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 who were enumerated in the 1850 Pittsburgh. PA census.  Listed there were some McDonough household members:  Hugh McDonough (baker, born PA, age 22) ,  George McDonough (baker, born IRE, age  22), and  Rebecca McDonough (born PA, age 51).

I have already commented on the life of Sarah Connolly’s mother, Rebecca McDonough, in my post of 12/5/2017.  Steven has identified the George McDonough as a relative of a Connolly-associated McDonough family, not ours, which arrived in  the U.S. during the 1840s.

I was very fortunate to get a good lead on the person whom I believe to be the young 1850  baker Hugh McDonough  by my chance reading of the 1897 Pennsylvania will of Sarah Connolly, who died in 1899. Therein she states:  “[Item] 12 – To Sadie, Francis Rebecca, and Mary McDonough, daughters of my brother Hugh, I give five hundred dollars each.”  So it’s reasonable to assume that the 22 year-old Hugh in 1850 was most likely the one who was  Sarah’s brother.

In  the 1860 Rock Island, Illinois census,  there is a Hugh McDonough, age 31, born PA, journeyman baker,   with wife Bridget, born  Ireland 1830,   with children whose names very closely match those mentioned in Sarah Connolly’s will. Given the children’s ages and birthplaces, this family arrived in Illinois between 1854 and 1857.

The children and/or  wife of this 1860 Rock Island, IL  Hugh McDonough are in the 1870, 1880, Illinois censuses, and 1880-1910 Rock Island city directory and  newspaper reports, but, with one single exception, Hugh is not.

What I did find for the post-1860  whereabouts of our 1850 census Hugh are Civil War service/enlistment  records showing that he was born Greene Co., PA  ca. Oct 1828.  An 1887 record from the U.S. National Homes for Volunteer Soldiers, Leavenworth, KS  shows  a Hugh McDonough,  born PA ca. 1829, who enlisted  ca. 11-30-1861 at Central City, CO Territory  into  Co. K of the 1st Colorado Cavalry, and later 1-1-1864  at Ft. Lyon, CO Territory into Co. A of the 1st Colorado Cavalry. He was discharged in Oct 1865 at Denver, CO and subsequently was living in El Paso TX . “.Status: single; religion:  Catholic,  Occupation:  Baker.”  Most significantly, his nearest relative is listed as “brother  James McDonough, Jacksonville, Oregon.”

I was really fascinated that this guy was in the Colorado Cavalry for  most of the War.  I  had  no idea Colorado was even  in  the Civil War,  but apparently the Union found it necessary to station  troops there in the newly formed Territory to prevent the Confederates from getting their hands on  gold and silver that had been mined there.  The cavalry units saw quite a bit of war action, but mostly against Indians.  One of  the companies of  1st Colorado Cavalry (not Hugh’s) was responsible for the infamous Sand Creek (Chivington) Massacre in 1864.

We do know for certain that the above Colorado Union soldier was the Hugh McDonough described by Sarah Connolly as heir in her will because it’s a known fact  that our McDonoughs were in Greene Co., PA in the 1820s, and their brother James McDonough (1826-1901)  relocated to Jacksonville, Oregon in 1851-52.

What we cannot be absolutely certain of, however, is if the Colorado soldier was the same Hugh McDonough with wife and children who was  in the 1860 Rock Island, IL census.  It certainly does appear that he was that person and left his family and joined the military at the outbreak of the Civil War.  It is possible that the family did not know where he was for many years,  but then he briefly resurfaced in Illinois.  Bridget McDonough is listed simply as widow in both the 1870 and 1880 census, and also in the Rock Island, IL City Directory from 1882-85.   But, in 1888, a Hugh McDonough shows up in Rock Island City Directory at exactly  the same address as for the 1882-85 “widow.” In 1888, he is residing there with Daisy—no mention of Bridget. “Daisy” is the nickname for Mary C. McDonough, the youngest McDonough child listed in 1860 census. Thereafter, from 1892 to her death in 1899, Bridget McDonough is listed in the Rock Island City Directory as  (wid of Hugh).

During the post-Civil War period, the only other Hugh McDonough finding we could discover was his presence  periodically 1887-1897 in the US  Hospital for Disabled Veterans, Leavenworth, KS.  On 8 Jul 1889, he filed for a veteran’s  pension – as invalid- “eye problems.” This Hugh McDonough’s vintage 1890 US Civil War pension file (Colorado) for the appropriate Colorado military units show that he deceased Oct 12 1897.  There is a gravesite that we believe to be that of Hugh at the Colorado State Veterans Cemetery/ (Homelake Cemetery, Soldiers and Sailors Home Cemetery) in Monte Vista, Rio Grande County, CO.

Bridget McDonough died in Rock Island, IL in 1899.  By tracking her child Frances Rebecca, I discovered that Bridget’s maiden name was  McCaffery. The McDonough children, whose names totally synch with those in Sarah Connolly’s will, lived in Illinois for a while after their mother died, became nurses, and eventually ended up in Pasadena, CA,  where newlywed Francis Rebecca McDonough was in Sep 1914 brutally shot in a very bizarre and sensational  murder-suicide episode.

Connecting suspect Hugh McDonough from Pittsburgh to Rock Island, IL  is problematic because I can find no record whatsoever of his marriage or his pre-1860 whereabouts after the  1850 census.  Other than the children’s names in the Pennsylvania Connolly will, the only Pittsburgh connection I have been able to find to the Rock Island McDonough family is a 1903 Rock Island newspaper report that two of the daughters (Mary and Frances) were in Pittsburgh “visiting relatives.”

The post Cousin McDonough Serves With Civil War Union Cavalry In Colorado appeared first on Treasures from the Tracker.

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.

The post Pennsylvania Wills & Probate Records Yield Stunning McDonough Discovery appeared first on Treasures from the Tracker.

I’ve been searching back through a large group of documents we collected during our quest to discover my great-grandfather Keenan’s family history.  As I mentioned in the first part of Our Irish Roots, we had quite a hard time in the years 2001-2004 discovering much of anything on-line about Bruce L. Keenan (BLK).  Maybe that dearth of information was just a coincidence— maybe not.  Some of my cousins wonder if over some years BLK was deliberately ignored in Oklahoma print because he was rather outspoken and had made enemies championing Native American and African American rights while he was Commissioner of Cherokee Nation and later as an attorney after statehood.  But also, let’s not forget that more and more printed historical information is being digitized every single day, and Google is in the forefront of that activity with its “Google Play” free E-books program.

In any event, as time moved on after 2004, more and more information on my g-grandfather became available to us without having to search through brick and mortar libraries and courthouses.  Much to our amazement in July 2009, a random Google search suddenly unearthed a very revealing biographical sketch on BLK published  in a 1908 volume of  A History of the State of Oklahoma.  From the style and content of the piece, we are almost certain that it was written by my g-grandfather himself and then contributed to the author of the volume.  And there it was, in graphic detail, all the facts that BLK had written down for my grandmother in his 1937 letter about the family history— and there was  much much more—his memory of the family was 30 years fresher!

It surely was a bit frustrating that critical detailed information it had taken us three years of hard work to dig out had been right out there all along printed in a history book , but it was also quite satisfying that we had been good detectives— most of the history we had rewritten for ourselves was pretty darn accurate.

As a big plus, there were moving accounts in the 1908 blurb about how my ggg-grandfather Hugh Keenan’s family had split– one faction relocating west in 1845 to eastern Iowa, the other (mine) remaining in SW Pennsylvania/West Virginia.  There were also facts revealed there about my gg-grandfather John Paine Keenan (who ventured out to Iowa but came back East) that we might have never known had we not kept Googling.

The post Whatever You Do – Just Keep Googling ! appeared first on Treasures from the Tracker.

The original purpose of the Our Irish Roots website was to bring together the many  discoveries a large group of people had made about our huge Keenan/McDonough  family during the years  2001-2004.  The sad thing is that the August 2004 story, which I have now restored  here on this new website, is about where I left off in publicizing  interesting new discoveries that some of us have made since that time.

Part of this is because I retired in 2007, and I thereby no longer had access to updating abilities for my FIU-based website.  And, part of it is just because I kept promising myself over and over that I would put up a new website and catch up with everything  “soon”..  regrettably,  that didn’t begin to happen until now.

And, there surely have been a number of fascinating developments over the years to catch up with:

For example, we found out my g- grandfather’s brother, attorney Leonidas Keenan, was one of America’s most famous war protesters.  He got tarred and feathered for his trouble in 1918 and ended up in the Atlanta Penitentiary for a spell.  Before that misfortune happened to him, he was part of a neat love story; we played detective and traced the courting of his spouse all the way from Auburn, NY to Wichita, KS.

And then there was this fantastic photo of my g-grandfather, Indian Commissioner Bruce L Keenan [seated on stool to the right], that turned up from the collection of my cousin Patrick Keenan. It was taken in the administrative office of Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, Indian Territory in probably July 1905.  We spent hours using the photo’s wall calendars and posters to date the photo and we also did a lot of research to identify the several individuals depicted.

There are many other newsy things to talk about as we update Our Irish Roots, and we’ll surely keep you appraised in future posts.

The post Our Irish Roots Site Is Back On-Line!! appeared first on Treasures from the Tracker.