Searching for the Irish orgins of my Prendergast (my surname) ancestors. My most distant known Prendergast is John, my gr. grandfather, born 1847 in Portland, Maine, USA. He always reported his parents both born in Ireland, but I do not know their names, dates of emigration or parishes of origin. There is some indirect evidence that his father may have been named John also. He had at least one sibling, Kate or Katherine also born in Maine.
John married, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, a woman born in Co. Mayo: Ann(a) McFadden, born Dec. 7, 1848 to Michael McFadden and Anne Rielle (y?), who both emigrated to Chicago also. Anna MAY have been from Wesport, Co. Mayo.
I have no other reason to suspect John Prendergast's parents were from Mayo, save that he married, in the US, a woman of a Mayo family, born in Co. Mayo. I am posting this here for the attention of any other researchers of Prendergasts (or McFaddens) of Co. Mayo in the possibility that someone else might make a connection with these people.
willyjp
Monday 25th Jun 2012, 05:50AMMessage Board Replies
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I'm researching Penders so your post caught my eye. Don't think we are connected, however I have access to the Chicago Tribune Obituary Archives and I found several obituaries which I think are your family.
cdanhauer
Tuesday 26th Jun 2012, 01:34PM -
Thank you very much for those obituaries. Those are 3 of John A. Prendergast's offspring, siblings of my grandfather William J. who died in 1946 (in Oregon), just before his brother John who is the first of those 3. It is the John A. father who's parents are my unknown parties. He and his sister were born in Portland, ME and said their parents were born in Ireland. Who they were and where they were from in Ireland is unkown. But John A.'s wife, Ann McFadden (spelled Fadgen once, early), her parents and most of her large family of siblings, were said several places to have been born in Co. Mayo (Westport mentioned once).
I was aware of MOST of those obituary facts, though I have not had access to the Chicago Tribune material, so I very much appreciate that. It is my intention to make a trip to Chicago to pursue a lot of the details in libraries there that one just can't get online.
One interesting thing is that only 2 of the 6 children, William (my g.f.) and Elizabeth (Franz) seem to have married. The other 4 seem to have lived at home, first on W. Huron then on N. Lorel, with their parents (mother only from 1909--1926). After mother Ann died in 1926, they seem to have stayed at the N. Lorel address.
I have not had any success so far in tracing descendents of any of these mentioned siblings. There may not be any! But I do recall being in Chicago as a small boy with my father in 1948, and we visited and dined with some group of people who were "relatives." It would seem that they had to have been Prendergasts or cousins because my father's other grandparents were from St. Paul.
Thank you very much for taking the trouble to post that for me!
Bill Prendergast
Portland, OR, USA
willyjp
Tuesday 26th Jun 2012, 04:05PM