I am hoping that someone might be able to help me with some information on William Guerin/Gearon (just two of the spelling variations I've seen) born ~1831 in County Cork. He appears in Malden, MA in the 1855 Massachusetts State Census living with a brother John and several other young men who are apprentice plasterers, apparantly working for my great-grandfather Patrick Bryan Downing, who is also from County Cork. By the 1860 Federal Census, William has married a woman from Ireland named Catherine and they are living with my great-grandparents in Boston, MA. They all packed up and sailed to San Francisco, arriving in the early 1860s. They lived together and William appears as a sponsor on the baptismal record for one of Patrick's grandchildren. After Catherine died in 1877 and William died in 1886, they were buried in the Downing family plot. They do not appear to have had any children, or at least not any who survived.

Although these two families seem joined at the hip, I haven't been able to figure out how they are related. Pre-1906 San Francisco vital records were all destroyed in the great earthquake and fire, so there are no death certificates to check. I've already accounted for one sister of Patrick's named Catherine, so it's pretty unlikely that Catherine Guerin/Gearon would also be his sister. Unfortunately I don't have enough information about the family of Patrick's wife, Bridget Barry, to know if the Guerins/Gearons are related to her instead.

Needless to say, any help would be greatly appreciated! This has been one tough nut from the family tree to crack!
Thanks.
Bev