Genealogy Jottings

The hunt for information on the family of my ancestor Daniel Ryan (1829-1863) continued this week. I tried three different research tactics:

1. I contacted my half second cousin, whom I have never met, to see if his family has any Ryan history. He had nothing to add to what I have already collected.
2. I searched for naturalization papers, assuming Daniel was an Irish immigrant during the potato famine. I do not know when he arrived. Beginning in the 1850s, he lived in several locations in Illinois including Kickapoo, Bloomington, Springfield, Galva. His first in-laws lived at Streator. I used the FamilySearch wiki to point me to naturalization databases but found no naturalizations for Daniel Ryan in any of these places. The closest was an 1860 naturalization in Livingston County just across the county line line from Streator. This seems like a long shot to be my Daniel. He was supposed to be living with his second wife Bridget in Springfield at that time although I have not found him on the U.S. census for 1860. She was living in her brother-in-law’s household with their son James that year.
3. I followed up on a clue from the 1925 Nebraska obituary for Daniel’s son Richard Ryan (1852-1925). It included a thank you to someone named C. J. Ryan. I assume he was a relative. Some sleuthing led me to his identity as Cornelius J. Ryan (1855-1927) who was the right age to be Daniel’s nephew and Richard’s cousin. I found Cornelius living in 1870 just south of Galva in Putnam County with his presumed parents, Edmond (b. abt. 1828) and Mary, and his sister Julia. This gives me two tantalizing connections to Daniel—his enlistment for the Civil War at nearby Galva, and his reported parents’ names Edmond and May when he married his second wife Bridget Murphy in 1854.

I have developed the hypothesis that Cornelius Ryan was in fact Daniel Ryan’s nephew. From that, I surmise that the Edmond Ryan of Putnam County was Daniel’s brother. Both were the children of the Edmond and May named in Daniel’s marriage record.

Since my Daniel died so young in the Civil War and left few footprints behind, more research on the Edmond of Putnam County might uncover additional records that would help determine whether my hypothesis is correct.

The other angle I found while doing the naturalization research was a connection between some Ryans in the Streator area, where Daniel’s son Richard lived with his mother’s family, and those Ryans who lived near Daniel’s one-time residence at Kickapoo. Was this group related to Daniel and to the Edmond Ryan family in Putnam County?

Although I have not yet proven a family for Daniel, it is too early to give up the search. I am encouraged to have clues remaining to be followed.