Family Counts
Ah, the mystery and joy of exploring musty documents - in this case, old U.S. census questionaires. Starting off at the birth of the last century we find John and Mary O'Leary in 1900 residing on the West Side of Chicago with five of their twelve children. Pat and Katie migrated with them from Ireland twenty years earlier. The family lived on the East Coast for a period and some of their older children remained there when John and Mary moved to the midwest. Fourteen-year-old Nora, born in what is now Forest Park, Illinois (see baby Nora being held by mother Mary in photo above), will eventually become mother to my mother (and numerous other children). View Large or Larger.
The O'Leary Family in 1910 Chicago, originally uploaded by dtimcarr.
The next Census ten years later finds Mary O'Leary widowed and living at 423 S. Hermitage. Some of her children -including Nora (see below) - have moved out but other extended family have taken up residence with her. Daughter Nora is 24 and will be getting married in two months. Her seventeen-year-old sister Agnes is a beauty and will be maid-of-honor at Nora's wedding before entering the Dominican convent as Sr Jeanne. View Large or Larger.
I can't be sure, but this seems to be Mary's daughter Nora T(herese) O'Leary listed here as a servant living at 1516 Jackson Blvd in 1910, which would explain why an unmarried young woman wasn't living with her family. This 'supplemental' census sheet seems to be a follow-up survey picking up people missed on a previous canvass of the neighborhood. View Large or Larger.
Dan Heffernan in 1910 Chicago, originally uploaded by dtimcarr.
Two months before marrying Nora O'Leary, Dan Heffernan, ten years here from Kerry, Ireland, and holding a good job as an inspector at the gas company, resides in a boarding house along with his younger brother Mike. When Dan and Nora wed, Mike will move in with them and never move out. "Heffron" is only one of the many mispellings of Heffernan that have proliferated. View Large or Larger.
The Heffernans on Fillmore, 1920, originally uploaded by dtimcarr.
Ten years after getting married, Nora and Dan are living at 3832 Fillmore with their six children and Dan's brother Mike. View Large or Larger.
The Heffernans on Lexington, 1930, originally uploaded by dtimcarr.
Married twenty years, Nora and Dan are living at 4331 Lexington with ten of their children (oldest child Timothy has already moved out [see below], married, and made them grandparents) and of course brother-in-law Mike. Various other relations will rotate in and out of the crowded household over the years. View Large or Larger.
Ted and Helen & Jack, 1930, originally uploaded by dtimcarr.
Nora and Dan's oldest child, Timothy (Ted), and his bride Helen are already parents of a one-month-old child when the census taker comes by in 1930. View Large or Larger.
That's my 22-year-old dad, Patrick Carr, on line 58 of this 1930 U.S. Census sheet. He arrived from Kerry, Ireland, three years earlier and is living with relations in the Bronx. His savings went south with the 1929 stock market crash and it will be eleven years more before he can afford to marry. Which is just as well since his bride-to-be (Nora and Dan's daughter Noreen) lives eight hundred miles away and is only twelve years old. View Large or Larger.
