Society Saturday - Ohio History Connection

See newer post with updated links at: Ohio History Connection.

If you have ancestors from Ohio, be sure and check out the the Ohio History Connection. This is the online home of the archives at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio. A few items I've found useful are:

Searchable databases - They have several databases searchable online including their online collections catalog, Ohio public records index, Ohio newspaper portal, and all volumes of the Ohio History Journal.

Ohio Public Records Index - Provides an index to Ohio death certificates and records for Ohio Industrial Schools searchable by name, county, and years. Names are spelled as they were entered into the index, so you may have to try variations. Only certain years are covered as stated on the main index page.

Online Collections Catalog - Searches their newspaper and state archives collections by keyword.

Newspaper index - This index lists their newspaper resources by county or city. Other documents available for the selected area are also provided in the search results.

Research guides - A set of research guides for help on researching specific record types.

Photocopy requests - Instructions on how to request photocopies of records in the archives. I had great success with this! I requested scans of microfilm images for a few issues of the Celina Democrat newspaper and received digital copies of the pages within a couple of days after making payment. Their email response was quick and very helpful and the quality of the scans was excellent.

This is just a sampling of what's available on their site. Thanks to the Ohio History Connection for providing such a valuable resource!

Note: "Flag of Ohio" image designed by John Eisenmann, SVG code by SiBr4 -  Licensed under Public Domain via Commons

Tombstone Tuesday - Sister Mary Felix Creedan

Sister

Mary Felix

Creedan

Died February 22, 1918

Sister Mary Felix was born in Ireland in July 1842 as Julia Creedan. Her parents were Patrick Creedan and Mary Coakley and her brother was my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden. Julia was baptized in Clondrohid Parish, County Cork on July 3, 1842 and was in Clinton County, Ohio by 1860. She entered the Sisters of Charity convent in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1870 where she took the name Sister Mary Felix. She is buried in the Sisters of Charity cemetery in Mount St. Joseph's, Ohio. Thanks to JP Finn for taking the photo and posting it on FindAGrave.

Census Sunday - John and Catherine Chilcutt

My 3x great-grandparents John Chilcutt and Catherine Harmon were living in Caroline County, MD in 1850. Their last name was spelled Chilcote and John's occupation was given as Carpenter in the census record.

There are three children in the household: Mary A., age 3, Caroline A., age 1, and James M., who was a few months old.

In the 1860 census, the family is in Talbot County, MD. This time John's name is recorded as John W. Chilcutt and his occupation is given as Farmer.

James, Mary, and Caroline are still in the household at ages 10, 12, and 11 in 1860. There are also Martha, age 7, George, age 5, Charles, age 4, Emily, age 3, and Lewis, age 1. A servant named Margaret Lloyd is living with the family. George is my 2x great-grandfather.

I didn't find any definite entries for the family in the 1870 census, but there were some Chilcutts with some of the children's names living with other families. It's possible that John and/or Catherine died by 1870 and the family was split up. George was married to Kate Covey by the time of the 1880 census, but I didn't find him in 1870. I'll post an update when I find out what happened to the family after 1860.

Church Record Sunday - Honora Creedan Baptism in Clondrohid Parish, Ireland

I've been searching for my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden's baptism record in the registers available on the National Library of Ireland site. From other records, I believe that Timothy was born in early 1846 and records for his siblings showed that they were baptized in Clondrohid Parish. Unfortunately, the NLI site shows that it only has 1846 records for November and December for Clondrohid. I've been searching through the nearby parishes, but so far haven't had any luck finding Timothy.

I decided to search for Timothy's siblings and quickly found a record for his older sister Julia. Finding his younger sister Hanora took a little more searching. I have a transcribed record that gives Honora's baptism date as August 6, 1848 in Clondrohid Parish, so started my search with August, 1848.

The first page that came up for August didn't have any trace for Hanora. In looking at the date, I wonder if this could be one of the missing pages for August 1846.

The next page for September also looked like it could be for 1846, as well as the page that followed for June.

Compare this to the second page tagged for September 1848, where the last number is definitely an 8.

Another page for August 1848 appeared a couple of pages down and this one looked like 1848. This is one of the harder to read pages, but I was able to make out the entry for Honora on August 6, 1848.

Hanora Creedan on Page 20, Microfilm 05003/01, Clondrohid Parish

The entry says that Hanora's parents were Pat Creedan and Mary Coakley. Witnesses were John Keeffee and Johanna Toomy and the location was Carrigapooca. Interesting to see John Keefe there, since a John Keefe and his wife Johanna Creedon were one of the other families that wound up in Clinton County, Ohio where my Creedens settled.

There are a few other Creedans on this page. At the bottom of the same page, I can't make out the date or child's name, but it also has the location of Carrgapooca. The parents are Daniel Riordan and Kate Creedan and one of the witnesses is Mary Creedan. The date above it is August 25.

Child of Daniel Riordan and Kate Creedan, August 1848, Clondrohid Parish

I'm finding that the Creedan spelling was used quite often in the Clondrohid records. Creedan also appears in the earlier records in Clinton County, Ohio, but most of them had changed the spelling to Creeden or Creedon by the 1880s.

Sunday's Obituary - Mary Coakley

This short notice appeared in the Wilmington Journal on December 28, 1887.

  The widow of the late Jerry Coakley died at the residence of her son-in-law, Patrick Egan, in Wilmington, on last Friday, at the age of eighty-four years.

Mary Ryan Coakley was born in County Cork, Ireland and came to Wilmington, Ohio with her husband Jerry Coakley. According to her tombstone on FindAGrave, Mary died on December 23, 1887 at the age of 81 years. Her son-in-law Patrick Egan was married to Catherine Coakley on September 13, 1868. Mary is buried in Sugar Grove Cemetery in Wilmington, Ohio.

I've been researching this Coakley family since my 3x great-grandfather Patrick Creedan was married to a Mary Coakley. Patrick Creedan and Jerry Coakley were both present at the first Catholic mass held in Wilmington in 1852 and the two families seemed close. I'd love to hear from anyone with information on the Clinton County Coakleys.