Ancestor Report
generation I

1 (0)
womanCatherine Antoinette Brown‏ PRIVACY FILTER
generation II (Parents)

2 (1)
manThomas Ambrose Brown‏
Born ‎8 Jan 1884 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota, died ‎20 May 1978 Billings, Yellowstone County, Montana‎, age 94 years
  Married ‎1918 Minnesota, age 33 or 34 years
Minnesota
(married 49 or 50 years) to:
3 (1)
womanEleanor Ann Boyce‏
Born ‎1891 Minnesota, died ‎6 Nov 1968 Billings, Yellowstone County, Montana‎, age 76 or 77 years
generation III (Grandparents)

4 (2)
manJohn A Brown‏
Born ‎7 Dec 1839 Pennsylvania, died ‎20 Aug 1893 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota‎, age 53 years
His gravestone in the Padua Cemetery says he was born November 3rd of 1839.

Died:
Brown- At his residence in the town of Raymond, on Sunday, August 20th , John Brown, aged 54 years.

While not altogether unexpected, the announcement of the death of John Brown was received with expressions of sincere sorrow in this city, where he has been well and favorably known for many years. He was highly esteemed for those sterling qualities which stamped him as a man moving upon an exalted plane. High ideals were lofty and he lived to them with rare fidelity. Honorable, honest and charitable, he was wondrously free from the petty foibles and inconsistencies which are blemishes upon human character. Frank and open as the day, with well-defined opinions of his aim, he always manifested that tolerance and regard for the beliefs and feelings or others, which characterize the true gentleman. In every relation of life he was above reproach, pure and noble in his life, he squared every act with the golden rule. As a citizen he was esteemed and trusted, as a friend true and generous, as a husband tender and loving and as a parent indulgent and just. He has raised a family of ten children who are an honor to his name and a credit to the community.

Mr. Brown was American born of Irish descent, removing from New England, where he was born, to Minnesota about twenty years ago, and for eighteen years he had been a resident of Raymond. He has filled a number of local offices, but never but once aspired to political preferment -in 1890 the nomination for the legislature was thrust upon him by the alliance party. While distasteful to him he made a gallant fight, but was narrowly defeated. He was a devout member of the Roman Catholic church, and he was buried by Father Bender in the cemetery in the Rooney settlement, his funeral being largely attended by sorrowing friends, who will long hold his memory in merited reverence. To his bereaved wife and children the sympathy of all is extended in the fullest measure.
  Married ‎10 Sep 1872 New Munich, Stearns County, Minnesota, age 32 years (married 20 years) to:
5 (2)
womanElizabeth T "Eliza" Rooney‏
Born ‎31 Mar 1854 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎30 Aug 1936 Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minnesota‎, age 82 years
A WPA Interview

BROWN, ELIZA (ROONEY)

Eliza (Rooney) Brown was born in the Gatineau River district in Ontario, Canada in the year 1854, a daughter of Patrick and Elenor (Tracy) Rooney. As a little girl she saw her father, a lumber contractor, clear the timber for their home on the Gatineau River on what is today part of the city of Ottawa.

In 1862, Patrick and Eleanor (Tracy) Rooney migrated to Minnesota by ox team, taking up a homestead in Raymond township, Stearns county. The Padua church of today is located on part of this original homestead and she herself planted some of the trees that now adorn the church yard. The old Red River Trail passed their home and here the young lady for years saw the ox teams, freight laden, plod their weary way toward the Red River Valley and the Dakotas.

On September 10, 1872, Eliza Rooney was married to John A Brown, a young man who had seen service on Mississippi River packets, transporting supplies for the Union soldiers during the civil war. The young couple settled on what is now known as the "Old Brown Farm", fourteen miles south of Sauk Centre. On this farm ten children were born. They are John A. Jr. who died in 1925; William A.; Henry H.; George F.; Thomas A.; Emily;

Eliza (Rooney) Brown's life might stand out as a beacon light to people of successive generations, to those who know only the trials of their own times. It was her pioneer spirit, the spirit of the ox-team and covered wagon days, that prompter her to carry on, when in 1893 her husband died, leaving her with ten small children, the oldest 18 and the youngest 2 years old, with their living to be made from the farm .

Eliza Brown went into the fields with her boys and carved out for her family their living and education. Eliza Brown carried on, doing a man's work on the farm, driving a team of horses fourteen miles to Sauk Centre each week to do her shopping, doing a mother's work in her home, raising a family. She was of the Catholic faith.

The last few years Eliza Brown made her home with her children in Sauk Centre. She died August 15, 1936 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Robert Malloy.

OBITUARY:

Sept. 10, 1936 Herald
Mrs. Eliza T. Brown Buried
Services Held At St. Paul's Church
Thursday Morning Largely Attended

Funeral services for Mrs. Eliza Brown, pioneer resident of Stearns County who passed away in this city on August 30th, were held in St. Paul's Catholic Church Thursday, September 3, and the thronged church together with the hundreds of people who viewed the remains at her home at tested to the love and esteem in which the lady was held.

A Solemn Requiem High Mass was celebrated. Rt. Rev. Monsignor August Plachta, Rector Mayer, of Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church was Deacon of the Mass and Reverend Vincent Fettgather, of Brooten, Minn. was Subdeacon of the Mass. the funeral sermon was preached by Rt. Rev. Monsignor Plachta.

The three priests accompanied the remains to Calvary Cemetery where the Ritual for the Dead was recited.
Mrs. Eliza T. Brown was born near Ottawa, Canada, March 21st, 1856. Her father was John Rooney. Her mother's maiden name was Eleanor Tracy . More than 70 years ago, she came with her parents to what is now the Padua district in this county. Here later the young lady was married to John A. Brown and with him built up the farm known today as the Old Brown Farm. On this farm their ten children were born.

Besides the ten children the deceased is survived by one sister, Mrs. Catherine McKenna, Seattle,Wa., and by thirty-one grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

The active pall bearers were Mr. Thomas Kinsella and the following nephews of the deceased: George and Frank Brown, William Riley, Joseph Egan and Frank Hoffman.

Honorary pall bearers were Dr. J.A. Dubois, J.F. Cooper, O.W. Winslow, William M. P., Henry Borgmann all of Sauk Centre and Mr. Charles Riley, Sedan. Minnesota.
generation IV (Great-Grandparents)

8 (4)
manThomas Brown‏ PRIVACY FILTER
  to:
9 (4)
N.N.‎
10 (5)
manPatrick Rooney‏
Born ‎2 Feb 1808 Ireland, died ‎9 Apr 1889 Bangor Township, Pope County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Stearns, Minnesota‎, age 81 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
Cause of death: Old age
  Married ‎± 1834 Ireland or Canada, age approximately 26 years (married approximately 35 years) to:
11 (5)
womanElenor "Ellen" Tracy‏
Born ‎1816 Ireland, died ‎25 Apr 1869 Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 52 or 53 years
Ellen died of a stroke.

The "Tracy" name seems to disappear in the Gatineau valley after the 1861 census.
generation V (Great Great-Grandparents)

20 (10)
manMichael ""Daddy Mick"" Rooney‏
Born ‎1782 Ireland, died ‎12 Jan 1857 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada Event Description: St. Camillus Catholic Cemetery, Farrellton, Quebec, Canada, age 74‎, age 74 or 75 years, buried ‎Jan 1857 Farrellton, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada
Michael Rooney and Catherine Caulfield emigrated to Canada around 1845 (although there are land records showing Rooney's in the Canada farm census of 1841). In their 60's, they followed several of their grown children, the earliest who was in Canada by 1829. They settled in the Gatineau River region of Quebec, north of Ottawa, near the town of Farrelton (present day La Pêche).
The two oldest boys - Patrick (b. 1808) and Michael (b. 1809) - had their own farms in Canada. They also probably did some contract lumbering as this region was rich in lumber and this was the heyday of lumber being shipped by boat to Great Britain.

Michael and Catherine's grandson Thomas T. Rooney, son of John R. Rooney (1854-1925), was possibly a second cousin to his wife Ellen E Rooney (1872-1902). Her grandfather, John Rooney, would have been born at an age to be a brother to Daddy Mick. John's descendants coincidentally fit into the Michael and Catherine Rooney line when a granddaughter married married a Daddy Mick Rooney grandson.

As of 2017, it has been proven by finding DNA matches on Ancestry between the Padua Rooney branch and descendants of the Avon Rooney branch. However, the exact connection is still to be determined.

The Egan's and Rooney's intermarried eight times (all of the couples dying in Pope or Stearns County):

James Rooney (1848-1926)
Ann Egan (1846-1914)

Mary Ann Rooney (1865-1937)
Dennis Egan (1849->1910)

William Edward Rooney (1897-1980)
Mary Emily Egan (1897-1990). Mary was an orphan train adoptee, so not genetically an Egan or a Rooney, even though her "grandfather" was John R. Rooney. Also, her husband William Edward Rooney was one of the "Avon Rooney's." Though not genetically an Egan or a Rooney, even though her "great grandfather" was Michael Rooney on the Padua side, she married William Edward Rooney whose great grandfather was John Rooney the Avon side. Thus by prior relationship they were 3rd cousins, but unrelated by consanguinity.

Mary Rooney (1837-1905)
James Egan (1826-1912)

Eleanor Rooney (1842-1902)
Patrick Egan (1833-1892)

Elizabeth A Rooney (1866-1904) (first-cousin once-removed to her husband)
Thomas Edward Egan (1862-1928)

Martin Gannon (1848-1911) (son of Mary Egan and grandson of Thomas B Egan)
Catherine Kilroe (1859->1940) (granddaughter of Bridget Rooney and great granddaughter of Daddy Mick/Mammy Kitty Rooney)

Daniel Michael Rooney (1955-2014) was related to his wife, Karen Ann Majerus (1957-living): His great great grandparents were Michael and Catherine Rooney, while Karen's 4x great grandparents were Michael and Catherine. Thus, they were third cousins twice-removed. Also, Karen is an Egan descendent as well.

Including the three cousin marriages listed just above, there are these additional three:

In 1877, Sarah Margaret Tracy, daughter of Ann Rooney, married her first cousin, John J. Rooney, son of Patrick Rooney.

In 1888, Hugh M. Rooney married his first cousin, Winifred Sophia Rooney.

In about 1889, Thomas T. Rooney of the Padua Rooney branch married his second cousin, Ellen E. Rooney, of the Avon Rooney branch.


Randy Rooney says (May 2016):

"I have been in contact with my closest Y-DNA result match who has a genetic distance of 1 out of the 37 markers I had tested. His great grandfather, Patrick [Rooney] b. ~1845, was from Dundalk, County Louth , just south of County Down. Is it possible that we aren't finding Rooney's in the area of Parish Moore since Michael wasn't from that part of Ireland, but just started his family there because Catherine was from there? And if Michael didn't have strong family ties to the area, did that prompt their emigration from Ireland. It seems reasonable they lived near Parish Moore at one time if Thomas married Ellen Ward there, and Michael/Catherine are listed as being from Co. Galway on the Canadian marriage record of John Rooney/Mary McCool. However, what else is known about where they had lived prior to Canada? The more we learn, the more questions there seem to be…"

Earlier in his email Randy said: "Clonburren and Moore South graveyards, [the two others besides the Kilbegley Cemetery associated with the Parish of Moore in Roscommon], have been completed already [cleaning, reading and photographing old monuments], so you can see what Kilbegley eventually will include. I found the Moore South graveyard interesting since there were many Caulfield's, but no Rooney's."
Ten Caulfield's, to be exact.


July, 2017:

Looking at Geraldine Felling Walsh's Ancestry DNA pages. She and her siblings and several of her living first cousins are closer to the Rooney ancestors genetically than are any of the rest of us. There are a number of people related to her that have a Rooney in their family tree, but those Rooney's have no known connection to us. The furtherest ancestor any of them listed could be as close as a first cousin or a nephew or niece to "Daddy Mick." They appear so far to come from either Leitrim or Mayo in Ireland. Maybe they are from a "Leitrim" branch?
  Married/ Related to:
21 (10)
womanCatherine ""Mammy Kitty"; Catharine on gravestone" Caulfield‏
Born ‎1783 Ireland, died ‎17 Feb 1875 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: Padua Cemetery, Stearns, Minnesota, age 91‎, age 91 or 92 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
After "Daddy Mick" died in 1857 and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Farrelton, Mammie Kitty emigrated to the U.S.A. with eight of her nine grown children and their families. They came first to St. Anthony Falls, site the present-day Minneapolis, which was so small it could be covered in a half hour by horse and buggy. Later they moved to Stearns County, Raymond Township - a place at first called "Rooneys' Settlement, later called Padua, between 1865 and 1870.

Ambrose Rooney said that his father used to talk about "Grandma Kitty " and thought that there was something funny about her. Ambrose Gaffaney said his mother used to talk about a lady who smoked a pipe (Mary McCool, wife of John Rooney, smoked a pipe; Marilyn Rooney Lysen is now in possession of the pipe).