Re: Byrne family
BYRNE, RYAN, PEASE
Posted By: Ramona (email) In Response To: Re: Byrne family (Dick)
Date: 11/26/2011 at 10:10:03
This is a family history.. it does have some flaws in it but basically is correct. Simon died in South Dakota is 1915-17 not prior to 1888. William Joseph was married again in 1896. The records show Wm Jospeh moving with Simon and showing up in the census in South dakota without the younger children.
I know that bridgett had 2 sisters, one was Catherine who lived in Illionis. I know for sure that the girls do not show up with James, Thomas, William, Margaret or Mary. But I have not given up.. they are somewhere!!
Simon Byrne Family
Simon Byrne was born in 1825 in Ireland. The exact date and location of his birth are unknown, as are his parents. Byrne was an exceptionally common name in County Wicklow. So Simon may have been from there. At the age of twenty-two, Simon emigrated to the United States and landed at New York City on 7 May 1847. He sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Sheridan, which had set out, from Liverpool, England. Upon his arrival at New York City, he listed his occupation as a labourer. Simon may have immigrated to escape the famine in Ireland as had Terrence O'Toole and his family.
What Simon did next and where he travelled are mysteries. Simon reappeared on 3 March 1855 at Rock Island, Illinois, when his wife, Bridget (Ryan) Byrne gave birth to their first child, Margaret Alice Byrne. Roger Andrew O'Toole is descended from this Margaret.
Bridget Ryan was born in 1826 in Ireland, but exactly where or when is unknown, as are her parents. Somehow, Bridget immigrated to the United States, met Simon, and the two were wed in the early 1850’s. Given their location in 1855, however, there might have been an explanation.
The Chicago & Rock Island Railway was built between its namesake cities during the early 1850’s. By 1854, rails connected the two communities. The Chicago & Rock Island constructed the first bridge across the Mississippi River in 1853 at Rock Island. Simon Byrne may have been drawn to Rock Island by the construction of this railroad or this bridge.
However Simon and Bridget arrived at Rock Island, Margaret Alice Byrne was born to them on 3 March 1855. She was baptized at Saint Mary's Catholic Church of Rock Island on 8 April 1855 by Reverend Father John G. Alleman. James Casey and Alice Ryan were her sponsors. Margaret would not long call Rock Island home--Simon and Bridget moved to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1856. Their second child, James Edward Byrne, was born at Dubuque on 16 October 1856.17
The Byrnes moved to a home on the north side of Lorimer Street, not far from southern Ave and became members 0f Saint Raphael’s Catholic Church.
Simon took a job as a sawyer with Pelan & Randall Lumber on Southern Avenue, and Bridget worked from their home as a dressmaker. At their new home, Simon and Bridget's third child, Alicia Ann Byrne, was born on 11 December 1859, and their fourth child, William Joseph Byrne, was born on 13 September 1861.18
There is no record of Simon Byrne having fought with either the Iowa or Illinois militia during the Civil War, but from 1863 until 1866, Bridget was listed as a widow in the Dubuque City Directory, and Simon and Bridget's fifth child, Thomas Byrne, was not born until 12 October 1867. Simon may have fought in the Civil War, but record of his service has not been found.If Simon had departed for the war, he quickly returned to the Lorimer Street home and resumed his employment with Pelan & Randall Lumber. Simon and Bridget's sixth child, Michael F. Byrne, was born in August 1868, and their seventh child, Esther Edemine Byrne, was baptized on 18 October 1869.
By 1870, the Byrnes were doing quite well. The family held real estate worth $2,000, and Simon estimated his personal estate at $500. The four oldest children were even able to attend school regularly during the year.21 Simon and Bridget's eighth child, Catherine Byrne, was born on 13 September 1871, and their ninth--and final--child, Mary Frances Byrne, was born on 19 May 1873. In 1875, the Byrnes moved to a home on the north side 0f Grandview Avenue just east of its intersection with Southern Avenue.
On 21 April 1878, Simon and Bridget's eldest child, Margaret Alice
Byrne, married Patrick O'Toole at Dubuque. Their marriage is the subject 0f a later chapter.
At the age of fifty-four, Bridget (Ryan) Byrne died on 25 January 1880
at Dubuque of pulmonary edema. She was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery at Key West, Iowa.
After Bridget's death, Simon held the family together at the home on
Grandview Avenue. He also left his job as a sawyer and began offering his services as a carpenter. There were two marriages in the Byrne family in 1886, as William Joseph married Annie McClain on September fifteenth, and Michael F. married Maggie Conlon on November twenty-fourth.
Simon Byrne, and his younger children, moved in with William and Annie Byrne at their home on Lawther Street not long after the couple's marriage. Simon Byrne sold the property on Grandview Avenue to Henry Herancourt on 12 May 1887, but Simon is believed to have died some time before the fall 0f 1888. It is not known where Simon was buried, but he is probably at Mount Olivet Cemetery with Bridget.
Thank you for your help
Records I've been able to obtain
Occupation: Mill Sawyer
Church Affiliation: Roman Catholic
Residence and occupation from Dubuque City Directory, 1859-60 through 1888-89. State Historical Society of Iowa Microfilm.
Dubuque Queries maintained by Brenda White.
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