Something about Kathleen

Well I thought I would add more about my dear Kathleen Marron Clinton Corr.  I still had a question what was this Clinton name all about.  Don't tell me the former President snuck himself into my records.  Let me check out what other pages they have on Kathleen to go along with the one naturalization document I have.  Here we got a clue!!!

When she arrived to this country she came with the name Kathleen Clinton.  No wonder I couldn't find her arrival under Kathleen Marron.  Is that a married name?  Was she married in Ireland before she arrived?  If so did her husband come with her?  What happened to him - that she was able to get married in 1926 only 5 years after she arrived?  I guess I will now look for her ship passenger list information.

Now I am off to the Ellis Island website to find out more.

List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States.  S.S. "CEDRIC" passengers sailing from Liverpool, April 30th 1921.

You will find Kathleen "Clinton" on line #11.  Her age is listed as 24 she is a Single Female.  Her occupation is listed as Dressmaker and she is able to read and write English.  Nationality is Great Britain, Race is Irish.  Her last permanent address was in Monaghan, Ireland.  The closest relative and their address that she left in Ireland is:  Mother - Mrs. Clinton on Dublin Street, Monaghan, Ireland.  Her final destination is listed as Newark, NJ.
This page just told us that her mother was now remarried and is now a Mrs. Clinton and not Marron.  So Kathleen used her step-fathers name.  I am going to assume her father died.  I will have to check on that and see what happened to him.  Check out the handwritten note going over her typed information


Let's find out what page 2 holds for us.

After 10 days at sea they finally arrive at the New York port on May 9, 1921.


This page we will be looking at line #11 to continue with Kathleen's story about coming to America.  We see that her brother paid her passage to come over.  She had never been to the United States before.  She would be joining a relative, her brother, Patrick Clinton who lives at 144 Hudson Street, Newark, NJ.She was planning to stay in the US for at least 6 years.  Now we get to her physical description.  Kathleen isn't a very tall person only being 5' 2" tall.  She has a dark complexion and dark hair and her eyes are brown.  It is also listed that she has a mark on her left eye.  Remember in the Naturalization papers it lists that she had a scar on the left side of her forehead?  I wonder if I can get a picture of her to figure out what they are trying to describe.  I guess I will have to make a call to a family member that is in NJ that can check her sons home.  It also lists her place of birth as Old Castle, Ireland.


With these new records to look over we find another family member name to look into.  Who is this Patrick Clinton.  Is he a step-brother? half-brother? or a full brother using the step-dads name?  I am now going to look into the 1920 census to see if Patrick is in Newark, NJ a few months before and see if I can find out when he came over.

Thomas Corr's Better Half -- Kathleen Corr

I like to think us wives are always the better half :-)  Anyway.

Tom's wife was a bit of a hunt - could not find her in the ship records.  I know she came over here as Kathleen Marron - what else.  So I figured where else to look???? Naturalization records, of course.

She applied in the U.S. District court of the Southern District in New York, NY.  Her name is listed as Kathleen Corr formerly Kathleen Clinton and Kathleen Marron.  (Clinton where did that come from I wonder? The family had no knowledge of that name.)

It lists her age, address and occupation which is being a housewife.  She has a scar on the left side of her forehead. Her complexion is light and she has Brown hair and gray eyes.  She lists her nationality as Irish/British.  She was married to Thomas Corr on June 9, 1926.  Tom was born in Monaghan, Ireland on July 4, 1904 and he entered the US on Nov 5, 1922 and he was Naturalized on June 8, 1928 at Bronx, NY.


Having the date of Tom's naturalization listed is wonderful.  It would shock you how many Tom Corr's there were that got naturalized it is like finding a needle in a haystack.  Now I have a date to look into.  It even gives his application # even better.


Next we see her children's names and their dates of birth.  I knew her oldest son's birth date but that was it.  Here they all are:

James born April 22, 1927
Thomas born June 16, 1929
Alice Nov 14, 1932
Kathleen April 6, 1938  all born in and now reside in NY.

Kathleen's last place of foreign residence was Monaghan, Ireland and she entered the US under the name Kathleen Clinton (There is that name again).  She arrived May 9, 1921 aboard the ship SS Cedric.

With this wonderful new information in hand I have some more searching to do.


It is like I told the family I am hunting for... It is like sitting down in front of a 5000 piece puzzle with no box lid picture to use as a reference.  Genealogy can be a great challenge but you have so much fun piecing it together.

More on Thomas Leo Corr - Ship passenger record

The last post I shared the 1911 census images that provided me with the proof of Thomas Corr's age and family.  When I found the passenger record information I was so excited about seeing his name I forgot to look deeper into it.  The years after 1910 provided more information then older ship records did.  The country started getting a little more pickier on who they let in.  More questions were asked of the passengers and a more detailed health examination was done on the immigrants before they were allowed to step foot on U.S. soil.

The first page shows us his name Thomas Leo Corr, his age 18, occupation is Assistant Victualler, he is able to read and write and speak English.  Nationality is Great Britain his race is Irish.  He was born in Monaghan, Ireland.  The nearest relative from where he came from:  Father, James Corr lived at Church Square, Monaghan.  His final destination is New York, NY.

This is page 2 of Thomas Leo Corr's ship passenger manifest record.  He had a ticket to his final destination and his father paid his way.  He was carrying at least $50 while on his trip to the U.S.  He was planning to join with his Uncle Michael Mckenna who lived at 195 Eight Avenue, New York, NY.  He was planning to stay for at least 10 years in the United States.  He was of good health.  The following describes his appearance to us.  Complexion: Fresh, Hair Color: Brown, Eyes: Blue, Height: 5' 7", Body marks of identification:  Mole on Right Eyes.  Place of birth was Monaghan, Ireland.

With this information I now know he had at least one family member living in the United States already.  My next step is to find more about Michael Mckenna his uncle.  This was the brother of his mom Anne Mckenna Corr.  I am going to look for them both in NY City / Bronx directories as well as the 1930 Federal Census.

I am hoping I have a little luck with finding Tom Corr and his Uncle Michael McKenna in NY.

Corr Family from Ireland, part 2

I was planning to post a few days ago but my asthma has been getting the better of me.  Sometimes I feel as if my nebulizer is just an extension of my body.  Anyway, enough about me.


Well as you know, I found Thomas Leo Corr on the passenger list landing in New York.  Showing this to the grand kids they thought maybe he lied about his age he should be older then is listed.  He was running from the law for supplying the "bad" army with guns.  I figured it was possible, people didn't always know their birthdays others just lied.  I guess having huge "Sweet Sixteen" parties back then wasn't as important as it seems to be today.  The gun supplying thing I could look into...maybe there was a warrant out or something.


I figured if I could find a birth record or something.  Little did I know how much was missing in Ireland records.  So much was destroyed over the years during wars with England and the religious wars.  Yes, Ireland took a census every year for many years some were even very detailed.  The only ones left after everything is 1901 and 1911.  To think I complain about the U.S. 1890 census being destroyed at least we have all the others.


I took a chance and looked in the county he had listed on the passenger list.  In 1911 in County Monaghan, house #5 in Church Square in the town of Monaghan you will find the James Corr family with a 6 year old child Thomas Leo Corr.  This age would put his birth about 1904 which agrees with the ship passenger record.  This census also gives me information about the rest of the family.


Check out the links in order to see the wonderful information found to help me along with this families history search.

1911 Census of Ireland

As you can see the father James Corr (which was the name they had listed in the family bible) was a Cattle Dealer and Victualler.  Not sure what a victualler was I had to look it up.  One definition was, a person who sells provisions to an army another was Grocer.  Which would go along with supplying things to the "bad army" like the grand kids thought.  I think providing the enemy with anything even beef/meat would be looked down on.  On the next page, Form B - House and Building Return, it shows (# 5) had a "shop" on their property.  So he probably had a butcher shop or something similar.

1911 Census - House and Building Return

I was happy to report my 1911 census findings to the grand children and they seemed very happy with what I found for them so far.

I am doing a lot of reading about Ireland and the area the family came from in order to better understand where they are coming from.  Would you know it I found a mess of Reilly's living by the Corr family.  It would be funny if that ends up being my hubby's family.  His Reilly's haven't been in this country very long either. Hhhmmm.