Born ‎26 Sep 1852 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎6 Dec 1916 Miles City, Custer County, Montana Event Description: perhaps Montana‎, age 64 years
John Rooney, age 17, appears with his parents in the Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota 1870 US census (June 1870), and in the Hartford Township, Todd County, Minnesota 1870 US census (August 1870) helping on the farm of his sister and her husband, John J. and Sarah B. Darcy.

John is next found in the 1880 US Census from Miles City, Custer County, Montana along with a number of other boarders. It says he's married, but no family listed with him. In the 1900 US Census, he's a boarder in Miles City, Custer County, Montana and his occupation is a day laborer. He is listed as single in 1900.

John's death certificate shows that he died Dec 6th, 1916 in Miles City, Montana, and was buried on Dec 8th, 1916 in the Catholic cemetery. His death was reported by his niece, Lillian D'Arcy. He was single.

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.

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.

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?

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).