Jeremiah Quinlan

Notes by Terri Vance:

I found a letter that my grandmother, Florence Elizabeth (nee Williams) Vance and her cousin, Dr. Henry Clyde Werts, typed up on August 20, 1950 in Los Angeles. The letter was titled Quinlans. It was the key to discovering my Quinlan roots.

The letter begins...

"Jeremiah Quinlan and his wife and family left Ireland and settled in Canada near Walkerton about 1853. Then left Canada and settled in Kansas U.S.A, near St. Mary's, about 1867. Leaving part of the Family in Canada."

In the Quinlan letter the following are listed as Jeremiah and Bridget Quinlan's children:

Tom, Patrick, Bridget, Katie, William, Ellen, Julia, Mary

In the 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, (Source Citation: Year: 1851; Census Place: Glenelg, Grey County, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C_11723; Page: 35; Line: 39) I found the following:

Jory Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 45, abt 1807 Ireland
Bridget Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 37, abt 1815 Ireland
Mary A Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 16, abt 1836 Ireland
Patrick Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 11, abt 1841 Ireland
Bridget Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 9, abt 1843 Ireland
Margt Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 7, abt 1845 Ireland
Catherine Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 5, abt 1847 Ireland
Willm Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 3, abt 1849 Ireland

Note: All the family members are listed as Yeoman and Roman Catholic. (Where is Thomas in 1851? He would be about 14 years old in 1851.)

In the 1861 Census of Canada (Source Citation: Year: 1861; Census Place: Greenock, , Bruce, Canada West; Roll: C-1011; Page: 1) I found the following:

Jeremiah Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 55, 1806, Ireland, Married, Farmer
Bridget Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 50, 1811, Ireland, Married
Thomas Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 24, 1837, Ireland, Single, Farmer
Patrick Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 20, 1841, Ireland, Single, Farmer
Bridget Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 18, 1843, Ireland, Single
Margaret Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 17, 1844, Ireland, Single
Catharine Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 14, 1847, Ireland, Single
William Quinlan, Male, age at next birth date 13, 1848, Ireland, Single
Helen Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 10, 1851, Upper Canada, Single
Judith Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 6, 1855, Upper Canada, Single
Mary Quinlan, Female, age at next birth date 4, 1857, Upper Canada, Single

Note: All the family members are listed as Roman Catholic. The census lists 1 family member as being absent. (Missing family member must be Mary A. Quinlan that was listed in the 1851 census. She would be about 26 in 1861. Maybe married or did she die and they named their youngest daughter after her?) The census states that 1 male and 3 females are attending school within the year. It states the Quinlan's house is a 1 stores log house with 1 family living in the house.

In the Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 (Source Information: Ancestry.com.. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009) I found the following:

Jeremiah Quinlin, 68, abt 180,7 Male, White, Ireland
Bridget Quinlin, 60, abt 1815, Female, White, Ireland
Mary Quinlin, 19, abt 1856, Female, White, Canada
William Quinlin, 25, abt 1850, Male, White, Ireland

Notes by Giovanni Ruffini:

Jeremiah appears in the 1880 census in Washington Township, Jackson County, Kansas. Ancestry.com’s index reads his age as 72 (b. c. 1808), Bridget’s as 65, and with Mary, age 23, says that these three are a husband, wife, and daughter, although the entry does not so specify.

The entry specifies Ireland as the birth-places of Jeremiah, Bridget and their parents. Mary, aged 23, was born in Canada. Jeremiah and Bridget should therefore have been in Canada circa 1857.

Jeremiah also appears in the online index to Mt. Calvary Cemetery, St. Marys (http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/genweb/pottawat/potcem7c.html#NAME), which lists, under the Quinlan surname, Alice M. (1891-1920), Bridget (1813-1893), Jeremiah (1800-1892), Margaret Bell (1861-1950), Mary (1854-1946), William (1849-1895), and William E (1915-1923). The birth year for Jeremiah in the online index of this cemetery would appear to be mistaken, unless the birth year given in his census entries is in error instead.

(The card index from the county library lists only five of those seven, lacking the first and last. According to Barbara Harvey’s book on the Guyette family, Michael and Lenora Guyette are buried there as well, with an inscription she herself purchased a century later.)

I do not find Jeremiah Quinlan with any certainty in Kansas in the 1870 census, nor do I see him in the 1860 census. (One does appear in Kansas with a circa 1810 birth year, in the company of a James, born circa 1845; both are in Walnut, Atchison, KS. This is a poor match.) I do find a Jeremiah about the right age (50) arriving in February 1849 aboard the Columbus, from Liverpool, with five female Quinlans, including one Mary. I also find a Jeremiah of not the right age with a Bridget, a William, and a large number of others aboard the America, arriving in 1851 from Liverpool.