Those who followed our “Our Irish Roots” hunt for the Keenan connection to the Thomas McDonough family may remember that our eventual success hinged on having one of our Keenans divulge in a 1926 letter that Mary Ann Keenan (1814-1897) was both a sister of my ggg-gf Hugh Keenan (1799-1879) AND a cousin of a wealthy Sarah Connolly whom she had lived with in Pittsburgh. In tracking down Sarah Connolly (1821-1899), we discovered that indeed our Mary Ann Keenan was living with Sarah and husband Martin Connolly in the 1870 Pittsburgh census.
That led to extensive conversations with Steven Connolly, who had carefully documented the life of his 2nd great uncle Martin (1814-1874), a very well-to-do Pittsburgh baker/grocer. Taking into account Steven’s previous efforts to identify Sarah Connolly’s maiden name, we were together able to deduce for certain that it was McDonough, and that Sarah Connolly was a daughter of Hugh McDonough (ca. 1790-ca. 1843), and granddaughter of our Thomas McDonough (ca. 1750-1828). Sarah’s father, Hugh McDonough, was brother and brother-in-law of my gggg-grandmother Alvy McDonough (ca. 1778-aft. 1830) and my gggg-grandfather John Keenan (1775-aft 1830), the parents of my Mary Ann Keenan.
Check the Thomas McDonough Family Tree in “Our Irish Roots” Appendix V , and you will readily see how MaryAnn Keenan and Sarah Connolly were first cousins.
Steven and I had lengthy conversations about members and associates of Martin Connolly’s family in Pittsburgh who were enumerated in census reports in 1850 through 1880. Of particular interest were the 1850 census, which listed Pennsylvania-born household members Hugh McDonough (baker, age 22) , and Rebecca McDonough (age 51), and the 1860-70 censuses, which listed Sarah F. Coyle (age 8 and 18). [The life of Hugh McDonough, the young baker in 1850, is another fascinating discovery which I shall treat in a separate post].
Early on, we strongly suspected that 1850 census Rebecca McDonough (ca 1799-ca 1859) was Sarah’s widowed mother, and that turned out to be the case. Because of the long-time (cousin?) association of Sarah Connolly and Sadie Coyle Rogers with an unmarried lady by the name of Isabell Clark (1836-1926), we believed that Rebecca’s maiden name could have been Clark.
What we did not know at all, however, until I just happened to read the recently available Pennsylvania Wills & Probate Records posted by Ancestry.com was that Rebecca McDonough had a daughter named Catherine (ca. 1832- ca.1858), a younger sister of Sarah Connolly. Catherine had apparently married an unknown Coyle in the early 1850s and she died just before Rebecca. In Rebecca’s will, probated 1859, she left pretty much everything she possessed to eldest daughter Sarah Connolly and then said: “…am solemnly requesting (Sarah) to be kind to and take care of my grandchildren Sarah Francis Coyle and Edward Coyle, children of my daughter Catherine…” So, Sarah F. Coyle was NOT a Connolly as Steven had previously believed, but surely was one of our McDonoughs!
Steven had determined in his research that Sarah Francis, who also went by the name Sadie F., had married a Rogers. At one time in about 2004, I had tracked her (SF Rogers) to a 1910 address in New York City (NYC) — never understanding at all why an aging widow would want to relocate to NYC. I cannot recall if Steven had then identified any of Sarah Rogers’ children, but the will of our Mary Ann Keenan, probated in 1898, named as heirs Sarah Rogers (”widow of John Rogers”) and her children: Francis C. (Frank), Mary, and Kate. Although I was able to find only a 1900 census record of the widowed Sarah, I discovered that she had married in about 1877 a prominent Pittsburgh attorney, John P. Rogers (1851-1891), who is listed in the 1874-1878 Pittsburgh City Directory and in a September 1891 obituary in the Pittsburgh Dispatch.
I decided to look back to New York City to find out more about Sarah Rogers’ life there, and I found her in a 1915 City Directory living with her daughter, Mary C. Rogers “artist.” That occupation note on Mary kind of piqued my interest because my own father was in a few decades later a well known New York City artist .
What I had uncovered largely by accident— just happening to read some old wills– is really rather remarkable– I really didn’t believe it for a while until I found a clipping about Mary C. Rogers’ fame in a 1921 issue of the Pittsburgh Daily Post. Details of Mary C. Rogers’ life and work are also presented in a moving 1921 testimonial by her sister Catherine– “Mary Rogers- Sister and Artist” .
Sarah Coyle Rogers’ daughter, Mary C “Maizie” Rogers (1882-1920) was an astoundingly talented and well regarded artist who studied with and exhibited with some of the best in both the US and Europe. I feel rather certain the reason that Sarah moved to NYC was to be with her daughter, who was probably living the typically bohemian existence of a talented painter.
Mary C. Rogers unfortunately had some sort of incurable disease and totally shocked the art community by dying in 1920 at only 38 years of age.
In tracking down Sarah “Sadie” Rogers, who died on Long Island, NY in 1931, I also stumbled onto the 1926 death record of Isabell Clark, who had been living with her in New York. Isabell’s father was listed as William Clark and mother as Isabel Crable. I have not yet been able to identify that married pair, but we suspect that they are related to Rebecca McDonough. We theorize that Isabell Clark was Rebecca McDonough’s niece and thereby Sarah Connolly’s and Sadie Rogers’ cousin.
Another avenue of investigation lies in wait. Catherine Rogers, Mary C.’s younger sister (born 1886), who accompanied her in many of her artistic endeavors, is completely missing. We can find no trace of her after 1930 at which time she was living in New York City with mother Sadie.
