I am descended from Maria Carden, born 27 Aug 1847, perhaps in "New Inn",
Ireland, died 3 August 1928, Salamanca, New York, where she is buried in
Wildwood Cemetery. She emigrated to Philadelphia, probably in 1868 or
1869, and married Richard Hevenor, her "childhood sweetheart", in St.
Peter's Episcopal Church on 3 Mar 1870. They lived in Salamanca, New York,
where Richard and his brother ran a successful mercantile business. Maria
had at least two sisters, Alice, b. CIR 1854, and Elizabeth, who married
someone named Lloyd. We currently think they were the children of John M.
Carden, b. CIR 1805, from what Arthur Carden labels the "Killard Cardens"
of Ireland.
Attribution of Maria (and her sisters) to the family of John M. Carden is
based on a single piece of evidence at this time [2001] and certainly needs
to be verified. On 8 Aug 1898, Thomas Watson, of New Zealand, whose mother
was a Carden, wrote a letter to his cousin, William Condell Carden. In the
typescript copy of the letter, there are two references to a daughter of
John M. Carden in America, once as "Mrs. Neveron" and again as "Mrs.
Neveror". Both Maria Carden and her sister Alice married men named
"Hevenor". It now appears the transcriber of the letter mistook the
spelling of "Hevenor".
Another question at this time is the identification of the witnesses listed
on Maria's marriage certificate, William P. Carden and Mary E. Carden, in
Philadelphia.
David Carden Larkin
Sandwich, Massachusetts