Searching for Margaret Malone: Did she emigrate to the US to join her husband Robert Galvin and her sons?

There are certain ancestors that I feel a stronger inclination to find out more about. Margaret Malone, baptised in Ballyhea in 1858, is one of those, possibly because my grandmother has the same name. She married Robert Galvin in the chapel at Ballyhea on 29 April 1893, and the couple subsequently had four sons- John James (1896), Patrick (1897), Maurice (1899) and James Robert (1901)- all born in Ballinadrideen. 

In the 1901 census the parents and three older sons were all living in Ballinadrideen, but by the time of the 1911 census, only Margaret (listed as married and a farmer) and the two younger sons, Maurice (11) and James (9) were still living there.

Robert, it appears from various shipping lists, had been naturalised in the United States already- either prior to his marriage in 1893, or in 1895. Possibly he was living there already in 1911?

I have found the two older sons  on shipping lists.  Patrick Galvin(15) arrived in New York on 19 Sep 1913 (ship Cedir?) with his father Robert (50), and was on the list of United States Citizens- with naturalization details given for Robert. John Galvin (17) arrived by himself a year later in 1914 on the Baltic, on a list of aliens, as a student. His last permanent address was given as Ireland, Charleville. The complete address of the nearest relative or friend in the country from whence the alien came was given as his mother Margaret Galvin, Ballyhea, Charleville, Cork.

Next time I go to the library I want to check the immigration records for New York more thoroughly. Can I find the arrival of Maurice and James Robert? I know that both of these sons married in Manhattan in 1926 and 1934, so they must have emigrated before then. Both these sons were later buried in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, NY, along with father Robert and older brother John.

But what about Margaret? Did she ever emigrate? So far I haven't found her death in Ireland- though some people have a Margaret Galvin buried in Kanturk- but I am pretty sure that is the wife of farmer local to Kanturk. Could she have married again after Robert died in 1922 in NY?

Next steps to finding her will possibly lie in the emigration lists to New York. Could she have arrived there with either of her youngest sons? And I have noticed there is a 1925 New York State census. Could she be listed there with one of her sons? Time will tell if I find anything, but later today I intend to visit the local library so I can look at US records on Ancestry. 

UPDATE: I didn't find Margaret's emigration to the US yesterday, but I did find her two youngest sons, James and Maurice, who emigrated to New York in 1916. Interestingly, their nearest relative in Ireland was given then as their aunt, Mrs White, in Charleville, rather than their mother. They sailed from Liverpool. Both boys were listed on the aliens list, but their status was overwritten with USCit later. I have done another search for Margaret's death entry in Ireland but still not successful. 
I did see an entry for a Margaret Galvin who was detained in immigration as being insane, and was sent to hospital. I disregarded this entry, but actually I need to look at it more closely. That needs to be on my list next time I go to the library!

Malone families in Ballinadrideen- Exploring Connections

While I had extra time at home during Covid lockdowns, I researched more into my Malone family in Ballinadrideen, Co Cork, Ireland, descended from Jeremiah Malone and Margaret Riordan. I made a blog post summarising what I had learned about the children of the family, who were siblings of my grandmother Margaret Malone. I was aware that there was an ‘earlier’ Malone family in the same parish, but I didn’t have any evidence we were connected, so I never followed them up.

I couldn’t find a baptism for my Jeremiah, and didn’t have any other evidence about who his parents were, but using Irish naming patterns, I surmised that his father’s name might be John, and that perhaps his mother’s name was Mary. The father of the ‘earlier’ family was named John Malone. I wondered if he might be Jeremiah’s father.

Imagine my surprise on 1 August 2026, 5+ years later, when I got a blog comment from someone descended from the ‘other’ Malone family. He had a theory about how the families might be connected. He thought that Maurice Malone who took over the farm in Ballinadrideen following Jeremiah’s death, might well be a first cousin to a Maurice Malone of Imphrick, not too distant from Ballinadrideen, who was the eldest son of John Malone, of the ‘earlier’ Malone family in Ballyhea Parish. It was time to do some more research, this time into the ‘older’ Malone family.

I knew from his death registration that my great-grandfather Jeremiah Malone must have been born about 1826, as he was said to be 80 years old when he died in 1906. Then I discovered a couple of headstones in Ballyhay Old Cemetery that were key. John Malone of Ballinadrideen had erected a headstone in memory of his father John Malone who died 26 October 1861, aged 74 years, meaning he was born around 1787. A second headstone was for John’s mother Mary Malone née Ryan who died 1^st May 1870 aged 80 years, so she was born around 1790. This headstone also named Honora whose married name was Ryan, who was the sister of John Malone who erected the headstone. She was 52 when she died in 1887, so must have been born around 1835.

I also found the death registration for the son John who had erected these headstones, on 30 April 1893, aged 80 years. He died in Ballinadrideen, and must have been born around 1813. 

Given these dates, I made some hypotheses about how Jeremiah (b1826) John (b1813) John (b1787), and Honora (b1835) might be connected. 
I thought that the older John was probably the father of both Jeremiah and the younger John, as well as of Honora. This is of course just a theory, and given the lack of many records in Ireland in the early 1800s, I am unlikely to find much further documentary proof of these relationships.

However, I decided to research more into the family of John Malone and Mary White, the ‘earlier’ family in Ballinadrideen, to see if I could find any DNA connections with their descendants. And indeed, I do have such connections, from several lines of the descendants. (Cautionary tale, I am largely using ThruLines and other people’s family trees at this stage, so my conclusions are reliant on the trees others have put together.) I have set up a private tree to record my findings, so others won’t be blindly copying what are my theories. The links are with people who are around the third cousin once removed, or fourth cousin kind of level, which is what you would expect. 

I won’t use full names here, as I don’t want to compromise anyone’s privacy, but here are a few indications of some matches. From Honora Ryan née Malone, ThruLines shows two matches via her daughters Kate (b1867) and Marie (b1866) Ryan. From John Malone (1813) there is a ThruLines connection via his daughter Margaret Galvin née Malone.

Next, I did some surname searches using married names of some of the Malone daughters. With the Blake name I turned up someone with 21 matches, many of whom I had previously identified as Malone line matches. I have messaged someone with a tree showing his Blake descent, who has put many photos etc up on Ancestry, and hope he might reply to me soon. Similarly with the Galvin name.

Clearly there is a lot of research to be done before I can be certain that my initial theory that John (b 1813) and Jeremiah (b 1826) are siblings rather than just cousins, but there are enough DNA connections at this stage for me to be confident that the two Malone families in Ballinadrideen are related.

This map shows how initially, several of the married Malone daughters lived not too distant from Ballinadrideen. Mary, who married Denis Callaghan, lived in Farthingville; Margaret, who married Robert Galvin, lived in Ballinadrideen (though her husband and sons later moved to New York); and Hanora, who married Thomas Blake, lived in Boherascrub, Buttevant. 

  Margaret Riordan
2 October 2016