A Namesake Crown

While being introduced to Manorhamilton last week, I was able to visit with a local researcher, Margaret, who also happens to be married to a descendant of John Crown and Mary Rooney.  During our short visit together, I received a copy of one sheet of Margaret's notes about John Crown, and his wife and children.  Among the children listed was Mary Anne Crown, and Margaret's notes about her say this:

Mary Anne born 11-08-1864 (Killasnet Church Records) and died 1891 (Mary Ellen Connolly's notes).  Mary Anne went to America and married there.  She was then Mrs. Reilly.  She died in childbirth and her daughter, Kate, was brought home to Ireland by aunt, Kate, and reared in Castle Street until she was of age to return to her father in the states.

It was years ago now that somebody forwarded to me an old photo found on Facebook (which I don't use) posted by the Manorhamilton and District Historical Society.  The caption on that photo of three women standing in front of a building says "Crown's Bar, Castle Street 1910.  Katie Reily, Mary Crown, Kate Crown."

It so happens that in the 1901 Ireland census, there was a Kate O'Reilly, age 10, living in Mary Crown's household in Manorhamilton.  For years I have wondered who Kate was, and could only think she was somebody from the Rooney side of the family.  Until now.  Now with insights from Margaret's notes, I can search for corroborating evidence in the U.S.:

• I found a Mary Ann Crown, age 18, a spinster from Ireland arriving in NY in 1883 on her way to Philadelphia.  Could that have been her?  And if so, what was taking her to Philadelphia?
• I found a marriage record between Mary Crown (transcribed as Cronn) and John J Riley in Philadelphia in March 1889.  He was a steel polisher and she was a hat finisher, and her birth was recorded as 2 June 1865 in Ireland.  That date doesn't match the birth date recorded on the Irish civil registration record of Mary Anne's birth in Leitrim, so this record is unsure.
• Finding no clearly identifiable death record for our Mary or Mary Ann Riley (and spelling variations, very common name), I started searching for her daughter, Kate, who supposedly returned to the U.S.  I found a marriage record in 1916 between John McElhatten and Katherine Reilly, born 2 Jul 1892 in Philadelphia.  Katherine's parents were listed as John Reilly and Mary Crown, both deceased.  Bingo.
• I wasn't able to locate Kate's birth record.  Her U.S. records all show slightly different birth years:  her marriage record said her birth was 2 Jul 1892, the social security death index said her birth was 2 Jul 1889, and finally her death certificate said her birth was 2 Jul 1894.  Of the three records, the marriage record would have the date reported by Kate herself.
• Circling back again to look for Mary Anne's death record based on Kate's approximate birth, I found one Mary Riley, married, age 30, who had lived at 1644 Afton and who died of Phthsis (consumption, tuberculosis).  She died 30 Jun 1892 and was buried at Old Cathedral Cemetery on 2 Jul 1892.  Checking the Philadelphia city directories for that year, there was a John J Riley who lived at 1644 Afton, occupation was polisher.
• Moving forward from Kate's marriage in 1916, we find that she and John had one daughter, Hannah Marie McElhatten, and Hannah had two husbands and several children.  And yes, one of those descendants has taken the DNA test and is matching me and one other Crown tester.

So now we know much more about the short life of Mary Anne Crown, daughter of John Crown and Mary Rooney of Manorhamilton.  She was 18 when she left home and family, she was a hat finisher, and she died young of tuberculosis, a disease like COVID passed through the air when someone who is sick with TB disease coughs, laughs, sings, or sneezes.  Mary Anne's daughter, Kate, was apparently born between 1889 and 1892, and we know that she consistently used her mother's burial date as her own birth date.  Kate was likely in her 70s when she died in 1963.

I find myself wondering if any stories about the Crown Bar in Manorhamilton got passed down along the line of Mary Anne Crown.  Maybe a few.  Kate Reilly never knew her mother, Mary Anne, but she grew up with her grandmother and her aunts and uncles at the Crown Bar, all of them forging ahead to support themselves.  I imagine them working all the day but maybe pausing here and there to share a meal, chat with a neighbor, give a kind word in moments of heavy heart.  Maybe more than DNA was going down the line from John and Mary Crown to Mary Anne to Kate Reilly.  Maybe a collective memory of Leitrim lingered in their senses and carries on with us still.