u/Nowhen_Man

TLDR: I can’t find Patrick Dawson and wife Mary Murphy’s marriage or other records showing that they existed in 1820-1840 Quebec.

Its long, but intriguing.

Published 1891, Portrait and Biographical History of Lake County IL:

**Patrick Dawson, deceased, is a pioneer settler of the town of Deerfield, where he located in 1846. He was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1809, and was a son of Daniel Dawson. When nineteen years of age, he emigrated to America, landing in Canada and in Quebec, in 1833, was united in marriage with Miss Mary Murphv, a daughter of Peter and Mary Murphy, She was also a native of County Sligo, Ireland, born about 1809, and with her family crossed the broad Atlantic to Canada, when sixteen years of age.

It was in 1838, when Mr. Dawson, accompanied by his family, crossed the line into the United States, and located in Albany, N. Y., where he made his home for two years, settling in Illinois in 1840. He located in the town of Lake, where he was engaged in farming and in raising and shipping hay for the Chicago market. In December. 1846, he moved to Deerfield Township, Lake County, arrived at his destination on the 22nd of that month.**

He died there in Sept 1875 and Mary died in 1876.

Other information: From Find a Grave, and Illinois censuses, their first son James Dawson was born in NY in either 1834 (gravestone says 42 years old, died 1876) or ca. 1838 (1850 census reports James as 12). I don’t place much confidence in either age or date. Patrick and Mary themselves changed relative ages between censuses, and they were illiterate like many Irish immigrants.

Now the problem. I can find no records of this particular Patrick Dawson in Quebec, and without records of him, it’s tough to know which record of Mary Murphy is the correct one. Young people from Ireland with the names Patrick Dawson and Mary Murphy and of roughly appropriate ages both came over in 1825 on The Fortitude in the Peter Robinson migration and settled in Ontario, and that Mary also had a mother Mary, but I don’t think that is them. That Patrick seems to stay in Ontario, and there is nothing to suggest the couple ever spent time there. .

The Illinois part of their lives is well established, he (and family) appears in 3 and she appears in 4 censuses, but their lives in Quebec (and even NY) is a black hole. There are no naturalization papers for Albany County NY, and if there were any from their early years in Lake, IL they were destroyed in the Chicago fire.

Its pretty clear (to me) that their biography is what was passed down orally to children and or friends and neighbors, rather than having been extracted from document research. Its also clear that dates and ages in 200 year old oral biographies can’t be taken at face value. Maybe other things can get smudged too, like Irish county of origin?

Did they fabricate the story? That seems highly unlikely, so except for a few quick searches of immigrant lists I have not attempted to DISprove it. .

So if they were landed and living and married in Quebec, as I feel confident they were, did they change surname when moving to the US?

Using wildcard searches for every Mary Murphy who married a Patrick D in 1830’s Quebec I found a Patrick Drean and Mary Murphy, he from County Sligo (match) and she from County Monaghan (not a perfect match, but geographically close). They were married in Quebec (match) in 1836 (not a match, but close, and makes more sense given when their first son was reportedly born—getting married 5 years before a first born makes no sense) and had a first son named James (match) born in Quebec (not a match to census) also in 1836 (splits the difference between estimated 1834 and 1838 birth years on Find a Grave and census). The spelling also changed from Drean to Derrin at James’s birth. He is listed as James DREAN DERRIN in church records. I don’t know if that’s a change that they stuck with, but either way I can’t find them again in Canada or US. There are nearly infinite variations of spelling on names like that.

But: Patrick Drean’s father’s name was Daniel (matches the biography) and Mary’s parents names were Mary and Peter (match and match). Also, the biography says that Patrick crossed the line into NY “accompanied by his family” which suggests (to me) that they came with a child that was born in Canada.

And: The biography mentions nothing about Patrick’s birth family aside from his father’s name, and indeed there are no relatives attached to Patrick Drean in prdh/Quebec church records. Meanwhile the biography mentions that Mary came over from Ireland with family, and indeed this Mary Murphy Drean Derrin’s parents and siblings are all linked to her in prdh records and most including her mother seem to have remained and died in Canada. Not only that, Mary and Patrick’s and James’s Quebec church record history ends with the birth of James. I don’t find them again. They must have either died anonymously, changed their name spelling again, or Quebec or Canada.

Did they move somewhere else and I just haven’t found them or did they move to NY and start calling themselves Dawson? There is zero proof of that being the case. But I also have nothing better to explain why I can’t find Patrick Dawson and a wife Mary Murphy in Quebec, with their excellent record keeping. The mismatched years and mismatches aren’t insurmountable for me, but the last name difference can’t be ignored and requires some proof. I can't find any.

Their will be no birth certificates for the Dawson children born in the US because they were all born prior to such things. I found a death certificate for one of the Dawson children that states both parents were born in Ireland (no county given), so that doesn’t really help. I can get birth certs for later generations but they won’t help prove their grandparent’s connection to Canada.

There is what I believe to be an erroneous Frances attached to Daniel Dawson as his spouse on a tree in Ancestry.com, but I’m sure that’s a mistaken transcription from a scribbled census record. Daniel Drean’s wife was Margaret McAnessen in Quebec church records, but there is no further info on either of them and no indication either one was ever in Canada.

I am stumped, for the moment anyway. I don’t intend to give up but maybe someone else can dig up a new clue or suggest something I haven’t thought of. I don't intend to hire anyone so that's off the table. There's no big hurry but I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this ancestral mystery! I'm happy to do the work but not sure what to do next.

TLDR: I can’t find Patrick Dawson and wife Mary Murphy’s marriage or other records showing that they existed in 1820-1840 Quebec.

Its long, but intriguing, so buckle up.

Published 1891, Portrait and Biographical History of Lake County IL.

**Patrick Dawson, deceased, is a pioneer settler of the town of Deerfield, where he located in 1846. He was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1809, and was a son of Daniel Dawson. When nineteen years of age, he emigrated to America, landing in Canada and in Quebec, in 1833, was united in marriage with Miss Mary Murphv, a daughter of Peter and Mary Murphy, She was also a native of County Sligo, Ireland, born about 1809, and with her family crossed the broad Atlantic to Canada, when sixteen years of age.

It was in 1838, when Mr. Dawson, accompanied by his family, crossed the line into the United States, and located in Albany, N. Y., where he made his home for two years, settling in Illinois in 1840. He located in the town of Lake, where he was engaged in farming and in raising and shipping hay for the Chicago market. In December. 1846, he moved to Deerfield Township, Lake County, arrived at his destination on the 22nd of that month.**

He died there in Sept 1875 and Mary died in 1876.

Other information: From Find a Grave, and Illinois censuses, their first son James Dawson was born in NY in either 1834 (gravestone says 42 years old, died 1876) or ca. 1838 (1850 census reports James as 12). I don’t place much confidence in either age or date. Patrick and Mary themselves changed relative ages between censuses, and they were illiterate like many Irish immigrants and perhaps cared little about such trivial things.

Now the problem. I can find no records of this particular Patrick Dawson in Quebec, and without records of him, it’s tough to know which record of Mary Murphy is the correct one. Young people from Ireland with the names Patrick Dawson and Mary Murphy and of roughly appropriate ages both came over in 1825 on The Fortitude in the Peter Robinson migration and settled in Ontario, and that Mary also had a mother Mary, but I don’t think that is them. That Patrick seems to stay in Ontario.

The Illinois part of their lives is well established, he (and family) appears in 3 and she appears in 4 censuses, but their lives in Quebec (and even NY) is a black hole. There are no naturalization papers for Albany County NY, and if there were any from their early years in Lake, IL they were destroyed in the Chicago fire. Patrick was listed as a US Citizen in the 1870 census but I’m not sure that has any real meaning.

Its pretty clear (to me) that their biography is what was passed down orally to children and or friends and neighbors, rather than having been extracted from document research. Its also clear that dates and ages in 200 year old oral biographies can’t be taken at face value. Maybe other things can get smudged too, like Irish county of origin?

Did they fabricate the story? That seems highly unlikely, if not absurd.

So if they were landed and living and married in Quebec, as I feel confident they were, did they change surname when moving to the US?

Using wildcard searches for every Mary Murphy who married a Patrick D in 1830’s Quebec I found a Patrick Drean and Mary Murphy, he from County Sligo (match) and she from County Monaghan (not a perfect match, but geographically close). They were married in Quebec (match) in 1836 (not a match, but close, and makes more sense given when their first son was reportedly born—getting married 5 years before a first born makes no sense) and had a first son named James (match) born in Quebec (not a match to census) later in 1836 (splits the difference between reported 1834 and 1838 birth years on Find a Grave and census). The spelling also changed from Drean to Derrin at James’s birth. He is listed as James DREAN DERRIN in church records. I don’t know if that’s a change that they stuck with, but either way I can’t find them again.

More: Patrick Drean’s father’s name was Daniel (match) and Mary’s parents names were Mary and Peter (match and match). Also, the published biography says that Patrick crossed the line into NY “accompanied by his family” which suggests (to me) that they came with a child that was born in Canada.

And More: The biography mentions nothing about Patrick’s birth family aside from his father’s name, and indeed there are no relatives attached to Patrick Drean in prdh/Quebec church records. Meanwhile the biography mentions that Mary came over from Ireland with family, and indeed Mary Murphy Drean Derrin’s parents and siblings are all linked to her in prdh records and most including her mother seem to have remained and died in Canada. Not only that, Mary and Patrick’s and James’s Quebec church record history ends with the birth of James. I don’t find them again. They must have either died anonymously, changed their name spelling again, or left.

Did they move somewhere else and I just haven’t found them or did they move to NY and start calling themselves Dawson? There is zero proof of that happening. But I also have nothing better to explain why I can’t find Patrick Dawson and a wife Mary Murphy in Quebec. The mismatched years and mismatches aren’t insurmountable for me, but the last name difference can’t be ignored and requires some proof.

Their will be no birth certificates for the Dawson children born in the US because they were all born prior to such things. I found a death certificate for one of the Dawson children that states both parents were born in Ireland (no county given), so that doesn’t really help. I can get birth certs for later generations but they won’t help prove their grandparent’s connection to Canada.

There is what I believe to be an erroneous Frances attached to Daniel Dawson as his spouse on a tree in Ancestry.com, but I’m sure that’s a mistaken transcription from a scribbled census record. Daniel Drean’s wife was Margaret McAnessen in church records, but there is no further info on either of them and no indication either were ever in Canada.

I’ve reached out to 2 distant relatives who have posted some stuff on the family but they have not responded. I don’t think they know anything. Not sure where to go from here. Although this Patrick Drean may or may not qualify to pass down citizenship if he is my ancestor, Mary through her mother, who remained and died in Canada in 1849, very well might. I am not convinced these are my ancestors, but I don’t have any better theories as to where Patrick suddenly appeared from.

I am stumped, for the moment anyway. I don’t intend to give up but maybe someone else can dig up a new clue or suggest something I haven’t thought of. I'm still pretty new at this.

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