Ancestor Report
generation I

1 (0)
woman‎Destinee Leeann Egan‏‎ PRIVACY FILTER
generation II (Parents)

2 (1)
manRichard Joseph Egan‏ PRIVACY FILTER
  to:
3 (1)
womanRhonda Lee Butler‏ PRIVACY FILTER
generation III (Grandparents)

4 (2)
manEarl Willliam Egan‏
Born ‎24 Feb 1928 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, died ‎24 Apr 1974 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota‎, age 46 years
  Married ‎± 1947, age approximately 19 years (married approximately 27 years) to:
5 (2)
womanBarbara Ann Schmidt‏
Born ‎26 Apr 1932 Minnesota, died ‎2 Jun 2015‎, age 83 years, buried Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota
generation IV (Great-Grandparents)

8 (4)
manJames Joseph Egan‏
Born ‎3 Mar 1897 Bangor Township, Pope County, Minnesota, died ‎23 Dec 1974 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota Event Description: Ft. Snelling National Cemetery‎, age 77 years
  Married ‎6 Jun 1923, age 26 years (married 51 years) to:
9 (4)
womanMaude Evelyn Vaughn‏
Born ‎14 Nov 1902 Omaha, Nebraska, died ‎18 Jun 1974 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota Event Description: Ft. Snelling National Cemetery‎, age 71 years
generation V (Great Great-Grandparents)

16 (8)
manThomas Edward "T E; Tom" Egan‏
Born ‎21 Jan 1862 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎31 Jul 1928 Bangor Township, Pope County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 66 years, buried Padua, Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota
Thomas immigrated to the US from Canada at age 16. Thomas and his wife Elizabeth were first cousins once-removed, both on the Rooney side. He died of heart trouble.
  Married ‎5 Mar 1889 Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, age 27 years St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Padua (married 15 years) to:
17 (8)
womanElizabeth Agnes "Eliza" Rooney‏
Born ‎8 Nov 1866 Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota Event Description: or 1867, died ‎11 Aug 1904 Bangor Township, Pope County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 37 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
Elizabeth, the last-born of her siblings, was the only one not born in Canada. George and Evie Kukowski said there was another sibling named Joseph, born in 1867, who lived only one day. No record has been found.

Elizabeth died in childbirth, as did her baby, her 10th child. Elizabeth and her husband Thomas were first cousins once-removed, both on the Rooney side.


Originally published Friday, August 19, 1904, The Glenwood Herald

Death of Mrs. Thos. Egan

Died on August 11, at her home two miles east of Sedan, Mrs. Eliza Egan, wife of Thomas E. Egan. Deceased was born in St. Paul, Minn., Nov. 9, 1866, and therefore was 38 years of age. Beside the grief stricken husband there remains to mourn her loss, seven children, ranging in age from 15 to 2 years. News of her death came as a great shock, she having only a few hours warning of the approaching end. The heartfelt sympathy of the entire community goes out to the heartbroken husband and father in his hour of great affliction. Funeral services were held at Padua, Saturday, August 13th and the procession was one of the largest that ever followed a dear departed one to the last resting place.

Originally published August 1998, Padua Cemetery, by Ginny Walz Borgerding

Thomas E. Egan was born on January 31, 1862, to Patrick and Elinor (Rooney) Egan in Upper Wakefield, Quebec, Canada. He was the oldest of nine children.

Elizabeth (Eliza) Rooney was born November 8, 1866, in St. Paul, MN., to John and Mary (McCool) Rooney. She was the youngest of twelve children.

Thomas Egan married Eliza Rooney on March 5, 1889, in Minneapolis at the church of St. Anthony of Padua. They had ten children: Clarence C., William Edmund (Bill), George F., Cleve, Mary, James Joseph, Mary Ellen, Inez, and two babies that died at birth.

Thomas died in Bangor Township, Pope County, on July 31, 1928. Eliza died August 11, 1904, during childbirth of their tenth child. The baby is buried with her. Thomas and Eliza's children, William E. and Inez, are also buried in Padua.

Thomas' parents, brother Joseph, and Eliza's parents, brothers and sisters, Catherine Martin, Michael J., James, Thomas T., William, and Mary Ann Egan, are buried in Padua.
generation VI (3rd Great-Grandparents)

32 (16)
manPatrick Egan‏
Born ‎21 Dec 1833 Mayo, Ireland, died ‎26 Dec 1892 Bangor, Pope County, Minnesota Event Description: Padua Cemetery, Stearns, Minnesota‎, age 59 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
Cause of death: Catarrh and Consumption. He came to Minnesota in 1879 or 1880.
  Married ‎27 Jan 1861 Farrellton, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, age 27 years (married 31 years) to:
33 (16)
womanElinor "Elinor on gravestone" Rooney‏
Born ‎21 Dec 1842 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎18 Nov 1902 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: Padua Cemetery, Stearns, Minnesota‎, age 59 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
Elinor died of paralyasis.

John Martin, Sr. wrote about Elinor Rooney and her husband Patrick Egan in Canada in 1870. Elinor's father Patrick was in Minnesota at the time.
34 (17)
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:
35 (17)
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)

66 (33)
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:
67 (33)
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.
68 (34)
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:
69 (34)
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).
generation VIII (5th Great-Grandparents)

132 (66)
manMichael ""Daddy Mick"" Rooney‏ (Already listed above as number 68)
  Married/ Related to:
133 (66)
womanCatherine ""Mammy Kitty"; Catharine on gravestone" Caulfield‏ (Already listed above as number 69)