Ancestor Report
generation I

1 (0)
woman‎Melissa Kay Gaffaney‏‎ PRIVACY FILTER
generation II (Parents)

2 (1)
manRobert John "Bob" Gaffaney‏
Born ‎29 Dec 1943 Glenwood, Pope County, Minnesota, died ‎28 Jun 2015 Shakopee, Scott County, Minnesota Event Description: Ft. Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis‎, age 71 years
Robert J. 'Bob' Gaffaney
Gaffaney, Robert 'Bob' J. Preceded in death by his parents, 1 brother and 2 sisters. Survived by his wife of 41 years, Floren "Flo"; daughters, Lynn, Melissa and Bobbie (John) Gabler; grandsons, Leighton, Robert and Bode; 5 sisters and 4 brothers; numerous nieces and nephews; several great nieces and nephews; and great-great niece and nephew; many lifelong friends. Funeral service Thursday, 7/2/15, 11:00 AM at Golden Valley Lutheran Church, 5501 Glenwood Ave., Golden Valley. Private interment Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. Visitation one hour prior to service at church and Wednesday, 7/1/15, 4:00-8:00 PM at: Washburn-McReavy.com Edina Chapel 952-920-3996 West 50th St. & Hwy. 100.
  to:
3 (1)
womanFloren Joanne "Flo" Bode‏ PRIVACY FILTER
generation III (Grandparents)

4 (2)
manJames Sylvester "Jimmy" Gaffaney‏
Born ‎29 Dec 1906 Leven Township, Pope County, Minnesota, died ‎3 Jan 1978 Stearns County, Minnesota‎, age 71 years, buried Glenwood, Pope County, Minnesota
Catherine said her father had a kidney removed at the U of M in 1953.

Ambrose Gaffaney was best man at Jimmy's wedding and Julia was bridesmaid.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or "Lou Gehrig's Disease": About 5-10% of the cases of ALS are hereditary, called "familial ALS." In those people, it is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. That means that on a statistical basis, 50% of their offspring are expected to be affected. Of the other 90-95% ("sporadic ALS"), no hereditary factor is evident, and therefore the children are not at risk of inheriting the disease. No cure or treatment is available in either case. Both forms of the disease are identical in terms of diagnosis, clinical courses and outcome. Most die within 2 to 5 years.

Rose Cooley Wolfarth (daughter of Mary Gaffaney and John Cooley and first cousin to James Gaffaney, senior) carried a gene of the version of ALS that is hereditary. I have heard that the University of Minnesota did a study on this disease in the Cooley family. Rose died of Alzheimer's at the age of 59. She had three children:

In 1973 Betty Wolfarth Winter died of ALS at the age of 47 after having it for five years. She and her husband Lloyd had three children, two boys and a girl, all of whom are subject to getting ALS. As of about 2000, none of them had children, and by choice. In 1986 Richard Wolfarth died of ALS at the age of 53, after having it for five years. Donald Wolfarth died of Alzheimer's in 1993 at the age of 66 after having it two years.

James Gaffaney (junior) and Harold Gaffaney (brothers) are first cousins of Betty, Richard and Donald. Jimmy Gaffaney died of ALS at the age of 71 in 1978, after having it five years or less. [A variant is called Progressive Bulbar Palsy, all of whose symptoms I think he had, and is very similar to what his brother Harold had].

None of Jimmy's 13 kids has shown and evidence of ALS that I'm aware of, and there's a 50% chance that any one of them would get it if it were the hereditary form, so I'm doubtful that he had that form. Update 2/14/2015: Jimmy's daughter Janet has ALS.

Harold Gaffaney died of Pseudobulbar Palsy at the age of 62 in 1973, which has many similar ALS symptoms, but also includes dementia. Harold's son Delbert died of either "Pick's Disease," according to his son Jim, or ALS according to some of his siblings.

Margaret Mary Egan Parks (1946-1995) died at the age of 48 of ALS. She is my (David Gaffaney) 4th cousin. She descends from the Rooney line.
  Married ‎30 Jun 1936, age 29 years (married 41 years) to:
5 (2)
womanElsie Irene Sellgren‏
Born ‎14 May 1913 Glenwood, Pope County, Minnesota, died ‎19 Feb 1990 Glenwood, Pope County, Minnesota‎, age 76 years
generation IV (Great-Grandparents)

8 (4)
manJames Aloysious Gaffaney‏
Born ‎31 May 1871 Leven Township, Pope County, Minnesota, died ‎13 Jul 1947 Fergus Falls, Otter Tail County, Minnesota Event Description: Calvary Cemetery, Villard, Minnesota‎, age 76 years, buried Villard, Pope County, Minnesota
James Gaffaney, interviewed by Loretta Gaffaney, 1938.
WPA project, sponsored by the Pope County Historical Society.

James Alouis Gaffaney was born on May 31, 1871 of parents John and Ann Gaffaney. His parents were among the first to settle in Leven Twp., coming in 1867 from Mendota, Minnesota and homesteading a portion of land in the N.W. 1/4 of Section 5 Leven Twp. His father and mother were married at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and from there moved to Mendota. Four children were born at Mendota. After living there for about twelve years they came, in a covered wagon, to Pope county. James Alouis was born three years after they moved onto their farm.

His father was one of a group of five who petitioned and organized t e school district. They bought a tract of land and built a log school-house which was used for over forty years. James Alouis, with his brothers and sisters attended and received their educations in this school.

When he was twenty years old, our subject left home and traveled West to Washington. There he secured employment on a steam-shovel for th e Northern Pacific. He worked on that job for almost a year, working w est and east of Spokane filling in bridges (lumber bridges) and packing them with dirt, and putting them in culverts. Between the time he quit this job and time he again started to work, he and a group of other boys went up to the Bay and rode across on a boat. It was quite a thrill. After that he washed dishes in a restaurant in Sprague, Washin gton. In the spring of 1892 he went to Marshal Junction in Idaho and worked for two months in the saw mills. He quit this job and went to work for the Great Northern Railroad. This Company was laying track west from Spokane. He helped build the railroad from Spokane, west to the Columbia River. They averaged 5 miles per day. When they were forty-one miles out of Spokane there were two cars of their construction train went through a bridge that had been built the year before. The water from the spring then had washed away the underpinnings and when the pressure of the construction train hit it, it collapsed. There were four of the construction crew killed. After they reached the Columbia River he went back to Hillyard, near Spokane and worked in the Material Yards for the same company. While he was working at that, there was a landslide or avalanche on the outskirts of Kalispell , Montana. They picked up all the section men from Kalispell beside s all those in the Material Yards; there were over sixty men in the yards alone, of which James Alouis was one, and went out to the scene of the slide. It took till one at night to clear the tracks. They st rted back then pushing a caboose and a boxcar ahead of the engine and pulling four flats behind. They had only proceeded a short way when they struck a rock which had tumbled from a ledge about three hundred feet up. It was a regular boulder and when the caboose struck it, i t was smashed and two men were hurt. The engineer reversed his engine so fast that it pulled the draw pin on the box-car and that tipped over. The box-car was full of men of which James was one, but no one was hurt. He worked in the Material Yards until Jan. 1893 then went u p to the Cascade Mountains and worked at this job in May and then wen t back to Spokane. He stayed in Spokane about two weeks, then bought a ticket on the Union Pacific and traveled through the south-western states of Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska and Iowa. He landed at Flandreau, South Dakota where he worked on a farm for six months. He returned to Pope County in Jan. 1894. He bought part of his father's farm and began improving it. He built a new set of buildings and set o ut a fine grove. He lived here for ten years.
In 1904 he was married. We quote from the Glenwood Herald August 5, 1 904:

GAFFANEY – MARTIN
James A. Gaffaney of the town of Leven and Miss Katherine E. Martin of the town of Bangor on Wednesday July 27 assumed the sacred relations hip of husband and wife. Rev. Fr. Hildebrand Zoeller of Stearns county performed the ceremony before a select number of friends and relatio ns of the contracting parties. The respective parties to this happy union are among the most popular and highly esteemed young people of this county. On the handsome farm owned by the groom in the town above mentioned, they will make their future home. The Herald together with their many friends extends congratulations and an earnest hope that their joys may be many and their sorrows few.

Nine children were born to this union all of whom are living. Mabel Agnes (Mrs. Arvid Johansen) who has three children, Arvid Charles, Ernest James, and Ansgar Nicholas; she lives in Douglas county.

James who is married and has one child Catherine Alice; Mildred Katherine (Mrs. M.W. Flannery); Harold Francis, in partnership with his older brother farming; Julia Helen at home, Ambrose who runs the farm now; Loretta Marie is working in Glenwood; Margaret Elizabeth who is a junior in High School and Florence Eucibia who is also in high school.

Mr. Gaffaney has been honored by his friends and neighbors by different offices. He has been on the local school board for over forty-three years and for a time was also a member of the town board. He is the only charter member left on lodge 252 of the Glenwood Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was an honored guest at a special A.O.U.W. meeting called for the purpose of awarding medals to the nine members wh o had been in that lodge for over forty years. Mr. Gaffaney as aforesaid was the only charter member.

He still lives on his farm in Leven at the age of 68. Although he has reached this advanced age he is till active in mind and body and still does a good share of the farm work. He has had his ups and downs as has everyone but all is quite satisfied with the way the world has treated him.

We wish him many more years of smooth sailing.

Pope County Tribune. Thursday, July 24, 1947:

LEVEN PIONEER PASSED AWAY AT ALEXANDRIA
James A. Gaffaney was born on his father's homestead in Leven township May 31st, 1871 and here he spent most of his life.

On July 27th, 1904 he was married to Catherine Martin at St. Anthony's church at Padua and continued to farm on part of the old homestead which he had purchased from his father. Last March he moved to Alexandria.
He passed away at a hospital early Sunday morning, July 13th, being a t the time of his passing 76 years, 1 mo. and 12 days old. He is survived by his wife and all of the children: Mabel, Mrs. Arvid Johansen , Alexandria; James Gaffaney, Glenwood; Mildred, Mrs. M.W. Flannery, S t. Cloud. Harold, Hudson township, Alexandria; Julia Gaffaney, Alexandria; Ambrose Gaffaney, Hudson township; Loretta, Mrs. R.J. Morse, Whittier, Calif.; Margaret, Mrs. Russell Danielson, Denver, Colo.; Floren ce, Mrs. Arthur Anderson, Minneapolis.
There are 22 grandchildren surviving and the following brothers and sisters: Rose, Mrs. Mike Shanks, Spokane, Washington; Peter Gaffaney of Villard; Elizabeth, Mrs. Maloney, Duluth, Minn.; Ellen B. Gaffaney , Alexandria; Michael Gaffaney, Alexandria; Joseph Gaffaney, Faribault .

Mr. Gaffaney was much interested in civic affairs, having served on the School Board and Town Board of Leven for many years.

Funeral services were held on Tuesday, July 15th, at the Anderson Funeral Home at 8:30 A.M. and at St. Bartholomew Church in Villard at 9:3 0 A.M. Father Alois Gruenes officiated.

Interment was made in Calvary Cemetery at Villard and the pallbearers were Walter Colbert, Wm. Patrick, Anton Rajdl, Anton Keller, John Christman and Frank Earl.

All the children were here for the funeral services with the exception of Loretta (Mrs. R.J. Morse) who resides in Whittier, Calif.
  Married ‎27 Jul 1904 Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota, age 33 years (married 42 years) to:
9 (4)
womanCatherine Elenora "(null)" Martin‏
Born ‎29 Jul 1880 Bangor Township, Pope County, Minnesota Event Description: Section 35, died ‎21 Feb 1953 Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota Event Description: Calvary Cemetery, Villard, Minnesota‎, age 72 years, buried Villard, Pope County, Minnesota
Catherine Gaffaney Becker said that in the winter and part of the summer before Catherine died, she stayed with Jim Gaffaney and family and 10 kids in their one-bedroom house with a curtain for a door.
generation V (Great Great-Grandparents)

18 (9)
manWilliam Joseph Martin‏
Born ‎15 Apr 1838 Shanagolden, County Limerick, Ireland Event Description: the date is of his baptism, died ‎28 May 1910 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 72 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
William Martin and his wife "Kate" and two kids and his brother John, age 25, are in the 1870 census of Minneapolis (St. Anthony, Ward 2 : 550 618). He and his brother are working in a sawmill. Also living with them are Catherine's brothers Michael Rooney (age 23, b. Canada), James Rooney (age 21, b. Canada), and perhaps a cousin, Patrick Killeen (age 40, b. Ireland), all listed as laborers. Other records indicate that Patrick enlisted in the Civil War in 1965 and was in heavy artillery at Ft. Snelling, and that he was born in Galway.

William Martin moved from Minneapolis where his two oldest children were born to the Detroit Lakes area in 1870 to work for a "pinery" or lumber company. James and William were born here. In 1873 they moved to "Stearns" (Raymond Township) in about 1873, based on comments in letters from his brother James in Canada. There are a number of mentions of the "Record" newspaper in the Canada letters, from Detroit Lakes. In 1885 the family moved from Raymond Township to Bangor Township, about 12 miles to the southwest. They retired to a home in Sedan, owned by Charles.

In a letter shortly before their marriage, James Martin told Jennie Anderson that he had secured a traveling pass, a ticket from Kensington to "Detroit," so that as part of their honeymoon they could see Det oit where his life started.

8/23/15:
David Gaffaney looked up my great grandfather's baptismal record on the Irish parish website (http://registers.nli.ie/) - he is William Martin, who married Catherine Rooney. Lyle Martin had found him listed in the parish record at Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, Ireland when he made a trip there in the 1980s.
It was quite easy to find him. His is the last baptismal record of April 15, 1838. The Latin reads "Bap. Gulielmus filius leg. Ionnes Kilmartin & Catherine Connors (spon Patricius Sullivan & Juditha [?] Keating)". English: William, legitimate son of James Kilmartin & Catherine Connors, sponsors Patrick Sullivan and Judith [?] Keating". After the Kilmartin's arrived in the Gatineau area of Canada they changed their last name to Martin.

William Martin and Catherine Rooney were married at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in northeast Minneapolis on July 7, 1867. Witnesses were John J. Darcy and Mary Tracy. The priest was the Rev. Felix Tissot.
Two years later John Darcy married Catherine's younger sister Sarah at the same church. They had a son they named Felix.
Mary Tracy would have been Catherine's 24-year-old first cousin, daughter of her aunt Ann Rooney.
As of 2016, the St. Anthony parish records are at the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis, about a mile north of St. Anthony of Padua (612-789-7238) on University Avenue.
Also, see http://www.lngplants.com/Basilica_of_Saint_Mary_Minneapolis_1955_JMR_PA.html

William Joseph Martin's naturalization record is at Pope County, dated March 10, 1886.

This a list of priests connected to St. Anthony of Padua parish in Minneapolis, some of whom had a connection with the Murphy/Rooney families:

Reverend John McDermott, born in Clifton, County Galway, Ireland, in 1816, and ordained in Little Rock, Arkansas, about 1840. He came to the Diocese of St. Paul in 1860 and assumed charge of St. Anthony parish. He was a pastor at St. Anthony of Padua church in Minneapolis before going out to Mower and then Wright County and from there to Meeker County just to the west. He died in 1887 in Darwin, Meeker County, Minnesota and is buried in St. John's Catholic Cemetery there. (He was injured getting off the train in Darwin that same year, which may or may not have any connection to his death.)

Rev. Felix Tissot, a French priest, succeeded Fr. McDermott in 1866 at St. Anthony in Minneapolis. The predominately Irish parishioners were chagrined that they had a French priest instead of one of their own. He was the priest who married Catherine Rooney and Will Martin in 1867 as well as also her younger sister Sarah Rooney and John Darcy in 1869. He was born in Lyon, France in 1835 and was first assigned to a Goodhue County mission in 1856, then to Cannon Falls, then Wabasha, then St. Anthony of Padua from 1866 until 1886. He died 18 November 1893 at the age of 58 and is buried in St. Anthony Cemetery in Minneapolis in the circle plot.

Rev. Hugh J. McDevitt was born in 1842 in Ireland and died in 1910 in Minneapolis and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul. He did mission work in Australia before coming to the U.S. He was the one listed with Margaret Murphy in the 1895 Minnesota census of Manannah, Meeker County, Minnesota. (Fr. McDermott had already died; he had organized the Church of Our Lady in Manannah in 1876 ). It looks like the faded name written in that census is Rev. John McDevitt, but the first name is either a mistake or it's his middle name and he went by John. And his age fits him. He was pastor of the Minnesota parishes of Darwin, Manannah, Rosemount and Shakopee, successively.

Rev. James McGolrick was born May 1, 1841, at Barrisokane, County Tipperary, Ireland and came to Minneapolis in the autumn of 1867. He was soon transferred to Minneapolis as assistant to Father John McDermott of St. Anthony's church. To provide a place of worship for the Catholics of East Minneapolis, Father Mc-Golrick built an addition to the little frame structure erected some time previously by Father Tissot, the successor to Father McDermott at St. Anthony's parish. This was the first Church of the Immaculate Conception. Father McGolrick remained in charge of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception until December 27, 1889, when he was consecrated first Bishop of Duluth. He died in 1918 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Duluth.

Rev. James O'Reilly from County Cavan, Ireland, was pastor at St. Anthony of Padua in Minneapolis starting in 1886. He became bishop of Fargo in 1909.
  Married ‎7 Jul 1867 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, age 29 years (married 42 years) to:
19 (9)
womanCatherine Bridget Rooney‏
Born ‎14 Sep 1845 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎25 Jan 1911 Sedan, Pope County, Minnesota‎, age 65 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
William Martin and Catherine Rooney were married at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in what is today northeast Minneapolis on July 7, 1867. (The cities of St. Anthony east of the Mississippi and Minneapolis west of the Mississippi, merged into one, Minneapolis, in 1872.) Witnesses were John J. Darcy and Mary Tracy. The French priest, Rev. Felix Tissot, performed the ceremony. Fr Tissot is buried in the "circle" in St. Anthony Cemetery in Minneapolis
Two years later John Darcy married Catherine's younger sister Sarah at the same church with the same priest. They had a son they named Felix.
Mary Tracy would have been Catherine's 24-year-old first cousin, daughter of her aunt Ann Rooney.
As of 2016, the St. Anthony parish records are at the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis, about a mile north of St. Anthony of Padua (612-789-7238) on University Avenue.
Also, see http://www.lngplants.com/Basilica_of_Saint_Mary_Minneapolis_1955_JMR_PA.html

Glenwood Herald
February 3, 1911

CALLED TO HEAVENLY HOME
_____________________________

Mrs. Catherine E. Martin of Sedan is called Home After Long and Useful Life.
_____________________________

At her home in Sedan, Minn. on Wednesday, January 25, Mrs. Catherine E. Martin passed away at the age of sixty five years. Death had been expected for some time for the doctors gave up hope long ago, and Death alone could furnish relief from a long term of pain and suffering which began several years ago [carcinoma of the rectum].
Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Father Sharer of Padua in the Catholic church at Sedan on Saturday at nine o'clock and interment was made in the cemetery at Padua, in the afternoon of the same day, and the body laid beside that of her husband William J. Martin who had died just eight months before.
Deceased whose maiden name was Catherine B. Rooney, was born in Canada September 14, 1845, and was therefore, at the time of her death in the 66th year of her age. In the early sixties she emigrated with her parents to Minnesota and settled in Minneapolis, which was then little more than a village. Here she was married to William Martin in 1866 [actually, July 7, 1867]. They moved to Stearns county in 1873, whe re they lived for 12 years engaged in farming till 1885 when they move d to Bangor, Pope county. In June 1908, they moved into town finding farm work some what strenuous for their advancing years and here she passed away as above noted surrounded by a number of sorrowing friends and relatives.
Six sons and four daughters live to mourn the loss of a kind and loving mother, also six brothers and one sister survive her. The sons are, John F. Martin, Frazee, Minn., James E. of Kensington, W. E. and Chas. H. of Sedan, T. C. of St. Paul and E. L. Martin of Windham, Mont. The daughters are, Mrs. James A. Gaffaney of Forada, Margaret Julia and Elizabeth of Sedan. The brothers are, Michael and John Rooney of Montana, James and W. E. Rooney of Padua, T. T. and Hugh M. Rooney, Brooten and a sister Mrs. Dennis Egan of Padua.
Kind and loving in disposition, a great friend of the children of all ages, her sympathies were always with the young. She will be greatly missed by a large circle of friends, and the loss to her home is irreparable, indeed.
The Herald joins in extending sincere sympathy to the friends and relatives of the deceased.
generation VI (3rd Great-Grandparents)

38 (19)
manJohn Rooney‏
Born ‎24 Jun 1820 Galway, Ireland, died ‎19 May 1880 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 59 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
The 1844 John R. Rooney and Mary McCool marriage record at St. Paul's Catholic church, Aylmer, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada:

"The sixteenth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and forty-four, after the banns of marriage have been once published at the parish (place?) of the mass of our mission between John Rooney of Wakefield son of age of Michael Rooney and Catherine Caufield [or Callfield], County Galway in Ireland, on the one part, and Mary McCool of Hull, daughter under age of the late Michael McCool and of the late Sarah Flannigan [or Flanigan] on the other part; no impediment having been discovered and whereas the publication of two bans has been by us granted in virtue of our powers, we the undersigned priest missionary have received their mutual consent to marriage and have given them the nuptial benediction in presence of Eliza Paul, James McCool, James Cassidy and Bernard Cassidy, who as well as the parties have declared they could not sign.
J. Desantels, priest"

This family, through Sarah, is in the 1851 Canada census of Quebec (Canada East), Ottawa (county), Wakefield. The family through Thomas (8 kids) is in the 1861 census of Canada, Township of Wakefield. Next to him is his brother Thomas Rooney and Bridget and their three children (the oldest being from Thomas's first wife).

Sometime during 1865 or 1866 the family moved to Minnesota. They we're found in the 1865 Minnesota state census.

[There's a John Rooney in the 1869 Minneapolis city directory as a laborer, living between Helen and Oregon streets, which are the 2nd and 3rd streets south of Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Minneapolis and St. Anthony were joined in 1872 under the name Minneapolis. He is more likely to have lived in St. Anthony, so this one may not be related.]

John and family are in Raymond Township, Stearns County in 1870.

Helen Felling's papers: John Rooney (the father) left with a team of oxen to get [or to sell] a load of seed wheat about a mile north of his home. His wagon tipped over and the sacks of grain smothered him [he was found dead buried under the load]. He is listed in the 1880 federal mortality schedule of deaths in Stearns county, the cause of which is listed as "accidental." The Sauk Centre Herald reports this on May 28, 1880.
  Married ‎16 Oct 1844 Aylmer, Hull, Quebec, Canada, age 24 years St. Paul's Catholic Church (married 35 years) to:
39 (19)
womanMary McCool‏
Born ‎1823 Donegal, Ireland Event Description: or 1828, died ‎30 Nov 1895 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 71 or 72 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
According to maps made from Griffiths, McCool is almost exclusively an Ulster name. The name concentrates in Donegal.

December 2016: An online family tree of distant relatives has identified the location of the birth (1823) of our great, great grandmother Mary McCool, who married John Rooney. They provided a picture of where she and her parents, Michael McCool and Mary (or Sarah) Flanagan, lived in Cullionboy, Donegal.

The McCool homestead was a two-room thatched roof stone structure with an attached shed which was used for the animals. This building, located in the townland of Cullionboy--about 5 miles from Donegal Town--was inhabited until 1967 and, as can be seen in the recent photo, is still standing, minus the thatched roof.

One of the witnesses to her marriage to John R. Rooney was her brother James McCool. Also perhaps an Eliza McCool and two people with the last name Casidy (Cassidy?).

In the 1851 census of Rigaud, Vaudreuil, Canada, there is a family of "McCall" next to the Avon John Rooney and family, and the Mary has the correct birth year. Parents were Denis McCall and Helene Chanan.
generation VII (4th Great-Grandparents)

76 (38)
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:
77 (38)
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).