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Author: dmfleck
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.canavan/17.64.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I think my great-grandfather John Canavan came from western Galway County, but I have no
soliod basis for this opinion. His naturalization record simply says Galway. Here are
excerts from the family history I am putting together:
----
John Canavan (1828-1886), my great-grandfather, emigrated from Ireland and was living in
upstate New York by the time he was 21 years old. We do not know the year in which he came
to America, but it was no later than 1849. That period between John's birth in Galway
in 1828 and the year he arrived in America was characterized by a huge emigration from
Ireland....
For purposes of genealogical research, the Galway Family History Society divides County
Galway into eastern and western halves, with a research Center in each section. The
western Center is located in Galway City. In an exchange of correspondence with this
western Center, they reported to us on February 1, 2012:
"As sources for genealogical research are extremely limited for the time-frame of the
early to mid 1800s, land records/surveys such as the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-1838)
and the Griffiths Valuation (1848-1864), can be useful in shedding some light on the
location of families in Ireland in those decades. Based on a general search of the
Griffiths Valuation, it was noted that the surname Canavan was particularly numerous in
the Moyrus/Carna, Ballynakill and Kilcummin areas of West County Galway and also in the
parishes of Killursa/ Headford; only one entry was located in the parish of Tuam."
The earliest record we have of John Canavan is his March 18, 1854 naturalization record in
Albany County, in which he declared that he was a native of Galway and that he had been
living in the United States for (at least) the previous five years. John married Clarissa
Delamere around 1850. Ten years later, the 1860 US Census listed John and Clarissa living
in Albany with four children and gives Ireland as their country of origin. The children,
of course, were all born in the US (in the State of New York). The 1860 Census says that
32-year-old John's occupation was "Brick & Stone Mason." His occupation
is given as a mason in the 1861 City Directory of Albany and in subsequent City
Directories and Censuses....
In early 1849, five years prior to his naturalization, we know that John was living in the
United States. Clarissa would not yet have reached her seventeenth birthday, so it
unlikely that they were married until later in 1849 or in 1850. Their first child, James,
was born in May 1851, a few weeks after Clarissa's nineteenth birthday. The Canavan
family Bible, purchased ten years after John and Clarissa's marriage, lists the
following dates of births and deaths in their family through 1917. This treasured record,
in the custody of my cousin Edgar Canavan, Jr., shows Louis Canavan, my grandfather, was
the ninth of their twelve children. It also shows that his mother died when he was eight
years old.
John June 23, 1828 - March 24, 1886
Clarissa May 10, 1832 - November 7, 1873
James F. May 28, 1851 - February 27, 1896
Louis April 7, 1853 - June 2, 1858
Harriet June 2, 1854 - September 5, 1854
Richard August 30, 1855 - September 23, 1897
Walter August 28, 1857 - January 22, 1908
William September 11, 1859 - May 11, 1917
Clarissa May 11, 1861 - July 21, 1862
John, Jr. May 3, 1863 -
*Louis P. October 3, 1865 -
Charlotte A. August 11, 1867 -
Frederick J. May 21, 1870 -
Charles January 8, 1873 - September 8, 1873
*my grandfather
The 1870 Census shows the Canavan family (incorrectly spelled Cannavan) with eight
children ranging in age from James at 19 years to Frederick at one month. In addition to
John and Clarissa (whose first name was also misspelled), the household included a
"Domestic Servant."
The November 8, 1873 Albany Evening Journal noted the death on the previous day of
"Clarissa Delamere, wife of John Canavan." Seven years later, the 1880 US Census
shows John Canavan as a widower with five children at home: William, John, Jr., Louis,
Charlotte, and Frederick.
----
In addition to John, Clarissa and their children, the 1860 Census lists a 25-year-old
Celiia Canavan as Housekeeper. She was a native of Ireland, seven years younger than John
and is probably a relative -- perhaps a younger sister or a cousin.
Michael, I don't suppose this will be of help to you, but you never know when some
chance item of information will open a genealogical door.
Raymond Fleck
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