First Project: Linking the Kilners

We start with two Kilner Newmans, one who came to America from Ireland, about 1848-49, and another who was born in 1882 in Rathsaran, Laois, Ireland, nearly 50 years later. It's a delightfully unusual name that is very useful in genealogy because it doesn't return a thousand false leads when you enter it into a search box. If you find two of them, it's a good guess that they were related.

Here is what we know about the "American" Kilner. Beyond the name, can we link any of this information to the later Kilner of Rathsaran?

Name: Kilner Newman

Birthdate: 28 Feb 1829

(Click "Read More" to, well, read more...)

Birthplace: Ireland  (where? see notes 1-2, below)

Family:

   Father: Robert F. Newman

   Mother: Anne or Anna Cole

   Sister: Eliza Newman, born 1835 in Ireland, married George Black, died 1893 in Liverpool, England, and is buried there at Longmore Lane Cemetery (KIRKDALE CEMETERY, Longmoor Lane, Walton?).

Emigration: 1848 or 1849, based on census and death certificate.

Death: 14 Jan 1918, age 88 and 10 months and 11 days

1st marriage: Sarah Austin, also of Ireland, probably in Manhattan, New York City, New York, probably about 1851, based on birthdate of his first son. Sarah apparently died sometime between 1859 and 1863. They had four children:

• Robert, born 1851
• Joseph, born 1854, died 1933
• Deborah, born 1857
• William, born 1859

2nd marriage: Mary Navins, also of Ireland, widow of John McAuliffe. They married about 1863. She already had a daughter, Mary Ann McAuliffe, born 1857, who never married, and lived with her mother and Kilner at least until the 1910 census. Kilner and Mary Navins had the following children together:

• Eliza, born 1863
• David Kilner, born 1865
• John Henry, born 1868, died 1918
• Thomas, born 1871
• George, born 1875

Residences:

• At the time 2nd son Joseph was born, they lived at London Terrace, in the neighborhood of 22nd St. and 8th. Ave. in Manhattan, in what is now called the Chelsea district.
• Around 1864, they moved to Unionport Village, in the Bronx. This area is also called Castle Hill. The house in which he died stands at 1260 Havemeyer Ave.

Occupation: Carpenter, according to the 1870 and 1880 censuses. Some of his sons also followed him into the building trades. It is said that he built houses for several of his children.

Religious Affiliation: Episcopalian. It is said he was a member of St. Peter's parish in Westchester Square.

Military Record: none known


Burial: ? (I was not able to find a tombstone for him at St. Peter's burying ground.)

Notes and questions:

1. Some have attached Abby Leix to his birthplace. Does anyone know where that connection comes from?
2. A biographical sketch of his son Joseph written in the US around 1926, gives his birthplace as "Kingston, Ireland", which was what the British named Dun Loaghaire, Dun Loaghaire-Rathdown County, in the years between 1821 and 1921.
3. Ancestry.com searches turn up a record in Ireland's "Index to Griffith's Valuation, 1848-1864" associating the name Kilner Newman with "Laois/Leix/Queens, Clonenagh and Clonagheen, Boley Upper". What was Griffith's Valuation? Does anyone have any more detail on that record?
4. I had always heard that this part of my family considered themselves "Scotch Irish." Is this consistent with what everyone else has heard, or could they have been converted Catholics, or English?