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Surnames: Carrs of Port Richmond/Kensington Section of Philadelphia,Pa.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5gH.2ACEB/2792.2.1.1.1.1.2.1
Message Board Post:
I wish I could be of more help to you. My paternal Ggm was MaryEllen Carr/Kerr. She
married my GGf Hugh Kirkwood somewhere in Ireland about 1868. They had one child Mary Jane
born, about 1870 in County Meath. They emigrated to Philadelphia about 1873 and settled
around 12th & Moyamensing Avenue in S Philly., per the 1880 Census. They moved to the
Fishtown section prior to 1910, to the 2500 block of E Gordon St. Mary (akaEllen
)Carr/Kirkwood died about 1890, just after her eldest daughter Mary. My GGm was about 39
and her daughter was 14. The entire family is buried in Old Cathedral Cemetery in Juniata
around Front and Luzerne Sts,except, my grandfather James Kirkwood. My GGf worked as a
machinist for the US Navy at the Phila Navy Yard. He was said to be a drinker and
"womanizer" and a sailor in his younger day. I have no way to dispute or
confirm any of this, as we didn't know they existed until this past year when my
fathers' eldest sister passed away and the deed to!
the plot was located in her papers. I don't think they were a very close family. My
fathers family (his father -Mary and Hughs' son James- is my grandfather), stayed in S
and SW Philly and Delaware County,Pa. The last to die was Ellen Kirkwood who lived in the
Fishtowen section of the city. She died in 1941 at 40 years old from cancer, She died in
PGH. If you can make any sense of this ,let me know. I have been trying to locate any
records of a birth of a KIrkwood in County Meath for about 3 years, to no avail. It is
believed that my GGm may have had family from Ireland that settled in the Fishtown section
around the time of the 1900 census, but can find no Carrs/Kerrs in that area at that time.
We have checked every church in that area at that time, to no avail. JIM