A preliminary point: What was said at the beginning of Part 1 bears repeating here. All the information we have about about all these forebears is the product of the hard work and energy of the Hallinan-Laracy and Mooney-Moran family historians, who are entitled to great thanks and lots of warm feelings. So, once again, before you begin reading, first raise a glass or utter a quiet blessing in gratitude to (in no particular order): Art Hallinan Sr., Art Hallinan Jr., Tom Hallinan, Eileen O'Malley, Sue O'Malley, Chuck O'Malley, Bill Mooney, John Mooney, Terry Mooney, Grace Miller, Rev. Gerald Ellard, Ruth Hallinan, Annette Kelly, and Charles Samson. (Making a list like this inevitably risks omitting someone. Please let me know who I've missed, and I'll update accordingly.)
So, to pick up with a review, if we work backward from the first generation born in the U.S., we encounter these familiar faces:
- Hallinans & Laracys: Clarence Cornelius Hallinan (born in in 1875 in Erie PA) & Rose Jane Laracy (born in 1876 in Painesville OH). Parts of their story are here and here.
- Mooneys & Morans: William Thomas (Capt. Bill) Mooney (born in 1877 in Cleveland OH) & Evangeline Charity Moran (born in 1884 in Bolivar NY). Some of their story is here.
The parents (and some of the grandparents) of these four were the immigrant generation(s).
The origins of the Hallinan and Laracy ancestors are described in Part 1 (here). This part discusses the Mooneys and Morans.
Mooney-Moran.
Figuring out the Mooney-Moran origins & immigration stories is a little more complicated than for the Hallinan-Laracy crowd, for at least two reasons:
- First, most of the M&M ancestral wayfarers left Ireland earlier in the 19th century (in the 1820s & 1830s), and the documentary record (on both sides of the Atlantic) is noticeably thinner for that era. (In addition, in some cases, the earlier departure pushes the immigration back one generation further from today's descendants, which means there are more immigrant ancestors to account for.)
- Second, with the exception of the Sharons, the Mooney-Moran ancestors didn't take a direct route to the U.S., but got here by way of Manchester England (Mooney & Morris), Canada (Moran, Doherty, McMurray, & McMullen), and Canada-by-way-of-a-few-years-layover-in-New-York-City (McDevitt).
Anyway, with those excuses for the complexity out of the way, here's the picture.
(1) The Manchesterites: Mooney & Morris.
The Mooneys
- Capt. Bill Mooney's father was Edward Mooney; his mother was Bridget Agnes Sharon. The Sharon family are described under heading (2), below.
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Edward Mooney.
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Bridget Agnes Sharon.
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- Edward Mooney was born in 1845 in Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom, the oldest child of John Mooney and Margaret Morris. In 1851, while still a child, he came to the U.S. with his family and lived in Cleveland OH. It was from there that he launched his colorful -- and at times perilous -- nautical career. For most of his adult life he lived on a farm that he owned in Rockport Twp. (later West Park), west of Cleveland. He died in 1910.
- Edward's father, John Mooney, was born in 1819 in County Armagh. John came to Manchester as a child, so it's likely that he was in the company of one or both of his parents. When he grew older, he worked in the textile mills (as a spinner at the time of his marriage). Around 1849, he immigrated to America, settling in Cleveland OH, where he found life-long work in the Great Lakes shipping trade. His wife and children followed him in 1851. He died in 1904.
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| John Mooney. |
- John Mooney's father was Edward Mooney, who probably was also born somewhere in County Armagh. (We're going to call him "the older Edward" to distinguish him from his grandson, Capt. Bill's dad.) There's no record of a more specific location, and the Mooney surname occurs so widely in the northern half of Ireland that it's not possible to make even an uneducated guess about where in particular the family came from. In fact, the only known record that names the older Edward is his son John's 1842 marriage record, which gave the father's occupation as "smith". In the 1820s the older Edward and his family (his wife's name isn't known) immigrated to Manchester, Lancashire, England, where the flourishing textile industry was a source of ready employment. We don't know when or where the older Edward died, although the entry in John's 1842 marriage record suggests he was still alive then. (In other records from around the same time, the occupation of a deceased parent is usually listed as, well, "deceased".)
The Morrises.
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| Manchester Cathedral, site of the wedding of John Mooney & Margaret Morris and of the baptisms of William & Jane Morris's children. |
- John Mooney's wife (the younger Edward's mother), Margaret Morris, was born in Manchester in 1821. Prior to Margaret's 1851 departure for the U.S. she worked as a cotton reeler in the Manchester textile mills. She died in 1854 (at the age of 33) during a cholera outbreak just a few years after her arrival in Cleveland. John married again in about 1857. His second wife, Margaret Murray, had been born in Ireland in 1829; she died in 1920. Capt. Bill's oldest son, Bill Mooney, remembered her as being "very Catholic."
- Margaret Morris's parents were William & Jane Morris. (Jane's maiden name isn't known.) Both were born around 1796 in Manchester. Their children's baptismal & marriage records indicate that William was employed in the textile mills in the 1820s and later worked as a joiner. The Morrises were members of the Church of England, and their children (including Margaret) were christened and brought up in that denomination. (When Margaret and John were married, it was in a C of E ceremony in Manchester's C of E cathedral.) William & Jane were both alive and living in Manchester at the time of the 1851 English census, but where and when they died isn't known.
(2) The Sharons & Kennedys of County Roscommon.
- Bridget Agnes Sharon, the younger Edward's (first) wife & Capt. Bill's mother (pictured above), was born in Ireland. She was the second child (and second daughter) of James Sharon and Bridget Kennedy. She was baptized on August 26, 1845, in the church for the parish of Boyle in County Roscommon. Since that's also the church where her parents were married in 1842, it's a safe guess that the Sharon and Kennedy families were from that vicinity.
Record of the marriage (September 12, 1842) of
James Sharon ("Jacobus Sheeron") & Bridget ("Brigida") Kennedy,
parish of Boyle, Co. Roscommon.
- In 1849, when Bridget Agnes was about 5 years old, the Sharon family came to the U.S. and soon settled on a farm that they bought in Rockport Twp., about half a mile north of the Mooney farm. The 1860 census lists James Sharon's occupation as "shoemaker", so the farm doesn't seem to have been the sole source of income. James disappears from the records around 1870. His wife, Bridget, lived until 1894.
- Edward Mooney and Bridget Agnes Sharon were married in 1867; the couple had 7 children (including Capt. Bill). Bridget Agnes died in 1888 of "consumption" (tuberculosis). Two years later, Edward married Bridget's younger sister, Margaret Ellen Sharon (known as "Aunt Mag"). Aunt Mag died in 1918.
(3) The Canadians I: Moran & Doherty.
- Evangeline Charity Moran's father was John Moran Jr.; her mother was Mary Jane McDevitt (Grandma Moran). The McDevitt clan are described under the next heading (4), below.
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John Moran Jr.
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Mary Jane McDevitt (Grandma Moran).
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- Evangeline's father, John Baptist Moran Jr., was born in Simcoe County, Ontario, in 1836, probably on the family farm in Medonte Twp. (about 65 miles north of Toronto). He was the fourth child (third son) of John Baptist Moran Sr. and Anne Doherty, who had immigrated to Canada from County Mayo in 1832 or 1833. John Jr. was married first (in about 1868) to Catherine ("Kate") Fallon, who was born in Ireland and had immigrated to Simcoe County as a child with her family. John Jr. was an oil driller, and the couple moved to the western Pennsylvania oil fields during the boom there. Kate died in about 1874, and John returned regularly to Simcoe County with his & Kate's two sons (Thomas Legoria & Almoda Sylvester).
- In 1876, John Jr. and Mary Jane McDevitt were married at St. Patrick's Church in Phelpston, Flos Twp., in Simcoe County. They took up residence in Pennsylvania but soon moved to western New York in pursuit of new oil discoveries. Following the successful Richburg strike in 1881, the family settled permanently in Bolivar NY. John continued to travel widely seeking new oil finds in New York and the Ohio Valley. He died in Bolivar in 1904.
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John Jr.'s parents were John Baptist Moran Sr. and Anne Doherty. John Sr. and Anne were both born in the early 1800s in County Mayo, Ireland, most likely in the area around the eastern end of Clew Bay near Burrishoole Abbey. They married and had their first daughter there. In 1832 or thereabouts, with infant daughter in hand, they immigrated to Canada, winding up in Medonte Twp. Among the very first European settlers of Simcoe County, they cleared and cultivated a 100-acre farm (on land that's now occupied by the Settlers' Ghost golf course).
Clubhouse of the Settlers' Ghost Golf Club in Oro-Medonte, Ontario.
The club's staff advised members of a recent genealogical expedition
that the building incorporates "the original farmhouse." The
original farmhouse was undoubtedly a log cabin, but it's entirely
possible that the remnants are encased in there somewhere.
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In the late 1850s, without giving up the farm, John Sr. & Anne opened a store and then a hotel in Craighurst, a village on the main road between Toronto and Georgian Bay to the north. In the late 1870s they retired and lived in Barrie. After Anne died in 1883, John Sr. returned to Medonte and lived there with the family of his son James until John's death in 1896.
(4) The Canadians II: McDevitt (or McDivitt, or McDavitt, or ...).
- Evangeline Moran's mother, Mary Jane McDevitt (Grandma Moran), was born in Flos Twp., Simcoe County, in 1855, the second child (oldest daughter) of William McDivitt and Margaret McMurray. The McMurrays (and McMullins) are under heading (5), below.
Since few in the immigrant generation(s) were able to read or write, the spelling of names varied with the background, experience, and attentiveness of whoever was writing down what was said. The difficulties were probably aggravated by ethnic differences, as French priests and English civil servants tried to understand names that were spoken in strong Irish accents. So it's not exactly surprising that there was a lot of variation in the written product. (Anne Doherty, for example, was listed in the 1861 Canada census as "Anne Dorothy.") The inter- and even intra-generational variations in McDevitt/McDivitt/McDavitt, in short, are kind of standard.
- In her later years, Grandma Moran sometimes noted that she had taken part in raising four families in succession. Her mother (Margaret McMurray McDivitt) died in childbirth in 1873, a month after the death of Grandma Moran's older brother (Daniel). Grandma Moran was 17 (and the oldest child) when her mother died, and she took charge of caring for her remaining 8 brothers and sisters, who ranged in age from 2 to 15. Three-and-a-half years later, she married John Moran Jr. and in the bargain acquired two new stepsons, the children of John Jr. and Kate Fallon. The family moved to Pennsylvania, and then to Bolivar NY, where John Jr. and Grandma Moran raised their own 7 children. Then, following the death of their daughter Evangeline in 1918, the now-widowed Grandma Moran took in Capt. Bill & Evangeline's children. She died in 1955, at the age of 100.
Grandma Moran (2nd from left) & her posse, including the Mooney children
(Dorothy, front left, Tom, front right, Bill, back center, & Eileen, in front of Bill).
- Grandma Moran's father, William McDivitt, was born in New York City in 1828. His father, Daniel McDivitt (or McDavitt), was a recent immigrant from Ireland; the name of William's mother isn't known. Within a few years after William's birth, Daniel relocated to Simcoe County, Ontario, with William in tow (and, apparently, no spouse and no other children). William and Margaret McMurray were married in 1852, and a year later he took ownership of his father's 100-acre farm in Flos Township, Simcoe County. The couple had 11 children, including Grandma Moran and Michael McDevitt (who, according to informed speculations, played a central role in the meeting of Capt. Bill Mooney and Grandma Moran's daughter Evangeline Charity Moran). William died in 1899 in Flos.
- William McDivitt's father was Daniel McDivitt (or McDavitt). Daniel was born in Ireland (probably in the late 1790s) and came to New York City in the mid-1820s.
The specific place of origin in Ireland isn't known. The McDevitt/McDivitt surname occurs by far the most commonly in County Donegal, and recent DNA connections suggest a relationship with other McDevitts who came to New York City in the 1820s from Rathmelton, a village at the mouth of the River Lennon in Donegal.
Rathmelton, Co. Donegal.
(Image from wikipedia, photographer Colin Park.)
- It's not known whether Daniel was married before or after his arrival in New York, or whether he had any children other than William (the only one as to whom there's any record). Nor do we know the identity or fate of Daniel's wife (William's mother). There's a reasonable possibility that Daniel worked as a painter while living in New York.
- In about 1830, Daniel decamped to Simcoe County, where he (like John Moran Sr.) was among the county's earliest European settlers. The reason for the move is unknown, but because this blog has a perverse preference for Ancestral Drama, we fervently hope that he was skipping town just one step ahead of the law. There is, however, no evidence of that ... yet.
- Daniel acquired a 100-acre lot in Flos Township, Simcoe County, which he partially cleared. At the same time, he met and then married Margaret (Coote) Atkinson, the widow of an English naval veteran who had been killed in an accident at Goderich on Lake Huron. Margaret owned another 100-acre farm (awarded for her first husband's service), which conveniently fronted on the Penetanguishene Road (or the Penetang Road, as the Simcoevians call it in a laudable effort to conserve syllables and avoid tongue-twisting). The road ran from Barrie to the naval base at Penetanguishene on Georgian Bay. There were close to 40 taverns and inns parked along the road's 35-mile length, and Daniel & Margaret joined the boom, opening a tavern in the mid to late 1830s. The couple sold the land and tavern in 1855. (Daniel had already sold the other farm to his son William a couple of years earlier.) Daniel & Margaret then moved to Barrie, where Daniel resumed (or perhaps continued) work as a painter. Daniel died in 1863, and Margaret in 1867.
(5) The Canadians III: The Mysterious McMurrays & McMullens.
- Grandma Moran's mother (and William McDevitt's wife) was Margaret McMurray, who was born in the mid 1830s. The McMurrays (and the McMullens) are the ancestors about whose origins the least is known.
Margaret's place of birth is uncertain: her death record says that she was born in Ireland, but other records suggest that she was born in Medonte Township, Simcoe County. If she was born in Ireland, she came to Canada at a very young age, since her parents (like John Moran Sr. & Daniel McDivitt) were among the very first European settlers of Simcoe County, having arrived there before 1837. Margaret married William McDevitt in 1852, and they had 11 children together. Margaret died in childbirth in 1873, a month after the death of her oldest child, Daniel.
Headstone for
Margaret (McMurray) McDavitt & her son
Daniel, Apto Cemetery, Simcoe County, Ont.
"In death's cold arms lies sleeping here
A tender parent, a companion dear.
In love she lived, in peace she died.
Her life was asked, but was denied."
- Margaret's parents were Michael McMurray and Jane McMullen. Their place of origin in Ireland is unknown, but in the 19th century their surnames occurred most frequently in County Armagh.
- Michael was born around 1808, and Jane around 1811. There's evidence that they were married in 1832, but it's not known whether that occurred in Ireland or in Canada (although one hopes that it was Ireland if that's where their daughter Margaret was born). Upon arrival in Simcoe County, they cleared and settled a 100-acre farm in the Mt. St. Louis area of Medonte Township about 5 miles from the McDivitt-Atkinson Tavern on the Penetang Rd. In the 1850s, they sold the farm and moved further north to another 100-acre farm in Tiny Township (also in Simcoe County), close to the shores of Georgian Bay. Michael died in 1864, and Jane in 1884. Both are buried in Penetanguishene.
So that's the story (or, more correctly, part of the story) of the Hallinan-Laracy and Mooney-Moran immigrants. As always, corrections and additions are not merely welcome: they are positively solicited. And there are more stories yet to come about these pioneers and their descendants!
Incredible research and information ! Thank you !
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