (1836-1894). Sadly, Celia died five days after Isabella's birth. Sarah was named after the great love of the Irish patriot, Robert Emmet. James married again, a year later, to a widow, Mary Hoxie Drake (1795-1881), and together they had one daughter, Mary Louisa (1838-1894). None of his daughters married or had children, so James left no descendants after their deaths.

At this point, I'll say that yes, the names James, Isabella and Mary Louisa appear over and over again among my Dougherty ancestors. Some readers may recognize these names from an earlier post. And you'll see these names crop up again, as my stories continue. In fact, the parents of Marcus and James and their siblings are--wait for it--James Dougherty and Isabella McLaughlin.  And yes, it does get confusing.

The border between Vermont and Quebec was transparent in the late 18th to mid 19th centuries. People crossed back and forth often and easily. One reason was that there were few Catholic priests in Vermont early on. There were many Irish Catholics who settled in Vermont.  So while we know that James taught at the Shefford Academy, it seems that he was also a travelling preacher at one point. A few years ago in Granby, my brother came across a plaque outside what had been a congregationalist church and is now a United Church on Main Street. Here is part of that plaque noting that James had preached at that church. James no doubt visited with brother Marcus and his family in Granby, as well as their nephew Marcus Doherty, who lived in Granby for a time.

Plaque, Granby United Church

At his funeral following his death from consumption on 10 Jun 1878, James was eulogized at length. Both his death and his funeral were reported in the local media. In its June 21, 1878 edition, The Burlington Weekly Free Press published a lengthy item. See the fourth column here. This mentions that James was born in Fairmount, County Down, Ireland. This is up for debate. Other sources report that he was born in Park, Banagher, Donegal, near which there is the town of Learmount. Then, in its June 28, 1878 edition, a second eulogy was published in the same newspaper. See the third column here. Aside from the many references to his life as a clergyman, there are also fascinating insights into who he was as a man.

Side of family grave marker

James was buried at the Whitting Hill Cemetery in Johnson, Lamoille, Vermont, with his daughters and both his wives.

The never ending story continues....

Unwrapping a Puzzle 2: Marcus, Mary Ann and all their children

Going from "a lost soul" to a brother to several siblings, here is what I've discovered about my paternal great grandfather's immediate family. This has been patched together over several years, finding clues in the oddest places.

Marcus and Mary Ann married in Donegal, as early now as 1817. That part of Donegal is now in Ulster. They likely married in a small town called Dungiven. Records at the local Catholic church, St Patrick's, go back only to 1825. All before that has been lost. And the central records in Dublin were of course mostly destroyed during the Four Courts conflagration in Dublin in 1922. 

By 1830 in Vermont, Marcus and Mary Ann had at least three children:

• Thomas b abt 1830, Vermont, d 15 Dec 1886, Ohio
• Catharine b about 1824, Dungiven, d May 1896, Cincinnati
• James b 12 Nov 1826 (I have his baptismal record) Dungiven, d 18 Mar 1860, Granby, Quebec

They subsequently had at least the following additional children:

• Isabella b about 1832, Vermont d 26 Feb 1890, Cincinnati
• John James b 17 Jun 1833, South Hero, Grand Isle, Vermont, d 26 Apr 1893, Sherbrooke, Quebec (my great grandfather)
• Joseph M. b 15 Nov 1835, Granby, Shefford, Canada East, d 6 Mar 1886, Longview, Ohio
• Mary Louisa b 25 Dec 1838, Granby, Shefford, Canada East, d 15 Mar 1913, Norwood, Ohio

Thomas and Isabella are the latest discoveries, pointed out to me last week by kind souls in the Hamilton County Ohio Genealogy Facebook group. Isabella married and had a family. Watch for another post about them. And guess what? At various times, Thomas and Isabella lived at the same addresses in Cincinnati as Catherine, Joseph and Mary Louisa (who went by Louise or Louisa). City directories are beautiful genealogy resources.

But wait there's more. Because isn't there always? 

I had found Joseph in Cincinnati awhile ago, and suspected he was one of my Doughertys for a few years. Then, about five years ago, I came across an affidavit attached to the wills of the daughters of Rev James Dougherty D.D. (1796-1878), who was the younger brother of my great grandfather. The affidavit was signed by Judge Marcus Doherty QC (1815-1903), the nephew of my great grandfather and Reverend James. This nephew Marcus had come from Ireland as a young man in about 1833, taught, then went to the University of Vermont and became a lawyer. More about him to come. The affidavit, sworn on July 27, 1899, reads in part:

"that the late Isabella C. Dougherty (and Mary Louisa Dougherty) ...was my cousin on her father's side and that she was also the cousin of Paul Dougherty, my brother, of the County Derry, in Ireland and of Catharine and Louisa, spinsters, of Cincinnati in the state of Ohio, and of  Isabella and Bridget Dougherty, both of the City of New York in the state of New York, all on her father's side also, and that all of these cousins survived the said Isabella C. Dougherty (and Mary Louisa Dougherty)..."

This was an amazing and fantastic wow moment. Read the complete will and affidavit here. The affidavit is on pages 8 and 9. A fascinating snapshot of life in the late 19th century. I'll be writing all about the ancestors mentioned here as time goes on.

Back to all of my great grandfather's Cincinnati siblings for a moment before I finish this post. Again, thanks to the kindness of social media folk, last week, I discovered that the brothers and sisters, Thomas, Isabella, Catharine and Joseph are all buried in the same cemetery section (scroll down) In all cases, their parents' names are given. Louise is buried in the same section as two nieces (daughters of Isabella).

And yet there's more. The 1877 Cincinnati city directory lists another Marcus Dougherty and a Mary Ann Dougherty living at the same address as Joseph M. Dougherty. (update: I write about Mary Ann further here)

Who are these newest Doughertys? More children of Marcus and Mary Ann? The never ending story continues....

Unwrapping a Puzzle 1

I grew up being told, and as it turns out, so too were all of my first cousins, that my great grandfather John James Dougherty (1833-1879) was a lost soul when he married my great grandmother Rose Caroline in 1876. When we pressed, we were told that he was all alone in Granby, and had no family. 

We knew from oral tradition that he was born in South Hero, Grand Isle, Vermont, to an Irish immigrant, my second great grandfather, Marcus Dougherty. But that's all we knew. 

Many years later, I found the name of his wife, my second great grandmother, Mary Ann Diamond in the always amazing Drouin Collection, which houses Quebec church and notarial records dating back to the 1600s. Those priests took good notes, although their handwriting was often almost illegible, and occasionally they took liberties with the spelling of names. Especially Irish names.

About 20 years ago, the first of many kind internet strangers (as I call those who have helped along the way) sent me the 1830 census covering South Hero, Grand Isle, Vermont. 

1830 Vermont Census

Granted, this was three years before my great grandfather was born, but still, it shows two adults, two males under 5, and one female aged between 5 and 9. And so the puzzles began. 

Who were these other children? 

It took many years, but about five years ago, some elusive pieces began to emerge. When I first saw the 1861 Census covering Granby, Shefford County, Quebec, it was eye-popping to see that my great grandfather had two sisters and two brothers: James, Catharine, Joseph M. and Mary Louisa. Those names sent me on yet another new quest, and their stories will be told here in due course. But I will say that these were not his only siblings. 

1842 Canada East Census

And as I went to insert that record here, I've now just made another discovery in it, which I will write about in another post. More family. 

Only very recently have I found the 1842 Lower Canada Census of Canada East (also known at that time as Lower Canada) for Marcus Dougherty and his family. This document reveals four more family members, for a total of nine -- two parents and seven children. 

The never ending story continues.