Thursday, May 28, 2015

Ellen Keohane Riordan - my grandfather's aunt

We don't know too much about the Keohanes. We will learn about my grandfather, Patrick Keohane, shortly. We just saw that his brother, James Keohane, had emigrated to Boston and died from sunstroke in Somerville, Massachusetts at 29. And I do know a bit about his sister,  Ellen Keohane, who was born in 1862.

Family legend is that Ellen Keohane was raped by a local farmer for whom she was working - I heard this from my mother who I believe heard it from Aunt Nellie Keohane. How awful if this is true. I am not sure if this happened before or after she married.




But, we do know that at some point Ellen Keohane marries Edward Riordan.  They are the second listing on the page.




20 October 2019 - I just found a marriage certificate for Edward Riordan and Ellen Keohane on 23 October 1897 in the Roman Catholic Chapel of Kinsale. They are both of full age - he is a bachelor - she is a spinster. Edward is a laborer; Ellen is a servant. They are both living in Dunderrow.  His father is Edward Riordan; her father is John Keohane. The fathers are both laborers. They were married by Thomas Barrett in the presence of Denis Long and Daniel Donovan.



When we were talking about the Hogans, we saw the 1901 Irish Census for Horsehill More North townland from http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie. This townland is in the District Electoral Division of Leighmoney in the parish of Dunderrow.

There are three landholders in Horsehill More North. We have already seen that William Sweetnam is the major landholder. He is a 45 year old farmer with seven children. He is Methodist while his tenants are Roman Catholics. There are 10 families living on his land - are they paying rent or are they agricultural workers who are given shelter and a plot of land for potatoes by the farmer in exchange for their labor? 

We have already seen that the Hogans are living here - Patrick Hogan, his wife Ellen Pierce, and their son William Hogan live in house 14. Ellen Pierce is Mary Pierce's sister - Mary Pierce is Ellen Keohane's mother. 

There are several other familiar family names - Kate Deasy is an 80 year old widow in house 10. Remember there were Mary and Margaret Deasey as Godparents to two of John Keohane and Mary Pierce's children (including Ellen.)  

Murphy was a name associated with the Keohanes.  There is a Murphy family in house 7.

Donovan is another familiar name - two Donovan families - Timothy and Jeremiah - are renting from Maurice Currane.

Our family is in house 13. There is 1 window in the front of the 2 room 3rd class house where seven people live.

A Post Office run by James Keefe, a Church of Ireland, and a public house run by Catherine Quill are also in the townland. 



Old John (Jack) Keohane is listed as the 70 year old head of the family. He is listed as a widower so Mary Pierce is dead by 1901. Jack is still working as an agricultural laborer! At 70! He cannot read, but he speaks Irish and English. 

Son-in-law, Edward Riordan, is 45 years old and is also an agricultural laborer. He is able to read and write; he also speaks English and Irish. 

John Keohane's daughter, Ellen Riordan, is a 35 year old domestic servant - what exactly does this mean? Is she working outside the house? She cannot read and speaks only English unlike her father and husband.

Ellen and Edward Riordan have several children:

Ellen Riordan is 9 and is going to school. Is this Edward and Ellen Riordan's daughter or Ellen's? My mother called this oldest child  Ellie Hurley - I don't know if that is her maiden or married name.

Hannah Riordan is 3, and baby Mary Riordan is 9 months. There is quite a difference between Ellen and her little sisters.

John Keohane's grandson, Patrick Hogan, is 13 and is living with the family. He also goes to school. If Patrick is a grandson, one of John Keohane's daughters must have married a Hogan? We think there were Mary, Ellen, Hanora, and Kate. So which of Ellen's sisters married a Hogan? I couldn't find any records. Did Patrick's parents die, emigrate??


10/31/19 note: I just came across a paper copy of the above 1901 census. I wrote a note on it that Mary Keohane married a Hogan and had Patsy and a baby daughter. Little Patsy wandered into a neighbor's house saying he was hungry. The neighbor found Mary Keohane Hogan dead nursing the baby. Ellen Keohane Reardon took in Patsy and his sister who died young. 10 years later and the Irish Census of 1911 shows Ned Riordan still in Horsehill More North in a 2 room 3rd class house with 2 windows in front owned by William Sweetnam. The Riordans are in house 10 while cousin Ellen Pierce Hogan is in house 14.




Edward Riordan was called Ned Riordan in the House and Building Return form. He is a 55 year old farm laborer. He is able to read and write while he speaks Irish and English.

His wife, Ellen Keohane Riordan, is 50 and is unable to read. She only speaks English. They have been married for 13 years, and there were 4 children born alive to this marriage - all four are still living.

Young Ellen Riordan is not listed - she would be about 19 now. So that tells us that it was about 6 years from the time Ellen had her first child to her marriage to Ned Riordan. So is young Ellen working? Is she married? Has she emigrated? What happened to her?

The four children of this Riordan marriage are listed - three are scholars - 12 year old Hannah, 10 year old Mary, 8 year old Edward. Baby John is 5.




Not only is young Ellie missing in 1911, so is Patrick Hogan. But I think we saw him before - remember the 1911 Census for Ellen Pierce Hogan - her 23 year old nephew Patrick Hogan was staying with her? So did this Patrick Hogan go to stay with his great aunt Ellen when her husband died?


There are always more questions than answers.




I searched www.census.nationalarchives.ie for Ellie/Ellen/Nellie Riordan in the 1911 Irish Census, but could not find her in any of the townlands surrounding Horsehill More North.


So then I tried searching for Ellie/Ellen/Nellie Hurley because I thought that was what my mother called her. I found an Ellen Hurley in the parish of Brinny - this is on the other side of Innishannon from Leighmoney which is where the parish Horsehill More North is located. Do you think this is too far for her to go to work? How would she have found this job?



This Ellen is working in Kilpatrick townland in Brinny. The family lives in house #15 which is a 1st class house with 10 rooms and 5 windows in the front. William Henry Frost is listed as the 31 year old head of the family. He is Church of Ireland and a farmer. He reads and writes; he was born in Cork.


Agnes Clara Frost is the 26 year old wife - she reads and writes - she is Church of Ireland - she was born in Cork. They have one child - 2 month old Thomas Sydney Frost who was also born in Cork. 

The Frosts have 2 domestic servants. Ellen Hurley is 19 years old - single - reads and writes - was born in Cork. She is a cook.

There is also 21 year old Annie Lyons - she is single - she reads and writes - she was born in Cork. She is a parlor maid. Ellen and Annie are both Roman Catholic. 





I next found an Ellie Hurley on www.ancestry.com - she left Queenstown on the S.S. Cymric on 22 April 1914. She is listed on line 16. She is 22 years old - making her birthdate about 1892 - so this fits with the little bit we know. Ellie is single so does that mean Hurley is her biological father's name? She reads and writes. Her last residence was Kinsale. 


Ellie's closet relative is her father Edward Hurley of Dunderrow, Kinsale. So that last bit is a stumper - is her biological father Edward Hurley or is she talking about Edward Riordan but calling him Hurley for emigration purposes?  I checked the 1911 Irish census which is the closest to the day she emigrates. There was no Edward Hurley in Dunderrow. So I guess we will leave it at that since everything else would be speculation. 



Page 2 line 16 tells us that Ellie's final destination is Cambridge - she has $25 and has never been in the United States before. And who is she joining in Cambridge? Her first cousin - Charlie Hogan - who lives at 198 Otis Street in East Cambridge. 

We saw that Ellie's aunt Ellen Pierce Cooney Hogan - and her son Charlie Hogan - came to Somerville to her daughter Mary/Minnie Lucey in 1904. Charlie married in 1910 and moved into an apartment on 198 Otis Street in East Cambridge. So this is where Ellie Hurley is coming. Family connections remain strong.

Ellie is 5 feet 4 inches tall - she has a dark complexion with black hair and blue eyes.







198 Otis Street in East Cambridge is the house on the left where Ellie Hogan came to 1st cousin Charlie Hogan and his wife Mary.

I haven't found anything more about Ellie Hurley - there were some documents on www.ancestry.com but I'm not sure they refer to our Ellie. 

December 23, 2022 I was just rereading the blog post about Hannah Reardon because someone commented on it. I saw again that Hannah had emigrated to her sister Ellie Hurley at 13 Chestnut Street in Boston so I made another attempt to find Ellie in the 1920 US Census. And I found her! She was living at 14 Chestnut Street in Boston with the Hunnewell family.

James Hunnewell was a 40 year old lawyer - his wife Emaline was the 35 year old mother of 4 children - 7 year old Caroline, 5 year old James, and 1 6/12 year old twins William and Timothy. James owned the house - had no mortgage. 

The family had 5 servants all from Ireland except 26 year old Anna Coleman, the chambermaid, but her parents were from Ireland. 27 year old Julia Sullivan was the maid, 27 year old Delia Buckley was the laundress, Mary Sullivan, 44, was the cook, and our Helen Hurley, 24, was the waitress.




The website - https://www.geni.com/people/James-Hunnewell/6000000024788578842 - had the following information:
"The Boston Globe, March 23, 1954
Services will be held tomorrow afternoon in Trinity Church for James Melville Hunnewell, 74, well-known Boston attorney and former state Representative. He died yesterday I Peter Brent Brigham Hospital. 
A life-long resident of Boston, he was born in Charlestown and attended the Hopkinson School in Boston. He was graduated from Harvard in 1901 and from Harvard Law School in 1904. 
From 1920 to 1927 he was a member of the Legislature. 
Mr Hunnewell was a trustee of the Warren Institution for Savings, and a director of the American Antiquarian Society, the Bostonian Society, the Church Home Society and the Home for Aged Men.
He was treasurer of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and of St. Luke's Home for Convalescents and was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Surviving are a wife, Emeline (Ticknor), a daughter Mrs Horace P Moorhead of Pittsburgh, and four sons, James F and William P of Boston, and Thomas B and Richard F of New York." 

And here the trail goes cold again. So let's go back to some of the other Riordan children.

Mollie Riordan works with her cousin Nellie Keohane for a local farmer.  She is Aunt Nellie’s best friend. Mollie marries Timothy Donovan. I think she spends her whole life in Dunderrow. Her children are:
      1. Barry O’Donovan who lives in Wales
      2. Bob O’Donovan who lives in Fermoy
      3. Kathleen O’Donovan who may live in Liverpool
      4. Eileen O’Donovan Conran who lives in Fermoy.


Ellen and Edward's son Edward/Eamon/Ned O'Riordan emigrated to England. He married Hannah McCarthy. Their children are Eamon, James and John O'Riordan. 

The younger Eamon O’Riordan and his wife also had three sons -  Duncan, Patrick and Bob. Patrick O’Riordan with his wife  and his children – Hannah, Kerry, Abbie, and Megan – attended the “Keohane” Family Reunion at the Hibernians in Watertown in 2006.

James O’Riordan and his wife Mary live in Ballinhassig. Their one son, James, is in Australia.


John O’Riordan lives in Australia. 


Let's pause here for a moment, and then talk a bit about the two other children - Hannah and John Riordan - I do know a little about them.





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