My Old Ohio Home - Quinn

Eileen Quinn, 1922, Newburgh, Cleveland

2019-05-01T00:00:00-04:00

Eileen Quinn,
1922

This website includes a picture of the 1922 second grade class at Holy Name Parish on Broadway on the southeast side of Cleveland. My mother was in that class and identified most of the children in the picture. She identified the young lady on our far right in the back row as Eileen Quinn. There was a Eileen Quinn living in the area, described below, who is probably her.

Eileen Quinn was born August 10, 1913, in Cleveland, the first child of John Joseph Quinn and Agnes May Francis.(footnote)Her exact date of birth comes from her father's Petition for Naturalization, but he was a bit off on two of the other children's dates, at least according to their Social Security information. They had married on August 17, 1912. Eileen was followed by four more children: John "Jack" born 1914, William (1917), Kathleen (1918), and Allan (1921). William died in 1918, but the other children lived to adulthood. In 1930, the family was living at 7808 Goodman Avenue on the southeast side of Cleveland.

On May 9, 1938, Eileen married Reginald G James in Cuyahoga County, and the two were living in Garfield Heights in 1940. Reginald died May 30, 1992. Eileen survived her siblings, including Allan who died in 2006. At that time she was living in Raleigh, North Carolina. I don't know when she died or if she and Reginald had any children.

Agnes May Francis

Agnes was born in the second quarter of 1884, in Mitcham, London, England, the daughter of William Francis and Mary Matilda Mihill. The Kevin Fairley Family Tree at ancestry.com provided Agnes' ancestry back two generations to William Francis and Mary Jane Mead on her father's side, and William Mihill and Mary Giles on her mother's. There is no point in my rehashing it here.

Agnes arrived in the United States June 23, 1912, aboard the SS Campania, which had left Liverpool 8 days earlier. She listed her father's residence as 174 High Street, Tooting, London. Interestingly she said her destination in America was her friend, J Quinn, at the Cleveland State Hospital, in Newburgh. This was one of many hints I needed to trace John's movements before his arrival in Newburgh back to his homestead in Ireland.

In October 1919 Agnes made a trip back to England with her three children, evidently to visit her parents. She was accompanied by her brother in law, Patrick Quinn, 36, a watchman. She and the children returned to Cleveland in June 1920. I didn't find any more mention of Patrick in Cleveland, so he must have remained in England. The Fairley tree says he died in Putney, which was near Tooting, London.

Agnes (Francis) Quinn died February 5, 1958, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery.

John Joseph Quinn

My effort at researching John Quinn's ancestry was a good example of starting at both ends and working toward the middle, a strategy that doesn't usually work. The Fairley tree gave me his mother's maiden name, Bridget Fair, early in my research, and John's death record in Cleveland, on December 27, 1945, provided his father's name, Michael.

"Fair" is an unusual Irish name, so I figured I'd just throw the parents' names into a search engine and see what came out. I turned up five children of the couple, including a John and a Patrick, all born in Conagher Townland, Dunmore Civil Parish, Galway. This turned out to be the right family, but the only trouble was that their son John's date of birth was February 28, 1878. On all but one of his American records, including his naturalization papers, John Joseph Quinn insisted that he was born in 1883.

Fortunately for the genealogist, John gave the date February 28, 1878, when registering for the United States WWI Draft. And when he and Patrick arrived in Montreal September 3, 1911, en route to Cleveland, they said their closest relative in Ireland was their father Michael in Conagher. Although, from what I can tell, I think they meant "brother", or maybe they were misunderstood. At any rate on Patrick's first trip to the US, when leaving Queenstown on August 28, 1907, he said his mother Bridget Quinn was in Conagher, Tuam.

Agnes Francis' immigration destination, "a friend J Quinn, Cleveland State Hospital" made me realize they knew each other before she arrived. I looked for John in that area of London and found an Electoral Roll of Tooting Ward that included

John Quinn
Place of abode: Tooting Bee Asylum, Tooting Common

John, as mentioned, worked at the asylum in Cleveland until about 1917, so this listing seems to fit.

John's parents, Michael Quinn and Bridget Fair, were married in Kilcommon and Robeen Parish, County Mayo, on February 4, 1869, which probably explains why the Fairley Family tree says that the family was from Mayo.

The indexed information to the civil registration of the marriage, in Ballinrobe Registration District, says Bridget's father's name was John. The image is not yet online, but the certificate if obtained should list Bridget's townland at the time of her marriage. This would help identify which of the two John Fairs in the area was her father.

Update

It must be a while since I looked at this family. The image of the civil registration of the marriage is now online:

Married February 4, 1869, at the Roman Catholic Chapel of Kilcommon, Registrar's District of Hollymount, County Mayo:
Michael Quinn, farmer, a bachelor of full age, of Cunnaher. father: William, a farmer
Bridget Faire, farmer's daughter, a spinster of full age, of Bushfield. father: John Faire, a farmer.
Married by Edm King, P.P, in the presence of Martin Quinn and Ann Jane Anderson.

That would make the John Fair of Bushfield Townland, County Mayo, Bridget's likely father. And it shows that the family was from Mayo. Funny how the mother's ancestry often determines "where they were from" in Irish culture, at least from my experience.

Conclusion

Sources and more details on the families covered in this article are in the Ohio Families section of this site. If you are descended from Eileen Quinn, you are welcome to download the picture of the 1922 second grade class, or contact me for a larger version which might have better resolution.

Credits

The image of the townland sign for Conagher, Galway, is used courtesy of the Milltown Heritage Group.

Hugh Quinn, Kilkeel to Cleveland

2018-10-09T00:00:00-04:00

Hugh Quinn was born between 1846 and 1852 in Ballynahatten Townland, Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland.^{1, 2} He died on Dec 12, 1928 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and was buried on Dec 15, 1928 in Calvary Cemetery.³ He was the son of William Quinn and Ellen Clark. He married Maria Cunningham.

Hugh's family is found on the 1901 Census of Cranfield Townland, Greencastle, Kilkeel:

Residents of a house 17 in Cranfield (Greencastle, Down)

Quinn, Hugh, 54, head, married, farmer, born in Ballinahatten
Quinn, Hugh, 21, son, single, farmer,
Quinn, Maggie, 16, daughter, single
Quinn, Annie, 14, daughter, single, scholar,
Quinn, James, 12, son, single, scholar,

All of the children were born in Cranfield. All in the household were Roman Catholic. All could read and write except Hugh, Jr., who could read only. None spoke Irish.¹.

Although the census describes Hugh as married, I suspect his wife Maria had died by 1901. I only worked with the online records for this family, so I cannot be sure.

Hugh Quinn and five of his children left Kilkeel for Ireland in 1901, arriving in New York on May 05, aboard the SS Etruria:

Quinn, Hugh, 50, male, married, farmer
Quinn, Ellen, 23, single, housewife
Quinn, Hugh, 20, single, laborer
Quinn, Maggie, 17, single, housework
Quinn, Annie, 14, single, housework
Quinn, James, 11, single, boy

All: could read and write and were Irish. Their last residence was Kilkeel. They were headed to Cleveland, had paid their own fare, and had a ticket to their destination. None had been in the US before. Their specific destination was Hugh Sr.'s daughter, Mary Quinn, in Cleveland. All were in good health, save for for Hugh, Sr., who was described as having a "slight debility."².

Hugh Quinn and his sons Hugh and James are, no doubt, the in-laws living with the family of John and Mary Sands at 7112 Winfield Ave, Cleveland, in 1910. The census page is torn and their names are not there, but enough information is provided to identify them:

1910; Census Place: Cleveland Ward 17, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Roll:
T624_1173; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0266
at 7112 Winfield Ave

(The street comes from information in city directories. The census page was torn.)

John Sands 32, married 9 years, born in Ireland, parents also, moulder, foundry, arrived 1899, naturalized
Mary Sands 30, 5 children, 4 alive, born in Ireland, parents also, no arrival date
Marie Sands 8
Daniel H Sands 6
Helen L Sands 4
John V Sands 3
--- , father in law, 62, widowed, born in Ireland, parents also, teamster, foundry, arrived 1902
--- , brother in law, 28, single, born in Ireland, parents also, laborer, foundry, arrived 1902
--- , brother in law, 21, single, born in Ireland, parents also, core worker, foundry, arrived 1902
All Sands children were born in Ohio .⁴

Hugh Quinn worked as a teamster⁵ and later as a stable man⁶ or hostler.³ He died December 12, 1928, at home, of chronic myocarditis, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery. His parents' names were on his death record.³

Family of Hugh Quinn and Maria Cunningham

The children of Maria Cunningham and Hugh Quinn are as follows. Most of the birth dates are approximate. There were two Hugh and Mary/Maria Quinn couples in Kilkeel at the time and I only was looking at the indexed records of their births and their American census information.

Ellen "Nellie" Quinn. Ellen "Nellie" was born in 1878 in Ireland.² She married John Beins or Bines, and was living in Chicago in 1946 when her brother Hugh died.

Hugh Quinn. Hugh was born on Mar 14, 1879 in Cranfield Townland, Greencastle, Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland. ⁷ He married Katherine Kearney. Hugh died on Dec 29, 1945, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery.³

Mary Quinn. Mary was born about 1880 in Northern Ireland.^{4, 8} She evidently emigrated ahead of the rest of her family, but I couldn't find her in a quick look at Ellis Island. Mary married John Sands. She died on Dec 3, 1962.⁹

Margaret Quinn. Margaret was born in 1884 in Cranfield Townland, Greencastle, Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland.^1,2 Margaret did not marry. She died on Apr 2, 1961 in Parma, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.^{9, 10}

Anna Quinn. Anna was born in 1887 in Cranfield Townland, Greencastle, Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland.² She married first Thomas Lally, who died, and then William Tremelling. Anna died on Mar 24, 1961 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.^{9, 11}

James Quinn. James was born on Jul 1, 1891 in Cranfield Townland, Greencastle, Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland.^{1, 12} He was still single on the 1940 Census. James survived his brothers and sisters the last of which, Margaret, died on April 2, 1961. I didn't find a record for James' date of death.

John Quinn. He died before Dec 1928. John is mentioned only in his father's obituary and apparently died in Ireland.

There is more about the Quinn family in the Ohio Families tree on this site.

For more on the Sands family, see: Henry Sands, Killowen to Cleveland.

Footnotes

1901 Census of Ireland at the Ireland National Archives.
Manifest of the SS Etruria at EllisIsland.org.
Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953, index and images, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X8PS-C54 : accessed 23 Sep 2013), Hugh Quinn, 1928.
1910 US Census at HeritageQuestOnline.com.
1911 Cleveland City Directory, images at ancestry.com
1920 US Census at HeritageQuestOnline.com.
Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881, indexed at familysearch.org .
1930 US Census at ancestry.com.
Cleveland Public Library, News and Necrology File.
Ohio, Death Index, 1908-1932, 1938-1944, and 1958-2007," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VKLQ-QHZ : accessed 24 Sep 2013), Margare Quinn, 1961.
Ohio Deaths, indexed transcriptions at ancestry.com
WWI Draft Registrations, images at ancestry.com