Gavin Families of Lafayette County 1860 & 1870

In my attempt to tie families back to my Hughes & Hastings I came across a baptism for one of the children of James & Sarah (Hastings) Hughes (with my comments on possible connections):

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (ICCC), Lexington, Missouri Baptismal: Oct 23, 1864; Sponsors: Thomas Gavin [unknown relationship, possibly a cousin to Mom, Sarah?] and Bridget Hastings [Grandmother?/Mom's side]; Edward Hamill

So, that prompts me to go look at the sponsors, and other Gavin families. Are they just neighbors? Kin? or County/Township Countrymen? So here's what I've come up with:

1860 census, Clay twp, Laf, MO (Dennis Gavin Adj)
Thos Gavin, 34, stone mason, Ireland
Mary Gavin, 25, Ireland
Michael Gavin, 2, had ditto (error?, or just in?)
_________________________
1860c Clay twp, Laf, MO
Thos. Gavin, 34, Stone Mason, Ireland
Mary " , 25, f, Ireland
Michael " , 2, m, " (ditto in census)
_________________________
1870 census, Lex, Laf, MO (in bef. 1858?)
Gaven, Thomas, 45, laborer, 450 - , Ireland
           Mary, 40, Ireland
   Michael 12, Margret 10, Thomas 5, Martha 6/12 all MO
>>>>also found in 1860 census, adjacent to Michael Hastings
Patrick Garvin, 30, Ireland
Catherine  "  , 26, Ireland
Mary  "  , 6, Va; Ellen  "  , 4, Iowa
_________________________
fit? 1880 census
Census Place: Lexington, Lafayette, Missouri Page 202B 
Mary GAVIN Self F W W 44 IRE  Occ: Keeping House Fa: IRE Mo: IRE
Bridget GAVIN Dau F S W 22 IRE Occ: Servant Fa: IRE Mo: IRE
Micheal GAVIN Son M S W 21 IRE Occ: Works In Coal Mine Fa: IRE Mo: IRE
Maggie GAVIN Dau F S W 19 MO Occ: At Home Fa: IRE Mo: IRE
Thomas GAVIN Son M S W 15 MO Occ: Works In Coal Mines Fa: IRE Mo: IRE
Mary GAVIN Dau F S W 8 MO Occ: At Home Fa: IRE Mo: IRE
_________________________

Note that Michael was born in Ireland. Based on all of the commonality of Irish names, this may be a stretch, but I found what looks like pretty close fit:

Mayo Ancestors - Official Genealogy records of County Mayo, Ireland

Type                     Baptism Record
First Name               Michael
Surname                  Gavin
Date of Christening      25 July 1858
Denomination             Roman Catholic
Address                  Curveigh Lower  (just 9 miles from my Hastings?)
Parish                   Aghagower Roman Catholic parish
Region                   South Mayo
Father's Name            Thomas Gavin
Mother's Name            Mary Keane
Sponsor 1 - Name         Mathew Keane
Sponsor 2 - Name         Bridget Keane
Reference  2-2 
-----
Which fits pretty closely with his death certificate:
MO Death Cert:
DoB: July 31 , 1858 - Ireland
DoD: Aug 8, 1930 - KCMO
Fa: Thomas Gavin
Mo: Mary Kane
-----
Another tie in to County Mayo may be concluded from the baptismal record of a daughter, Mary:

familysearch.org:
from Missouri, Births and Christenings
Name: Mary Gavin
Gender: Female
Event Type: Christening
Event Date: 17 Dec 1871
Event Place: IMMACULATE CONCEPTION,LEXINGTON,LAFAYETTE,MISSOURI
Birth Date: 12 Dec 1871
Father's Name: Thomas Gavin
Mother's Name: Mary Kane
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C51183-1 , System Origin: Missouri-ODM , GS Film number: 980518
--

spon: Peter Guil/Gill

spon: Mary Gavin ----- The Lexington intelligencer., October 07, 1905, Image 1 About The Lexington intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949 Death of Peter Gill, Died, in this city, Friday morning, at the home of his sister, Mrs. Patrick McDonald, Peter Gill aged 68 years. Mr. Gill was born in County Mayo, Ireland, and at the age of eighteen years came to this country. He had lived here for fifty years. For months he had been an invalid. The funeral services will be held Saturday morning at 9 o'clock at the Catholic church, Rev. Curry officiating Interment will take place in the Catholic cemetery. --- Peter was also witness to a Margaret Hastings (daughter of Michael and Bridget (Stewart) Hastings in 1867 (Lexington ICCC): m: Margaret to Patrick McGril wit: Peter Gill wit: Cate McDonald --- I also believe this is Patrick McGreal's baptism in County Mayo:  Mayo Ancestors http://www.mayoancestors.com/Default.aspx?SID=101699&PID=192156&Type=BI&S=BP 2/17/08 Official Genealogy records of County Mayo, Ireland Type Baptism Record First Name Patrick Surname McGreal Date of Christening 5 July 1842 Denomination Roman Catholic Address Balygolman Parish Aghagower Roman Catholic parish Region South Mayo Father's Name James McGreal Mother's Name Mary McGreal Sponsor 1 - Name John Boland Sponsor 2 - Name Mary McGreal Reference 3-3

-----
I didn't find Bridget in some of the early census, but this seems to fit in as the daughter, which is also interesting in that locating the area in Ireland that a person was born is a very rare find within death certificates:

Missouri D.C.
Mrs. Bridget Gaven Gossett
23rd St., Davis Twp, Higginsville, Lafayette, MO
Widowed: William Gossett deceased
dob: Feb 22nd 1856 - pob: Westport, Ireland (which is nearby the townships noted)
86 yrs, 3 mo, 5 days
dod: May 27, 1942
fa: William [sic?] Gaven/ Ireland
mo: Mary Cain / Ireland
informant: Mr. J. T. Summers, Higginsville, MO
----
So this may fit to her birth:
----
Mayo Ancestors Official Genealogy records of County Mayo, Ireland
  
Heading              Data
Type                 Baptism Record
First Name           Bridget
Surname              Gavin
Date of Birth        24 February 1856
Date of Christening  4 June 1862
Denomination         Roman Catholic
Address              Thonelegee (Curveigh Lower, the next baptism I have guessed about, is 1 mile away, just south of Aghagower and 8 miles East/NE of Derryherbert)
Parish               Aghagower Roman Catholic parish
Region               South Mayo
Father's Name        Thomas Gavin
Mother's Name        Mary Keane
Sponsor 1 - Name     John Keane
Sponsor 2 - Name     Bridget O Brian
-----

Evidence also appears to support that Dennis Gavin was a brother (adjacent to Thomas in 1860 census, and there were only a few Irish families in Clay Township in that census):
----
1860c Clay twp, Laf, MO
Dennis Gavin, 34, Coal Digger, Ireland
Mary " , 24, f, Ireland
Mary " , 5, f, Ind
-----
1870 census Lex, Laf, MO
Garven, Denis, 45, m, laborere, Ireland
  "  , Mary, 32, f, Ireland
  "  , Mary 14, f, Missouri (Indiana in 1860 c!)
  "  , Thomas, 9, m, "
  "  , Patrick, 7, m, " (DoD 1924/MO)
  "  , William, 4, m, " (DoD 1919/MO)
  "  , Rosa, 2/12, f, "
-----

So the conclusion I come to is, even if not blood kin, they appear to be within just a few miles of where I believe my Hastings were in County Mayo so they had something in common. Now if I could only find some descendants that I could compare DNA.....

Slainte'

Emigration/Immigration - the O'Histon/Heston/Hastings/Esthan

Anyone that has done a bit of Irish research know how frustrating it can be if it's pre extant (currently existing) census, and if your kin was Catholic prior to the 1870s. That's because the census that were taken were burnt up in the civil war fire in Ireland, and you weren't counted for civil records prior to 1870 if you were Catholic. Actual Parish Records do exist but they can be spotty at best.
A couple of things that might be helpful for stitching together kin is DNA, which I noted in my last post, and for various families, the Irish had a pretty good chance that if you have the same surname, and were from the same area, you have a good likelihood that you are related. That is a strong patronymic tradition, unlike other places in the world.
So how do I know my kin came from County Mayo? Luck
was on my side in a smattering of records that existed. That is at least for the Hastings (I'll use their anglicized name here). As noted in the previous blog post, there was an Uncle, two sons and a nephew that were in the Civil War. Three of them in a Kansas Regiment, then one very young son (as a musician) and his cousin in a Missouri Regiment. In those regimental records there were several record references to County Mayo, Ireland as their birth location.

Even my own Sarah (Hastings) Hughes, provided additional reference in one of her census to Ireland and "Co Mayo".

One cousin also found a picture of her great grandmother with a reference to "Westport" on the back of the picture. So when I (may) jump to the conclusion that I found a Parish record of the marriage for Michael Hestin and Bridget Stuart in the Westport area, I'll assume that's correct until I find out differently.
__________________________________________
Ireland, Mayo, Oughaval, Westport 1823-1904 LDS Film: 979,697
Westport Marriages, Diocese Tuam, Parish: Aughaval (Westport)
Sept 8th, 1826
Mich'l Hestin to Bridget Stuart
sp: Daniel Hestn and Anne Lydon 1.0.0
__________________________________________________________

I actually visited the area in 2010 and believe they are from an area south of Westport in Drummin.

Westport sits on Clew Bay on the upper end of Oughaval parish

As I mentioned, parish records are spotty, and with the exception of the marriage, I was unable to find any of the children's baptisms. Given the number of children they had in the 1820-1845 time frame that is a big disappointment, but then, is in my opening statement, that isn't uncommon.
My big breakthrough was finding one of the children was born in Liverpool which I was able to find the civil birth record, and by some exceptionally creative searching find the family in the 1851 census (identified as "Esthan", try garbling "Heston" and you can see it). The way I found this record is not by looking for the surname I expected, but just looking for "Margaret" of the right age (leaving surname blank), in Liverpool, with the birthplace of Liverpool... bingo... all the given names lined up with what I expected! So don't give up if you've tried the "expected" approach, you may need to get creative.

OK, from there the family apparently took two different routes. The men (except for young James) left for America and the others (except for Edward who stayed behind) left in 1855 from Liverpool

An image from a paper near that time for those emigrants crowding the docks with their meager possessions and the frightening prospects of being stuffed below decks for weeks on end, and to untold hardships to their new home in far flung places.

They then went through New Orleans up the Mississippi and Missouri river before reuniting in Lexington, Missouri.
Wait a minute... say that again? New Orleans? You mean Boston, or New York, or somewhere on the East Coast, right? Well that was another surprise. When searching for the ship that these ancestors came over on, I decided to broaden my expectations to other ports not usually associated with Irish immigration. That lead to finding at least this set of kin landing in America in New Orleans. Lesson learned: don't constrain yourself to what is "usually" or "standard" set of assumptions, if you can't find your kin, start broadening for those "less likely". It may just pay off.

What was fun about that is that I actually located a picture of the ship that brought my ancestor, her Mom, and a sister and brother to America.

The Screamer - Sailed from Liverpool to New Orleans. Found a painting in a Maine Museum. The name was supposedly from the sound created as the storms battered the sails.

This is the record of the Screamer Sailing from Liverpool. What is funny is that the original announcement said it was going to sail on March 17th, (St. Patty's day), I always imagined that the crew was partying too much to leave on time!

I've not been able to locate the ship that brought Michael Hastings or his sons Thomas (and possibly Peter), and daughter Anna (who came separately, too), to America, but assume they did arrive earlier and send for the rest of the family.

Thomas died just after the Civil War and I've never been able to trace Peter and James.

As for Bridget, Sarah, James and Margaret, it must have been a frightening experience to be traveling on that long voyage across the ocean, and then up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

My kin, Bridget, and her daughter Sarah, traveling with James (which is the last record I have of him) and Margaret (she was the one born in Liverpool)

This birds-eye-view panoramic is from just about the time that they arrived in bustling New Orleans!

You can imagine that this trip had to be by steamboat, which could actually be a very perilous way to travel. I visited a museum in Kansas City back in 2010 in a wonderful display of a steamboat that was excavated that would be from around that time frame. Listening to the dangers to getting snagged (impaled) in steaming upstream, the multiple boiler explosions, and other mishaps, it was NOT the Good Ship Lollipop! But what an exciting time for steamboat travel. I saw this in St. Louis and was in awe of the crowded dockside!

These pictorals were done for most major cities and towns and provide a glimpse into the past. Look for them in towns you are researching.

OK, now that I've done the set up to get to Lafayette County, Missouri, we can proceed to look at the families that congregated and what brought them through perilous waters and times to this land in the middle of the U.S.!

Hopefully this detail, although a bit much to trek through, provides a few ticklers for places you may have not looked for ideas on getting information on where your kin came from in Ireland. We'll explore more in future blogs.

Michael