"Start" makes me think of how I got my start in genealogy. I remember doing a homework assignment in the ninth grade to draw a family tree chart for one of my ancestors. My parents didn't know too much about any of our ancestors' origins, but we knew that my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden had come from County Cork. When I say we knew this, there was no proof, but just the family legend passed down from my great-grandfather Charles Creeden. I wish I had still had that homework assignment, but I'm guessing it looked a bit like this chart my Dad drew for me around 1999. Full details on my Dad's initial guesses on our Creeden family are here: Initial Creeden Chart.
With this start from my Dad, I was able to quickly find more information about Timothy's family and add a lot of descendants to the chart. Finding information about Timothy's parents and siblings took much longer. A census record that had the wrong birthplace and date of birth for Timothy threw me off the track for years.
I was finally able to connect Timothy to his family through his father Patrick Creedan's will, court records in Clinton County and Mercer County, Ohio, and his sister Julia's service as a nun in the Sisters of Charity. Julia's death certificate gave her parents' names as Patrick Creedon and Mary Coakley and her baptism record gave the location as Clondrohid, County Cork, Ireland.
When I finally found Timothy's obituary, it helped confirm I had the right family and provided details on his immigration through New Orleans. He was only three when he came over, so no wonder we didn't know too much!
I recently posted my latest Creeden tree here: Creeden tree. There are still some mysteries, but I've come a long way since that ninth grade homework assignment!
#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.
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