The Killoughry's Starting In County Clare, Ireland:Information about Arnold
Arnold (d. date unknown)
Notes for Arnold:
Notes from Joseph E. Killory
The Arnold/Harrington Saga - As Helen recalls the conversations of the older folks, Grandma Farrell came over from Ireland with her parents, and they settled in Portsmouth, NH.Her father supposedly had a big job at the Naval Shipyard as well as a large farm. Her mother died and her father remarried a widow with children.Grandma didn't get along with her stepmother and she, being the oldest, packed up her sisters, Aunt Nellie and Aunt May, and her bother Maurice and went to Boston where they took menial jobs.Helen recalls Aunt Nellie saying it was a big mistake.
With this much background, I started the search in Whitman here Grandma died and was buried,In Boston at the Archives and in Portsmouth at City Hall and the Immaculate Conception Church.I was thrown off at the beginning by Grandma's death certificate, made out by Dora, which listed Grandma's father as Maurice Arnold when it should have been Patrick.I found several references a a Maurice Arnold which I will touch on later.
I could find no record of the marriage of Catherine Arnold and Terrence Farrell in Boston, and then by chance, I came upon one of Terrence Farrell and Catherine Harrington in which the ages and parent first names fit perfectly.This could have been coincidence, but in the search of my mother's marriage record in the church at Whitman, she listed her mother's maiden name as Margaret Harrington.This gave credence to the name change, but further complicated the issue with Margaret and that is still a mystery.
As I pursued the birth records of children of Terrence and Catherine, I found that she used Harrington as her maiden name for Thomas and Margaret and I assume Dora.She shifted back to Arnold for my mother and Mary and I presume Peter.The sponsors for Margaret were both Harrington's and, I believe, her brother and sister.The sponsors for my mother included Helen Arnold, undoubtedly Aunt Nellie with her name shifted back to Arnold.When Aunt Nellie married Christian Webber, she listed her maiden name as Arnold.(She is a great aunt).
Helen recalls my grandmother's brother Maurice being "quite a sport" and she described the spats and gold top cane.I gather that in adult life, he was a shipboard, professional card player.I did not expect to find any information on him, but in talking to the man who runs New Calvary Cemetery in Mattapan where my mother's brother, Thomas was buried in 1906, I learned that the grave was opened in 1936 for Maurice Harrington proving that he never changed back to Arnold.He was listed as a retired day laborer so he must not have been too sharp at cards.The cemetery lot is in Dora's name.
Aunt May, Grandmother's sister, married and went to New York where she had Beckie.I remember Beckie as being full of fun when she visited us.I did find the marriage of a Mary Harrington in 1868, two years before Grandma (her sister) was married.The only problem is that her maid of honor was Nellie E. Coughlan and I would have expected it to be her sister Catherine (Grandma),The man she married was born in New York City and was a printer.Since they lived in NY and both Beckie and one of her sons worked at Doubleday Doran Publishing Co., it would appear that this was Aunt May also using Harrington.Her wedding was in St. Mary's, Grandma's in the Cathedra;.
Grandma and Aunt May were both born in Ireland, and Nellie and Maurice both are listed as born in Portsmouth so there is little doubt that the family lived there; however there is no record of any Patrick Arnold in NH,I have check street directories, US Census, church records and naturalization lists to no avail.I cannot imagine his being allowed to work in the Naval Shipyard if he was not a citizen.The shipyard historian is trying to locate his name in their records, but has not sent me anything yet.In November 1987 received a 25 page list of supervisory personnel back to 1815 - No Arnold (or Harrington).
The only specific bit of information which I gleaned is the death certificate of Catherine Arnold in 1866 at the age of 45.This is consistent with Helen's memory of the reason the children left home.Her parents' names are consistent with those on Maurice's death certificate (Neal vs, )'Neill).There is no spouse's name, place of burial or undertaker's name given.
Strangely enough, the Arnold's were the only ones I could locate on a ship's passenger list. They came on the ship Anglo-American which docked in Boston on March 27, 1849.The ship came from Liverpool as virtually all did at that time.In some cases, the Irish had to get to Liverpool, but in most cases the ship stopped in Cork and sometimes Galway.The Arnold names were
Maurice - age 34 (undoubtedly a brother)
Patrick - age 30
Catherine - age 27
Catherine - age 2 (my grandmother)
Mary - age 9 (Aunt May)
The age of Mary is not consistent with the age of Mary Harrington whom I mentioned previously; it is also not consistent with Helen's recollection that Catherine (Grandma) was the oldest child.I suspect that Mary was 9 months not years.The ages being in descending order, the seven year gap and Helen's memory all make this probable and then the age of Mary Harrington at the time of her wedding is correct.
As to Maurice, I do have naturalization papers for a Maurice Arnold; the Portsmouth church has a record of the marriage of a Maurice (the priest spelled it Morose) to Margaret Hurley who died in 1865.There is a record of the Baptisms of their four children - Catherine, Thomas, Michael and Mary and there is a death of Maurice in 1890 at the age of 70.His naturalization papers state that he came over in 1847, not the 1849 passenger list, and the various ages given put his birth date as 1815, 1820 and 1823.This could be totally different Arnold, but "Maurice" and Portsmouth are strong con incidences.
All of the chasing of the Arnold/Harrington wasdone with the hope that it would lead to the place of birth in Ireland of Grandma, and while it was a fascinating search providing a lot of food for conjecture, I still do not know any more than "Ireland".I am guessing County Cork for the following reasons:
1.Arnold is originally English and many English settled around Cork.
2.Harrington is a common name around Cork and I am assuming that Grandma lived with or knew someone named Harrington in Boston, maybe a relative.
3.Ship lists were either alphabetical or in order of boarding, and Anglo-American was not alphabetical,The Arnold family were the 89th through 93rd of the 258 Irish aboard.This would indicate that if the ship made two stops in Ireland, that they boarded at the first one which would have been Cork.It must be emphasized that people from all over Ireland traveled to Cork to board ships.Ths ship's list showed 2 Americans and only 17 British.
4.If great grandfather Arnold was a shipbuilder, it is more than likely that Cork had either shipbuilding or repair.Of course, the same could be said for Belfast in Northern Ireland where O'Neill (Neal) is a common name and where there would be many with English names even though Catholic.
5.Cork was hard hit by the potato famine and 1849 was the peak; virtually all of Ireland was affected so this does not eliminate Cork.
I shall continue to pursue the Arnold history.There is no question that they came from Ireland, and there is no question that they lived in Portsmouth since both Aunt Nellie and Maurice list it as their place of birth.Even three of Grandma's listings say Portsmouth or NH, but it was Ireland.It may be that they just missed the census, which was very complete, by moving at that time, but it does not seem likely that they would miss all the records which I checked.There is some other answer I believe.The choice of"Harrington" may lead somewhere.
Children of Arnold are:
- +Patrick Maurice Arnold, b. 1819, d. date unknown.
- Maurice Arnold, b. 1815, d. date unknown.