Our Brooklyn Crowns - RIP

I last visited the Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in January of 2010. At that time, I was just beginning to learn about my Crown grandmother's family, and I thought it was a miracle to find the family grave of my g-grandfather, John J. Crown, and 8 other Crown and Connors relations. Awesome.

But alot has happened since then, and I have learned a great deal more about the previous generation of Crowns, the ones who emigrated to New York around 1870 from County Leitrim, Ireland. Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy had five children in Ireland before emigrating, and four more after that. What happened to them all?

Well, as time marches on, the Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Brooklyn have now listed their burials online. It turns out that Patrick and Ann, and five of their children are also buried at Holy Cross - I just didn't know to look for them back in 2010! We should also remember four of their children buried in the same plot who did not survive to adulthood: Catherine, John, Manus, and Margaret. The interment date for all these children is October 11, 1888, which is a puzzlement to me because I have death records for Catherine and John shortly after arrival in 1870. (In fact, my g-grandfather, John J. Crown, was probably named for his brother, John, who died shortly before my g-grandfather's birth). It's true that 1888 was a hard year for Brooklyn with over 1400 deaths from typhoid fever as well as a small pox epidemic going around. When our gg-grandmother died in July 1888, it seems possible that one or both of the other younger children, Manus and Margaret, also perished, and Patrick decided to buy a bigger plot at Holy Cross. My guess is that he moved the graves of his other children and they were all interred with their mother at the Holy Cross family grave. Patrick would join them there in 1903.

So now we know where our Irish emigrant ancestors are buried. Between these two graves at Holy Cross, we have accounted for both the gg-grandparents as well as their nine children, including the spouses of the two children who married, as well as three of their grandchildren (one being Richard J. Crown who died in childhood and for whom my father was named). All these people who traveled so far to build a new way while also facing so many struggles and so much suffering - it was not easy. May they be remembered by us and may they rest in peace.

And with all that said, now that we have a database to look at, I can't help but notice there are a number of other Crowns buried at Holy Cross, several with much earlier burial dates. Were these Crowns related to us? Is it possible that when Patrick came to New York, he already had other family there? Well, it's alot to ponder, and while I'll always be curious, I'm at the moment feeling satisfied with learning what we have in the last few years about our remarkable Crown family.

Travers Families of Early St. Louis

My recent correspondents have included a Travers researcher whose work has helped to clarify some confusions about some with the Travers surname appearing in St. Louis in the 1880s.

1. There were TWO Travers families who intermarried and either came to U.S. or some of their descendants did:

• JOHN TRAVERS & MARY DOHERTY (family group 1)
• LACKY TRAVERS & BRIGID CROWN (family group 2)

These families are believed to have come from the same area of County Leitrim, Ireland and thus are very likely related, but this researcher has so far not found the connection, so it might be pretty far back.

2. For our Crown story, two siblings from the children of each family group intermarried.  It can be and is confusing, so when you look at my tree now, you'll see a single asterisk next to the siblings from group 1, and a double asterisk next to the siblings from family group 2.  The siblings that married after arrival in St. Louis were:

• Mary Ann Travers* and Patrick Travers**
• Michael J Travers/Travis* and Mary Ann Travers**

The story is that both couples married on the same day, 19 Oct 1886 in St. Louis, the sibs being witnesses to each other's marriage (documentation of this has been confirmed).  The children of these two couples are related to us Crown's through Lacky and Brigid, but all the other Travers from group 1 would not be Crown-related (that we know of).

Philadelphia Crowns

When we look at the five known children of Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan (Brigid, Cormac, Patrick, Richard, and John), only one of those five came, himself, to America, and that was my ancestor, Patrick Crown. Of the remaining children of Richard and Sarah, it was the grandchildren from three of the remaining four progeny, Brigid, Cormac, and Richard, who emigrated to the USA. It could well be that descendants of John Crown also emigrated at some point, but information on this branch of the family is, at this point, the most limited.

But even among those children who remained in Ireland, we are now finding that some of THEIR children emigrated to America at a later time. For example, one of the sons of Brigid Crown and Lacky Travers, Thomas, appears to have remained in Ireland. Thomas and wife Elizabeth McMorrow are thought to have had at least five children, three remained in Ireland, and the other two - the oldest and youngest girls, both nurses - emigrated to the Philadelphia region prior to July, 1931, when the sisters were both naturalized as American citizens. Both sisters, Bridget "Tressa" Travers Lynch, and Elizabeth Travers Doherty, married in America, and so far it appears that Tressa did not have children, but Elizabeth most definitely did. I'm still researching this line, but it seems apparent that Philadelphia was yet another settling destination for our American Crown's and their descendants.

More Crown Cousins

The last month has been a flurry of correspondence with various newly-discovered Crown relations. It started with yet another DNA match, which appears to lead back to some living relations in Ireland!  This connection is through a sibling of our Crown immigrant to NY, Patrick Crown, who came to Brooklyn in 1870. Patrick's sister, Brigid (Bridget) Crown Travers, is the one whose descendants are suddenly popping up!

All of which has lead to more DNA comparisons! Here's what we have so far. Note that the following Crown's are thought to be siblings, children of Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan, and the DNA samples noted all show up as extremely high matches to one another:

• Patrick Crown and Ann Clancy (my branch) - 2 samples from U.S.
• Brigid Crown and Malachy [Lacky] Travers - 7 samples, 3 from Ireland, 4 from U.S.
• Richard Crown and Kate Mclaniff - one U.S. sample
• Cormac Crown and Kate Foley - no samples yet
• John Crown and Mary Rooney - no samples yet

Even though we've slowly been finding more documentation, the truth is that because of the record destruction in Ireland in 1922, it's very likely that we'll have to rely on DNA samples to supplement the documentation in order to piece together our Crown family. I would like to invite anybody who believes they are descended from any of these branches to please consider contributing to the growing pool of Crown DNA samples.

Meanwhile, the correspondents I've been meeting lately are all connected to Brigid Crown and Lacky Travers, the only line we are trying to track through a female Crown ancestor! Brigid and her husband, Malachy (anglicized to Loughlin) Travers, are thought to have had at least nine children:  three remained in Ireland (Thomas, Lacky Jr., and James), four came to America (three to St. Louis - Patrick, Mary, and Sarah, and one to San Francisco - Richard), and the fate of the remaining two children - Bridget and Ann - remains unknown. All of these recent correspondents have interesting stories and clues to add to the pot as we continue the quest to rediscover the story of the Crown family of County Leitrim (and probably Roscommon before that).