My Irish Roots – Patrick and Maggie Conlon Doyle

I believe this photo to be of:
Maggie and Patrick Doyle
Winnie and Mary Doyle

Although from my paternal grandfather I have strong German roots, and distinctly English roots through my mother’s side, I most closely identify with my paternal grandmother’s Irish roots.  I wonder why that is?

It may be because I grew up listening to my grandmother sing her heart out with Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral (Tura Lura Lural) an Irish lullaby as she ironed away in our farmhouse kitchen.  

And although my grandmother, for whom I am named, lived six months of each year with us until her death in October 1971, I knew little about her growing up years and her family.

Since then I have learned her parents were Patrick and Margaret (Maggie) Conlon Doyle. Patrick was born in April 1857 in Ireland; Maggie abt 1867 in Ireland.  Patrick was naturalized in 1887.  Maggie arrived in New York in 1890, and they were married in 1892.  Patrick found work as a laborer, and then joined the City of New York’s Sanitation Department as a street cleaner.

The 1910 Federal Census shows two daughters: Mamie (Mary)(b: 1899), my grandmother, and Winnie, born abt 1903.  It is sad to see that Maggie reported she had had six children with only two living.  Their Manhattan apartment seems to be a refuge for Irish “cousins.”  In 1910 they have Thomas Conlon (probably a relative of Maggie’s), and three Gormley brothers, who I cannot connect to this family at this time.

By 1920 my grandmother is married to Harry Nunn, and they are living with her parents with their son, Harold. Also in the apartment are four Conlon cousins and niece Catherine Murphy.

I lose them now.  I cannot find Winnie again after 1910; I cannot find Patrick and Maggie after 1920.  My mother thought Maggie died sometime in the 1920s of diabetes. I have run through my Genealogy Toolbox again to see if additional information has surfaced on this family.  I haven’t covered all the bases, but for some reason I now feel strongly that the photo above is of Patrick and Maggie Doyle. The young woman on the right is my grandmother; the woman next to her might be her sister, Winnie.