This Horan Clan is from County Galway

We started our genealogical journey locating the gravesites of our first United States immigrants, John Horan and Catherine O'Neill in Fall River, MA.   We have verified another generation of parents as the research continues for the ancestral home in Ireland.  They are John Horan and his wife, Ann(e) Madden of County Galway. 

We now have 8 generations officially listed in our family tree. 

With all US documentation records exhausted,  I put a pause on the US efforts and focused time studying Ireland tribes and regional history.  The O'Horans (Ó hOdhráin 'descendant of Ódhrán) sept ( a branch of a family; especially : CLAN)  originate in County Galway, Ireland.  Both father and son, John Horan are from Galway.  Ann Madden descends from the chieftain landowners, O'Maddens of Galway as well. 

The son, John Horan's US Naturalization Certificate 1874

In the US, you may hear a number of Ireland counties the Horans originated.  There is one -- Galway is where the sept was established, then migration to County Mayo, Roscommon and more followed.   The O'Horan tribe were one of four families supporting the chieftan O'Maddens by the 16th century.  This is the Connacht region, still historically recognized today as one of four Irish Gaelic provinces, although it is not a legal government state.  Today we have record of Horan DNA descendants residing in County Galway and Roscommon, very close to the original location(s) of our branch of the family.  This is significant because John Horan the son,  emigrated out of Ireland to the US in 1851 and lists County Galway as his birthplace. This family remained in the original sept and did not migrate away, even after much social and political upheaval in Ireland, particularly after the English government dispossessed the O'Horan rightful land ownership and redistributed title to their loyalists (Cromwellian Confiscations) in the mid 1600s, as well as the devastating plight and human suffering of the Great Famine in the mid 1800s.  Despite the life-altering disruptions, the Horan surname is still very concentrated in this area. 

A sidenote about our recent DNA tracings. Connacht was ruled by Irish kings up until they were displaced by Anglo-Normans. English King Henry III granted the region to a Norman baron in the 13th century.  Connacht was also invaded at points in time by ancient Ciarrage and Milesian tribes of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain).  The Western side of Ireland was a trading destination, and close in proximity to Spain and Portugal.  Speculation where the dark hair comes from some in our Horan family. Perhaps another Horan blog post in the future will discuss our DNA test results. We recently identified 4th cousins in Galway and Roscommon through DNA networking. 

This map shows the ancient kingdoms of Connacht 750 AD.  Clan O'Horan and their tribal families lived in the Ui Maine kingdom in the Southeast corridor:

source:  Ancient Connacht;  sites.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/conkings.htm

Overlaying a modern map, you can see this is the same area our more recent ancestors resided.

source:  ireland-map.co.uk/map-of-connaught.htm

This is still a work in progress. Breakthroughs occur, but obviously at a much slower pace.  Records search in Ireland pre-1800s is largely handwritten (or non-existent), undigitized, or maybe only an index list reference only.  The Galway towns I am leaning toward through ancestral record research are connected to Ballinsloe, Meelick, Fahy, Loughrea, Portumna.   Most of this area is still rural and developed around the River Shannon.  John Horan, the son, listed a previous occupation on one of his US documents as fisherman, so it would appear this Horan family around the fishing and river/water locations of East Galway are consistent with some of John Horan's US statements of his pre-immigration skillsets.  However, the entire County Galway is known for exceptional sea and river fishing, with evidence of the Galway Fishery on River Corrib recorded as far back as the 13th century.  

The sea and shore preference where the Horans eventually landed on the southern coast of New England and primarily remain today perhaps is not as much a coincidence or result of forced migration out of need.  The similarities between the Massachusetts and Rhode Island settlements to Galway are indeed striking. 

An Irish Proverb

“An té a bhíonn siúlach, bíonn scéalach”

(He who travels has stories to tell)

References

Burke, D. G.  (n.d.). home. Burke’s East Galway. Retrieved January 20, 2023, from http://burkeseastgalway.com/

History of the Galway Fishery. (n.d.). Nature. Retrieved January 20, 2023, from https://www.nature.com/articles/150572a0

O’Donovan, J. (1851). Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the four masters, from the earliest period to the year 1616. Dublin : Hodges and Smith.

O’Laughlin, M. C. (2008). County Galway Ireland, genealogy and family history notes from the Irish archives: A research aid from the Irish Families Project. Irish Roots Cafe.

The Davenports Remembered

 

Fall River, Massachusetts-Friday, September 6, 2013

Today the Horans met at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Fall River to honor the passing of a family member, Bob Davenport.  The last member of the Horan-Davenport family legacy, the beautifully crisp and sun-filled service was attended by several members of the Horan clan.  Please take a moment to read about Bob Davenport's full and purposeful life.  Many wonderful and heartwarming stories were shared today by his cousins, clergy and friends who remembered him best. A fitting memorial to Bob and his beloved Davenport family:


(left to right) Anne Horan McMurrough, Claire Horan Brady, Bill Brady, John G. Horan, Patricia Horan Hand, Victor Hand

 

 

John Davenport, Gertrude Horan Davenport

(Written by John G. Horan)
Robert C. Davenport was born July 9, 1934 to Gertrude (nee Horan) and Jack Davenport in New Britain, CT, lived at 54 Seneca Street and attended New Britain High School. Later, his family moved to 59 Woodpond Rd., West Hartford, CT. Interested in aviation, he attended Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana from which he graduated in 1955 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Bob was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army through the ROTC program and counted among his duty stations Fort Riley, KS and Fort Eustis, VA. His specialty while in the army was transportation. Upon discharge from the Army, Bob started his engineering career, working for Convair in San Diego, CA. He lived in La Jolla and enjoyed the beach and surfing. He worked for Martin Marietta in Denver, CO where he became a fan of University of Colorado football and skiing in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.  During that time, he earned a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering at University of Denver. While at Martin Marietta, he worked on the original propulsion systems for individual astronauts in space. Bob's last job was as an engineer for  Boeing Corporation in Crystal City, VA from which he retired in 2008. Prior to induction into an assisted living facility in 2010, he lived at 10732 Wayfarer Road, Germantown, MD.

 

Never married, Bob enjoyed visiting his parents, uncles, aunts and cousins in Fall River, MA, Newport, RI and South Dartmouth, MA. He truly loved the New England area, particularly southeastern MA and would often visit to take advantage of the beaches, particularly Horseneck Beach and Westport Harbor. During the 1980's and 1990's, he was an avid runner and participated in several Half Marathons one of which was in New Bedford, MA. 



Young Bob Davenport

Bob was very generous to his closest relatives.  For Christmas each year, his present to his parents and his Aunt Catherine of Fall River was travel, dinner and tickets to a Broadway play. The first of these was "My Fair Lady". Other presents were tickets for several years to Army-Notre Dame football games held in Philadelphia.



Robert and John Davenport

He was a gentleman in the purest sense of the word, and a good son, brother

and cousin. In later years, he cared for his brother, John who had an

extended illness. Robert Davenport died in May, 2013 in his sleep. He has no

survivors. At the time of his death, he was in assisted living care at Arden Courts, Kensington, MD.

 

 

 

 

And We are Doran….

 

After chatting with cousin Bert Beckmann at a recent family gathering, I thought this might be of interest. Bert asked if I knew much of the Doran origins in Roscommon.  I have not focused on the Dorans, but have been in contact with distant family members who have kindly provided information for both families.  As you know, the basis of this Horan research project and subsequent blog was inspired by the meticulous detail in the Doran Family Tree by Mr. Jim McCarthy.  The photos above are from cousin Patricia of Hulls Cove, Maine. Patricia and her brother, John Horan, are the children of George and Emma Horan. George Horan was the youngest child of George Horan and Mary Ann Doran.

Pat and her husband, Victor, made the journey to Ireland this past April. With only the Doran tree reference in hand, they managed to find their way to Kiltoom in County Roscommon.  With the help of the grounds caretaker, Pat located a Doran ancestor buried in this Kiltoom cemetery.  Here is the inscription:

IHS

Erected by Mary

In memory of her beloved parents

John Doran who died on 26 August 1852 at age 55

And his wife

Margaret Doran who died on 22 December 1860 at age 48

Unable to document the relationship, Pat speculates they could be the parents of the first Doran immigrant to the United States and eldest son, John Doran.  Thank you to Pat for sharing your journey.

President John Adams (1797-1801)

If you are a descendant of Thomas Horan and Dorothy Donaghy (Nana), this may interest you.  I inadvertently found a genealogical link from Nana’s family to second US President John Adams. We do have a family tree from the Donaghy family tracing her family to the Mayflower passengers, but discovering a connection to John Adams is something I recently stumbled upon while reading John Adams epic biography by David McCullough.  In colloquial ancestral terms, even if you aren’t directly from the Horan/Donaghy branch, you’re somehow related to Nana anyway if you’re on my family member list, so read on!

1.      Dorothy Donaghy (married Thomas Horan-George Horan/Mary Ann Doran) was a 12^th generation descendant from the Mayflower Pilgrims, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. 

2.      John Alden and Priscilla Mullins had eleven children.

3.      John Adams' Great Grandfather, Joseph Adams, married Hannah Bass, daughter of John Bass and Ruth Alden (7^th child of Alden/Mullins).

4.      The Donaghys married into the ancestral line of Elizabeth Alden (2^nd child of Alden/Mullins) in the mid 1800’s.  

5.      Ruth and Elizabeth were sisters.  That would make President John Adams and his family distant cousins in our Horan/Donaghy line.

Here are more famous people we may claim ancestry from John Alden/Priscilla Mullins or John Adams:

·         John Quincy Adams (6^th US President)

·         Millard Fillmore (13^th US President)

·         William Howard Taft (27^th US President)

·         Calvin Coolidge (30^th US President)

·         Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poet)

·         William Cullen Bryant (poet)

·         Marilyn Monroe (actress)

·         Orson Welles (actor

·         Dick Van Dyke (actor)

·         Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poet)

·         William Cullen Bryant (poet)

(sources:  www.whitehouse.gov; www.alden.org; www.mayflowerhistory.com; John Adams by David McCullough-published May 22, 2001)

The Last Residence of John Horan

December 4, 2012 must be a lucky number combination. Our last stop after St John’s cemetery and and an impromptu invitation inside Michael Doran’s residence then took us onto more investigation back on the other side of town before we headed home. We return to concluding our research (for now) of Great Grandfather 3 John Horan and family. This house is 484 Beach St. in Fall River. We had attempted to locate the residences of John and Catherine Horan over the years by pinpointing their addresses in Fall River in the 1800’s. As mentioned in a prior entry, our previous trip in November was a bit futile as the number addresses from hundred+ year documents didn’t easily match up to today’s street addresses. Tenements built for the thousands of factory workers back then are in amazingly decent shape today and appear to still be multiple family residences, but obviously revising the building numeration made the task of identification a great challenge. However, we had another small sucess in the late afternoon. This nicely maintained little blue house was the last home we found belonging to Mark Shay and Ellen Horan Shay, the only daughter of John and Catherine. Perhaps GGF 3 John Horan moved here after his wife passed away in 1894. The family seemed to reside around Beach St and within blocks of this neighborhood. William J, his eldest son who is also buried beside his parents, also moved in with his father and the Shays in his later years and died in 1910. Daughter Ellen and her husband Mark, a Fall River police officer, certainly took great responsibility in caring for Ellen’s passing family members. I’ve not yet located where Ellen and Mark were laid to rest, but hopefully we’ll find the location soon.

Our main short term research goal is complete. We found our first Irish ancestors who escaped during a time of unimaginable strife of famine and sociopolitical upheaval in Ireland. John and Catherine Horan established a new foundation for their American Horan family to thrive. We want our children to have a sense of pride and accomplishment in their genealogical history that we all arrived to this country as immigrants and worked hard to achieve a great future. Revisiting the past and placing our feet in the same steps as our ancestors five generations later will hopefully preserve a legacy long forgotten.

Irish Proverb


Tada gan iarracht


Meaning: Nothing without effort

Uncle Michael J Doran (1860-1952)

We have to step out of order a bit, our Sunday afternoon was full of twists and turns.  After contemplating whether to hold onto this story or not, I decided to insert this as an unexpected surprise of our Sunday afternoon.  Read on and hope you enjoy the sidetrip.  If you are confused after this entry, refer back to the entry DISCLAIMER.  This is the beauty of a blog;  things happen. If this unconventional genealogy project bothers your formally educated senses, click out now J ……

After our succesful trip to St  John’s cemetery concluded, we drove up Broadway to see if we could locate the last home we found on record as the residence for the Horan-Shay family.  We’d come to Fall River the month prior but had trouble finding the exact buildings that matched street addresses from documents over a hundred years old. Driving in circles and pointing cameras out of car windows at private residences isn’t one of the safest weekend activities we suggest!  As we headed across town on Broadway, a sign caught my eye and we pulled over quickly. We’d inadvertently found the original home of another family member we knew of, but had not yet pursued.   This was the grand home of Uncle Michael J Doran.  He was the brother of Mary Ann Doran, wife of George F. Horan.  George Horan and Mary Ann Doran are great grandparents of my husband, Peter.   The photo above was submitted by Uncle Bill Horan/Aunt Mary Hawes.  ( left to right:  George R. Horan (son) , Mary Ann (Doran) Horan, Catherine Horan (daughter), George H. Horan, Dorothy (Donaghy) Horan, Michael J Doran).  We think our grandfather, Thomas Horan (son), husband of Dorothy, is likely the one taking this family picture.  Someone correct me, but this is the home on Broadway in Fall River three generations of Horans resided*.   More will be posted on this era of the Horan descendants soon....

(*Cousin John Horan in Virginia has kindly noted this is not the home he resided in with his parents, George and Agnes and his grandparents. It is another block away on Broadway. This is likely the rear of the Doran/Boule Funeral Home, which we show below. Also, he adds that Cousin Clare Horan Brady's son purchased the family home after Aunt Catherine passed in the 1990's and still has ownership today. Thank you, John!).

The Doran family name is and was a prominent name in Fall River society. Michael Doran was a successful business owner who had a department store at 235-237 South Main St in downtown Fall River. As was the fate of many, he lost everything in the Great Depression by 1930. Mary Ann and George took in their brother after his loss. His department store building is still standing ( a national drugstore chain operates on the street level) with his name inscription. (photo by Marc Belanger, 2007)

                                              

We parked in front of Boule Funeral Home at 615 Broadway and as I frantically searched through research notes about this property, the current business owner had seen us pointing and examining the façade and approached our car to greet us. What a wonderful introduction we had as we sheepishly rolled our window down and identified ourselves as descendants of the original homeowner, Michael Doran. Mr. Thomas Wilkinson is the director/owner of the Boule Funeral Home and was so gracious and excited to meet us as well. He joked he thought we might be insurance inspectors or something and perhaps he should inquire about our curiosity! He invited us inside for a quick tour as he had been working on restoring Michael Doran’s home and was equally fascinated by our family research project.

The Boule Funeral Home kept the property in excellent condition all these years.  Mr. Wilkinson has been keen to restore as much as he could to the home’s original character. Some things he showed me were removal of heavy damask draperies applied to the front windows and once the mitered cornices were removed, the found original gilded carved valances were still intact above the windows.  Much of the carvings, timber, stained glass and fixtures were still intact. This property and the house next door were built as identical twins. Michael Doran took his home to another level and added many more architectural details like the front columns and so many more interior upgrades.  A Doran genealogical tree notes Michael J Doran III married Catherine McFarlane in 1910, but she died in 1922.  Not yet sure when he purchased his Broadway residence, but he supposedly live alone with several servants on staff in this grand house.

This is a mahogany mantle installed by Michael Doran and had his initials carved and gilded into the face. When the Boules took occupancy, they apparently attempted to alter the “D” to a “B”. If you look closely at the letter,  can see where the change was made.  At least they left the overall fine workmanship alone!

Mr Wilkinson was so kind to take the time to give a brief tour of the property---unexpected and surprisingly, a Viewing was in progress while this conversation took place!  On a side note, he did know members of the Horan family in Fall River who had passed away and Boule handled a few of their burial arrangements decades ago.  He invited us to return again and would take us upstairs to view the rest of the house.  He did ask if we knew of any photos of Uncle Michael Doran existed in the family.  We have one which Uncle Bill Horan kindly sent us. If anyone else reading this blog happens to know of any further documents or photos of Uncle Michael, please contact me. Mr Wilkinson said he would love to have something of Michael Doran to display in this home they preserved so nicely all these years.

Irish Proverb



I scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.

Meaning: People live in each other's shelter.

Looking for 3rd Great-Grandparents John and Catherine Horan

We managed another quick trip to Fall River on a beautifully clear, somewhat windy Sunday afternoon in early December.  I’d written the offices of St. Patrick’s cemetery hoping the final resting place of John and Catherine Horan might be on record with one of the several Irish Catholic cemeteries in Fall River.  Prior to 1890, burial records for many Irish immigrants were sparse or poorly maintained, but I’d found their death records and knew the original family plot had to be somewhere in Fall River.  How exciting to receive a large packet of records for all known Horan family members from St. Patrick’s that week.  One of the smallest and oldest Catholic cemeteries in Fall River, St. John’s, had closed in the early part of the century and was open to the public only one day a week for just a few hours. St. John’s church was one of the first Catholic churches in Fall River. When it was consumed by fire, the larger St. Mary's Cathedral was built upon the same site.  As the Irish Catholic immigration grew in the boom years of Fall River, so did their places of consecration and community establishments.  John and Catherine were indeed listed with the old church records.  We headed back to Fall River asap that weekend to walk the grounds and find our elusive ancestors before the winter snow set in and delay our quest to find our first immigrant ancestors.

St John’s cemetery is surprisingly well-maintained by the Church, given the age and forgotten families long laid to rest here. Our children, Sydney, Christopher and Colin have embraced this family history project with much enthusiasm and are now quite experienced at our ground strategy. We each walk row by row of an area and read and decipher the markers, hoping we'll be the one who finds the family name.  It has been a great lesson for the children in investigation as well as understanding respect, honor and reflection of our ancestors.  12 yr old daughter, Sydney, won accolades this day for finding her 4th Great-Grandparents John and Catherine Horan.  Though small and not particularly crowded, St John’s has many headstones that have fallen or weathered and the type is unreadable. It was a bit sad to think these deteriorated headstones had gone unvisited by family members like us who had no idea where their ancestors had been lain to rest. It was a surprise and emotionally moving to see the first Horan monument was quite large and prominent in its position near this old tree.  Likely quite a lovely position in the springtime when the tree is in full bloom.  

The two eldest sons are buried with their parents. Their one daughter, Ellen and her husband, Mark Shay, likely cared for the aging Horans and ultimately erected the fine family marker here.  We said a prayer for our ancestors and reflected for a moment on the place we stood. We finally found our first immigrant grandfather from County Galway and his family more than 100 years later.

*IHS - Greek orthography for ‘Jesus’, Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus, saviour of mankind) or In Hoc Signo [Vince] (In this sign, conquer (www.historyfromheadstones.com; Irish gravestone inscriptions).


Irish Proverb

Is maith an scéalaí an aimsir.
Translation: Time is a good story teller.