Where do we begin?

One of the things I love most about genealogy is uncovering the story beneath the facts.

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the data - census reports, wills, land records, etc.  But what makes this uniquely fun is using those details to give shape and substance to those living/breathing individuals who ultimately had a hand in creating you.  One of those individuals for me is my 2nd Great Grandmother, Ann Durkin Donovan.

Ann was born on June 21, 1856 in Middlesborough, Yorkshire, England to Irish parents, Michael and Ann (McQueeney) Durkin.  The first record of her living in England comes to us via the 1871 census. Ann had 11 siblings.  As of the census shown here, two had moved out of the home already and three had yet to be born. 

Before the year was out, Ann would also leave the family home to marry John Donovan, a Puddler, when she was just sixteen years old.  As is evidenced by the "Entry of Marriage" below, their courtship came quite easily, as John was a border in a house just a few doors away from the Durkins on Charles Street in Linthorpe (a suburb of Middlesbrough). The two were married at St. Mary's Catholic Church on October 23, 1871.
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John had come to Middlesbrough sometime between 1861 and 1871 from his home in Newport, Wales, most likely to apprentice for his position as a Puddler.  While John's mother Ellen (Lewis) was born in Breconshire, Wales, his father, John Denis, had moved there from Cork, Ireland sometime after the start of the great famine in 1845.

Through research, it is believed that John Donovan left England, Ann and his family via Liverpool in 1881 aboard the American ship "Indiana" and arrived in Philadelphia in September of that same year. He was traveling by himself, so we can reason that he must have come to America to search for work.  Though it is not easily uncovered, we can assume that he made at least one return trip to England to prepare his family for passage to America, as the facts below suggest.

In 1884, Ann Donovan would board the Steamship "British Prince" alone with six of her children ranging in age from 10 to 3 (Mary, Ellen, Catherine, Ann, Sarah, and Agnes).  An infant (listed on the ship's manifest below), born aboard the ship, would be the couple's first boy and would be named after his father.  He would also be my maternal Great-Grandfather whom our family would come to call Gray Jack. 

John and Ann settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania and would have another seven children between 1887 and 1897, for a total of thirteen. The photograph to the right is thought to have been taken in celebration of their 20th wedding anniversary in approximately 1891. 

For reasons unknown, John would leave Ann and the children sometime between 1897 and 1899 to return to his home of Wales, settling in Pontypridd where he worked as a knife sharpener.

​Ann, in the meantime, became very ill and died from stomach cancer in 1900 at the age of 44, leaving the older girls to raise their younger siblings in the family home at 1331 South Irving Avenue, Scranton.

Ann and John (circa 1891). I know that my Donovan relatives will agree that the family resemblance is quite strong in these too.

The funeral notice of Ann Durkin Donovan from The Scranton Tribune (Feb 15, 1900).

John never returned to America or to his children and died in 1909 of a stomach ulcer at the age 61. 

Anecdotally, Ellen and Catherine (Kate) Donovan would marry and move to respective homes on Fig Street, just a few blocks from their siblings.  Ellen and her husband John Jackson lived in the 400 block of Fig, while Kate, and husband Michael Caffrey, lived in the 700 block, which, coincidentally, is the exact same street where I was born and raised.

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Our grandfather Gray Jack would go on to have exploits of his own.  Those I'll save for another chapter.  And his sisters and brothers would raise large families across the Scranton community.  Below, you'll find a passing glance at several of Ann and John's descendants - specifically, their eldest daughters Mary (Blake) and Ellen (Jackson), with their husbands and children.  

Looks like the kind of family gathering we Donovans have come to know well if you ask me.

Revised Update (9/8/17):  We now know that John Donovan Sr. did not go to Wales, but rather went west into Pennsylvania to find work.  See details of his tragic end in the next blog entry.
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Interested in uncovering some of your own family roots?  I would love to help.  Visit this website for more details.