I am looking for the Biggins family. My 3x great grandmother was Elizabeth Biggins and I know that she had a sister named Catherine. Both sisters immigrated to Glasgow (Elizabeth was married there in 1860 to Patrick Carroll and Catherine was married there in 1868 to John McGechin). On the Scottish marriage record for Elizabeth she lists her parents as John Biggins and Catherine McKenna, both deceased.
Elizabeth then immigrated to Buffalo, NY in 1891 with her son's family and then moved to Chicago prior to 1910 census. She died in Chicago in 1916 and her death certificate states her age to be apx. 78 years old (which puts her birth somewhere around 1838. Both sisters are in the Scottish census records and list Monaghan as their place of birth.
I have been searching for them but, not able to find anything on the family yet. Any help is appreciated!
Thursday 13th Aug 2015, 08:37PM
Message Board Replies
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Courtney:
I searched Roots Ireland from 1825-1845 for a baptismal record for Catherine Biggins with father John and got no record. Same result with Elizabeth. You did not mention the religious denomination but a good number of Monaghan RC parishes do not have records back to 1840. I also checked the Griffiths Valuation for Biggins records but there were none. I know John was likely deceased but I was hoping to find others with that surname.
Sorry I could not be more helpful.
Roger McDonnell
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Thursday 13th Aug 2015, 08:56PM -
Thank you Roger - I am going to guess that they were Catholic as both girls were married Catholic in Glasgow. Thank you so much for checking! I am having such a hard time all over Ireland!!
Thursday 13th Aug 2015, 09:23PM -
Roger - would you mind checking to see if McKenna comes up at all in the area?
Thursday 13th Aug 2015, 09:26PM -
Courtney:
McKenna is a very common name in Co. Monaghan. In the Griffiths there were 758 head of households with the surname McKenna.
You may want to consider autosomal DNA testing as a way of identifying peole who match with you and may have more detailed info on your family. Do you belong to Ancestry? There may be family trees posted with some of your ancestors.
Roger
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Thursday 13th Aug 2015, 10:44PM -
Hi Roger - WOW...that is a lot of McKennas!!! Yes, I do belong to Ancestry and have had my DNA done through them. I actually come up with 46% Irish (way more than I would have thought!!). I have come up with a few true connections through this but, nothing on the Irish side.
I also had my mtDNA done but, my Irish ancestors were on my father's mother's side so, this wouldn't help that.
Thank you so much for checking for me. I really appreciate it!
Monday 17th Aug 2015, 07:45PM