14-Day RLP Challenge: The Marriage Record Search Continues

 

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Each year, the authors of the Research Like a Pro books, blog, and podcast challenge family history researchers to complete a 14-day project using the Research Like a Pro (RLP) method. For last year's 14-day challenge, I attempted to find the parents of my 2x great-grandmother Catherine Ryan. (You can read about that project HERE.)

This year, I'm continuing my quest to find the marriage record of Mary Jane Sheridan and Philip Cassidy, a set of 3x great-grandparents. The seven steps of the RLP method have been split out over 14 days for the challenge, and I'm already knee-deep into the project. Follow along as I report on my steps this week and next, and what I find along the way.

 

Jan. 21—Objective: Research Question

To begin a project, the RLP method asks "What question do you have about an ancestor's life that you’d like to discover?" You do this by reviewing your family tree to determine what info is still missing or not documented fully. 

My overall research question is:

"Where and when did Mary Jane Sheridan marry Philip Cassidy?"

I just finished a project with the hypothesis that Mary Jane and Philip married in St. Catharines, Lincoln, Canada West. However, I did not find a marriage record there as I expected. But that's ok...we just move on to the next hypothesis in a new project.

 

Jan. 22—Objective

With an overall research question determined, the next step is to write a specific objective for this project. In this phase, specific identifiers like birth dates, death dates, and localities are added to the question in order to distinguish the ancestors from others of the same name. 

 

My objective is: 

 

"Where and when did Mary Jane Sheridan marry Philip Cassidy? Mary Jane Sheridan was born abt. 1843, possibly in Erie County, New York, and immigrated to Lincoln, Canada West about 1858-1859. Philip was born about 1829 in Ireland, and immigrated to Lincoln, Canada West before January 1860. The couple's first child, Charles Francis Cassidy, was born in Grantham, Lincoln, Canada West, on 1 December 1860. The couple may have married in either New York or Lincoln, Canada West."

 

Jan. 23—Timeline Analysis

I had a bit of a head start on my timeline, as I had just done an extensive timeline on Mary Jane Sheridan. I added more information on Philip Cassidy as well as their children, siblings, parents, etc., and covered more than just Mary Jane's life. This is useful as clues might be revealed in documents of family, witnesses, sponsors, and other associates.

Here's a snip of Philip's timeline from my Airtable research log:

 

Jan. 24—Analyze Your Sources

After the timelines is complete, each sources is analyzed to determine if it is an original, derivative, or authored source, paying particular attention to the informants and when the record was created in relation to the event it was documenting. Then each source is noted as giving primary, secondary, or undetermined information. Finally, each source is evaluated as to whether it gives direct, indirect, or negative evidence of the fact or event being analyzed.

By way of example, I reviewed two sources for Mary Jane Sheridan Cassidy's burial: a death certificate and a cemetery burial database. The death certificate is considered an original source as it was created at the time of Mary Jane's death, and the informant regarding her death was the physician. 

On the other hand, the cemetery database was created by the Catholic Cemeteries Association in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese, where they must have uploaded information from records of the many cemeteries in the diocese. It could be that the entries were even hand-typed into a database, and I don't know how long after the fact the database was created.

I noted there was a conflict on Mary Jane's burial date between the two sources. On her Ohio death certificate, the date of burial is listed as 1/22/1919. However, the Cleveland [OH] Catholic Cemeteries Burial Search noted a burial of 1/23/1919. I emailed the cemetery and they confirmed the date was actually 1/22/1919, which they said was taken from handwritten record. So, the burial database was a derivative source (copied from an original), giving primary information (taken from the burial register of the time), and direct evidence of Mary's burial (it answered the question, "When was Mary Cassidy buried?") but it was incorrect. It was likely just mistyped into the database. Conflicts can happen and cannot be ignored. The record has since been corrected on the burial search website. It pays to resolve those conflicts! 

The now-correct database entry for Mary Jane Sheridan Cassidy's Cleveland burial.

Jan. 25—Locality Research

Today's task was to learn about the locale where our ancestor lived. It might be a city, county, state, or country. My focus is on Erie County, New York. Mary Jane and her family lived in Buffalo and later Evans, both in Erie County, before they immigrated to Canada. I added historical maps and timelines, Catholic church resources, and other items to my Erie County locality guide.

Below is snip of a section of Buffalo, Erie, New York, from a 1854 map indicating the location of the four Catholic churches of the time.

 

Catholic churches in Buffalo, Erie, New York, are circled on this map.

 

Jan. 26—Locality Research: Record Collections 

Next in the process is identifying sources to search which might answer the research question. I'm most likely to find the marriage record I need in Catholic church records, so that's were I'm focusing. There were 4 major Catholic churches in existence noted on an 1854 map of Buffalo: St. Patrick, St. Mary, St. Louis, and St. Joseph. Fortunately, these churches' records are digitized on FamilySearch, some of which are viewable from home. For the others, I can either make a trip to my local FamilySearch library affiliate, or email them for a lookup when I get to the research phase.

 

 

Jan. 27—Research Plan: Hypothesis

In creating the project timeline, I came across several facts which help me with my hypothesis. 

• First, Mary Jane's younger brother William was baptized at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in 1846 in Buffalo. St. Patrick's was located in a neighborhood known as "The Hydraulics."
• In 1851, a Henry Sheridan—possibly Mary Jane's father—was listed in a Buffalo city directory as a teamster, living in the "Hydraulics."
• Also in 1846, an Elizabeth and Thomas Saul baptized their daughter Elizabeth at St. Patrick's Church. Elizabeth was formerly Cassidy, and was Philip Cassidy's sister.

These three facts help pinpoint both the Sheridan and the Cassidy family to Buffalo, and more specifically to the Hydraulics neighborhood. I had not known about a Buffalo connection for my Cassidy line before.

Based on this information, my hypothesis is: 

Mary Jane Sheridan married Philip Cassidy in Buffalo, Erie, New York,

between 1858-early 1860.

 

Jan. 28—Research Plan: Prioritize Sources 

I'm hopeful that the marriage record I need will be found in the records of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Buffalo, so I'll search there first, as they are also available online on FamilySearch. Next, I will look into St. Mary's, St. Louis, and St. Joseph records. Those are digitized but are viewable only at an affilitate library or Family History Center and involve a trip or an emailed request for a lookup. 

That's where the research stands right now. Tune in next week to see what I find.

Did Mary Jane Sheridan and Philip Cassidy marry at St. Patrick's Church?

 

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2025. All rights reserved.

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