Brick Wall

In reality, every family line eventually ends in a brick wall of sorts, due to lack of records, stories, books, DNA, etc. But sometimes a brick wall is more recent, something where there should or could be records available or knowledge to be gained, and where questions can be answered to break through that brick wall. And many times those particular brick walls remain stuck in your head, keeping you up at night, wondering what other records can be examined or what you might have missed that could be that clue you need.

Anyone who does family history research has these dead ends. My particular one is my mother’s maternal great grandparents, John Merryn Reilly and his wife Matilda M. They were both born in Ireland between 1830 and 1835 and immigrated to the United States sometime before 1958. I have viewed many webinars on how to do Irish research, and what I have learned is that if you don’t know the area in Ireland where your ancestors are from, it’s almost impossible to figure it out, unless your ancestor’s name is very unique. So that means you must research every record you can in the US, with the hope you can uncover the county, town, or link to an area where they were from. Believe me, you have no idea how many John Reillys there are until you start looking. So its next to impossible to know which one is “your” John Reilly.”

I don’t have any photographs of John or Matilda Reilly, but I do have a few photos of their first born child Elizabeth M. Reilly (below), my mom’s grandmother. She was born in Cincinnati Ohio, in October 1859, according the 1860 US Census, but she spent almost all of her life in Philadelphia, PA, where my mom’s family was from. John and Matilda had three other children after “Lizzie,” but only he (Robert M. Reilly) and Lizzie lived into adulthood. Lizzie married John Koetzle in 1886 in Philadelphia. 

Lizzie Reilly Koetzle, and husband John 1920 Philly PA

Lizzie Reilly Koetzle around 1935?

Here are some of the things I have learned about John and Matilda Reilly: 

• John was born in Ireland around 1830, per US census data.
• Matilda was about 5 years younger, also born in Ireland.
• John and Matilda first appeared together in Cincinnati Ohio census in 1860.
• In the New York state 1865 census they were living in Brooklyn, NY, working as a quartermaster clerk (this was during the Civil War).
• In the 1870 Census they had moved to Philadelphia, PA.
• They were of the Episcopal religion, based on records of their children’s baptism.
• Matilda immigrated around 1840, per the 1900 US census.
• John was not in the 1880 US Census, just his wife Matilda, listed as widowed, with her two living children, Lizzie and Robert.
• John died between 1870 and 1872 based on city directory listings.

Here are some of the things I do not know about John and Matilda Reilly

• What was Matilda’s maiden name?
• Where were each of them from in Ireland, and who were their families?
• Did they know each other in Ireland?
• Did they marry in the US or in Ireland?
• When did John immigrate? (He died before any census questions asked that).
• Which port did they sail into? As I said, with common names like John Reilly, and no dates to go by, its impossible to determine this.
• Why did they first go to Cincinnati? Lots of Irish immigrants did though.
• And many, many more unknowns.

Is this brick wall hopeless? Absolutely not. I have two strong DNA matches to our Reilly family, and I have been in contact with both. One is a second cousin and one is a third cousin. However, they do not have any more information on these questions than I do.

Just a few months ago I got one of the most significant hints I have ever had. You see, in all my Irish research there is another person that appears with the Reilly family household in US census records starting in 1870 in Philadelphia, Her name is Mary J. McDowell. She was born in Ireland about 1821 and came to the US when she was about 9. Starting in 1870 census and after that she is listed as either a boarder, or servant or keeping house. She was never married. Actually seeing her name in the family group in census records helped me know that I had the right Reilly family. Plus, when she died in 1903 she was buried in the family burial plots.

1880 US census snippet Matilda, Lizzie, Robert and Mary McDowell

For some background, most family history census records in Ireland in the 1800’s were destroyed by fires. Only fragments of the 1821, 1841 and 1851 census records survived. I recently got a hint from Ancestry from the 1821 Irish census fragment showing an Irish household named McDowell, with one of the children named Mary, who was just 3 months old then. But here’s the exciting part - also in the same household were an older couple named Laurence and Eleanor Reilly, listed as father in law and mother in law. 

Could it be that is why Mary McDowell was living with the Reilly family in Philadelphia? Were her parents related through marriage to the Reillys? It certainly is something I am researching. If this is the answer, then I know that “our” Reilly family is from County Cavan, Drumlumman, in Ireland.

It’s going to take lots of learning on my part to work my way through this, but I am hopeful that I might finally have a breakthrough and jump the pond over to Ireland. 

I apologize to all my family and readers for “getting in the weeds” as they say with all this detail. I picked this topic today because it is St. Patrick’s Day today, and it also helps me organize my own thoughts on this line of research. I am learning that the best way to do this research is to formulate a specific research question to work on, and this blog post helps me do that. Otherwise I’m just kind of fishing in the dark burning a lot of time without any real results. So stay tuned. Just maybe I will have the answer to some of those unknowns in an upcoming post.  

Erin Go Bragh. Ireland forever!!