Look Twice: Ellen is Discovered!

 

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Don't you love serendipity? I was surprised by a recent discovery after coming back to a missing record from a 2019 project.

I was working on my McAndrew-Kelly line from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I contacted a local researcher to look for the marriage of Patrick McAndrew (Abt. 1838-1892) and Ann Kelly (Abt. 1844-1925), and the baptisms of their children in local Catholic church records. She found everything except Patrick and Ann's marriage and the baptism of the couple's first daughter, Ellen. My friend speculated that perhaps Patrick and Ann had married in their native Ireland and that Ellen was born and baptized before they immigrated to Pennsylvania. At the time, I did not have any information on the family before the 1870 census. 

I've learned a lot about Patrick McAndrew, a second great-grandfather, since 2019. I've fleshed out his timeline and have narrowed daughter Ellen's birth window to between 1865 when Patrick paid federal taxes during the Civil War to August 1867 when his son Dominick was born in Scranton.¹

Armed with this information, I asked my Scranton friend to look once more for Ellen's baptism in the church records. And while there was a small conflict in the record she found, I believe we've discovered Ellen McAndrew's record.

In the baptismal register for Holy Rosary Catholic Church (now Mary, Mother of God parish), the following was recorded:

Ellen, b. 4 August 1865 to parents Patrick & Anna Kelly

Patrick's surname McAndrew is not recorded, which is a conflict. My researcher friend tells me that she has seen numerous errors like this in the records of Rev. Moses Whitty, who performed the baptism. While it's possible that Patrick's surname was Kelly, it's a known fact that Ann's maiden name was Kelly. All the other information points to the correct child and parents—the timing, the location, the date, father's first name and mother's complete maiden name. Perhaps Rev. Whitty simply forgot to write down Patrick's surname.

The record gets even more interesting when considering the godparents:

Bap. 6 Aug. 1865, sponsors: Cornelius Mulhern and Bridget McAndrews²

Sharp readers of my recent posts will note that baby Ellen's godfather is almost certainly my current research subject Ellen McAndrew's husband Cornelius Mulherin. And it's quite possible that baby Ellen's godmother was Bridget McAndrew, a possible sister of both Patrick and Ellen. If so, this is another puzzle piece which only strengthens the documentary evidence that Patrick McAndrew and Ellen McAndrew Mulherin were siblings. Close family members were usually chosen for a baby's godparents; a beloved sister and a brother-in-law would certainly fit the bill.

Ellen's birth and baptism information also correlates with her entry in the 1870 U.S. census, where she is noted as 4 years old. The census was taken on 7 July 1870; Ellen turned 5 on 4 August 1870.³

I'm glad I thought to ask for another church record lookup, as it had the unexpected surprise of adding to the documentary evidence for my current project. As always, it pays to go back over previous work with fresh eyes and seek out missing records.

Until next time... 

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2025. All rights reserved. 

NOTES

¹ Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for Pennsylvania, 1862-1866, annual lists, 1865, district 7, collection district 12, p. 49 (penned), Patrick McAndrews, Providence, miner; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1264/records/7534096 : accessed 7 June 2025; citing National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 58, Records of the Internal Revenue Service, 1791-2006, Washington, D.C. Also, B.S. Shuta, transcriber, Holy Rosary Church (Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania), Baptismal Register 1860-1887, p. 59, entry for baptism of Dominic McAndrew, b. 11 Aug. 1867, bap. 22 Aug. 1867; transcribed from digital images, "Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection," Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

² B.S. Shuta, transcriber, Holy Rosary Church (Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania), Baptismal Register Combined Baptism and Marriages, 1860-1887  (original)  p. 40, entry for baptism of Ellen McAndrew, b. 4 August 1865, bap. 6 August 1865; transcribed from digital images, "Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection," Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

³ 1870 U.S. census, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Scranton, page 35 (penned), dwelling 249, family 250, Patrick McAndrews household; imaged, "1870 United States Federal Census," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7163/records/4998924 : access 26 June 2025).