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Surnames: Carr, Conboy, Norton
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/5gH.2ACEB/2602
Message Board Post:
Sarah Jane Carr (1866-1951)
Killerroran, County Roscommon, Ireland
Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, USA
Sarah Jane Carr (1866-1951) was born in Killeroran, Ireland on the Galway/Roscommon border
on November 18th. Her father was Thomas Carr and her mother was Bridget Conboy. She had a
sister, Katherine Carr that came with her to the United States. There was also a cousin
that came over, Mary Agnes Conboy, who married a McLaughlin. She immigrated in 1885.
Sarah, her sister Katherine and he cousin Mary were indentured servants, their passage to
the US was paid by the rooming house in Brooklyn that they worked in, and they had to work
for 5 years to pay off that debt. Sarah married Patrick J. Norton on April 13, 1890 and
the wedding was attended by John Norton, Patrick’s brother and some of the Hogans that
were her cousins. They had five children, but only three lived to adulthood, Thomas
Patrick Norton (1891-1968), James Joseph Norton I, and Katherine Mary Norton. Patrick
worked as a laborer on the railroad, but both Patrick and John died in 1905 at just around
40 years o!
f age. John died of tuberculosis. There may also have been a brother, Matthew Norton that
was the witness to the marriage of Pat and Sarah. Sarah somehow received a large sum of
money after Patrick’s death. The source of the money is not clear and she used it to buy
two newly constructed two family houses in the Horseshoe, or Irish section of Jersey City.
She lived in one unit and had family members living in some of the other units. Her sister
married James Joseph Kennedy and they lived in the Bronx. Thomas Patrick Norton, her first
born married Mary Margerite Burke, a schoolteacher and he worked on the Lackawanna
Railroad in Hoboken. He had the highest blue collar job at the railroad, he was the
stationmaster. He worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. James Joseph Norton held a series
of jobs but never had a career. He married Helen Maher, also a schoolteacher. Katherine
Mary Norton, another schoolteacher married a Langan. Sarah Jane Carr died on January 28,
1950 at!
age 84. She had travelled back to Killeroran more than one time. She is buried in Holy
Name Cemetery in Jersey City. Sara was know for her tall stories which have no bearing
with the family documanted history. She said that when she came to the US everyone was
wearing black armbands, and somehow the story transformed by her grandchildren as her
coming over when the president was shot. She said she was from Cork, but was from the
Galway/Roscommon border. She also told people that Patrick died from yellow fever during
the Spanish-American War and that the money she received was his insurance. She also said
that Pat was a farrier in Cuba during the war.
Source: Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 in New Orleans,
Louisiana, USA