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Author: jimbosity
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.indiana.counties...
Message Board Post:
The birthdate information for Jeremiah Downey, based on census records, is unfortunately
not accurate. He was baptized at Beaufort RC Parish, County Kerry, in August 1861, son of
Timothy and Nora/Honora (Connor) Downey. (The record gives the mother's first name,
erroneously, as Mary.) His older brother Timothy, who married Ellen Sheehan in 1891 (his
2nd marriage), and died in March 1834 at Danville, Illinois, was baptized at Beaufort in
1858. Their brother Patrick, born c.1855 (no baptism found), married 1884 Johanna Dowd,
and died in Coles County, Illinois about 1917. There was also a sister Bridget, baptized
at Sneem RC Parish, County Kerry in 1846, no further info. The Downey family apparently
originated in Sneem, moving into Beaufort Parish c.1857, and the records of Sneem are so
fragmentary that we are missing three of Timothy and Nora's seven children (the 1900
census states that Nora was the mother of 7, 3 of whom were living in 1900). One more
likely child is !
the Thomas Downey who died at Mattoon, Illinois, c.1879 (?). Timothy Downey, the father,
was born, according to his gravestone, in 1794 (surely some years later), and died at
Charleston 14 November 1896; Nora Connor, his wife, was born April, 1820 (if we can
believe the 1900 census), and died at the home of her son Patrick in
1909. These Downeys were very closely related to another Downey family of Sneem, three
brothers who emigrated earlier than Timothy's sons, but to the same places (Terre
Haute, Indiana, Charleston, Illinois, etc.), They were Daniel Downey (b. say, 1809, died
at Charleston 1894), who married Mary Connor (died at Terre Haute 1885); James Downey (b.
say, 1822, died at Terre Haute 1887), who married c.1850 at Newark, NJ Anna McGivney (died
at Terre Haute 1881); Jeremiah (b. say, 1825, died at Spokane, Washington 1907), who
married (1st) Ellen Griffin and (2nd) 1867 Julia McCarty. The children of Daniel and
James (both of whom came to the USA by 1851) were extremely close to the family of Timothy
(b. 1858, who came here c.1882), and were always said to be cousins, with baptismal
sponsorships among them; Daniel's daughter Bridget Downey married 1869 Patrick Barton,
maternal uncle of Ellen Sheehan and Mary Sheehan, who married Timothy and Jeremiah
Downey.
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