Patrick COUNIHAN

  General Notes:

1815 BIRTH of Patrick Counihan in Ireland

1845 EMIGRATION (approximate) from Ireland to United States (a son had been born in Ireland in 1844; another son was born in New York in 1846)

1850 CENSUS. Where?

1860 CENSUS, Wisconsin, Brown County, Rockland Township, P. O. DePere (July 31) (Patrick "Cannihan," age 45, "Farmer") (wife "Deborah," age 36)

1863 DEATH of wife, Deborah (Burke) Counihan

1870 CENSUS, Wisconsin, Brown County, Town of DePere, P. O. DePere (August 3) (Patrick "Cornikan," age 55, "Farmer") (Patrick heads a household with no spouse but with five children: James, age 19; Mary, age 14; Thomas, age 12; Ellen, age 10; and William, age 8)

1880 CENSUS. Where?

Accurate or not, the year 1881 for Patrick's death originates with a (now deceased) relative.

DEATH, Patrick Counihan (date and location unknown)


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Important Note: A different Patrick Counihan, born about 1810 in Ireland, is with his wife Mary in the following census records and is not to be confused with the Patrick Counihan, subject of this page.

1870 CENSUS, Iowa, Polk County, Des Moines First Ward (July 12) ("Patrick," age 60, "Common Laborer") (wife "Mary," age 40) (Children in the home in 1880 are Michiel, age 15; Nancy, age 12; Margaret, age 8) (Counihan is transcribed "Connihan")

1880 CENSUS, Iowa, Polk County, Des Moines First Ward (June 25) ("Patrick," age 70, "Laborer") (wife "Mary," age 50)

1885 CENSUS, Iowa State Census, Polk County, Des Moines (no date) ("a" "Patric Counihan," age 70 -- 'same age as the 1880 census -- "Laborer," born in Ireland, is with wife "Mary," age 70 -- 'older than the 1880 census -- born in Ireland)



Nelle (McLaughlin) Covert (1886-1975), December 15, 1970 letter to DeeAnna:

You MIGHT get some information from Bill and Etta Sweeney. Right after we were married, Bill and Etta visited us in Beaumont [California]. They were from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Etta Sweeney had been Pat Counihan's daughter.* Bill Sweeney was at one time a member of the State Legislature.

*Patrick Counihan, Jr.



Comments:

I sat silently for a moment with my head in my hands when, on November 28, 2005, I found Patrick Counihan, his wife Deborah (Burke) Counihan and their family in an 1860 online census record for Brown County, Wisconsin. For more than 40 years, I had known the names and dates of death for Patrick and Deborah but had not known where they had lived. Attempts to find them in census records using more recently-available genealogy-oriented search engines proved futile; I realized their surname had likely been misspelled.

Finding the clue about the State of Wisconsin in old correspondence, I browsed Wisconsin death records online simply typing in "Deborah" without a surname. Imagine my surprise when up popped "Deborah Burk, died October 20, 1863, Brown County." The name and date of death matched my records! This led to additional research in Brown County that revealed "Counihan" transcribed as "Cannihan" in 1860 and "Cornikan" in 1870. Later census records for Patrick and Deborah's children are found as "Cuninhan" and "Caunihan," among other imaginative misspellings that prevented locating these families sooner.

With Patrick and Deborah's son Morris (Maurice?) born in Ireland about 1844 and son Patrick, Jr. born in New York about 1846, it was quickly obvious that--as so many other Irish families--this family fled the famine in Ireland arriving in the United States about 1845.

But where was this family located in 1850? New York? Wisconsin? Between? Presumably their surname is misspelled in that census, too.

--DeeAnna Allum Granston