Sunday, January 27, 2013

Finding the Fitzpatricks


This is my Great Grandmother Cecilia Fitzpatrick O'Donnell. She is holding two of her grandchildren. The baby is my dad George. The little girl is his cousin Cecilia.

Cecilia was the daughter of James Fitzpatrick and Ellen Tracy. They were both born in Nova Scotia, Canada. I found the birth records of two of their children that were born in Canada before they crossed the border and settled in Ebervale, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. This is were Cecilia was born. She was the first of their children born in the US. The Nova Scotia birth record told me that James and Ellen were married in 1856 in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. I recently found them in the Nova Scotia Marriage index on Family Search. I started looking some more and found the baptism records for the same two children. Margaret Ellen was born 23 Jun 1868 and baptized 19 Jul 1868. John James was born 3 Jun 1870 and baptized 19 Jun 1870. Both were baptized in Stella Maris Roman Catholic Church in Pictou, Nova Scotia. I have not been able to find records for any of the other children born there. According to the 1900 census, Ellen had 12 children with 5 living at that time. The earliest census I have for them is 1880 and they had 7 children with the first 4 being born in Canada. So where are these other kids?????

Then I was reading the baptism records I saw that the godfather for John was a Stephen Fitzpatrick. I decided to look him up thinking maybe he was James' brother or something. Well the first thing that came up in Family Search was a West Virginia death certificate for Stephen Fitzpatrick and guess what???? His parents were James Fitzpatrick and Ellen Tracy! He was born in Nova Scotia, 31 May 1858. Two years after James and Ellen were married. So could this be one of the missing kids? How could I connect his further to them? I found that his wife was Isabelle Dougherty and then I looked into where she was from. She was born in Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania! Bingo! I called my friend Kate at St. Gabriel's in Hazleton to see if she could find a marriage record for Stephen and Isabelle around 1882 because their first child was born in 1883 also in Hazleton. She called me back and said she found the marriage record for 2 Jan 1882 but the bride's name was Nappy Dougherty. I guess a nickname? My Great Grandfather Cornelius has his name as Condy on his and Cecilia's marriage certificate. Well the rest of Stephen and "Nappy's" children were born in Ohio and when I found their birth records her name was Nappy it was also on a census that way. But then she was using Isabelle but I would love to know where the name Nappy came from!!!!! So sometime after 1910 Stephen and his family left Ohio and moved to West Virginia. Stephen worked in the coal mines like his father and the O'Donnell men. I am so glad I have found another Fitzpatrick hopefully I can find some more!

One other thing is I am having problems finding when James and Ellen died. I narrowed down that Ellen died after 1910 but before 1920 because of the census. I looked in the PA death index and found a Ellen O'Donnell that died in 1910 in Hazleton. So I have ordered that death certificate. Hopefully I will have an answer soon!!!!!

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