Patrick Ponsonby : Short Biography

Patrick Ponsonby, a cooper, was born in Ireland about 1818.  We do not know the names of his parents, and hope to determine this. We have no record of his christening, but he was a Roman Catholic later in life, so we assume he was christened in a Catholic church.  He married Mary O’Brien; again we have no record of this. His son Patrick was born about 1839, in Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; this information comes from the younger Patrick’s enlistment papers in the US Army. The elder Patrick had two daughters; Mary was born in 1840 in Ireland and Katy was born in 1846 in Ireland, as recorded in the US Federal Census. Patrick sailed on the ship A.Z. from Liverpool to New York City, arriving on 16 May 1848.  He did not travel with his wife and children, but with 2 Ponsonby women who may have been his sisters.  We have no passenger list showing Mary and the 3 children. Two years later Patrick, Mary and the children show up on the 1850 US Federal Census in St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois.  This was a very small frontier town founded in 1834, and another Ponsonby family was there as well.  We assume Patrick went to St. Charles because he knew his relative Michael (1802-1872) was there.  We can find no documentary evidence on the relationship, but DNA tests on descendants show they may have been brothers. Patrick lived in St. Charles until at least 1855, perhaps 1860.  He then moved to Chicago where he lived the rest of his life.  He continued to work as a cooper and apprenticed his son and grandsons in the trade. His son John E. passed away on June 23, 1885, in Cook County, Illinois. Patrick’s wife Mary passed away on June 3, 1891, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 76. Patrick Ponsonby died on June 2, 1897, in Cook County, Illinois, when he was 79 years old.  At the time of his death he owned 4 houses in Chicago.

We have recently found baptism records at St. John's, Limerick that may be for Patrick the younger (1839) and his sister Mary Anne (1840). The surname is not Ponsonby but Punch. Everything else about the baptism records matches what we know. If we can verify this, it will be the very first record we have found in Ireland, and it would verify that they lived in Limerick City for some years. 

I am aware of one case, where two sisters' letters have been preserved - one being Dora Punch O'Shaunessey (1830-1913) in county Limerick and the other Margaret Ponsonby Ennis in Illinois.  Every letter begins "Dear Sister" and one says "Father died and is buried here" and there is little doubt they were sisters.  We have no idea why they used different surnames but the fact that they did may be a clue to the baptism records. Other than sharing a surname with us, we do not know if/how Dora and Margaret were related to Patrick and his family. Dora was born in Lurriga and married in Mungret. If the families are connected that could be a clue to the ancestral townland.

Any help identifying Patrick's parents or verifying the Punch connection would be greatly appreciated!