After a long absence I am rejoining the board. As a rather old man, I am a bit slower on the uptake and will probably not answer as fully as I have in the past.
I would like to answer one such general question with some of the roots that also been disturbed.
The question was why did the marriage take place here in Ireland when both of the parties were located in San Francisco, California? Not being party to this marriage I can only speculate, but with some more understanding that I had before.
Let us assume for a moment that Mickey (what Michael was called) was already here in northern Ireand. He may have been visiting his mother and siblings that were not in The City (what San Francisco is called); he may also have been called back due to the illness of his brother Patrick. There are many reasons why he could have been around Ireland at that time. There has never been a definitive statement that the two of them were together prior to their marriage.
We need to address one of the brothers, that have been silent until now. Patrick was a rather strange one, and there were stories about him. But, he did travel back and forth between Eskrah and the City. We do know that Patrick's moniker was "The Yank." Mickey's other brother Thomas took up a calling as a grocer and was quite successful. And Mickey evidently was successful in his own right, but we know little of his background in The City. However, we do know that he took up citizenship and there is a record of that (but I won't be bothering the board with the details). It was a given that these McCarroll boys got to know the Gaffigans, especially a certain Agnes Bridget.
We can also assume that in their travels back and forth there is a record in 1908 of the arrival of Michael Joseph McCarroll (a possible error by the transcriber, had the age a bit off). He was known then as a "saloon keeper." This was of the arrival in Liverpool or Moville.
We do know that a Patrick McCarroll passed away in 1912 because his gravestone is close to the family plot in Eskragh, County Tyrone. But we know little or nothing about his demise.
Now the timing is the thing here. If Michael was here because of the sickness (we just don't know, having to assume it might be) it may be that the timing was such that Mickey took over his brother's interest and could not go back to San Francisco. While we can assume that might be the case, we just do not know. There are many different things that a bit of research might uncover.
But, it does fit in form Agnes Bridget's trip to Ireland to marry Michael J. McCarroll.
This board did raise, by implication, some of the questions that have questionable answers that have been opined here. Until we are offered differing answers, with more data behind them, the death of Patrick and the marriage of Mickey and Agnes makes a lot of sense, giving that the two things occurred in 1912.
jj.carroll
