Would appreciate any leads from this dead end search. Awaiting DNA tests and traveling to Ireland in May-June of this year. Many thanks in advance, Randall McNamara grmcnamara324@gmail.com
We know that ancestor John (Mack on US 1860 census and death record, McNamara on marriage record and birth of first child, Mack on births of three younger children), was born in Ireland probably between 1831 and 1835, son of James(on marriage record)and Ellen(on death record). He married in Boston in 1856, Celia Sheridan, born in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal ca. 1834-36. No James McNamara or Mack appears in the Tithe Applotment Books for Donegal in the 1820s/1830s, or in Griffith's Valuation for Donegal in the 1850s/60, so it does not appear that the McNamaras/Macks were from there.
Because a Thomas Mack and family were living in the same house with John Mack's family in Lynn in 1860 and 1865(and Thomas' daughter was living with John's widow in 1870), and John witnessed Thomas' marriage and sponsored his child in 1855, I have concluded that John and Thomas were close relatives. Thomas was several years older, apparently born in Ireland ca. 1818. According to three of his four marriage records, his father was John (was "Francis" on fourth marriage record), and his mother's name, Hannah, appears only on his third marriage record). His surname was "Mack" on the 1851, 1855, 1860, and 1865 censuses, on his third and fourth marriage records, and on three of his childrens' birth records; and "McNamara" on his second marriage record, on the 1870 and 1880 censuses, on two of his childrens' birth records, and on his 1890 death record. Thomas was in Liverpool, England by 1851 when he appears on the census and married his second wife.
When Thomas Mack/McNamara died without surviving issue in Lawrence in 1890, his heirs were two nieces:
Mary Merrill of Lawrence. She was born as Mary McNamara ca. 1837, daughter of James and Ellen M., according to 1862 marriage record to Eben Merrill(the same parents' names as your John Mack/McNamara). Her death record in Lawrence, 1892, names her parents as James McNamara and Mary(Muney?; the city record looks more like "Muney" than "Murry"). However, the 1870 census gives Mary((McNamara)Merrill's
surname as "Murry", an apparent mistake. In 1900 her granddaughter, Mary T. Merrill, was living with Esther Geppner in Manchester, NH.
Esther Geppner of Manchester, New Hampshire. She was born ca. 1843 and most probably arrived as "Esther Mack" in Boston in 1860; also appears as "Mack" on 1865 census in Lawrence. Married as to John Geppner as "McEvoy" in Lawrence in 1868, her parents named as "James and Mary." John Geppner witnessed Thomas McNamara's fourth marriage, also in 1868. The Mary Mack, age 55, living with the Geppners in 1870 in Manchester NH was most probably Esther's mother. And she was apparently the same "Mary(Walsh)McAvoy" who died in Manchester in 1881, age 72, daughter of Thomas & Ellen Walsh. Welch was an "Americanization" of Walsh. Esther's 1921 death record in Manchester gives her birthplace as DUBLIN, IRELAND, and her parents as "John" McNamara and Mary Welch. Her childrens' 1930 census records say their mother was born in "Irish Free State"(southern Ireland). One of her sons was named
James FRANCIS Geppner.
It would appears that your John McNamara (whose son was inexplicably left out of Thomas McNamara's 1890 estate settlement) was full siblings with Mary(Merrill)McNamara, since their parents are both named as James and Ellen; Esther (Mack) Geppner may have been a younger HALF sister, since her mother's name, Mary Walsh, was apparently different from John & Mary's(Ellen/Mary Muney?).
Many thanks for your assistance, Randall