Help!!!

[eillo]

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!