Back to the Father Marrin Mystery

February 14, 2024

Back to the Father Marrin Mystery

After a temporary sidetrack into the Research Like a Pro Challenge, I'm back with the rest of my analysis of the newspaper clipping "Father Marrin's First Mass" which was passed down in my Gilbride family. Why was it important to the family?

To catch up to this point, click here for part one.

Marrin-Gilbride Proximity

The Marrin family lived near the Gilbride clan in Providence or the High Works—adjoining neighborhoods in North Scranton. As far back as 1870 John Marrin, Michael Marrin’s father, and James Gilbride, Michael Gilbride’s father, worked alongside one another in the Von Storch Mine.¹

The Marrin and Gilbride families made their homes in the streets surrounding the Cayuga, Leggett, and Diamond Mines, as well as the High Works through at least 1908. Marrin and Gilbride residences were situated on the Back Road (later renamed Keyser Avenue), Cayuga Street, Brick Avenue, Rock Avenue (later became Kelly Avenue), Putnam Street, and West Market Streets.²

Red circles show North Scranton mine locations where Michael Marrin and Michael Gilbride labored.

The lives of Michael Gilbride and Michael Marrin, brother of Rev. Peter Marrin, paralleled in every way: They were born about 1854-1855, married in 1875 at the same church, and died within a week of each other in May 1908. They shared similar occupations as laborers in the local mines. Their children perhaps played in the same North Scranton streets and attended the same schools. Their families celebrated the Catholic sacraments at the same church—Holy Rosary Catholic Church.

A Cavanaugh Connection

One more connection existed between the two men. The female witness to Michael Gilbride and Catherine Ryan’s 1875 marriage was “Catherine Cavanaugh.” She was thought to be Michael Gilbride's niece—the daughter of his sister Rose Gilbride Cavanaugh. However, this was a troublesome assumption: Catherine Cavanaugh was just 10 years old at the time of the Gilbride/Ryan nuptials, very young to serve as a witness.³

However, in December 1875, Michael Marrin married Sarah Kavanaugh.⁴ This discovery offers fresh clues to the possible identity of the female witness to the Gilbride/Ryan marriage. If Michael Gilbride and Michael Marrin were close enough that Gilbride asked him to stand for him at his February nuptials, it seems far more likely that the female witness was Michael Marrin’s soon-to-be bride Sarah Kavanaugh than Michael Gilbride’s ten-year-old niece. The incorrect female witness' name in the church record could be a simple mistake by an inattentive priest repeating the bride’s name Catherine twice in the register. In spelling the surname Cavanaugh/Kavanaugh, exchanging the C for K is common.⁵

Conclusion

A careful examination of Rev. Peter Marrin, Michael Marrin, and Michael Gilbride’s lives through documentary evidence reveals their connections.

The analysis establishes that:

Rev. Peter Marrin and Michael Marrin were brothers.
The Marrin and Gilbride families were close neighbors and work colleagues in North Scranton.
Michael Gilbride and Catherine Ryan likely asked Michael Marrin and his future wife Sarah Kavanaugh to be their marriage witnesses because the men were fellow miners, and the couples were neighbors and fellow parishioners in the same church.
That the female witness to the Gilbride-Ryan wedding was likely Marrin’s fiancé Sarah Kavanaugh, not Gilbride’s niece. A probable clerical error in recording accounts for the first name of the female witness to the Gilbride-Ryan marriage as Catherine, not Sarah

If the Marrin and Gilbride families were close, then their strong connection helps explain the significance of the clipping, “Father Marrin’s First Mass” to the Gilbride family and why it may have been kept as a family artifact.

Until next time...

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MAP IMAGE: Von Storch – 1878 Mine Inspector Map (unknown location and publisher, 1878); image, Pennsylvania’s Northern Anthracite Coal Field, 1870-1970, (https://www.northernfield.info/moreinfoReport.php?oname=Von+Storch&lldir=Von%20Storch&addInfo= : 19 September 2023).

NOTES

¹ The Scranton Directory 1870-71, (Providence, R.I. : Webb Brothers & Co., 1870), p. 304, John Merrin; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/3063794 : 16 January 2024), image 151. Also: Ibid, p. 181, James Gilbride; database & images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/3063732 : 16 January 2024), image 89.

² Ancestry, "U.S., City Directories 1822-1995," (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469/ : accessed 13 February 2024), Scranton, Pennsylvania,1875-1908, various entries for Michael Marrin/Maren/Merin/Moran/Maren/Marian/Morron/Marion, and various entries for Michael Kilbride/Killbride/Gilbride/Gilboy.

³ B.S. Shuta, Green Ridge, Penns. [(e-address for private use)] to N. Casey, email, "Fwd: Scaled down request," 1 March 2019; privately held by Casey, [(e-address for private use)] Tioga, Tx. Wedding of Rose Gilbride and James Cavanaugh, 20 January 1861. Also: Ibid., birth of "K(ate)/Catherine Cavanaugh," 21 September 1865. Information for both events supplied from parish records by staff of Queen of Peace Parish, formerly St. Philomena Church, Hawley, Wayne, Pennsylvania, to B.S. Shuta.

4 B.S. Shuta, transcriber, Holy Rosary Church (Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania), Marriage Register 1860-1887, unknown page, marriage of Michael Mearen and Sarah Kavanaugh, 8 Dec. 1875; transcribed from digital images, "Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection," Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

⁵ Robert E. Matheson, Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland for the Guidance of Registration Officials and The Public In Searching the Indexes of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Dublin: Alex. Thom & Co. (Limited), 1901), 13, "Initial Letters"; digital image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/varietiessynonym00math/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater : 12 March 2023), citing Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana.