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Saturday, May 23, 2009

1900 Census - O'Haras at 253 Clinton Ave

Here's the earliest O'Hara family census I've found. In 1900, the O'Haras lived at 253 Clinton Ave. John, age 31, says he was born in February 1869, and Mary E., 28, says she was born May 1872. Their two eldest boys, John J and Eugene, are 3 and 1 and their birthdates are given as June 1896 and December 1898. John and Mary say they've been married 5 years, which means they married some time around 1895. Mary's only given birth to the 2 children now living. They say they immigrated in 1890 and 1889, which means they were probably married in the United States. I'll be looking for further records of that. John has naturalized; the problem with relatives named John O'Hara is that 345209 other men named John O'Hara also lived in Brooklyn, and were also naturalized between 1890 and 1900. (That is why I focused my early efforts on relatives with names like Veronica Mulvaney - people I didn't have to pick out of a haystack.) I'd love to find those records, though. Neither boy has attended school in the past year. (They're 1 and 3. Duh.) They rent, rather than own, their home. John is a coachman, and both parents can read, write, and speak English.

They also, though, spoke Irish, according to Uncle Jack:

My grandparents did speak Irish but not when they came to the US. I never heard them speak in Irish. However, a story told by my grandmother: My Grandfather used to play Eueka (an Irish card game). His partner also spoke Irish. Their two opponents did not speak Irish. My Grandfather and his partner would converse in Irish about their game strategy. Alas, an Irish trick.

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