Friday, November 20, 2009

Horrigan

One time years ago I was at Anna's. We were sitting in the kitchen having a few beers when for some reason I asked what she knew about the family history. I remember that she said that her grandmother Lucy had come to the U.S. through Canada. A few years after that my dad went up to Betty and Willie's to see the family bible. There wasn't much in it except the Marriage Certificate for Lucy's marriage to Michael Smith. It had Lucy's parents as "Daniel Horrigan and". Her mother's name is not written!


This week using Ancestry.com I've found the Horrigan's in the 1851 Canada census! They were living in Flamboro West, Wentworth county. Daniel, 35, is listed as a cooper from Ireland. Others listed are Margaret, 35, Lucy, 12, Margaret 10, Richard, 6, Johannah, 2, and David, 1. The last two children were born in Canada.








Lucy's sister Johannah shows up in the 1870 census working as a domestic in Erie. In the 1880 census she is the wife of Dyer Colgrove in Meadville, PA. It shows her as being born in Canada. She has four children - Anna, Harry, Daniel and William. Anna later became a nun taking the name Sister Augustine. My mother had told me that sometimes she would go over to the convent and walk with Sister Augustine over to her house so that her father could visit with his cousin. I remember that my mom said that she was a very jolly person.



Johannah's son Daniel had a daughter Mary in 1904. Mary shows up in the 1910 census as living in St. Joseph's Orphanage. She later became a nun taking the name Sister Pierre. My mother sometimes mentioned her also.



Lucy shows up in the 1870 census also working as a domestic. The 1880 census shows her with her two sons, Pierre David and Richard J. She is running a restaurant on State St. In 1881 she married Michael Smith. He died in 1914. She died in 1929.



I cannot find anything on Lucy brothers or her sister Margaret. Maybe only Lucy and Johannah came to the U.S. But what about Grandma Powers? Was this Lucy's mother Margaret who remarried a Mr. Powers? I cannot find anything in the census or Erie City Directories that shows them living here.



It seems Lucy named her sons after her brothers. I wonder who the original Pierre was.