Let's look quickly at the witnesses. Charles Pierce - is he Mary's father or a brother? Ellen Keohane - is she John's sister? Questions, always more questions!
So I found 8 children who had parents named John Keohane and Mary Pierce and were baptized in St. John the Baptist Church in Kinsale.
I found a Mary Keohane baptized 23 August 1858 in the Kinsale church - sponsors are Robert Hussey and Mary Deasy.
Next there is Patrick Keohane - this is our boy! He is born on 19 February 1860 and is baptized by Reverend Coveney two days later on 21 February in the Kinsale parish church.
Sponsors are Patrick Pierce - Is this Mary's brother? Ellen Keohane - is this John's sister? Is this the same woman who stood up for his wedding?
Baby Ellen Keohane of Kinsale is next. She is born 24 April 1862 - and is baptized on 27 April. Looks like Father Coveney is the priest.
Her sponsors are William Barrett and Margaret Deasy. We just saw that Mary Deasy was a sponsor for Mary Keohane - I wonder if Mary and Margaret Deasy are related? Are they related to us?
Hanora Keoghane is born 7 October and baptized 9 October 1864. I think it says Reverend D. Dunbar is the priest.
Jeremiah Donovan and Mary Pierce are her sponsors. The form is so dark that I can't read the rest of it. What Mary Pierce is this? The mother? A cousin?
James Keoghane of Dunderrow is next - he is born and baptized 12 July 1866. Parents are John Keoghane and Mary Pierce. Priest is D. Dunlea so the priest for Hanora's baptism was likely Dunlea and not Dunbar.
Godparents are Ellen Pierce and Maurice Geary. Ellen Pierce - is this Mary's sister?
The civil registration lists a later birthdate - 26 instead of 12 July 1866. It also says that James is born in Ballymartle District. So is this a case where the family is late registering the birth and changes the date to meet the law?
1869 brings us John Keohane of Dunderrow who was born and baptized on 25 May 1869. We saw that James was also born and baptized on the same day - 12 July 1866. I wonder why the rush with the baptism? Were these babies sickly - were they in danger of not surviving? There were 2 or 3 days between the birth and baptism of Mary, Patrick, Ellen, and Hanora.
The sponsors were Michael Hussey and Ellen Pierce. So is this the same Ellen Pierce who was just Godmother to James Keoghane three years ago? Is she the same Ellen Keohane who stood up for John Keohane?
I also found information re the civil registration on www.familysearch.org - this gives a later birth date of 29 May 1869. It lists the birthplace and christening place as Ballymartle.
So what do we make of this? Did someone register the birth in Ballymartle just to be in compliance of the law?
Charles Keohane was born in Dunderrow on 27 January 1872 and was baptized on the 28th.
The priest was Reverend Walsh. The sponsors were Michael Collins and Kate Cronin.
Lastly is Kate Keoghane who is born in Ballyvrin and baptized by Father Dunlea the same day - 12 May 1873. Ballyvrin is a townland in the parish of Dnderrow.
Sponsors are William Desmond and Mary Collins.
The civil registration lists Kate as Catherine Keohane. Her birth and christening places are listed as Kinsale. Her birthdate here is 13 May 1873 - a day after the baptismal register.
Aunt Nellie Keohane told me that her 2 uncles, John and James Keohane, came to America to work on the railroad – she said they died here.
I found a James Keohane arriving in NY on 6 April 1889 on the ship Berlin - I'm not sure to what ship line the Berlin belonged - American or German.
I also found a James Hogan leaving Queenstown on 5 May 1895 on the S. S. Scythia for Boston. He is a 26 year old laborer - he is not able to read or write. His cousin paid for his ticket; he has $4. He is joining his cousin David Horgan at 27 Linwood Street in West Somerville.
He is travelling with other folks from Kinsale - including 11 year old John Hogan and 9 year old Michael Hogan who are joining their father, Michael Hogan, at 27 Linwood Street, West Somerville!
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| From wilkepedia. |
Wouldn't this make sense - if James Keohane is coming out that he take his cousin Michael's 2 sons with him to join their father?Next I found a James Keohane listed in the 1896 Somerville Directory - he is a laborer boarding at 4 London Street.
We already found David Hogan boarding at and Michael Hogan with a house at 4 London Street in Somerville in 1896. Would they all have moved from Linwood Street to London Street?
I couldn't find a present day London Street, but the 1896 Directory states that London Street is in Ward 1 and ran from 21 Linwood Street to the railroad.
Linwood Street ran from 77 Somerville Avenue to 160 Washington Street. So Linwood and London Streets are in the same vicinity.
It is very difficult to see it in the map below, but in the center to the right, is an empty space. This is Massachusetts General Hospital's original McLean Hospital where the wealthy sent their mentally ill. Its perimeters in the map of 1896 were surrounded by railroad tracks and freight yards.
"More than 18 acres of the former Joseph Barrell country estate located about two miles outside of Boston in Charlestown, Massachusetts [later Somerville, Massachusetts] was purchased in December 1816. The Barrell mansion, which would become home to the Superintendent of the hospital and his family as well as the central administration building, had been designed by the renowned architect Charles Bulfinch in 1792. Bulfinch and his understudy Mathew Parris were instrumental in the adaptation of the mansion to its new purpose and the design of additional wings as patient living quarters."
"McLean Hospital was first known as the “Asylum for the Insane,” a division of the Massachusetts General Hospital. The Asylum opened on Oct. 1, 1818, and admitted its first patient on Oct. 6, 1818. Following treatment reforms originating in France with Dr. Philippe Pinel and in England with Quaker William Tuke, the Asylum followed the principles of “moral treatment,” both in its choice of the country setting and in the care of its patients."
"When the Asylum opened in 1818, it was the first hospital in New England, and only the fourth special institution for the treatment of the mentally ill in America. In June of 1826 the Asylum was renamed “The McLean Asylum for the Insane,” in honor of John McLean, a Boston merchant who bequeathed $25,000 and left a residuary legacy of more than $90,000 to the Asylum. "
"In the 1840s, 1850s and early 1860s, the McLean Asylum in Somerville slowly lost its tranquil environment, deemed so important in the treatment of mentally ill patients. The Asylum had grown in size, including its number of patients, buildings and acreage. The railroads encroached on the land adjacent to the Asylum and by 1872, two tracks cut through the grounds. From 1872 through 1874, the Trustee Committee on New Sites for the Asylum separately commissioned the now famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and a local civil engineer Joseph Curtis to conduct site surveys and to report on a suitable site for the building of a new Asylum. In 1875, the Trustees, based upon the Committee on New Sites recommendation of July 18, 1873, purchased 107 acres on Wellington Hill in Belmont from the Waverley Land Company."
"In April 1895, the first patients were transferred from the Asylum in Somerville to Belmont. Exactly 77 years from the date of the opening of the original Asylum, the new McLean Hospital opened on Oct. 1, 1895."
So the patients were being transferred from Somerville to the new McLean Hospital when James Keohane was living nearby on London Street in 1896. Aunt Nellie said her uncles were working on the railroad. There seems to be several railroads in the area where James was living. He is listed as a laborer - maybe he "labored" for the railroad.
It is difficult to see on the map, but below McLean's Asylum and across the railroad tracks is Fitchburg Court. To the left is Fitchburg Street, and to the left of that is London Street.
Linwood runs parallel to the B & M Rail Road tracks.
We'll hear about McLean's a little later in this history.
But sadly, that same year the Register of Deaths in Somerville lists #576, James Keohane, dying on 13 August 1896. He is single, 29 years old. He died of sunstroke. He lived at 4 London Street in Somerville. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden. He was a laborer - he was born in Ireland. His father was John Keohane and his mother was Mary Pierce - they were born in Ireland. So this is the proof we need that this is our James Keohane.
So, we found one of my grandfather's and Aunt Nellie's uncle. Although we didn't learn too much about him, at least he won't be forgotten.
And we may still find the other uncle. And who knows - maybe eventually we will learn about the other members of the family.
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