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Topic: Help!!! (Read 284 times)
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KDoran
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 9
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Help!!!
« on: Monday 17 October 05 05:25 UTC (UK) » |
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Hey, I am new to this board. I am trying to trace back my family history on my fathers side and have no idea how. any help you can give me would help a ton!
My father always told me his father was from Ireland but did not know where.
My fathers name was Bernard George Doran Jr. He was born in Hawthorn Ca. in 1930 or 31 I think. His mothers name was Elsie. He had a brother named Richard and a sister named Cathleen(I think). My father was married to a woman named Verginia, and then to my mother Patricia. My father attended Redondo Beach High School and then in the Marine Corps, serving his country in Korea. He died in Jan. 1994. Any help you could give would help. Thanks!
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eillo
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 381
Sarah Page born Chilham Kent 1836 who are parents?
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #2 on: Monday 17 October 05 22:08 UTC (UK) » |
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My father always told me his father was from Ireland but did not know where.
My fathers name was Bernard George Doran Jr. He was born in Hawthorn Ca. in 1930 or 31 I think. His mothers name was Elsie. He had a brother named Richard and a sister named Cathleen(I think).
He died in Jan. 1994.
The most recent census you can search is 1930 - have you checked to see if Elsie Doran is there? http://allcensusrecords.com/usa/
Take a look at the Comparison Chart to see what sites have that year online and how you can access it.
You need to know the County that Hawthorn was/is in.
You might be able to send for your father's birth cert.
Then you could search in the census back from 1930 every 10 years - you can go back a LONG way doing that!
Did you check the online SSDI (Social Security Death Index for your father or his mother? Is his father also Bernard George? There is a Bernard G. Doran born 18 Jan 1907 died 11 Feb 1994 Harbor City, Los Angeles, California in the SSDI
This might be your father and his father in the California Birth Indexes:
Bernard G Doran Birth 18 Jan 1907 Male Mother's Maiden Name Fant County Los Angeles
Bernard George Birth Doran 5 Dec 1934 Male Mother's Maiden Name Benfield County Los Angeles
IF it is them, we know that your dad was born 1934 (too late for the census) and if his mom's name was Elsie then she was Elsie Benfield...
For grandpa, he was born 1907 and his mother's name was xx Fant. I might be able to find him on a census, I'll be right back 
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KENT: Fuller, Simpson, Stead, Caspall, Norris, Philpott, Elvery DEVON: Williams, Caspall SUSSEX: Simpson YORKSHIRE: Dewhirst/Dewhurst, Wormald, Hill, Schulze CANADA: McGinnis, Peer, Vollick and more Websites: AllEnglishRecords.comAllCensusRecords.com |
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eillo
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 381
Sarah Page born Chilham Kent 1836 who are parents?
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #3 on: Monday 17 October 05 22:25 UTC (UK) » |
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Ok I checked the CA death indexes for children born to a woman with the maiden name BENFIELD and found 3: one being the Bernard George I already posted. Here's the other two, seems to fit with your family memories of a sister "cathleen"
Alan Doran b 8 Nov 1936
Kathleen Pamela Doran b 30 Dec 1942
and here is Bernard George, the one I found in the SSDI and in the CA birth indexes, in the CA death indexes
DORAN, BERNARD GEORGE died 11 Feb 1994 LOS ANGELES County born 18 Jan 1907 CALIFORNIA mother's name FANT
If it turns out that this is your grandfather, post here to the forum as I found two of his siblings in the CA birth indexes, and that allowed me to find his parents (and more sibs) in the 1920 census for Los Angeles CA.
I won't go into details in case it's not your ancestor but very briefly HIS parents were Michael (age 54 in 1920) and Margaret (age 44 in 1920) . He is listed as being born "at sea, Am. [American?] Port" with his father b New York, mother b Eng. She is from England, father and mother b Eng. Their first listed dau was 24 and her place of birth given as Arizona, all the rest of the children b. CA Margaret's imm. year is unreadable
no luck so far finding Bernard George Doran b 1907 in the 1910, 1920 or 1930 census but you should try for yourself, I could only spend a bit of time hunting....
Almost forgot, the link for the SSDI is at http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ and there is also one at Ancestry.com
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KENT: Fuller, Simpson, Stead, Caspall, Norris, Philpott, Elvery DEVON: Williams, Caspall SUSSEX: Simpson YORKSHIRE: Dewhirst/Dewhurst, Wormald, Hill, Schulze CANADA: McGinnis, Peer, Vollick and more Websites: AllEnglishRecords.comAllCensusRecords.com |
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eillo
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 381
Sarah Page born Chilham Kent 1836 who are parents?
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #4 on: Monday 17 October 05 23:07 UTC (UK) » |
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I finally found Bernard in 1930, 1920 and 1910 -- in Los Angeles, Los Angeles California
in 1910 he is 3 years old with his siblings and parents Michael (misindexed as Michel) J. Doran, 44, born at sea, and Margaret J, 34, b Eng. immigrated 1893.
in 1920 he must be the 12 year old son whose name looks like Vernon or Bernon (really hard to read), pa Michael, 54 b at sea, mother Margaret 44 b Eng (I gave some of this info in an earlier post)
in 1930 he is still at home with parents Michael J. (64, m at age 29, b at sea, father b NY and Margaret J. 53, m at 18, b Eng imm. 1893, naturalized
Now you can look for passenger lists for Margaret and maybe (fingers crossed) Michael's birth at sea... plus naturalization records
http://naturalizationrecords.com/usa/
http://www.stevemorse.org/ try the Ellis Island (NY) database just in case Margaret came in that way - remember her surname should be FANT if the other records I found go with this family
I'm having fun, hope you don't mind if I keep looking! 
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KENT: Fuller, Simpson, Stead, Caspall, Norris, Philpott, Elvery DEVON: Williams, Caspall SUSSEX: Simpson YORKSHIRE: Dewhirst/Dewhurst, Wormald, Hill, Schulze CANADA: McGinnis, Peer, Vollick and more Websites: AllEnglishRecords.comAllCensusRecords.com |
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liverpool annie
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 13082
Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #5 on: Monday 17 October 05 23:12 UTC (UK) » |
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Boy! eillio!
You're on a roll!!
Nobody's going to stop you!! 
Annie
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eillo
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 381
Sarah Page born Chilham Kent 1836 who are parents?
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday 18 October 05 00:19 UTC (UK) » |
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Hi KDoran,
This is pretty exciting, I hardly know where to begin!
I couldn't stop looking for your family ... went to the CA death indexes and searched for any DORAN with mother's name of FANT (Bernard George's siblings).. found 5 siblings births and deaths, they fit with the children of Michael J Doran and Margaret J in the census records I posted earlier.
Decided to look for Margaret and/or Michael's deaths. Margaret's dob was hard to read in the 1900 census (forgot to tell you I finally found them as MIKEL and MARGARET DORAN in Los Angeles in 1900) Margaret was listed as Margaret J, looked like her birth was may 1875, Michael J born June?Jan? 1865. .
Ok back to the CA death indexes. I found Margaret Jane Doran b 1 May 1876 "other country" died 4 Dec. 1950 in L.A., mother's maiden name CLARK
I decided to take a look on Ellis Island and think I found her!
Jane FANT, age 17 from England on board PARIS from Southampton on May 27, 1893 arriving Ellis Island.
Don't worry about the name JANE, it was pretty common to switch back and forth from a first to a middle name... keep reading you'll see why I am positive this is her
Go to the site I gave you http://www.stevemorse.org/ or http://ellisisland.org/ and you can see the manifest. It made sense to me that she would land in NY, meet and marry Michael almost immediately and have first child Margaret Jr in May 1895 in Arizona....
Now the nice thing is that young Margaret Jane was with her family
George (can't read middle initial, looks like T or F) Fant, 41, platelayer, b Eng
Ann M, 38
Jane 17 born England
George Thomas 8
Alfred 7
The entire family was heading for ARIZONA (!!!) Remember that is where Michael and Margaret's dau was born circa 1894/95...
Well I was pretty excited so went back to Ancestry, to Ancestry World Tree just in case someone else was searching this family -- and YAY they are!
They have
Margaret Jane Fant born 1 May 1876 Ewerby, Lincolnshire, England d/o George Thomas Fant and Hannah Marie Clark married to Michael Joseph Doran 2 May 1894 in Flagstaff, Coconino, AZ
Michael Joseph DORAN born 6 Jun 1865 in At Sea, off San Francisco, CA died 22 Feb 1939 Huntington Park, Los Angeles, CA s/o Bernard DORAN b Abt 1840 in NY & Margaret CONLEY b 1842 in England
I don' t know if you can go there from this link but give it a try
http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2863477&id=I546430684
I'm really curious how/why Michael Joseph ended up being born at sea to an American father and English mother.... whoever is searching the family shows his parents marrying in England, looks like they came back to USA (Michael born en route) then back to Eng because all his siblings are shown born in England and dad shown as dying in England. Take a look, have fun with it, I sure am!
You can order any of the death certs I found online, just go to Ancestry and search the CA death indexes, there's a little shopping cart beside each one
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KENT: Fuller, Simpson, Stead, Caspall, Norris, Philpott, Elvery DEVON: Williams, Caspall SUSSEX: Simpson YORKSHIRE: Dewhirst/Dewhurst, Wormald, Hill, Schulze CANADA: McGinnis, Peer, Vollick and more Websites: AllEnglishRecords.comAllCensusRecords.com |
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liverpool annie
RootsChat Marquessate
Posts: 13082
Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday 18 October 05 00:28 UTC (UK) » |
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Excellent finds eillio!! - that is so wonderful!
Want to start on mine now?? 
Annie
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KDoran
RootsChat Extra
Posts: 9
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday 18 October 05 01:59 UTC (UK) » |
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Dude you are AWESOME!!!!!! i CANT THANK YOU ENOUGH!
I am posative this is my family. the one detail my mother knows about my fathers mother was that her maden name was Benefield! this must be them. I will follow the links you gave me and get back to you! Thanks Again. Kirk
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eillo
RootsChat Senior
Posts: 381
Sarah Page born Chilham Kent 1836 who are parents?
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Re: Help!!!
« Reply #9 on: Tuesday 18 October 05 13:58 UTC (UK) » |
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Hi Kirk
I'm so glad! It was really fun to have this puzzle to work on. What a stroke of luck that your mom knows the Benefield surname, that was the last piece of the puzzle that needed to be confirmed to be sure this was your line. Wow!!
One thing to watch out for as you start your search -- they were badly misindexed in most of the census records and in 1900 your Michael Doran was recorded twice. Once under the first name Martin, once under his name Michael. So it is confusing and you have to be really really careful to not overlook something first time 'round and to not just accept it blindly either. Document, document, document -- write down what you found, where you found it, figure out how/if it fits...etc.
I did take a look in the England and USA census records because your Doran family has me so intrigued with Michael being born on board ship in some American Port..
I found them, it was tricky because some of the census 'facts' don't quite fit, but it is them. I say 'facts' because census records aren't always accurate
First, Bernard Doran (Michaels' father) was not b ca 1840 in NY, he was born ca 1817 in Ireland (fits with your dad's memory of an Irish ancestor) Since Michael consistently states his dad was born in NY, I'd have to wonder if the family ever lived there for a time... why else would Michael keep saying that?
In 1861 and 1871 Bernard and family (including 3 year old Michael in 1871) were in Harrington Cumberland England. In 1861 Bernard's first name is Barnett (very clear on the census image) but it IS the same man.
Bernard seems a very important name in the Doran family, as Bernard (b 1817 Ire) had a son Bernard A. G. b ca 1860. It might prove to be a further clue to ancestors going back further.
In 1861 and 1871 Bernard Doran and wife Margaret state that all their children were born in Cumberland Eng (so another discrepancy for your Michael who consistently claims he was born at sea. Again that isn't uncommon, sometimes people were born one place but lived their baby and childhood years somewhere else - and that was the place given as their birth place. Maybe Bernard and Margaret thought it would be too confusing or too much red tape if their son Michael wasn't listed as born in England, I don't know the laws at that time... what would his citizenship be if they said he was born at sea or in an American port?
I luv all these puzzles and trying to figure out what was going on with a family at the time!
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KENT: Fuller, Simpson, Stead, Caspall, Norris, Philpott, Elvery DEVON: Williams, Caspall SUSSEX: Simpson YORKSHIRE: Dewhirst/Dewhurst, Wormald, Hill, Schulze CANADA: McGinnis, Peer, Vollick and more Websites: AllEnglishRecords.comAllCensusRecords.com |
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