Lorraine Dormer's Page

Hi Lorraine, my Grandad Christopher jackson married in St Cronans RC Church, Roscrea, 1906 ,where he is also buried ,I believe he lied about his age but I am sure in order to get married he would have had to show his birth cert with his real name ,which is written on short marriage cert as Christopher Jackson, Father is down as Charles Jackson, All a total Mystery ,he has a connection to John Kiely.

Hi Lorraine!

Okay, I did some more searching and found a bit more info that you may or may not already have:

1860 US Census, Norwich, New London County, Connecticut

John Holliday, age 37, b. Ireland (abt. 1822); "paper maker"
Margaret, age 33, b. Ireland (abt. 1826)
Maria, age 5, b. CT

I believe this is the census record you mentioned. With a bit more searching, I was able to find this couple on the next earliest census:

1850 US Census, Norwich, New London County, Connecticut

John Holliday, age 28, b. Ireland (abt 1822); "laborer"
Margaret, age 24, b. Ireland (abt 1826)
Eliza Jane, age 8 mos, b. CT

This was most likely the couple's first child, and probably died as a youngster. I then took a look at the Barbour Collection of Connecticut vital records and found the following marriage records in the town of Stonington, New London County:

HALLIDAY/HOLIDAY, John, m. Mary Esther LAIN, of New London, Sept. 29, 1842, by Rev. Erastus Denison, of Groton. Vol. 5, p. 107

HALLIDAY/HOLIDAY, John, m. Margaret SHIELDS, b. of Norwich, June 12, 1848, at Mystic Bridge, by Rev. Sanford Benton. Vol. 5, p. 223

(White, Lorraine Cook, ed. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002.)

Both of these records could represent the same John Holiday. The marriages are close enough in time, and John is old enough to have been the groom in both records. If so, the first wife must have died within the first few years of the marriage. I also am fairly confident that Margaret's birthplace of Norwich is recorded erroneously in the marriage record. She consistently indicates that she was born in Ireland on the census records.

I was unable to find any other records of John, Margaret and Maria, which makes sense if they are your family and they returned to Ireland by 1869.

I hope this helps!

Karyn

thank you for the information, I will check it out. I do hope that I have a distant ancestor that is interested in family history and may have some info on Michael. Another interesting note is that my grandfather told me that the infamous Owen (Oney) Madden of the New York City Mafia fame was a 5th cousin to him.
Have a wonderful day
Rich

Hi Lorraine!

I did a search for your great-grandmother, Mary Holliday, in Connecticut, and I was pretty sure I'd found her. There was a Mary Halliday, b. 1851, CT, living with her parents, Thomas and Jane Halliday, both of Ireland, in Paterson, New Jersey on the 1860 census. Further research showed that Thomas, Jane and children John and Ann, immigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in abt 1841. They had four more children: William, b. abt 1842, New Jersey; Samuel Thomas, b. abt. 1848, CT; Mary, b. abt 1851, CT; and Eliza, b. abt 1853, CT. In 1850, the family was living in Essex, Middlesex Co., Connecticut, so it seemed probable that Mary was born in Essex or elsewhere in Middlesex county. So far, so good!

I was encouraged when I was unable to find Thomas and Jane after the 1860 census...thinking, perhaps, they immigrated back to Ireland with Mary. I saw that sons John and Samuel both remained in Connecticut, so checked FindAGrave to see if I could find any Halliday's buried in Middlesex county. Unfortunately, my theory fell apart when I found burial records for Thomas (1879), wife Jane (1862), daughter Jane E. (Eliza) (1862), and daughter Mary (1862), in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Essex, CT. I'm guessing that the family was struck by some illness, probably small pox or flu, and it claimed the two girls in May 1862, and the mother in November of that year.

So, back to the drawing board!

The Mary Halliday above is the only one I find (using various surname spellings) living in Connecticut between 1850-1869. Do you know when your great-grandmother returned to Ireland? Did she marry in Ireland or in the U.S. Can you tell me why you suspect she may have been born in Norwich? New London records are far more available than Middlesex Co., so if she was born there it would be a good thing! Did your great-grandfather, Thomas Day, ever live in the U.S.?

With more info, I'll see if I can hunt them down!

Karyn

Hi Lorraine... yes I have... thanks :)
I guess where I'm stuck is.. they were married in Ahoghill, Ireland... I dont
know where to look for info on them there.
Anyway.. I'll just keep plodding along.
Thanks again though

Thank you so much for your consideration. I hope that it turns out that we are related though distantly.

Hi Lorraine; thank you for the suggestions. Have ever heard of Coy in Offlay (Kings County), I thought that I had originally read that it was Cory but in looking at it again. It looks to be Coy.

Hi Lorraine; Only to glad to help, It saddens me when people try to make money out of someone who is just trying to find a link in there Family.
First step, dont pay anyone any money for anything until you have asked me first, and without been smart If I cant find it , then it doesent want to be found.
I always say , It is only a matter of knowing where to look, that is the key.
But I am not always right, Send me some more clues and I will see what I can come up with. Names and Dates is all I need .
Regards; Alan.