Help needed with tracing Gordon family immigration to US in late 19thC

[MaggieTag]

Hello all,

I'm trying to find information on John Gordon, a stone cutter, and his wife Eliza Jane (Lizzie) nee Muldrew who immigrated from Co Armagh Ireland to the US in c1885.
Their first child Mary Jane was born in the States, - family history has it that due to local unrest between settlers and native Americans Lizzie took cold feet and insisted on returning home!
I've been able to confirm on the recently released 1911 census that Mary Jane gives her place of birth as USA and would be interested to find out if there are any records that would give details of when they went to the States and when they returned.

Many thanks

Mags

[Jacquie in Canada]

All of the names you mentioned are quite common. Could you provide birth dates to help narrow things down.

Jacquie

[merjones]

I found this couple immigrating to Canada from Ireland

October 1886 Ship: Circassian

Port of Departure: Liverpool, England; Londonderry, Ireland
Port of Arrival: Quebec

John Gordon, age 24 farm laborer
Eliza Gordon, age 18 wife

merjones

[MaggieTag]

Thanks to you both for replying. Unfortunately I have been trace their dob but the couple were born in 1864/5, there is only 1 year between their ages

Mags

[Jacquie in Canada]

Do you believe they returned between 1901 and 1911? I ask since you mentioned the 1911 census but not the 1901 census. Approximately what year was their daughter born?

Jacquie

[MaggieTag]

The family appears in the Belfast Street directory for 1901 however they don't appear in the 1901 census of West Belfast which is all that is available at present. Maybe they didn't complete the paper work or the entry was maybe wrongly transcribed

The following links gives the family in Belfast in 1911

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai001437289/ Gordon Family

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai001446388/ Mary Ann

All except the eldest daughter Mary Ann Ballentine nee Gordon are born in NI, counties Armagh or Antrim. My reckoning is that they were away long enough to have Mary Ann (who gives her place of birth as USA), but returned to Ireland before the birth of their second daughter Margaret in c1887 in Co Armagh.

All very confusing!

Cheers

mags

[Jacquie in Canada]

So the daughter's name was Mary Ann and not Mary Jane like you have in your first post.

Since the only entry for a John and Eliza Gordon travelling together didn't pan out, I did a few searches to see if they travelled separately. When I came up empty on those I decided to try searching for Eliza under her maiden surname and hit paydirt.

I found a passenger list entry for Eliza Muldrew, age 19, born in Ireland, who was aboard the Kansas which arrived in Boston on 18 Sep 1884. The passenger list gives a destination of Chicopee, Massachusetts (it took me a while to figure that out with the way it was written).

The Massachusetts Archives has a marriage for Eliza J. Muldrew in Chicopee in 1884 (Volume 352, Page 407). There is also a marriage entry for John Gordon with the same details (Chicopee in 1884 - Volume 352, Page 407).

There is also a birth for Mary Ann Gordon in Chicopee in 1885 (Volume 358, Page 418).

Here is a link to the Massachusetts Archives webpage where there are instructions on how to order copies of the entries and how much it would cost:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcres/residx.htm#duplicate

I tried looking for John again and I may have found him. There is a John Gordon, age 20, occupation stone cutter, native country Ireland, who arrived in Boston on the Kansas on 19 Sep 1883 (same ship as Eliza and almost exactly a year earlier). It indicates he was heading to Boston.

If you would like a copy of the passenger lists for Eliza Muldrew and John Gordon, please PM me your email address and I'll send them to you.

Jacquie

[IanBelfast]

Hi Maggie Tag

I have just recently started looking up my family tree, I was also looking for John Gordon          (Stone cutter) who was married to Eliza Jane (nee Muldrew).

I believe their daughter was my Grandmother

Hope this information helps

IanBelfast