Patrick Lanagan of Sligo and Waltham

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

Sligo town

Every human being is unique and no doubt that was true of Patrick Lanagan as well. But what makes him special to me is this: he is the only person whom I have found who is recorded in Griffith's Valuation of Ireland and then emigrated to America. How I found the Lanagans' location in Ireland also depended on something unusual: the relatively rare name of his father-in-law. Here's the story:

From his records in Waltham, I knew that Patrick was born between 1823 and 1827 in Ireland and that he had married his wife Hannah about 1853. The Lanagans' first three children were born in Ireland between 1854 and 1861 and their fourth was born in Massachusetts in July 1863.

I was tracing a descendant of their oldest daughter, Ellen, but from her sister Catherine's marriage record I learned that Hannah's maiden name was McRane. Then I found Hannah's own death record which gave her parents' names as Bartholomew McCran and Honora Scanlan.

At this I asked myself, How many Bartholomew McCrans could there ever have been on the face of this earth? I used the Irish Times surnames page and Google to arrive at the answer: Not many, and most of them were from County Sligo.

There is a gap in the available vital records for Sligo, so Ellen's baptism record was not available, but I was able to find transcribed records for her sister Mary in 1858 and her brother Patrick J. in 1861. Both were baptized in Sligo Parish, Sligo, children of Patrick Lanigan/Lonacan and Anne McCrann/Hanna McRyn.

There is also a Patrick Lanagan on Griffith's Valuation, listed on Church Lane in the Town of Sligo, parish of St. Johns Union, Co. Sligo. I'm fairly sure this is him, since he is in Sligo Town, not in the countryside, which means he might have had a trade. On his Waltham records, Patrick was always recorded as a shoemaker.

So when you are looking for answers in your family history, keep an eye out for something unique. It may be all you need to solve the puzzle.

Update

I've now looked at the images of the baptism records of St John's (Catholic) Parish in Sligo. They are available for free at https://registers.nli.ie. Here are my trnscriptions of those two Lanagan baptisms:

Maria Lonacan born 20 Nov 1858, baptized 28 Nov 1858 parents: Patrick Lonacan and Hanna McCran residence: Village Waste Joidi.. sponsors: Bartholomew Cunningham, Maria McCran

Patrick Lanigan born 8 March 1861, son of Patrick Lanigan and Hanna McRyn, residence Waste Garden Lane baptized 10 March 1861. sponsors: Michael Hanny and Margaret Finn

Credits

Photo of Sligo courtesy of a Lanagan descendant.

Mary Ellen (Gaffney) Lavin of Cuilmore, Sligo, and Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York

2019-09-08T00:00:00-04:00

Sometime in the 1940's, Mrs M G Lavin of 179 East 32nd, Brooklyn, NY, received a letter from Co. Roscommon, Ireland.(footnote)The envelope was once on the Jim Forte Postal History site but has been sold. I am not connected with the site. The name of the post office and the exact date were unreadable. Can we identify Mrs Lavin? Did she come from Roscommon?

When the 1940 census of Brooklyn was taken, Malachy and Mary Lavin were living at 179 East 32nd Street. Malachy was 49 and his wife was 47. With them was Anne Curley, 32, who was called Malachy's sister. The supplemental information for Mary said that she was married at 24 and never had children. (Note: I never established that Anne Curley was related to either Malachy or Mary Lavin.)

Mary (Gaffney) Lavin

I am fairly certain that this couple was married June 23, 1918, in Manhattan. If correct, then Mary's maiden name was Gaffney and her parents were Thomas Gaffney and Anne Finn. Working backward we find a Mary Gaffney arriving at Ellis Island on May 1, 1910, aboard the SS Carmania. Her nearest relative in Ireland was her father Thomas, of Gurteen, Ballymote. She was headed to her aunt Mrs. McKeever's home at 2055 3rd Avenue, New York. There was a Bridget (Finn) McKeever living at that address, according to the 1910 census and the New York City birth records.

So Mary (Gaffney) Lavin was from Co. Sligo, not Roscommon. Her father Thomas was actually in Cuilmore Townland, Sligo, in 1901 and 1911.

The Lavins

Cuilmore, Sligo, was near the border with Co. Roscommon, and not far from Clegernagh Townland, Roscommon, where Mary's husband, Malachy Lavin was born in 1885, son of John Lavin and Catherine Lavin. Malachy arrived in the United States on April 29, 1912, aboard the SS Caronia, headed for his sister Mary Lavin's home in Garden City, Long Island. I didn't find Mary in America, but she is on the 1901 Census of Clegernagh with her mother.

If I have everything correct, Mary and Malachy Lavin lived for a time in Orange, New Jersey, but spent most of their married lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Malachy died in November 1968 and Mary in August 1969. They are both buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn.

There is more about both of these families, including the sources, in the Other Families section of this website.

Caveats

I am not 100% certain of all the conclusions in this article. If this were my family, I would like to see the death record for the Mary Lavin who died in Brooklyn in 1969. It might give her parents' names. If they are Gaffney and Finn, then I have identified her correctly. Or, if Mary applied for a Social Security number, the information might be on the application. She didn't have a SSN in 1940. Ancestry.com has these records, but I don't currently have access to ancestry.com.

Edited

November 2019, I looked for a death notice for Mary E Lavin in the Brooklyn Eagle, but the online archives for the paper only go up to 1963. And the 1969 death records are not at familysearch or ancestry.com.

My Old Ohio Home - Sligo

Patrick Lanagan of Sligo and Waltham

Mary Ellen (Gaffney) Lavin of Cuilmore, Sligo, and Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York