Just in... Records for Michael McKenna the Uncle that met Thomas Leo Corr in NY

Who is Michael McKenna?  Why was Thomas Leo Corr listed as meeting him when he arrived in New York?  Was Tom going to live with him?  Was Michael providing him with a job or education?  What was Michael’s story?  Did any other family members arrive earlier than him or was he the first of the family to move to this land of oppurtunity?

I started off knowing a few things about this mystery man.   He had to be the brother of Anne McKenna the mother of Tom.  He was in this country before November 4, 1922 when his nephew arrived.  Having his address which was listed on the Passenger list as 196 Eight Avenue, NY in 1922, I start searching New York City directories to see if he can be found.  The following was discovered:

1920 New York City Directory

McKenna Michl (McKenna & Ginnity) 196 8^th Avenue

1916 New York City Directory

McKenna, Michl. (McKenna & Ginnity) h496, 8^th Avenue

I found an interesting article in the 

New York Tribune, Wed July 21, 1920.  

"Physician Wins Point In Liquor Permit Fight"

After reading that article you may scratch your head thinking what happened.  This is what happened to make such an event occur.

At the stroke of midnight, on January 16th, 1920, America went dry. There wasn't a place in the country (including your own home) where you could legally have even a glass of wine with your dinner without breaking the law. The 18th Amendment, known as the Volstead Act, prohibited the manufacture, sale and possession of alcohol in America. Prohibition lasted for thirteen years.  Source: http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/speakeasies/

I have more to say about that topic and what I believe may have happened to the McKenna’s during that time.  I plan to cover unproved theories in a later posting.

What I do know from the about City Directory information is that Michael McKenna arrived here before 1916.  This narrows my search a bit for when he came to this country.  It was before 1916. 

Step 2: Look for NY real estate transactions for Michael McKenna.  I searched the Library of Congress website.  They are working on a project called Chronicling America and have access to various newspapers.  I searched all the papers listed in NY.  On June 14^th, 1910 the following listing was found in “Recorded Mortgages” which appeared in the New-York tribune . 

6^th ave, 852; Saloon lease; 4 stry brk; June 11; demand 6 per cent:  Michael McKenna to George Ehret; $4550; attorney, Edward M. Burghard, 129 Broadway.

I have a feeling that could be the Michael McKenna I am looking for.  I check the 1908, 1909 & 1910 City Directory again and this is what I see for the address listed in the newspaper.

1908 New York City Directory

McKenna, Michl   beer 852 6^th ave, h503 W 52nd

1909 and 1910 New York City Directory

McKenna, Michl  liquors 852 6^th ave, h854 6^th ave

Both directory listings show us that Michael McKenna was the same guy written about in the Real Estate transactions section of the newspaper.  His business address is the same.  He lived at two different addresses between the years 1908-1910. The question that needs to be answered is this the same Michael?  Now we will check public records to help us prove this is our guy.

Step 3:  If this is our Michael, he arrived in America before 1908.  With this date it will be easier to search for ship passenger records because it narrows down the time period needed to search.  Perhaps, we could also find out who his father was from such records.

Try to find a Michael McKenna from Monaghan, Ireland and I am guessing his birth year to be close to his sister Anne which would make him born 1880-1890.  I did a passenger immigration search at www.ancestry.com 

Wow, Michael McKenna is a popular name.  I narrowed down the long list  by entering the following information; Birth year 1885 +/-5, Birth place Monaghan Ireland, and arriving before 1908.

A ship record of the Caledonia, which on April 21, 1906, departed from Liverpool.  It arrived at the Port of New York on April 30, 1906. 

Among the passengers was a young man by the name of Michael McKenna, who was 20 years old he was traveling with his sister Maggie. 

Michael was listed as a farmer his last residence was Monaghan, Ireland and his final destination was New York.  Michael and his sister Maggie paid for their own passage to America.  Michael and Maggie were planning to meet their sister Sarah McKenna who lived at 18 W. 10^th street, New York.

This record gives us so much information to find Michael and his sisters back in the homeland. 

The next posting I will uncover Michael McKenna and his sisters in Ireland to get a better idea of who they were and find out about their parents.

Just in.... more on Kathleen Corr & her family

The last post I said I would be investigating Kathleen's brother a little more.  Patrick Clinton was the brother listed on the ship record.  Kathleen listed that she would be staying with him in Newark.  Patrick's address is listed as 144 Hudson Street, Newark, NJ.  Doing a street name search in the 1920 census I found Patrick living at the address Kathleen listed.

Here is “Patrick” well it is actually Joseph P. Clinton living at 144 Hudson Street he is 20 years old and his occupation is a Conductor on the Street Railway. The time he arrived to America is listed as unknown.  We will have to find him somewhere else pin down a date of immigration.

You will see he is living with an Uncle and Aunt Frank and Margaret Smith.  Frank was born here in America but Margaret is listed as being born in Ireland and became a citizen in 1890.  So I guess we will have to look closer at Margaret to see if she was related to your Great-grandmother Alice Hannaty, Great-grandfather Owen Marron or Mr. Clinton.  

I bet if we look we will find Joseph / Patrick in the 1911 Ireland census.   Another wonderful thing is that on Friday (I have been checking every day since I saw they were working on getting records up) the National Archives of Ireland web site just listed the 1901 census online so I will also look there.   Maybe we can figure out when Owen Marron passed away from both years of Ireland's census records.

Well I found the Clinton/Marron family in the 1901 census of Ireland kind of quickly.  I had the birth county of Meath listed for Kathleen and started there.  No luck, so I searched a County Monaghan which was the last address listed on Kathleen’s ship passenger records.  No luck. 


Now where do I look I wondered?  Looking at a map of Ireland there is a small county between Meath and Monaghan called County Louth so I checked there.  


There Kathleen was with her family. Thomas Clinton, Alice Clinton, Patrick J Clinton, Kathleen Marron and a boarder James Ferguson.

Looking at this page you can see Thomas Clinton, Kathleen’s step-dad worked at the railway works.  I guess this where Patrick found his calling in the 1920 census working on the Street Railway.  We also see that Patrick is 3 years younger than Kathleen so there is a good chance that it is her ½ brother.  I will know more when I find death record for her father Owen Marron.  I am hoping there will be a record of it – at least a cemetery record.

Searching the 1911 census I can’t find the family using Kathleen Marron’s name.  No luck.  Ok, maybe Patrick Clinton.  Found them.  Alice is again remarried this time to a man named John Mc Carney who is a tailor and they are all living on Dublin Street in Monaghan. Looking back at Kathleen’s passenger list record we know this was the address listed as her mother’s address.  We also see more ½ siblings under the name Clinton; Bernard and John Thomas.  (I guess this is around when she stopped using her birth father’s name.)

I am taking a guess here but perhaps Kathleen learned her dressmaking skills from this step-father.  That is the occupation she has listed on her ship passenger record.

With all these wonderful puzzle pieces about Kathleen's life before she arrived to America we find new family members to search for, clues as to why maybe she left Ireland.  I think if I was having a new step-dad every couple of years I would want to leave also.  What happened to her father is my big question to find out the answer to was he sick? Did he die during the fighting going on over there?  What happened to Mr. Clinton?  When did her younger brother come over to America?  (We know it was between 1911-1920 because we found him in the census records) Who was the Aunt he was living with in 1920?  I wonder if her other brother Bernard also made the voyage over to America or did he stay in Ireland?

Lots more to come........