It’s time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy’s fun weekly genealogy challenge! This week I’m supposed to identify my TMRUA–third most recent unknown ancestor and supply some information on him or her.
I am able to go out to my 4th greats for most of my lines (except the Jackson’s) I have to go out to my Kelly line for ??? Kelly, the most recent unknown. ??? Kelly is my 4th great grandfather in my Mother’s maternal line.
I know very little about him. I don’t even know his first name. I do know that he was from County Roscommon, Ireland. He was probably born around 1790. He had two sons, Michael (my ancestor) and John.
As I recently did all the input on my Kelly line, I don’t need to scan my files. No record that I’ve come across as yet has given me his first name.
This line is a tricky one because these darn fools decided to live in San Francisco before 1906. Most of the records that might have shown his name were probably destroyed. Martin Kelly was naturalized in San Francisco, so that record is probably unattainable. Martin died in 1899 in an area of San Francisco that borders the county line. I’ve held out hope that perhaps Martin’s death records are in the next county and maybe still around.
Martin’s trail leads back to Roxbury and Boston, MA and then to Manchester, New Hampshire. It may be possible that some record in those states has the information that I need. I do not know as yet if Martin was married before or after coming to America. Maybe, just maybe, there is a marriage record in New Hampshire with his father’s name.
John Kelly might provide information that Martin didn’t. So far, I’ve only been able to establish John in San Francisco as early as 1874 (Martin arrived with his wife and children in the mid 1850s). I’m not sure if he took the same migration path as Martin. Perhaps John was naturalization in another state which would make it much easier to locate the records. As of yet, I don’t have a death date for John. If he was kind enough to live beyond July of 1905 when official vital records recording began in California and preferably to 1907, there may be hope that a death record is on file.
One other thing that I have to figure out is if there were more siblings. I only found out about John about three years ago when an article in the newspaper reported that Martin’s son, Michael Kelly, committed suicide. That is when I learned that he had a brother. There are considerable years between Martin and John if I am close to right on their ages. About 15 years. There must have been several siblings in between there. Did they come to America, too?
I have yet to delve into Irish records as I don’t feel I have enough information to really do anything with them. Those records would most likely be where I can find the family connected together.
I hope that my 4th great grandfather won’t always remain a question mark. Even with San Francisco, new records come to light from time to time. His name may come out one of these days.