Hannah Reagan (Fitzpatrick)

Born in County Mayo, Ireland, Honora Fitzpatrick Reagan was the daughter of Bartholomew Fitzpatrick and Mary Hughes Fitzpatrick. Bartholomew died in 1860. Kilcolman parish records suggest that Honor Fitzpatrick and Pat Regan married there on March 19, 1862; Michael Regan and Margaret Markin were the witnesses. ("Regan" was an alternative spelling of Reagan in the nineteenth century, and Honor like Nora is a variation of Honora.)

The biography of Honora's mother Mary Hughes Fitzpatrick provides a basic outline of the family's immigration to America from Ireland. A Reagan family story says that Honora and her sister Cecelia Fitzpatrick stayed in Ireland to care for Honora's sick children while Honora's husband, Patrick Reagan, traveled to America with Mary Hughes Fitzpatrick and her younger children; the 1910 census suggests Honora's husband Patrick immigrated to the U.S. in 1866.

The illness that prevented the Reagan children from traveling to America may have been scarlet fever. A number of family members, including Patrick and Honora Reagan and their children, Cecelia, Mary Hughes Fitzpatrick, and Mary's youngest children apparently traveled from County Mayo to County Cork to begin the transit to the U.S. When Honora's children became ill, the decision was made that Cecelia would remain behind with Honora in County Cork to care for the children, and the rest of the party would travel to America. Honora's husband Pat may have remained in New York, possibly in Brooklyn, while Mary Fitzpatrick and her children, traveled west to Mary's younger brother Tom Hughes's farm in Kankakee County, Illinois. Presumably, Pat found employment to help finance his wife and children's voyage across the Atlantic. That trip seems to have taken a year or two to make happen. When Honora and the children came, they moved to Illinois, settling in Kankakee County.

Honora Fitzpatrick Reagan's daughter Mary Reagan was born in Ireland in 1863, and Honora's son Patrick Reagan was born in Ireland in 1864; her next child, John Reagan, was born in Kankakee, Illinois probably in 1868 or 1869. Based on the birth years and places of sons Patrick and John, Honora came from County Mayo to America sometime between 1864 and 1869 and was in Kankakee County after she arrived. Patrick and Honora's third and fourth children, daughters Ellen Reagan and Bina Cecelia Reagan, were respectively born in Illinois in 1870 and 1872. Patrick Reagan's obituary suggests the family moved to Greene County, Iowa in 1874, and Honora's last children, daughters Anna and Nora were born in Iowa respectively in January 1875 and August 1879. At the time of the 1880 census, Honora and Patrick were living with their children on a farm in Greene County, Iowa next to the farm where Mary Hughes Fitzpatrick and four of her children lived.

Honora Fitzpatrick Reagan died relatively young at the age of 43 in 1883. Her daughter Nora, who was less than five when her mother died, told her great grandson in the early 1960s that Nora's oldest sister and grandmother took care of her when she was growing up. She said she had only one memory of her mother. Honora's husband Patrick never married again and remained a widower for about 28 years until he died in 1911

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 29 2021, 12:28:28 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 29 2021, 12:41:46 UTC