Mary Julia Conniff

GEDCOM Note

BIRTH:IRELAND

BAPTISM;

MARRIAGE:

DEATH: California Death Cert. #22-049372, Santa Clara County, Local Reg.#246 (Doc. #176)

1920 Federal Census: Oregon, Multmonah County, Precinct 289, Portland City 582 Willis Blvd. Microfilm roll # 1503, vol. 25, ed185, Sheet 5, line 68

Siegman, John M Head ROSE wife f w 39 - Place of birth: Ohio parents: Ireland/Ireland Joseph son 14 Place of birth: Washington John son 11 Place of birth: Washington

• CARRY, MARY m-in-law 65 Imm: 1880 Ireland/English; Ireland/Ireland (about)

FAMILY HISTORY: Extract from letter written by Rose Carr Siegman to Frederick Riley 14 January 1934: (copies of letter in files of Patricia Riley Alves) "Maria, another daughter of Charles Hughes, married Patrick Cunniffee who also had been educated for a priest and spoke 6 languages but instead fell in love with my mother's mother, in other words, my grandmother. Two girls and six boys were born; the two girls: mother (Pat's note: Mary Julia Conniff)and Aunt Bridget Turner whose 3 daughters were teachers and are now sisters in Servants of the Holy Ghost Order in New York...Only Uncle Martin, one of the six sons, married and has three children. Robert lives in Post Falls, Idaho; May Lowell lives in Spokane, Wash (her husband is an engineer)and Martin is an expert accountant in Seattle. May's son Lawrence is attending medical school here in Portland and he comes to visit us occassionaly. Uncle Martin's children were never educated or raised Catholics as Uncle died when they were very young and his wife was not a Catholic. I have no record of dates or ages either. Do you think you can figure this out?"

Another letter, dated 3/6/52: " Uncle Martin, Grandma Carr's (Mary Julia Conniff) brother, lived in Post Falls, Idaho. His son Martin and May Turner Ccunniffe live in Spokane. They lived in Portland Oregon a long time and we visited back and forth. Rosemarie was with me then. They had two sons, both doctors; one in Portland and one in California.

A letter from Rosemarie Riley Orange to her brother Frederick Riley dated 1960 relates the following: A cousin, May (Cuniffe) Turner said that she had heard that our great grandfather Conniffe (or Cunniffe), was not Irish, but French. she said that he came to Ireland to teach in a University, but married and settled there. Secondly, she said that her father, Martin Cuniffe was an ordained priest who left the church. She said that relatives in Syracuse, New York, (Hughes, I think was the name) put him thru Syracuse University and Grandma Carr [Pat's note: Mary Julia Connifee, his sister] thru nurse's training (she was a registered nurse)after they came from Ireland.(Fred's note: Syracuse University was founded in 1870. I wrote to the University and they replied that they had no record of a Martin Cunniffee - perhaps I should have given the name of Martin Hughes). The thing that sounds a little strange here to me is that the Hughes (as both Aunt rose and cousin May have said) were staunch Catholics. I cannot see them aiding a priest who had left the church. It sounds more likely that he'd left the Seminary before being ordained. I know, though, that he did leave the church at some time or other."

Regarding the question of Cuniffe/Conniffee's ancestry, the following is an excerpt from THE STORY OF THE IRISH PEOPLE, by Sean O'Faolain, 1982 edition, page 116-17: " As we know the great Catholic seminary of Maynooth was founded, long before Catholic Emancipation, even before the '98 Rebellion, out of British Government Funds. We need not enquire whether the Government hoped to purchase the loyalty of the Church, for though it certainly got it, that was because of chance circumstances that it could not have forseen. In 1795, the year of Maynooth's foundation,there were a great many FRENCH REFUGEE PROFESSORS and teachers to whom any haven, the most frugal pension, would have been welcome. This suited Maynooth perfectly, for it was not a rich foundation, and, as one may imagine, Ireland (Just emerging from the Penal Code) was in no position to supply it with sufficient native scholars. It gave posts to several of these distinguished men, such as Delahogue and Anglade for moral and dogmatic theology, thereby importing a French school of thought whose teachings so carefully, indeed fanatically, cultivated the spirit of Gallicanism among the irish clergy that the Irish Church soon became Gallican to the core, and remained so for nearly half a century.

In a letter to Patricia Riley Alves dated 3/95, Fred Riley recounts the following: "When my sister Rosemarie was attending Oxford University in Britain, many years ago, she visited Galway City in Ireland, but couldn't learn anything about the name CONEFFE. However, I remember that as a young boy, Grandma CARR (who spoke Irish and had a brogue accent) used to pronounce the nameas CONEFFE to sound like CONEFEE. I verified the spelling of CONEFFE as a variation of CONIFF in my book of Irish names. The western portion of County Galway is called CONNEMARA and had bogs of peat and I remember Grandma telling me about cutting slabs of peat when she was a little girl. So, perhaps she lived in CONNEMARA where they still speak the ancient Irish language.The "Gaelacht" are areas in the country where Irish is still spoken as the first language. When she visited us in San Jose in 1922, she had planned to take me with her on a trip to Ireland. She even showed me the plans of a boat, but unfortunately she died in San Jose in 1922 before we could make the trip. On her death certificate (doc #176), her daughter Rose (Mrs. John Seigman of Portland, Oregon, stated that she had been in residence in California for 5 years and in the U.S. for about 55 years, which would mean she came in about 1867. She appears in the 1870 census in Cleveland, married to Patrick Carr who was obviously a widower, as he was older and had a number of children.

A letter from Fred Riley dated 3/9/86 states: It has been established that the name was Conniff and not Conniffe as I thought I remember hearing as a child. My mother's birth certificate (see enclosure) shows that Patrick Carr was aged 60 and Mary Conniff Carr was 30 when my mother ( Julia Grace) was born. What still puzzles me is that I recently discovered some info jotted down years ago indicating that Patrick Carr and Mary Conniff were married in Syracuse, New York and that my Aunt Rose (Mother's older sister)was born in Syracuse and went to school there. They must have moved to Cleveland before the birth of my mother.

• *(But Patrick Carr seems to have been in Cleveland by 1870, with Mary, age 22, and a number of older children - likely she was 2nd wife ) I always thought that Grandfather Carr had caught his leg in some train tracks and was killed by a train before my mother was born. But an offical Record of Deaths received from the Cuyahoga County Archives lists a Patrick Carr, age 64, dying on 3/17/1884 from "injured in a fall". I believe that this was our grandfather Carr.

1920 Census Siegman, John M Head ROSE wife f w 39 - Place of birth: OHIO; parents: Ireland/Ireland Joseph son 14 Place of birth: Washington John son 11 Place of birth: Washington

• CARRY, MARY m-in-law 65 Imm: 1880 Ireland/English; PARENTS:Ireland/Ireland [Other information -Ohio 1870 and 1880 census have Mary as 22 and 31, so by 1920 she is really at least 71; If Rose is Julia Grace Riley's older sister, she is likely Isabelle Rose, born in 1875 and therefore 45 in 1920. She therefore immigrated at least by 1870.

When Julia Grace Carr Riley was hospitalized in San Jose, Edward Riley's grandmother Mary Julia Carr came to take care of them(from "Paluse?". Washington.} She would only come on the condition that his father move out, as she had never liked Patrick Riley He remembered his grandmother very well. She did not like his father - she had never liked him. Ed's sister RoseMarie related to him that her aunt Rose, who raised her, told her that Julia was a lovely, dainty little girl who was quite privileged. She was, according to Rose, very much in love with another man, but couldn't marry him and had a broken heart. Then Patrick (P.H.) came along and she married him, much against her mother's wishes. Ed remembered that his grandmother Mary Julia had a premenition that she was going to die. She had a large, beautiful emerald ring. She gave it to him and told him to hide it and never let his father know about it, because she feared his father would take it away from him. He did such a good job hiding it he forgot all about it for about 10 years and never went back to find it. As best he knew, it was still hidden there, somewhere on the property. When his grandmother died in 1922 they did not tell his mother, who died shortly thereafter.