1905 NYS Census - Loughlin/Renehan

This is the 1905 NYS Census of the Loughlin-Renehan family. Julia Mulvaney's sister Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan lived at 213 Conover St., with her (second) husband, Thomas Renehand and several of her children (from her first marriage), Thomas, John E., William, and Kate Loughlin. Thomas is 52, Elizabeth is 48, Thomas Loughlin is 23, John is 21, William is 19, and Kate is 11. Thomas Renehan is a day laborer, Elizabeth does housework, Thomas and John E. Loughlin are "Machinist Help," and Kate is "at school." I wonder whether Thomas and John E. are "help" for their uncle, Julia's husband Patrick, who was a machinist. (It appears that there were several machinists on their block as well; it wasn't necessarily Patrick they were working with.) There's a 9 in parentheses next to "at school" by Kate's name. When I saw numbers in parentheses on the census return for the Mulvaneys, I assumed they referred to the grade the child was in; the numbers over there matched up to what grades the kids would have been in. There, the 11-year-olds (James and his cousin Thomas) have the number 4 in parentheses. Eleven-year-olds in 4th grade is appropriate, but 11-year-old Kate certainly wasn't in the 9th grade. What do you think these numbers mean?

Revealing 1892 NYS Census Record

Another 1892 NYS Census record, this one of the Loughlins. Thomas P. is 56 and Elizabeth is 34 (he's 22 years her senior!). They have four children - Thomas, 11; John E., 8; William, 6; and Michael, 5 m. Michael is a new name to me, and I wonder if he died young, before the 1900 census was taken. Thomas Loughlin looks like he was a "ship calker" (caulker?), and he was born in Ireland, while his wife and children were all born in Brooklyn. Significant is the name listed next, after Michael's. The 1892 Census isn't divided into households, but I imagine that this Loughlin household includes the Mary Tonner listed just after them. This is almost certainly Elizabeth's mother Mary Cullen Toner. If the baptismal date we have for her is correct, she should be about 75, not the 69 she lists, and of course their name was spelled with 1 'n', but I'm sure this is her.

It appears that Richard had died prior to 1892, thus Mary living with her children without him. We also learn that Mary was still alive in 1892. Interestingly, she no longer has her own household, but is living with her children, despite having at least one daughter still unmarried, Julia. I have no idea where Julia is, but hope to find her as I continue looking through these unidexed records. I wouldn't be surprised to find her living with one of her other sister, Mary Toner Murphy [we think] or Louise Toner Deegan. I still have never seen records of her before 1900, so I'd really like to find Julia in this census.

Bet that got the gossips talking!

This is the 1900 Census of Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan's family. Let's review a little history, shall we? Elizabeth was born in Brooklyn, circa 1855; married Thomas Loughlin by 1876; had an as of yet undetermined number of children, among them Charles Thomas, who died at 8 months, Thomas, Katherine, and John; was widowed; married Thomas Renahan; had little Willie Mulvaney live with her for an undetermined period of time.

Click on the above census image, so you can see it full-size. Peruse it. The Loughlins are about 3/4 of the way down the page. Let's see if your reaction was anything like mine.

Mine went something like this:

"Oh, there's Elizabeth. Oh, there are her kids, Thomas, John, William, and Catherine. William's new to me. Oh, and there's the boarder. . . Thomas Renehan?! What's he doing there? They're not married yet!"

Now, I think we have to consider the time, and the fact that Elizabeth had 4 young children, and assume that she was not, in fact, living in sin with her boyfriend before they made it legal. I think we can safely - though not definitely - consider that the situation was one in which Elizabeth, was a respectable widow taking in boarders to make ends meet, one of whom was the equally respectable Thomas Renehan, a good provider who could take care of the family. Still, would it have been scandalous to get engaged to your boarder?

According to this census, Elizabeth was born in February 1860. That can't be true, if she was 5 in 1860. She has given birth to 11 children, 4 of whom are still living. Her son Thomas is 18, born in August, 1881. He's a coachman. John E., 15, was born in 1884. He's a day laborer. William, 13, was born in July, 1886. He's attending school. Catherine, 6, was born in March 1894. Thomas Renehan, the boarder, who would be the husband within 4 years (according to the 1910 census), is 40 years old and was born in 1860. (The month looks like it says "Afer," and I have no idea what it is supposed to be.) He, too, is a day laborer. He was born in Ireland, and immigrated to the US 29 years ago (I'm having trouble reading the year of immigration). He's a naturalized citizen.

Elizabeth rents the house.