Dohertys

     I was recently at a "Cousins' Brunch" where the Doherty side of the relationship was getting short shrift. To be fair, the whole affair was started by Jim Kennedy who was a Coleman on his mother's side. Most of the Colemans at this event are Doherty descendants as well.

    The Dohertys from whom we all descend are Hugh Doherty and his wife Sarah Evans.  According to ship list records, they are from near Castlederg, County Tyrone. Hugh, Richard and the daughter Sarah came to the USA first on the Ship North Star on 12 Aug 1846.  They landed in Philadelphia. 

Ship's Passenger List:  North Star landed at the Port of Philadelphia 12 Aug 1846

     One assumption is that Hugh and the 2 children came to the USA to get established before the rest of the family came to American on the 28th of April 1847.

Ship List from the Superior as transcribed by Dessie Baker.

   The family lived in Manayunk, which was later annexed into the city of Philadelphia. During the 10 year period they lived there, one child was born:  Francis; one child died: John; and one daughter married.  The baptismal records for the Church of St. John no longer exist for the year that Frank was born.  It is an assumption that John died, but I have no record.  He does not appear in the Minnesota Census of 1860, and he was too young to be living independently.
     There is a brief notation of "Mrs. Ferrell, who remained in the East" in a newspaper article about the Dohertys. St. John the Baptist records have an Ann Doughtery marrying Martin Farrell on 6 October 1859. The Farrells had 6 children:  Thomas, Mary Regina, Joseph, Ann, John and Catherine. I am still researching this family.
     By 1860, the Dohertys were living in Tyrone Township, Le Sueur County.  In the 1857 Minnesota Territorial Census, 3 Doherty brothers were living in Stillwater.  From the census, it appears they were working at a lumber camp.  

1857 Minnesota Territorial Cenus, Stillwater, Washington County, Minnesota Territory, October 1857

     The family minus Richard appears in the 1860 Minnesota Census in Tyrone, Le Sueur County.  No matter how I spell Doherty, I can't find Richard in the 1860 census. The next record for him is in Tennessee (and wouldn't I love to know the story behind this member of the family!!!)
     Hugh Doherty was educated--meaning he could read and write.  This is not usual for many Famine era immigrants.  He was active in both township and county government.  He served as a supervisor in Tyrone and was instrumental in naming the township. He was also one of the first Le Sueur County commissioners and served several terms.
     Hugh and his wife remained in Tyrone, Le Sueur for the rest of their lives.

DEATH OF HUGH DOHERTY

In the death of Hugh Doherty which occurred at noon on Thursday last, at the residence of his son James, in Tyrone Township, another old settler has been taken to rest. Mr. Doherty was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in September 1802, and was therefore in his 83d year when he died. He came to America in 1846-just escaping the terrible hard times of 1847 in his native country-and located in Manyunk, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he remained until 1856, when he came to Minnesota, and took a government claim of 160 acres in Tyrone, where he had lived ever since and where he died. His family came the following year. The deceased was chairman of the first board of supervisors of Tyrone township and named the town after his native county in Ireland. (The other two members were Louis Winterfeld and David Jones, the first named of whom is living yet.) He was also one of the earliest members of the board of county commissioners in the county. During the earlier years in Tyrone he also taught school a number of terms. In his public as in his private life, Mr. Doherty was a model of conscientious and honest citizen, and no kinder hearted, upright or agreeable neighbor ever lived. He was a christian in the highest and truest sense-and one who carried his notion of christian duty into all walks of life and when Death came at last, he was shorn of his terror for the venerable and venerated man of faith and works, who welcomed his departure from earth as one who had done the best he could and was ready to lay down the burden of life. The world is better that such men have lived. The deceased leaves a wife, aged 80 years, in feeble health, four sons, James, Samuel, (in Stevens County,) Patrick and Hugh and one daughter, the wife of Patrick Cantwell. The funeral took place at St. Thomas on Saturday and was one of the largest ever known in the county.

Le Sueur Sentinel, Nov. 27, 1884

Quiltless

Margaret Doherty & Dave O'Connell Family
Ann (Ma), Margaret, Alice, Dave, John
But look past them to the quilt!

     Here is the only photo of ancestral type people that has a quilt in it.  If you've read any of the pioneer stories or looked at quilt books, they discuss how women saved every fabric scrap for inclusion in a quilt for the home and got together on winter days at a quilting bee to help each other get a quilt made.  People often bought feedsacks by the fabric it was packaged in so the bag could be reused in a quilt.
     The quilt behind them is a tied quilt. This wasn't meant to be decorative, just functional.
     I don't remember anyone in the family talking about quilting or quilting bees.
     The quilts most people make today, by buying yards of material specifically for a quilt, would probably seem wasteful to many of the ancestors.

"I have called you by name, you are Mine." Isaiah 43

     The Irish often followed a naming pattern when giving their children names. You can see this play out in Ma's family. The children in the family are Mary Alice, Ann Mary (Ma), John, James and Dorothy.

The pattern is:
Sons
1st son was named after the father's father
2nd son was named after the mother's father
3rd son was named after the father
4th son was named after the father's eldest brother
5th son was named after the mother's eldest brother

Daughters
1st daughter was named after the mother's mother
2nd daughter was named after the father's mother
3rd daughter was named after the mother
4th daughter was named after the mother's sister
5th daughter was names after the father's sister

Ma's parents were David O'Connell and Margaret Doherty. David's parents were John G. O'Connell and Mary Ann Pyles. Margaret's parents were James Doherty and Ann Heatherston. Now, when you get to Dorothy, by tradition, she should have been named Margaret. The mother has the option of giving this daughter another name she likes. Colette Keniry used this option. When she got to the third daughter, she named her Fidelma. 

The pattern isn't exact in the James Doherty family. His parents were Hugh Doherty and Sarah Evans. Ann's parents were Richard Heatherston and Roseann Lynch. The children in this family were Sarah, Richard, Rose, Margaret, Hugh, Mary, Matthew, Samuel and Michael. It would be understandable that the name Richard preempted Hugh because Ann's father died about 1867, so it the first son may have been named after him. The next son is named after James' dad. Matthew is a brother of Ann. Both Ann and James have a brother Michael. Margaret is an older sister of Ann. At least the names are mostly in the family. The name that is puzzling is Samuel Henry.

Of course, this was not set in stone. If a child dies, you will often find another child given the same name in order for there to be a living namesake. Sometimes the pattern wasn't followed at all. If someone in the family died, a child could be named after that person, altering the pattern.

I remember Mom saying that her father wanted to name her Bridget. This would have followed the pattern for his mother's name was Bridget Whalen Hogan. None of the children were named according to the pattern, though Catherine had her mother's name and Uncle Jimmy had his father's first name.

One of my favorite stories is about all the Timothys in the Burns family. There were a lot of Tims. They were given nick names like "Old Tim", "Big Tim" and Timothy Q.

To differentiate people, names were often combined. There was a woman called Ceily Dick. Her name was Cecelia Kilduff Byrne. Her husband was Richard Byrne--thus her identifier. In Ireland, sometimes the nicknames would indicate the father. There is a Timmy Patsy Herlihy--his father is Patrick. There is a Jehr Billy--his father is William Herlihy. There is also Thad Jack--you guessed it--his father is John Herlihy.