John Martin is my great great Grandfather. I think he was from Cork?

Hi Tracie,

I've been having a look on ancestry for John, Margaret & family in order to get his age so I can search irish records.

Do you know where they might have lived in USA after 1862 and the names of their children please?

Col Cafferky 

I believe most of my family lived in new york. There where a few that also were in alabama. My great great grandmother was Helen Conklin and she married a Frank Smith in 1918 in new york. I am not sure how Helen or frank tie into the Martin family. The Smith children would have been Mary Emma Smith (my mothers mom) and Agnes S. Smith. I am not sure if there were anyother smith children. The information I posted was all on my mother side of the family. My father is of Irish and German Dutch decent. Thats side is even harder to get any info on. I know my grandmother madien name on that side was Cox and most of them lived in central pennsilvania. They branched off into the names of Mader and Young. My father is alot older then my mom and he tried to explain that when his parents came to the USA they did not want there children to be Irish or German they wanted them to be Americans. They thought that teaching their children the language or history of there past was disrespectful. They had a lot of pride in working hard and being American. I can respect there desion but it is making it very difficult now for me to figure any of our families past out. I appreciate you taking the time to search for me. 

Hi Tracie,

Does the marriage record have John & Margaret's ages and birthplaces?

Marriage records often have parents' names too.

The 1880 Federal Census on ancestry has 2 possibilities of John Martin born in Ireland wife Margaret in New York:

the first has John a labourer & Mary both aged 50 (born abt 1830) & both born in Ireland with children Mary J 17 & John 13 living in New York City.

the other has John 40 (born abt 1830) a teamster & Mary 42 both born in Ireland children Elizabeth 18 William 15 Lucy 10 Maggie 8 Mary 6 Thomas 3 living in Dunkirk Chautaqua New York.

I searched births/baptisms in Cork on rootsireland.ie for John Martin born 1830 and got 4 baptised 1832.

I tried 1840 and got 1 for 1839 which seems to be the closest but baptisms could have been done when the child was a year or two old!

If the names of the children don't help you narrow it down, do you have any idea when and where John and Margaret died so I could get their ages from a death record.

No worries about time - I'm a retiree1

Col

There is not much on the marriage certificate.They were married on July 25th in 1862 at the church of St. Francis Xavier, New York. The two witness names are very difficult to read. I believe the first name is Ezekiel Marron. I believe the last name is correct but the first name is a little iffy. The next name is Margaret B. I really can’t make anything out other than the B that starts out the last name. The quality of the document is not very good. There are no ages or dates of birth on the marriage certificate.

I was speaking to my mother to see if anything that you sent me might jog her memory.  The only thing that jumped out at both of us was that with the first set of Martins, the oldest daughter was named Mary. My mom said she thought that her Mother was named Mary after her Grandmother. My grandmother was born May 28th 1920. My grandmother’s maiden name was Mary Emma Smith and Her Mother’s maiden name was Helen Conklin. I was wondering if that “ Mary J. 17” had a daughter named Helen? That could be maybe a promising lead I’m just not sure about the Conklin last name and where that would come in. More I think about it I think it would be Mary J. daughter that would have a daughter named Helen. So the more I think about this the more confused I get. I’m just going to send you what I wrote to see if you can make any sense of it (insert laugh here).

I will let you know if my mother has any epiphanies in the near future. 

 I tried to look up the death certificates but the New York Department of Health $202.00 just for the search because of the time frame. Then any online copies are another $30.00 which is a little out of my price range. I asked some of my family members and no one knows anything about them other than the marriage date. Unfortunately our Aunt that was the “family historian” has a few mental health issues and is little nutty to say the least.  So she really cannot recall anything. I’m gonna keep poking around and see what I come up with.