Monday, March 19, 2012

The Other Gormans

[A warning:  I'm new to this, and now I see that this is way to long to be interesting.  I'll try to keep future posts small and easy to read.]

This should be my last Gorman post for a while.  About two years ago, I received some information about a Gorman family that had passed through Madrid, New York.  I'm not a Gorman, but two of my Donnelly relatives married Gormans in the Madrid area, so we have lots of Gorman cousins.  (In theory.  I've only been in touch with one.)  The Gormans interest me for two reasons.  One is because some of us share a common Donnelly ancestry.  Another is because it's been a great puzzle trying to sort out all the Gormans in that area and trying to figure out what the relationship is between the two Gormans that married the Donnelly sisters.    We're fairly certain that Thomas and Christie were first cousins, but have no proof, yet.  So in that context ...

The posted information said that a widowed William Gorman come from Ireland to Madrid, New York in about 1834, bringing his six children (Patrick, Michael, Christopher, John, Bryan, and Catherine), and accompanied by two or more brothers or cousins and their families.  Their years of birth ranged from about 1814 to 1828.  According to the family history, they stayed in the Madrid area until William passed away in 1847, then moved on to Columbia Co., Wisconsin, and some moved on to other locations.  William was buried in Madrid.  I've skipped some of the detail, and reported the rest fairly loosely.

Now come back to Madrid and compare what we know from there.  I find Gormans in the Madrid area in the census beginning in 1840.  The two large families are those of Michael and William.  We know from alien reports and the birth places of Michael's children, that he came to the US in about 1818, when he was about 26 years old.  He married Catherine in about 1819, and all of their kids were born in New York.  Catherine Donnelly married their oldest son, Christie.  I don't know where Michael's family lived prior to 1840. William had seven kids with him in 1840, five boys and two girls, one more girl than in the Wisconsin family history.  We know from alien reports from some of his kids (at least Patrick and Michael) that they immigrated in 1834.  Bridget Donnelly married a Thomas Gorman in the early 1840s.  His death certificate says his father was William Gorman, we assumed the same William buried in Madrid/Waddington.  His alien report also says he immigrated in 1834, the same year as William's Wisconsin family members.  I cannot find a Thomas in 1840, and assume he was among William's children.  The other Gorman family in Madrid was that of 26 year old Connor Gorman.  He reportedly immigrated in 1833, a year earlier than William's family.  My guess would have been that he was another son, the first to marry, and so was living in his own home in 1840.  Connor was not made a citizen with Michael and Patrick in 1844, and I have not been able to find him in other census records.  Perhaps he moved to Canada, or passed away, or used a different given name in subsequent censuses.  I would assume all of these Gormans were one family. There was also a thirty-something Bridget Gorman living in nearby Oswegatchie with three kids.  Other Gormans popped up in subsequent censuses.

Based on all this information, my story would be ...  Michael Gorman came to the US in 1818, married Catherine and they settled in Oswegatchie, New York. [I'm not quite sure about this one, but a John and (possibly) Bridget Gorman came to the US and were in Oswegatchie in 1838.  This family may have moved to Racine co., Wisconsin, near the other closely related Gorman families in Wisconsin.] In 1833, Connor Gorman came to this area, possibly married with an infant daughter.  The following year, his father, William, brought the rest of the family, including Thomas, Patrick, Michael, Christopher, John, Bryan, and Catherine.  Michael relocated from Oswegatchie to Madrid, where William and Connor had settled, in about 1838.  I suspect that Michael and William were brothers.  Upon Williams's death in 1847, most of the family moved on to Racine, Wisconsin, then on to other locations. Thomas had married Bridget Donnelly, whose family still lived in the area.  There's a Pat Gorman in Madrid in 1850, married with children, and I suspect that Thomas and Patrick elected to stay with their young families.  Patrick's wife, Jane, died in 1854, after which, I'm guessing, he elected to rejoin his family in Wisconsin.

My next step would be to try to reconcile this story with that of the Wisconsin Gormans, especially addressing the questions "Were Michael and William brothers?", "Were Thomas and Connor also sons of the William Gorman buried in Madrid/Waddington, whose other children moved on to Wisconsin after his death?", and "Were the John (alien reports) and Bridget (census) in Oswegatchie related?".  Some of this is of interest because I usually include in-laws (Thomas) and their immediate families into my tree, and I would like to know how Thomas and Christie ( the other Donnelly in-law) were related.  The Gorman descendants of the Wisconsin families, and the search for more generations of Gormans in Ireland I'll leave to others, as they are not related to me.  By the way, the Wisconsin genealogy says that William and family came from Ardbraccan Parish, Co. Meath, Ireland.

1 comment:

  1. Hello!
    My great grandfathers sister, from Norway, married John James Gorman in Eau Claire, Wisconsin 1885. His parents were Thomas and Bridget Gorman. John was born in Waddington. They had three children - Annie, Jennie and William. All of them ended up in Seattle, Washington. I am in touch with the living family in Washington ;) What happened to John James is a mystery, but Carrie is registered as a widow from 1910, and she moved to Seattle and her daughter, Annie.

    ReplyDelete