Kate White 1906 immigrant to South Dakota

I presume this is your White family at Ardenagh Great townland in 1901 ?

Catherine's birth on the 13th July 1875 at Ardenagh townland with parents as you suspected - Nicholas White and Catherine Walsh.

I'll have a look for other children and the marriage for Nicholas and Catherine...

There's no sign of any of this family at Ardenagh on the 1911 census..

I found the followng births and baptisms :

Margaret bapt. 6th August 1861  (NLI RC register image)

James bapt. 21st Feb 1866

Mary born 13th April 1868 Ardenagh  (IrishGeneaogy birth register)

John bapt. 23rd October 1871    (probably died young)

John born 27th March 1878 Ardenagh

Births are all Ardenagh, and the baptisms are in Taghmon Catholic Parish.

I dont see a likely marriage for your Nicholas and Catherine - there's a gap in the Taghmon marriage records from 1835 to 1866, right in the timeframe when they would have married.

Good day shanew147, 

Thank you so much for responding. I found the same as you did. Here is one other other clue that I failed to mention: Kate's death certificate states that her father was Nicholas Whyte from Ireland, mother unknown (her son-in-law, my grandfather, was the uninformed informant) with a date of birth of 14 Jul 1878. Actually, her baptism was the 14th and the year is off, but this seems to concur nicely.

I've asked my father to check correspondence between G-Gma Kate and her family in Co Wexford for dates and return addresses to see if there is any mention of Townsland or other Parish and if so, when. 

With the gap in the Taghmon marriage records, do you have any ideas of a work-around? I was thinking my second cousins in Ireland may have some information that was passed down. But the question remains of how to find them. And the bonus would be to be in contact!

I found a Ketty Walsh, Taghmon Parish, baptized 01 Jul 1835. Would that possibly be Catherine Walsh?? See jpg attached.

And a Nicholas White on the 1911 census, 77 year old widower, living in an almost-abutting parish of Clongeen, Townsland Polldoon, with younger brother Thomas (45) and his wife.   And a Nicholas White, 80-yr old widower from Taghmon, on a death register in Wexford for 21 Oct 1913, last address = the "Workhouse" there. See jpg attached.

Lastly, I found a John White listed as a landowner in Ardenagh Great, perhaps a decendent of Kate's younger brother John listed on the 1901 census?? See pdf attached.

Thank you again very kindly,

...Anne, Kate's g-granddaughter

Unfortunately unless the register or some pages containing those marriages somehow survived and are discovered somewhere there would be no way to confirm the date of the marriage. The register details would probably not help that much anyway, as marriages records from this timeframe do not usually contain much detail - generally the date, names of the bride & groom, witnesses and sometimes a location, although it's not always clear if this is the residence of the bride or the groom or both. 

White/Whyte is quite a common surname in Co. Wexford so there may be quite a few people with overlapping names which make it difficult to be certain of lines, the surname Walsh is also quite common in the county. Griffith's Valuation took place in this area in 1853 so around the time Nicholas and Catherine married - so it's possible that their fathers are included in the Valuation if they were still alive - there are about 20 White properties listed for Taghmon civil parish, and about 40 Walsh properties. Marriages generally took place in the bride's current parish, in many cases the same parish she was baptised.

That Nicholas White death you found at the workhouse looks promising - lucky that it mentioned his home address, deaths in institutions dont always record this detail. There are a few other Nicholas White deaths of about the right age in the correct timeframe, but that is the best match. Ardenagh townland was in Wexford Civil Registration District and also Wexford Poor Law Union, so the correct Workhouse for someone from that area. The Wexford district Workhouse was just outside Wexford town - see c1900 OSI Map.

I saw Kate's 1906 passenger list which mention her sister and last place of residence as Taghmon - and I've checked though the various White/Whyte Catholic baptisms around the 1870s in Taghmon parish and she's the only one. (Chuch of Ireland records for the parish are not online, but I'll assuming your Whites were likely Catholic) 

Tracing forward online is difficult, as the more recent records are not available due to privacy restrictions. Records for Marriages up to 1941 and Deaths up to 1966 are available online, I'll see if I can find marriages for the two sons we know about i.e. James & John, I'll also see what I can find out about that White household with the two brothers in Polldoon townland... if we can show that it's the same Nicholas White then we might have a possible lead due to the younger brother as based on the census details his marriage would have been abt 1888 so covered by civil records. Polldoon is only about 8km to the west and it possible that  when Nicholas got older he went to live with nearby younger family.

p.s. Due to the number of Whites in the district it was difficult locating those children of Nicholas and Catherine - so there could be others... (Wexford district also covers the town and a large area of South East County Wexford)  

Thank you again, shanew147, for all this contextual information and your view on what I had found concerning this Nicholas in the Wexford Workhouse and in Polldoon Townsland.

My father looked though what my grandmother (Kate's daughter) had in her affiairs and found two interesting cards:

The first is a "Remembrance of the Mission" card recalling a mass or other religious event by the Redeptuous Fathers at Taghmon in 1905. Since Kate immigrated the following year, we believe she attended personallly. [And yes, my family is all RC, all branches including the Irish one!]

The second is a Christmas postcard with a drawing marked "Ferry Carrig, Wexford" on the front (I found online that this is near Wexford Town and is the oldest Norman castle in Ireland!). On the back is hand-written "Happy Christmas from AH to John Whyte". We think this must be addressed to brother John. Unfortunately, no date nor postmark exists as the card must have been in an envelope that was not kept. AH could be the intials perhaps of a future spouse or beloved family member. It's curious to us that it would be in Kate's affairs. Unless....

In fact, Ferrycarrig is only 2.6 km from Wexford General Hospital/Workhouse... and if indeed Nicholas was at the Workhouse in his last years, perhaps he is the sender?? Perhaps my dad is reading AH for NW, easy to confound in a scrolly cursive style? I'm checking and will keep you informed of his response.

There is a third item but enigmatic: a Christmas card from "Anty" to "Mrs Whyte". Anty = Auntie, or short for Anthony, or....?

Personally, I'm not expecting many more children to be discovered. The main reason is that Kate reported to her daughter, Margaret Knapp, that the two girls left for America and the two boys stayed back in Ireland. That combined with Mary having left before Kate suggests that sister Margaret had probably already passed (or, less likely, that she was married/established and living elsewhere) and Mary and Kate, both spinsters. No mention in family stories of Mary being married at the time of immigration. It also suggests that James and John II were the only boys. My grandmother was given the name Margaret, so I'm also thinking she was named after this older sister. 

I've been unsuccessful thus far in locating Mary in South Dakota records, immigration records, Irish marriages and even in Texas, to where she reportedly moved and was never heard from again. I like your idea of looking for information on the other siblings of both Kate and her father, Nicholas. Thank you once again!

Hi shanew147,

Since we last corresponded, I have come up empty trying to find marriage records for a brother Thomas mentioned on the 1911 census. The same is true for Nicholas' White's sons James and John. NLI has the digitalized records for the RCC, and you need to go through page by page as there is no index, which I have started for Taghmon.  RootsIreland.ie also does not have an index for Taghmon. Did I miss anything?

However, I found two Walsh men in Ardenagh Great in the time period near the birth of Catherine Walsh & siblings: http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004625720/00…

It sounds like one had to pay to the Church of Ireland even if one was RC...

It appears "Anty" could be a variation of Anastasia. (http://www.rootsireland.ie/help/first-names/) My dad says the handwriting is the same for the two cards I mentioned last time signed "AH" and "Anty". If Anty/AH lived in/near the Town of Wexford/Ferry Carrig perhaps that is the place to look for a marriage record with John Whyte...writing & thinking out loud here.

Thoughts? 

With kind regards,

Hi Shanew,

I wanted to share with you a recent  breakthrough tracking down my GGmother Kate's sister, Mary White, in the US:

- she married Joseph Gaetze in 1898 in Anaconda, Montana. They are found on the Montana marriage index. Gaetze corresponds to the last name listed on Kate's passenger list record, while the latter is hard to read until you know what to look for.

- US census records list her and husband Joe in 1910 in Garden Prairie, South Dakota, which is a township near Fernay. No children. There is a common misspelling of Joe's last name as "Gatz" on this census.

- The US census in 1920 lists them next in Orange County, California. No children. This document mentions an immigration year of 1888 for Mary. I found one Irish Mary White on immigration passenger lists arriving on 17 May 1886 in Philadelphia from Liverpool, England, on the Lord Clive ship. She is age 22 (while i hear it was common for young women it inflate their ages...). Interestingly, she was listed next to a Mary Welsh (Walsh?) of similar age: cousins??

- The California death index lists Mary as passing in 1926. I found and updated her FindAGrave memorial, also taking responsiblitiy for it for our family. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124112267/mary-gaetze  Her husband moved to Texas by 1930 and remarried by 1940. He is buried with his second wife in Texas.

This doesn't help much for tracking down their brothers in Ireland, but at least it's a resolved family enigma and Mary has been found! 

However, I have since done some preliminary searching on Thomas White, with whom a Nicolas White was living as a widower per the 1911 census not too far from Argenagh, at Polldoon Townsland (National Archives search for Thomas Whites in Co Wexford). Thomas is listed as a brother, but I think he is actually a son. Thomas and wife Mary show up in that same general area at Farryrichard/Garryrichard also in 1901 with Thomas' occupation listed both times as shopkeeper and farmer. The main discrepancy is the age of Thomas, 46 in 1901 and 45 in 1911, but Mary is 39 in 1901 and 49 in 1911. In 1911, children are not listed, but are perhaps old enough to be working in some capacity away from home even as teens. Would you mind taking a look to see what you think of this idea about Thomas White & family?

Thank you and best wishes,

...Anne