I am looking for illusive materials on the AMOS sisters, ANNIE, ISABELLA and MARY, and anything on the life of JOHN AMOS GAFFIGAN, my great grandfather. This would include materials on MARGARET CRENNAN GAFFIGAN, my great grandmother, and AGNES BRIDGID CRENNAN GAFFIGAN CARROLL, as stated in her obituary and was my grandmother.
MARY AMOS GAFFIGAN (with her sisters, ANNIE AMOS [or possibly McKEE] and ISABELLA CAMPBELL) had left to go to Scotland with her husband PATRICK GAFFIGAN. We have not located their marriage, in either Ireland or Scotland. Patrick was also born in Ireland according to records we have found. They had two children, Thomas and John Amos, who were born in Scotland. After his death she took the children and went to California to live among the two other sisters had arrived in Northern California - before 1867.
In our search for my great grandfather, JOHN AMOS GAFFIGAN, we found that he arrived in the United States with his mother and brother THOMAS in July 1867, aboard the SS Iowa from Glasgow and Londonderry-Moville. We know that he was born in Paisley, Scotland, about 1859, but his parents, Mary AMOS and Patrick GAFFIGAN, were according to various census information from somewhere in Ireland but had left for Scotland probably for work. His father Patrick was born about 1822 and mother Mary was born about 1833, and in both cases ostensibly in Ireland – probably Ulster. Patrick apparently died in Scotland, but we have no details of that death and burial at all.
The family, without the father, arrived in New York and stayed in New Haven, Connecticut. to get bearings from their relatives or sponsors before they made the trip to California. But we have no idea who those people might have been.
We also do not know how they made their way and transited to the Isthmus. But they boarded the Moses Taylor in Nicaragua bound for San Francisco. There they were met by Mary’s sisters. But we have run into an identification problem. It seems as though they may have been sponsored by either one or both of her sisters, who were resident of San Francisco at that time.
The Gaffigans (or Goffigans as listed in the Manifest), and (who may have started out in Scotland as McGaffigan according to the 1851 Scottish census) were met in San Francisco by a Mrs. Charles (Isabella, nee AMOS) CAMPBELL, who then lived at #6 Thompson Avenue in South Park, San Francisco. (This was prior to the great earthquake and fire of 1906, which destroyed much of that area.) They were met also by a Miss Annie AMOS of #5 Thompson Avenue, another aunt that was then single, widowed or divorced.
Mr. Charles Campbell was evidently employed as a collar maker at the Kimball Company at 4th and Bryant. They lived on that block that had a Miss Kelly and daughter, the Crennan family (John married a Maggie Crennan), the Driscolls and the Goodenoughlys.
The Gaffigans temporarily stayed with Annie (or Anna) AMOS (who may have been a Mrs. McKee, but we do not know: SF Census, 1880, born about 1832). They had landed in San Francisco about August 1867. They then had to move to Alameda California in 1868 with Annie because of the earthquake that year. The two families resided with a Dr. Lambert for the rest of the year and returned to San Francisco in 1869. They then resided with a Mr. James O’CONNELL who had a stationary and book store at 310 5th street. But we do not know just where Annie lived at that time, nor do we know where the Campbells were residing.
We would like to confirm that Isabella CAMPBELL (CAMPPELL in SF 1880 census, born about 1834) and Annie AMOS (possibly Anna McKEE) were the sisters of Mary AMOS GAFFIGAN. We are pretty sure of that, but have no idea where in Ireland they originally came from. We would like to see where they came from before they were in San Francisco, California if it is at all possible.
