Ward, Devlin & McEnany

Hi Toni,

You have quite a conundrum there.

 If Ann married Peter Jnr, they would be half brother and sister if they are both Mary Janes children.  Where did they get married, have you got the marriage cert?   They  all died in USA & I have never seen a USA Death or marriage cert, so you may get more information from that.  I know in Scotland some of them do have the maiden name of the mother.  So have a look at those.  

I do know that in my own family children were placed with neighbours, when parents died & there were difficult circumstances.  Perhaps they were childminding for the father while he worked.  The only way you will solve this is by going wider out though the family and get all the relevant certs & do a time & place line for them.  Are they on the immigration lists & if on the Census does it say the relationship & check them all as sometimes an elderly person then will live with the young people as they get older.  I usually focus on the youngest sibling in the family, as they may leave a better informed paper trail.

Also bear in mind that Ward & McEnany are common names from Co Monaghan, likewise with Marys & Anns.  McEnany also has numerous spelling variations and dont discount them.  Next year when the parish records are online you may have more success.

Look at all the Census & see can you come to an agreement as to where he was born, because, it may may not have been him that filled it out.  I looked at Ancestry & found this. It may be your Daniel.

Best Wishes & Good luck with your search Carmel