Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- One of Your Immigrant Ancestors

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night again -

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

  

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has given us another assignment: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Tell us about one of your immigrant ancestors.  Where and when did they come from, how did they migrate, where did they land, where did they settle?

2)  Share your immigrant ancestor information in your own blog post, on Facebook, and leave a link to it in the comments.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic.

I haven’t written about Martin Gleeson, my 3x-great-grandfather. He was born in Ireland between 1787–1891 and died in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada on 9 October 1859.[1]

He married Ann Gleeson, sometime before 1821 if they married before the birth of their first known child, Michael Gleeson, who was born about 1821.[2] She does not appear in any records but her tombstone states she died 9 April 1848.[3]

Four known children were born to Martin and Ann:

• Michael Gleeson (1821-1865), who married Elizabeth O’Meara and had six children.
• Mary Ann Gleeson (18??-1904), who married Roderick Cawley and had three children.[4]
• Honora Gleeson (1831-1908), born in Canada, married James Douras and had four children.
• John Gleeson (1835-1915), born in Canada, married Margaret Tierney and had 10 children.

It is not completely clear when Martin and Ann Gleeson came to Canada. It was sometime before the birth of Honora who was born in Canada.

It is possible that Martin is the same Martin Gleeson, who came to the Ottawa area in 1823 & 1825. This Martin Gleeson came from County Tipperary, Kilmore, Silver Mines.[5] This man came with 4 females and himself, which doesn’t completely match our man. Where would Michael be?

Martin appeared in the 1851 census with his children:

*Mary

*Honora

*John

and a young man named James Ryan.

He later sold his land to his son, John, in exchange for the right to continue to live on the land until his death.[6]

He died 9 October 1859 and is buried at the St. Patrick’s church cemetery. Below are flags of Ireland and Canada of today. Of course, different flags would have flown over the two countries at the time of Martin's life. Both were subjects of Great Britain.

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[1] For his birth of 1787, see tombstone of Martin Gleeson, St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Nepean, Carleton County, now part of Ottawa, photo taken by Susan Swindell. For his birth of 1891, based on age 60 in the 1851 census, Carleton Co, Ontario Canada Census (microfilm), EM Dist 7, pg 95, #22, Martin Gleeson. For his death, see above tombstone photo.

[2] Michael’s birth of 1821 was based on age 30 on next birthday on the 1851 census; see 1851 Census of Canada West (Ontario), Carleton Co, population schedule, digital images, Library and Archives Canada, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca, microfilm C-11716, ED 4, Marborough twp, sub dist 30, pp. 33d-34c, Michael Gleason.

[3] Tombstone of Ann Gleeson, St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Nepean, Carleton County, now part of Ottawa, photo taken by Susan Swindell.

[4] Her birthdate is in dispute: 1851 census showed she was 30; 1861 census showed she was 28. Her tombstone shows she died 1904 at age 86, making her birth 1818. More research is needed to resolve this conflict.

[5] Bruce S. Elliott, The McCabe List: Early Irish in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto, 1991, p 21, #215, Martin Gleeson.

[6] Carleton Co, Ontario, Registrar of Deeds V. B1, Goulbourne Twp, FHL 0200500, pg 467-468, Gleeson to Gleeson.

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.