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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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MARIA JANE DARAH


 

31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 28, 2022:   Paternal Great, Great Grandmother #4 - Maria Jane Darah (1850-1903)


by Nancy Gilbride Casey

Of all the subjects of this challenge, Maria Jane Darah is perhaps one I know the least about. I have no photo and few records. I can only see her through the lens of others in her life. 

Maria Jane was the first wife of Charles Francis Cassidy, who together are another set of 2x great grandparents, the parents of Catherine Cassidy and grandparents to our Grandma Gilbride. Sadly, Grandma would never have met or known her grandmother Maria, as she died a full ten years prior to her birth.1

Maria's parents were John Darah and Dora Elliott, and she was born about 1850 near Owen Sound, Grey, Ontario—a long, narrow bay located on the southwestern end of Georgian Bay, a wing of Lake Huron. It is likely she was actually born in Sydenham or St. Vincent, the nearest settlements, which future research may confirm.2

Maria's birthplace of Owen Sound shown on this 1850 map of Canada. Note the "Indian Reserve" located on the peninsula to the west, occupied by the Chippewa.3

 

Following Maria's marriage to Charles Cassidy in 1883, the couple had four children: Catherine (our 2x great grandmother), Mary Jane (who later became Sister M. Magdalena), Phillip and James.

It appears that Maria became ill in her early 50s—she suffered from "acute mania," for five weeks prior to her death on 23 October 1903. We might recognize this condition as bipolar disease today, though the exact details of Maria's condition and death are unknown. At this time too, it is unknown where she is buried, though the family was living in St. Catharines at the time.4

1903 obituary of Mary Jane Darah Cassidy, wife of Charles Cassidy.5


BONUS: Lineage chart from Maria Jane Darah to me.


NOTES

1 St. Catharines, Lincoln County, Death Registrations, vol. "6", 1903, p. 433, Mary Jane Cassidy (53), 23 October 1903; database with images, "Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q93-C9YJ-GY81 : accessed 28 January 2022); Deaths > 1903 > no 13721-19304 > image 865 of 1730; citing Registrar General. Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

2 Ontario, Office of Registrar General, County of Lincoln, Division of St. Catharines, Marriage Registrations 1869-1911,  Unit "D," 1884, p. 537 (stamped), #25 (inked)/#6676 (stamped), marriage of Charles Cassady and Maria Jane Darah, 20 June 1883; database & images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-Y39T-XNJ : accessed 27 January 2022); citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Also: William H. Smith, Smith's Canadian gazetteer : comprising statistical and general information respecting all parts of the upper province, or Canada West (Toronto: Henry Roswell, 1849), 156; image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/smithscanadianga00smitrich/page/140/mode/2up : accessed 28 January 2022).

3  Henry Tallis, West Canada (London: J. & F. Tallis, abt. 1850); image, Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/1850_Tallis_Map_of_West_Canada_or_Ontario_%28_includes_Great_Lakes_%29_-_Geographicus_-_WestCanada-tallis-1850.jpg : accessed 28 January 2022). File provided to Wikimedia Commons by Geographicus Rare Antique Maps; this media file is in the public domain in the United States.

4 St. Catharines Death Registrations, Mary Jane Cassidy, 1903.

5 "To Charles Cassidy...", The St. Catharines Standard, 23 October 1903, np, regarding death of wife Maria Jane Cassidy. Image supplied by Niagara Peninsula Branch, Ontario Ancestors, Concord, Ontario.




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