Daniel McNamara 1841-1904 #52Ancestors #37

Updated March 8, 2015
Daniel McNamara was born March 1841 in Ireland. I first found his name on his daughter Lizzie's death certificate.

He also consented to Lizzie's marriage.

This also gave me a location of Penn Township, Pennsylvania in 1888. This was important because I had never been able to find Lizzie in a census record before she was married. It also matches the location of his wife Jane McKinzie McNamara in the 1920 census.

1880 "Dan Mc Namor"

Dan Mc Namor	39
Jane Mc Namor	39
John Mc Namor	15
Mary Mc Namor	13
Lizzie Mc Namor	12
Kate Mc Namor	10
Ella Mc Namor	8
Allice Mc Namor	5
Annie Mc Namor	3
Sarah Mc Namor	5m

Thank you cousin David for finding these guys for me! Mc Namor wasn't being picked up by ancestry or familysearch as McNamara.

1900

I was able to find children born in Pennsylvania:
John born 1865, married Mary Ellen Mullen
Mary born 1867
Lizzie born 1868, married Patrick Henry McGowan
Kate born 1870
Mary born 1872, married James Gallagher, divorced and married John Rogers, Sr.
Alice born 1875
Rose born 1878, married John W Hogan
Sarah Jane born 1880, married John William Baine
Margaret born 1889 married Richard Johnston.
Anna born 1890 never married.

I turned to the city directories to see if Dan could be found. Finally some info!
Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1888
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1888

McNamara Danl, lab, rr 6359 Penn av

I worked my way backward and found something interesting. He ran a saloon.

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1887
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1887

McNamara Danl, saloon, 6365 Penn av

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1886
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1886

McNamara D, 6365 Penn av 

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1884
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1884

McNamara Danl, saloon, 6365 Penn av 

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1883
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1883

McNamara Danl, saloon, Penn av, n Station 

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1882
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1882

McNamara D, lab, Penn av, n Station ay

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1881
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1881

McNamara Dani, saloon, Penn av, n Station

Title: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1880
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa.]: G.H. Thurston, 1880

McNamara Dal, saloon, Penn av, n Station,e e Ninth and Liberty, h 2S5 Penn av 

Title: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1878
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa.]: G.H. Thurston, 1878

McNamara Daniel, saloon, Penn av, ab Sta- 21st wd tion, e e 

Two Daniels were found in several years previous. Mine was the coal miner.

Title: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1876-1877
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa.]: G.H. Thurston, 1876

McNamara Daniel, lab, Penn av, opp Dennison av, 21st wd, e e

 McNamara Daniel, coal miner, n Lincoln av, city line, 21st wd, e e

Title: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1874
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa.]: G.H. Thurston, 1874

McNamara Daniel, lab, r Liberty hall, Penn av, 20th ward 

McNamara Daniel, miner, Sable coal works, A V R R, 21st ward

Title: Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1870
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa.]: G.H. Thurston, 1870

McNamara Daniel, lab, 21st ward

I tried moving forward from 1888 and found daughters? at the same address, although this may not be the correct Daniel.

Title: J.F. Diffenbacher's directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1889
Author: Diffenbacher, J. F.
Publication Info: Pittsburgh, Pa: Diffenbacher & Thurston, 1881-189-., 1889

McNamara Danl, lab, rr 6359 Penn av

McNamara Mary, dress mkr, rr 6359 Penn av 

McNamara Maggie, dress mkr, rr 6359 Penn av

I was also able to find a death certificate for a Daniel, but he is not the correct one. He threw me off track for a while, but I'll leave this posted for his family.

At the time of his death, the above Daniel was a gas inspector living at 6389 Penn Ave. No location in Ireland for his birth, but it did list parents and the cemetery.

I googled all the addresses in the above city directories. The locations are now a huge shopping center called The Village of Eastside, but I did stumble on a great image on Flickr of the Stone House Gas Station.

Photo used by the kind permission of Karen Majewski

This address is where Daniel McNamara was living in 1902. It's quite possible the house itself was converted into a gas station. Unfortunately it turned out to be the other Daniel. His widow Anna is living at the same address in 1903 per the city directory.

Thanks to my DNA match to David (who has been wonderful by the way) I have some new info on my Daniel and family.

Daniel was a boarder living with Archibald McKenzie in the 1861 census in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales.

1861 McKenzie and McNamara census

This led to a further search, and I was able to find a marriage for Dan and Jane in the 2nd quarter of 1861, also in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales. 

Daniel and his brother-in-law Murdock McKenzie blazed the way to the United States. They sailed on the ship Universe and arrived in New York December 28, 1863. Destination is stated as Pennsylvania.

His wife and her family would arrive in 1864.

Per "The Changing Hills, Vol. 2", by Gary Rogers and Jane Hawkins, Daniel's wake was held in the downstairs parlor of his Penn Hills home while his granddaughter Catherine Baine was being born upstairs. She was born February 10, 1904.

If you have any info on the people mentioned in this blog, it would be great to hear from you!

Georgio Julius Montagna of Italy #52Ancestors #36

I know very little about Georgio Montagna. He was born in Italy by my estimate about 1850.
Update 22 April 2018:
I have located documents naming him

Giorgio Giuseppe Geremia Montagna

He was born 1 October 1853 in Mirandola, Modena, Italy to Domenico Montagna and Teresa Ceretti.

Map of unification of Italy, 1815-70. Public Domain

He was married to Elizabetta Rosa Bonini. This is the official record of the marriage in 1896, but probably married about 1876 by the Church.

Marriage of Giorgio Montagna and Elisa Rosa Bonini in Rome

After doing some reading in the excellent resource, "Italian Genealogical Records" by Trafford R Cole, Psy.D., I found the reason for two marriages.

Beginning in 1866, the town officials were responsible for recording all births, marriages, and deaths. The child had to be personally presented to the town official to register the birth.
After the Kingdom of Italy was formed, Pope Pius IX was totally against the new country. He had controlled the city of Rome and the central portion of the country know as the Papal States. The Church lost the battle (literally). The Pope did not give in quietly, and prohibited all faithful Catholics from participating in the political system.
A power struggle arose between the Officials and the Church. Many people were married by the Church, but did not register the marriage with the city officials. The town would not recognize the marriage and would record all of the children resulting from these marriages as illegitimate. The couple would finally be forced to remarry in a civil ceremony and recognize their "illegitimate" children. From 1865 to about 1880 there are many cases of the marriage being recorded after the couple had several children.

He is named in the marriage of his daughter Juilia to Bernardino Fratoddi in Manhattan, New York:
Name: Bernardino Fratoddi
Spouse's Name: Juilia Montagna
Event Date: 09 May 1905
Event Place: Manhattan, New York, New York
Father's Name: Giuseppe
Mother's Name: Flavia Salirae
Spouse's Father's Name: Georgio
Spouse's Mother's Name: Elizabeth Bonnine

He is given as Juilia's father on her death certificate as Julius:
Name: Julia M. Fratoddi
Death date: 08 Dec 1957
Death place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama
Gender: Female
Age at death: 78y
Estimated birth year: 1879
Father's name: Julius Montagna
Mother's name: Rose

Giorgio and Rosa had at least three children, all born in Bologna:
Edgardo born 13 August 1877
My great grandmother Giulia 10 October 1879
Italio born 6 March 1886
I'm sure there were other children but I haven't found them yet.

I will continue to search for more records. If you have any info on this family I would love to hear from you.