Sunday, October 23, 2022

Church Record Sunday - Baptism of Patrick William Creedan

Patrick William Creedan was born on May 16, 1864 to parents Patrick and Hannah Hoover Creedan. The family lived in Clinton County, Ohio, but Patrick was baptized in St. Andrew's parish in Milford, Clermont County, Ohio. Construction of the Catholic church in Clinton County wasn't completed until 1868 so the family had children baptized in the nearby parishes before the new church opened.

Baptism record for Patrick William Creedan, May 29, 1864

The image above is the entry for the baptism of Patrick William Creedan. The baptism was recorded in Latin and the year 1864 was written on the top of this page. On the left of the record, the baptism date was given as May 29 and the date of birth as May 16. The entry roughly translates to "I baptized Patrick G. son Patrick Credin and Hannah Hoover, sponsors Timothy Kiefe and Margarita Calahan". The priest's name was abbreviated to J. B. OD.

Patrick's name is given as Patrick William in his father's will in 1883, so I believe the initial G in the baptism record stands for Gulielmus, the Latin version of William.

A transcription of the record was made for the diocese of Cincinnati. The name of the priest is spelled out as J. B. O'Donoghue. The number 23 on the left is the entry number for Patrick's record in the ledger. There are a couple of mistakes in this transcription. Patrick's mother is given as Anna instead of Hannah and Patrick's middle initial is given as J instead of G.

At some point, Patrick started using his middle name William instead of Patrick. Patrick was listed as Patrick in the 1870 census and Patrick W. in the 1880 census for Clinton County, Ohio. His father Patrick's will left a share of the estate to his son Patrick William in 1883. In the distributions from the estate in 1884, Patrick is named as Patrick W. Creeden, minor. In the final account of the estate in 1885, Patrick's name is given as Wm. P. Creeden.

Wm P Creeden named in final account of estate in 1885
In 1885, W. P. Creedan marries Mary C. Snyder in Clinton County, Ohio. Quaker records in Clinton County from 1887 and 1889 mention a John and William Creeden. John's wife and children are listed in the records and they are match for Patrick William's brother John. The William in the records is most likely Patrick William.


In 1886 or 1887, the birth of Minnie Creeden was registered in Greene County, Ohio to parents Wm. Creeden and Mary Snyder. They are living in Bowersville in Greene County. The date of the birth was given as May 11, 1886 and the location of the birth was Sabina, Clinton County, Ohio. Sabina was also the location in the 1870 census for Patrick and Hannah Creedan.

 

In 1900, John and William Creedan are listed next to each other in the census for Darke County, Ohio along with their wives and children. Note that Williams birth month and year are given as May 1864.

By 1905, William Patrick Creeden and his family were living in Kansas and appeared in the 1905 state census for Kansas. William's age was given as 42 and Mary's as 43. William died in 1909 and is buried in Kansas. His tombstone in Kansas gives his year of birth as 1862. I have a few cases in my family tree where the wrong year appears on a tombstone, so it's possible that a family member gave the wrong information.

My conclusion is that Patrick William and William P. or W. P. Creeden are most likely the same person. Most of the records indicate that he was born in 1864 with the exception of his tombstone. That discrepancy leaves some room for doubt, but all of the other records with a date seem to indicate that he was born after 1862. Mary's tombstone also gives her year of birth as 1862 and this is more consistent with the census records which indicated she was a year or two older than her husband.

A final note is that my sister and I have several DNA matches to descendants of William and Mary Creeden. They are similar in size to our matches from the other children of Patrick and Hannah Hoover Creedan. The matches form a cluster where we are all sharing the same matches, so that indicates there is a relation between the Kansas and Clinton County Creeden families.

Sources: The Roman Catholic baptism registers for the diocese of Cincinnati are available on FindMyPast.com. The Quaker index is available on Ancestry.com. The other images in this post are available from FamilySearch.org.

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Sunday's Obituary - Opal Mary Creeden Wagner

Opal Mary Creeden Wagner was the daughter of W. P. Creeden and Mary Catherine Snyder. She was born in the Jackson township of Darke County, Ohio in late October or early November 1899. The entry for her birth in the Ohio County Births ledgers for Darke County appears below and gives her date of birth as November 8, 1899. The ledgers are available to browse by county on FamilySearch.org.


I posted the obituary for Opal's father last week. His name was given as W. P. Creeden in his obituary and Wm. Creeden in the birth entry for Opal. In Opal's obituary, his name is given as Patrick Creeden, so that might be a little more evidence that he was Patrick William, the son of Patrick Creedan and Hannah Hoover of Clinton County, Ohio. It's also possible that this was just an error by the newspaper or person that provided the obituary information.

Opal also went by her middle name. In the birth register, her name is given as Mary Opal and she appears in the 1900 census in Darke County as Mary O. After that, the records show her name as Opal or Opal Mary.

Opal's obituary was published in the Hutchinson News in Kansas on Friday, September 7, 1990. The cities referred to in the obituary are in Kansas with the exception of Greenville, Ohio.

Opal was married to James Maurice Wagner in 1947 when Opal was 46 years old. I haven't found any records of the couple having any children.

OBITUARY:

COLDWATER - Opal Mary Wagner. 90, died Thursday, Sept. 6, 1990, at Comanche County Hospital, Coldwater.

She was born Oct. 28, 1899, at Greenville, Ohio, the daughter of Patrick and Mary Catherine Snyder Creeden. She graduated from Fort Hays State Teachers College, Hays. A former resident of Stafford and Gravette, Ark, she was a homemaker and retired school teacher.

She was a member of the Baptist Church, Ye Olde Tyme Club, Vashti Chapter No. 64 Order of the Eastern Star and the Rebekah Lodge, all at Stafford.

On Aug. 17, 1947, she married James Maurice Wagner at Sublette, he died Jan. 3, 1983.

Survivors include: a sister-in-law and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral service was 2 p.m. Saturday at Peacock-Milton Funeral Chapel, Stafford, with the Rev. Glen O. Morford officiating. Burial was in the Stafford Cemetery.

Sunday's Obituary is a prompt developed by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here.

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Sunday's Obituary - W. P. Creeden

The following obituary was published in The Pratt Republican in Kansas on September 30, 1909.


   W. P. Creeden died at his home in the second ward last Monday, of consumption. The remains were interred at Green Lawn Tuesday. Mr. Creeden has lived in Pratt but a short time, having come from Meade.

William P. Creeden is buried in Greenlawn cemetery in Pratt, Kansas. William was only in his 40s when he died. He was married to Mary Catherine Snyder in Clinton County, Ohio in 1885. The family was living in Darke County, Ohio when the 1900 census was taken. By 1905, William and his family had moved to Sedgwick, Kansas. Children listed in the 1905 census were Minnie, Elsie, Orval, Ralph, Ellsworth, William, Opal and Violet.

In the 1900 census, William and his family were living next to John Creedan and his family. John was the son of Patrick Creedan and Hannah Hoover of Clinton County, Ohio. I suspect that John and W. P. were brothers or cousins. Patrick and Hannah had a son named Patrick William that may have gone by William. I lose the trail of Patrick William around the time that W. P. married Mary Snyder. 

My sister and I have several DNA matches to descendants of John and William, so we're related to both of these families. The matches are similar in size which indicates our relationship to John and William could be the same. John was a half-brother of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden.

I've seen several Ancestry.com trees giving William's parents as Timothy and Ellen Creeden from Hamilton County, Ohio. An obituary for Timothy and Ellen's son William shows he died in 1901. This William was married to Margaret Nolan and some of their children were born in the same years as W. P. and Mary's children.

Related posts:

Sunday's Obituary is a prompt developed by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here.

Monday, March 21, 2022

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 11 - Flowers - Rose Creeden

The theme this week is "Flowers."  Spring isn't far off for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and with that comes thoughts of flowers — which, not coincidentally, is this week's theme! Any Roses, Daisys, or Petunias in the family?

 

Rose Creeden was the half sister of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden. I've posted about Rose before, but have found a couple of new records for her since then. Timothy became her guardian after their father Patrick's death in 1883 and the guardianship papers showed that they moved from Clinton County to Mercer County, Ohio. These records helped to provide proof that Timothy was the son of Patrick Creedan of Clinton County.

Rose was born on 02 May 1861 in Clinton County, Ohio to Patrick Creedan and Hannah Hoover. She was baptized in St. Brigid's parish in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio. I've only recently become aware that a lot of my family's church records are in Greene County probably due to that being the closest Catholic church during the 1850s and 1860s. The baptismal record from St. Brigid's is shown below. The full record is available on FindMyPast.com.


Patrick's will of 1883 left two shares of his estate to be used for the care of Rose. According to the will and guardianship probate records, Rose was unable to care for herself. Timothy served as her guardian until at least 10 December 1895 when Rose was admitted to the Mercer County Infirmary. I don't know if she was admitted to the home because Timothy could no longer care for her financially or if her condition became worse. The money set aside for her care in Patrick's will may have run out by then. Timothy died in 1899 and there was no mention of Rose in his will.

In 1914, the infirmary underwent renovations and an inspection according to a newspaper article in The Coldwater Chronicle, published on 05 May 1914. The article states: "The women that were not too feeble to be about greeted the visitors warmly... Rose Creeden was busy with her day’s round of cleaning, in which she takes extraordinary pride.". Rose was also listed as a housekeeper in the 1880 census, so it does seem like she was able to do some tasks. The paragraph of the article the mentions Rose is shown below. The full article is available at The Coldwater Chronicle archives.

 

Rose lived out the rest of her life in the Mercer County Infirmary and died on 30 June 1922

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.