The problem of the two Peter Gahagans
Listen, my children, and you shall discover how most of you got the immigrant Gahagans all mixed up on your family trees!
It starts back in…well, I don’t know when exactly. The Genealogical society in Bloomington, Illinois did a survey of St. Mary’s cemetery. God bless ’em, they wrote down every gravestone and as much as they could read on each one. The problem came when someone decided to add additional information besides what was in the cemetery. So they added who was this one’s father or that one’s daughter; and that’s where our problems start. They published it and I got a copy back in the early eighties. I can remember sitting on my sofa, and puzzling and puzzling. I probably still have somewhere around the family trees that I wrote out trying to make sense of this incorrect information.
And, dear reader, it is still out there. The info below is from findagrave.com and is in every family tree involving our branch of the Gahagans that I found on Ancestry.
Peter William Gahagan
| BIRTH | unknown |
|---|---|
| DEATH | 27 Jul 1877 |
| BURIAL | Saint Marys CemeteryBloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA |
| MEMORIAL ID | 84777500 · View Source |
- Children
- Patrick Gahaganunknown–1878
- James G Gahagan1839–1899
- Mary Gahagan Rhodes1854–1930
What’s interesting about the above is that they know when Peter Gahagan died, even though it happened in St. Paul, Kansas and he is buried there.
Patrick and James are Peter’s younger brothers. They are buried in St. Mary’s with several family members around them, which is why I had to make a trip to Bloomington and walk through the cemetery with my parents looking for the relevant names.
Above is the stone for James Gahagan and his wife Julia Donovan. You may notice that their son Willie, who died fairly young, is buried there also. It may interest you to know that Willie’s name was actually Peter William Gahagan. And he was born 1882, after the uncle he was named for died.
The Pantagraph of Bloomington had this mention of Willie in June 1903:
The Knights of Columbus are making arrangements to hold memorial serivices next Sunday. This Is the first time the local knights have observed memorial day for deceased members. The order In Bloomlngton Is young, but has a large membership. Since their organization there has been but one death, and that one quite recently, being the demise of Mr. William Gahagan, the Illinois Central fireman, who died from Injuries received In a wreck. Next Sunday morning at 10 o’clock the knights will attend requiem high mass at Holy Trinity church In a body, and several solos will be sung by members of the choir.
Mary Gahagan Rhodes actually is Peter Gahagan’s daughter – and she is buried in a different cemetery. Because, she married a Protestant and seems to have been a pillar of the First Christian Church, according to her obituary.
The other interesting thing, to me anyway, is that it seems the calling of children by their middle names didn’t start with my Grandma Gahagan!