I'm hoping that someone can provide me with more information about Catherine Fagan, my 2nd great grandmother, and the extended Fitzpatrick family she married into.
The first record I can find of her is in New York City, in 1844. There she marries my 2nd great grandfather, Daniel L Fitzpatrick (profiled separately on this site), on October 18th , at the Church of the Nativity (see attached document).
Family legend has it that she emigrated with a relative. She was probably born about 1822. The death certificate of her youngest child, Mary, says that she was born in County Cavan (along with Daniel), but DNA evidence suggests that she might have come from the northwest corner of County Meath, which borders County Cavan. There seems to be a high concentration of Fagans around Oldcastle, which is only 25 km from the Lough Gowna area, where I think Daniel originated. Perhaps they knew each other before emigrating, or more likely, the proximity of their origins drew them together in the Irish community in New York.
They had four children: Elizabeth (b. 1847), James (b. 1849, my great grandfather), John (b. 1850),and Mary Ann (b. 1853), all of whom went on to work in lumbering or canal building camps, in the north east corner of Pennsylvania. The men would organize and work in the camps, and the women would cook for the workers.
The 1850 census of Mount Pleasant, Wayne County, Pennsylvania shows them settling down adjacent to two other houses of Fitzpatricks. By 1860 they move on to a neighboring county, Buckinghamshire, but new Fitzpatricks accumulate and leave, in Mount Pleasant, up until about 1880, suggesting an almost organized set of support locations for immigration, used by an extended Fitzpatrick from Lough Gowna, and surrounding areas in both County Cavan & Longford. Three of these, John, Mathew and Dr. Charles Fitzpatrick are also profiled separately on this site.
Possible other Fitzpatrick relatives based on proximity in New York City and Mount Pleasant, PA (all born in Ireland):
1) Elizabeth (b. abt. 1790)- aunt or mother
2) John (b. abt. 1810) and James- cousins or brothers
3) Ellen (b. abt. 1815)- cousin or sister
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Marriage Record.jpg (1.16 MB) | 1.16 MB |
| Additional Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1st May 1822 (circa) | |
| Date of Death | 1st Jan 1880 (circa) | |
