THREE Crown Branches in America

2014 has been somewhat of a miracle year for our Crown research, thanks in large part to two other researchers who made their work public on ancestry.com. When I started comparing my notes to theirs, suddenly things started clicking.  Here's a summary of what we have:

Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan of County Leitrim had at least five children who we know about. Each male branch is referred to by the place where they settled:

• John Crown + wife unknown: Crown's of Manorhamilton
  
  • I had a lead on a living descendant from this line living in County Sligo, but there was no reply to my inquiries in 2014, and I've not had a chance to follow up yet.
    
• Patrick Crown + Ann Clancy: Crown's of Brooklyn – us!
  
• Richard Crown + Catherine Melaniff: Crown's of Pollboy
  
  • Descendants of this branch also came and settled in America; we are in touch with a living descendant in Texas whose father left a rather remarkable hand-drawn family chart showing all these connections (my deepest gratitude here for the sharing of this information).
    
• Cormac Crown + wife unknown: Crown's of Moragh
  
  • Descendants of this branch also came to America and settled in Connecticut; I connected with a living descendant of this line, who also, remarkably, was handed down information that aligns with what the rest of us have.
    
• Brigid Crown + Travers
• Status unknown

I believe that Richard Crown, Sr. had a brother named Anthony, and that branch was known as the Crown's of Lurganboy. It is to this branch that Prof. John Crown, the living and rather famous cancer doctor and current Irish senator, is related.  And wonder of wonders, we are currently in touch with him, too!

Click here to read more about the details of my research.

So this is big news for all us Crown relations.  Who knows what might come next, so stay tuned.

County Roscommon and Croghan

We've made huge research progress this year finding documentation relating to our Crown family in County Leitrim.  But we have at least one account that Annie Crown Connors told her granddaughter that the Crown family came from County Roscommon.  In looking at a map, it's immediately clear that the two counties are next door to each other.

Then I found the following snippet on a message board:

The surname Crown or Crowne as it is more commonly spelled in Church records is not a common Irish name but originates from Co. Leitrim. I believe it came from the hill of Croghan on the Leitrim border.

Sure enough, there is a village called Croghan in County Roscommon, which is very near to the border with County Leitrim.  Click here to see the article I wrote with related findings, and here for more confirmation about the Croghan name in County Roscommon.

Indeed, I found a marriage record for a Patrick Croughan to Ann Quin in Laughlin (Loughlynn?), Roscommon, Ireland in 1819. I don't know if this record has anything to do with us, but it at least shows people in County Roscommon with a surname that sounds like CROWN. I think it is entirely possible, if not probable, that our Crown family in County Leitrim originated in County Roscommon, but that would be pretty far back, around the mid-1700s. More research would be required.

Brooklyn Crowns

We've already known that our Crown family owned and operated both hotels and bars in Brooklyn, and according to newspaper accounts I found, they were often in trouble for running booze during the Prohibition. And to make things even more interesting, there was one account of a mob shooting at the “Crown Bar and Grill” which involved the Jewish mafia! There is a wonderful book called Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mafia and an Ill-Fated Prizefighter, which not only describes the exact Jewish Mafia family involved in the shooting at the Crown Bar, but it also contains wonderful descriptions of Brooklyn back in the day. It's worth noting that my grandfather, George J. Schaefer, was also a boxer in his younger day.

Late in 2013, we managed to find and start corresponding with a descendant from the line of Annie Crown, the youngest child of our immigrants to America, namely Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy. It was through this correspondence, along with finding the actual will of Patrick Crown, that I realized there were actually TWO locations in Brooklyn where a Crown hotel and bar were operated:

• 496 Clarkson: This is the address for “R. Crown's Hotel,” for which we have a wonderful old photo. Patrick Crown bequeathed this place to his eldest son Richard, which was then probably passed to Annie Crown Connors upon his death (she inherited several other properties in the area of Clarkson and Albany).
  
• 621 Chester: This is the address associated with pictures I have where the business name in the window appears as “Crown Restaurant and Bar.” This place was bequeathed to John and Charles Crown in the will of Patrick Crown, which was later run by my grandfather, George Schaefer (married Peg Crown) together with Richard Connors (son of Annie Crown). This is also the place of a Jewish mafia shooting in 1943!
  

So if there has been confusion in the past about where the Crown establishment was located in Brooklyn, it's because there were actually two Crown establishments.  At least.