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Using a Timeline & Relationships to Narrow a Research Focus

This past week, I worked on my first project of the year focused on a female ancestor. Mary Jane Sheridan (abt. 1843-1919) is a paternal 3x great-grandmother. She began her life in New York, eventually moved to Ontario, Canada, and later Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio. While I have a good deal of information on her, the one crucial piece of information missing is the record of her marriage to Philip Cassidy.  A first step no matter what the research question is to create a timeline of known events in the person's life. I spent some time looking at several existing sources to discover what is currently known about Mary Jane: Mary Jane's profile on my family tree on Ancestry Mary Jane's profile on the FamilySearch Family Tree Other Ancestry-user trees where Mary Jane appears WikiTree and Geneanet trees Information I already have in files from past research (including paper and digital files) Past blog posts written which included Mary Jane. Mary Jane's starting timeline...
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CATHERINE RYAN


31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 17, 2022:   Paternal Great, Great Grandmother #1  - Catherine Ryan Gilbride (Abt. 1855-1881)


by Nancy Gilbride Casey

This is the one that is nearest to my heart. If you have read my blog for any amount of time, or know me, you know that my quest for my second great grandmother Catherine Ryan has been an ongoing one—filled with mystery and discovered tragedy. Hers is the story that compels me to keep researching, to discover where she came from, and the reasons for her sad life.

I have written many times about Catherine: how I discovered what had become of her after she disappeared from her husband and son by 1880; about the trip I took with a cousin to Scranton, Pa., and with help of cemetery staff visited her unmarked gravesite. In another post, I imagined a conversation I might have with her if I could travel back in time and visit her at Danville Insane Asylum.

The stumbling blocks to revealing the rest of Catherine's story are a few:

  • As she died so young, she left few records behind with which to reconstruct her life.
  • Witnesses and sponsors named in records I do have appear more connected with her husband Michael than with her. For example, the witnesses to her marriage appear to be a friend of Micahel's and his fiance.
  • To date, no DNA evidence I have has revealed other matches through which I might discover Catherine's parents. All my matches so far identified within our Gilbride line connect back to Michael Gilbride, his parents or grandparents. I would need to identify DNA matches which connect one generation further back in the Ryan line...perhaps to siblings Catherine might have had which might lead to her parents. This strategy too is difficult: in many cases surnames will have changed by marriages over time, and I may not immediately recognize connections.  I am regrouping in my mind on next steps in that journey.

In the meantime, I offer these past blog posts which tell Catherine's story, and how I have gone about finding her.

What Would You Tell Me Catherine? (fictionalized conversation with Catherine)

Record Not Found Online (includes transcription of Catherine's patient record).

The Search for Catherine Ryan Gilbride (research methodology)

Out of Place  (research methodology)


NOTES

Image: Mary Cassatt, "Mother and Child," abt. 1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; image, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_and_Child_MET_246188.jpg : accessed 17 January 2020); used under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0), Public Domain Dedication.


 

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