More on Finns in the USA

At the end of my previous post called ‘Finns in the USA”, I mentioned John Finn (1796 Cloontia – 5th October 1877 Clooneen, Kilshavey, Sligo), who married Catherine Kane (1813? Clooneen – 7th January 1894 Clooneen) in 1823 in Cloontia. Catherine was probably born before 1813, otherwise she would have been 10 when she married. I stated that I had DNA connections to two of their descendants, Matthew Finn and Matilda (Tilly) Finn, whose parents were Thomas Finn and Ellen Gorman. Her parents were confirmed in Matilda’s death certificate.

Map showing where the three Irish county borders meet and key villages in each county ringed – distances between them less than five miles. My grandparents farm was very close to the ‘A’ above at the end of the word Cloontia, in Mayo but very close to the Sligo border. Kilshalvey is part way between Cloontia and Kiltycreen. Sometimes in records the name of a townland is quoted, sometimes the village which can consist of several townlands (Cloontia has four) and sometimes the Roman Catholic church or parish. It is difficult to pin down exactly where someone was born, married or died. It is further complicated by the origin of these place names in Gaelic being translated into English, usually but not always phonetically, leading to several spelling variations. I put this in, because these variations appear in the records and thence into my blogs.

I have now had some contact from Patricia Burnett who was born in Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, Montana and who currently lives in Denver, Colorado, because she picked up that we have a DNA connection. Anaconda is a city 5335 feet above sea level in the south west of the state, having a population of 9000 or so. It was the centre of a large copper mining area, now closed.

The Washoe Theatre on Main Street – the last to be constructed in the USA in the Nuevo Deco style – picture from Wikipedia, included because I like well designed buildings to illustrate places.

Patricia’s parents are Raymond G Zimmer (1904 – 22nd November 1947 Portland, Oregon) and Elizabeth Catherine Finn (10th November 1913 Anaconda – 1990 Portland). Patricia’s grand parents were John Henry Finn (22nd August 1879, Clooneen – October 1944 Montana) and Bridget Coleman (1879 – 1957) who were married in Montana on 19th November 1906.

John Henry’s parents and Patricia’s great grandparents were Dominick Finn (1834 – 13th March 1918 Clooneen) and Anne McDermottroe (1859-1934). Dominick is Thomas Finn’s brother and another son of the aforementioned John and Catherine. It is nice to have another DNA connection into the tree that emanated from John and Catherine.

Dominick and Thomas had five other brothers.  Michael Finn (1820 Cloontia – 1895 Ragwood, Sligo), John Finn (1824 Cloontia – 1889 Cullard?), Luke Finn, Hugh Finn (1827 Cloontia – 1892 Cullens?, Sligo), James Finn 1836 Cloontia – 1911 Kilshavey) and Patrick Finn (1831 Clooneen – 1881 Manchester, England). Patrick married Mary Hannon (1836-1876) at Drumrat, Sligo in March 1851 and they had a son, Bernard Finn (7th March 1868, Gurteen, Sligo – 14th October 1955 Sarcoxie, Jasper, Missouri). Bernard’s birth record confirms his father as Patrick Finn and his mother as Mary Hannon, but his death record had Mary Keen, which is I suspect a reference to his grandmother’s maiden name. Bernard married Henrietta Klineline (14th February 1880 – 19th September 1962) on 28th January 1898 in Missouri. They had two sons and a daughter Bernard Lee Finn (1902-1976), Margaret Finn (1908-1984) and John Franklin Finn (28th December 1917 Sarcoxie – 3rd April 2000 Corpus Christi, Kleberg, Texas). John Franklin married Lois Irene Wooten (1918 – 1986) on 24th September 1935 in Joplin, Missouri. In the 1940 USA census, Bernard, aged 70 was living in Sarcoxie along with Henrietta. Bernard was the publisher of a weekly newspaper, when twenty years previously he was a painter with his children all living at home in Center Street, Sarcoxie. It was amazing to think that he could make a living out of a weekly newspaper in a town with a population of just over 1000.

Application form heading for proposing to add the main square in Sarcoxie to the National Register.
Extract from above application detailing how Bernard Finn was the founder of the Sarcoxie Record newspaper.
Bernard Finn and wife Henrietta with their two oldest children from David Kunkle’s tree on Ancestry.

John Henry Finn had eight siblings: Lizzie Kate Finn (born 1882), Patrick James Finn (1883 – 25th September 1948), Mary Teresa Finn (21st June 1884 – 22nd August 1965, who married James Doohan, Thomas Joseph Finn (born 1886), George Edward Finn (born 1890), Belinda Agnes Finn (1891 – 2nd September 1969), Robert Augustus Finn (born 1893) and Benedict Simon Finn(1896-1898). I have not researched any of these Finns further.

John Henry and Bridget had five other children besides Elizabeth Catherine Finn: Margaret Finn(born 1908), Patrick J Finn (1909-1916), John Finn (borne 1912), Mary A Finn (1917 – 1966) and George Finn (1920 – 1957). Again, I have not carried out any further research.

I mentioned DNA links to two of the children of Thomas and Ellen, namely Matthew and Matilda. There were thirteen other children, where again, I have not carried out any further research: Bridget Beatrice Finn (born 1867 Kiltycreen, Sligo – 1943 Stockport, England), Bernard Finn (1868-1868 Kiltycreen), Catherine Finn (born 29th January 1870 Kiltycreen – died in Philadelphia), Mary Anne Finn (14th April 1871 Gurteen – 26th September 1916 Philadelphia), John Jack Finn (24th June 1872 Kiltycreen – 1950 Victoria, Australia), Thomas Finn (1873 Kiltycreen – 13th April 1922 Belfast, Northern Ireland), Patrick Finn 17th march 1875 Kiltycreen – 6th January 1921 New York), Michael Finn (1875 Kiltycreen – November 1967 Kiltycreen), James Finn (4th June 1877 – June 1922 Dublin, Ireland), Henry Finn (6th January 1883 Kiltycreen – 1971 Auckland, New Zealand), Ellie Finn (1884 Kiltycreen – 6th March 1909 Kiltycreen), Emily Finn(18th August 1888 Kiltycreen – died New York), Frederick Alfred Finn (20th March 1894 Kiltycreen – 1967 Bradford, England).

So where does that leave my research? Great to know I have yet further DNA connections to distant relatives in the USA, over a more extensive area. These records also extend the Finn name into Australia and New Zealand, where I have not completed any research, but I have some other DNA links to explore. Back in Ireland, the results link to other distant relatives from the same geographical area as my grandparents, as shown in the above map. I am unable to link them into my own family, but I am getting closer! More research needed.