Genealogy Hedgecoe-McKenna

The possibility of more… Grace Catherine McKenna.

Posting Member:  Jenn & Jake
Topic: Flogging deceased equines.
Family Name Associations: McKenna, O’Neill and O’Brien
Location: Home.
Mood: Hungry.  It’s time for tea after this.

I don’t know if we’ve written this all out before, but in working on the O’Brien family today I decided it’s time we made a note or two.
William John McKenna had a daughter named Mary Teresa McKenna with his wife, Mary Teresa Stafford in Quebec.  Mary Teresa went on to marry Raymond Andrew O’Brien and move to Wisconsin, where we’ve been diligently following their lines to the best of our abilities.  We’re still looking for war records for Raymond Andrew O’Brien (WWI), and his son with Mary, William E O’Brien (Korea)… But it’s been a surprisingly difficult job.  We know they were veterans due to Sue Butterfield Picard’s very helpful assistance at the cemetery.  Proof beyond their gravestones seems to be hard to come by.

All of this leads up to looking for more McKennas and O’Neills.  We know they’re out there.  We know these lines are massive but we just can’t quite connect all the dots.
Starting with the possibility of an infant daughter named Catherine, Grace, or a combination of the two…

She’d have to be born in Chicago between 1869-1872 according to her siblings birth dates, but born after the 1870 Census because she doesn’t appear on it with her parents.  It is assumed if this daughter did exist, she did not survive or she remained completely in the US, although not with her Uncle, John O’Neill as we haven’t found her among his children.  As well, her name is completely outside of the naming trends we’ve found for these lines so far, but we do know we’re missing a whole lot of information.  We do know there is a Catherine Grace born a generation below to what would have been her brother, William John (Making her a sister of Mary Teresa from above), as well as a Katherine Marie born to her eldest brother, Thomas Edward.  Given this younger generation’s use of family names although not according to tradition, it could well have been to honour a beloved sister.

According to naming traditions – Which this family obviously observed – Thomas McKenna and Bridget O’Neill’s children are as follows:

Oldest son named after the Father’s father (Thomas Edward McKenna after Thomas McKenna)
2nd son named after the Mother’s father (James O’Neill McKenna after James O’Neill)
3rd son named after the Father (William John McKenna after Thomas William McKenna)
4th son named after the Father’s oldest brother (James Henry McKenna after ? Possible use of James again because of the death of James O’Neill McKenna as an infant)

Oldest daughter named after the Mother’s mother (Mary Alice McKenna after Mary O’Kane)
2nd daughter named after the Father’s mother (Margaret Ann Josephine McKenna after Margaret Moynaugh McKenna)
3rd daughter named after the Mother (Possibly Catherine Grace after ?)
4th daughter named after the Mother’s oldest sister

Today Jake and I are going to go back over the birth documents for Thomas and Bridget’s children.  Not only are we ever on the look out for Thomas Edward McKenna’s birth record…  We’re also going to start looking into who the sponsors were for each child.  We’re going to try and expand beyond what we’ve seen before to see more.  It might be a complete dead end, but it’s either try to find ways around the brick walls or stop dead!

One thing that has been bugging me is this…
If James O’Neill married Sarah McKenna, sister to Thomas who married Bridget…  Why weren’t any of Thomas and Bridget’s daughters named Sarah?  Admittedly, they didn’t have a lot of daughters…  But if Sarah’s a family name, why haven’t we seen more of it?  Even a cousin should have someone named after her with all these descendants.  There’s so much going on here behind the basics of what we’ve covered!
There will, without a doubt, be more from us as we work…

Jenn
Always one for making things pretty, Jenn is our resident artist. Métis, British Home Child Descendant, family historian and genealogist, she is always looking into some new branch of research and encourages historical preservation and education.

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