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Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 9 Jan 2015 5:02PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Sliney, Lonergan
Hello,

I am researching Sliney and Lonergan family lines in Nova Scotia. I found in the following on familysearch.org: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5MV-MK6, a baptism for a:

Gulielmum Oscar Sliney (William Oscar Sliney)
baptized 10 Aug 1870, Sainte Croix, Plympton, Digby, NS
Parents:
Jacobi Sliney (James Sliney)
Henrietta Lonergan


This eerily matches a baptism in my family of an Oscar William/William Oscar Sliney born to David Sliney and Elizabeth Lonergan who were residing in Guinea, east of Clementsport, in Annapolis, NS at that time.

This baptism referenced above is available on an LDS database available at their family research centers. Is anyone aware of another approach to get the details of this baptism? I would love to know, for instance, the sponsors.

Thanks,

Patrick Murphy
Chicago, IL

Re: Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 9 Jan 2015 9:50PM GMT
Classification: Query
The people who transcribed the records, particularly when English and looking at hand-written French records, would commonly distort names such as Guillaume (the French for William). It seems that the recorded name was probably Guillaume.

Re: Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 9 Jan 2015 10:29PM GMT
Classification: Query
Thanks.

I think, actually, that the issue here is that it was recorded in Latin and sometimes the rendering of names into Latin is odd. Jacobi is definitely a Latinized version of James and I have seen other Catholic church records render William in versions like Gulielmus or Gulielmum.

The issue that really interests me with this record is that it seems most certainly to be the record of a person I had previously thought was the son of a David Sliney and Elizabeth Lonergan, born about Jul 1870 and now I find a baptism from August of 1870 but the parents names are James Sliney and Henrietta Lonergan. David would never be rendered as Jacobi and whatever Henrietta is other than just Henrietta - it is nobody's version of Elizabeth. So I am left wondering what was going on here. In 1871 Oscar William/William Oscar shows up in the household of David and Elizabeth. Was he a foster son to them - born to relations (of both of them), were the sponsors names put forward in the brief transcription - in place of the parents, or is there a major discrepancy in the record or the transcription of the record?

Hard to know until I can see the record and see if other details help to point the way (ie the sponsors names).

Patrick

Re: Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 10 Jan 2015 10:36AM GMT
Classification: Query
Any chance that your David was David James? Or, Elizabeth was Henrietta Elizabeth? I find SO many times in Catholic records where the given and middle names are reversed. After all, even "William" is William Oscar or Oscar William. Whose to say his parents didn't also practice this common "switch?" I have an entire family whose men had middle names of Joseph and women middle names of Marie (very common amongst RC in that time period). Oddly enough, in back to back census records of the family from 1871 through 1891, each of those three census years a different son went by Joseph, while NONE of them ever had a GIVEN name of Joseph.

Just another possibility. If that proves not to be the case, could he have been born to James and Henrietta (assuming they appear as a couple anywhere) and then raised by David and Elizabeth (uncle and perhaps aunt)?

It may be a little bit of a mystery, but it's surely no kind of dead end. :-)

Re: Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 10 Jan 2015 11:37AM GMT
Classification: Query
I truly believe this was a case of middle vs. given names. I find no evidence of James having the same connections as David. The only matching James was b. @1840 in Annapolis, NS, and married Grace Given, and though they did have a son, William, he was William John Sliney, b. in Boston, MA on 28-Jul-1868. Found NOTHING on any Henrietta, and even tried to find if there was a Jacob Sliney that might have fit. No luck in either case. So, again, I would suggest a most likely scenario of middle/given name swapping, as noted as being not an uncommon practice in the mid to late 1800s, and even into the early 1900s.

Re: Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 10 Jan 2015 7:51PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Sliney, Lonergan, Given
Thanks, Jared,

Yes this James Sliney born c 1840 in Annapolis (son of Patrick Sliney and Ellen Bourke Sliney both buried in Annapolis Royal's St Louis Cemetery) is, I believe, a close relation of David Sliney who appears in the 1871 Census in Clementsport, NS as (apparently) the father of Oscar William/William Oscar. That James Sliney married Grace Given in Boston in 1867 and has numerous records in Boston before after and during 1870 - so was both unlikely to be William's father or his baptismal sponsor. Further, James and Grace had a son William John born in Boston in 1868 and another son James born in Boston in 1870, amongst other children. So, one thing we know: James is common enough among these Sliney families that appear to be closely related.

I agree with the premise that middle names were often used as primary names. Add to this that names were sometimes thrown out altogether for other names, short-forms, obscure nicknames, etc. etc. (example: Delia as a common substitute fro Bridget).

Since my original posting I have found out that Henrietta was a latinized version of Harriet that sometimes appeared in parish registers. Still, I have not found any Harriet Lonergans.

The baptismal records for NS in the first several decades of the 1800's are far from a complete record. Also given that Census records prior to 1871 only listed heads of household, it seems entirely likely that many, many people were born reached maturity and had children or emigrated or any number of things without leaving a trace of ever existing during this time frame.

I don't see this as a brick wall in any sense - for one I know exactly where this William Sliney (James Sliney/Harriet Lonergan) baptismal record can be found - I just can't get to it yet. The truth will out on this one. I agree with you that a distinct possibility is that William is the child of a James Sliney and Harriet Lonergan who were close relatives to David Sliney and Elizabeth Lonergan and William was left in their care. I am also prepared for the possibility that James and Harriet were baptismal sponsors and not parents.

It will all resolve itself in time. Thanks again for pitching in!

Patrick

Re: Sainte Croix / Holy Cross Records available? Sliney or Lonergan connections?

Posted: 12 Jan 2015 12:55AM GMT
Classification: Query
In cases like this, it's always helpful to have objective eyes to offer up other possibilities. Or, dumb luck... That's also a lot of help, at times! :-)

Hope, when you get your hands on the original record, a light of clarity will shine upon you!

Jared
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