Owen McGorman and Rachel Winslow

Marriage Record for Owen McGorman and Rachel Winslow
July 24, 1865, Castleblaney, Ireland

     The marriage record above is for my husband's great-great-grandparents, Owen Gorman (McGorman),  and Rachel Winslow.  This record was the first I found firmly putting his mother's family in a town in Ireland.   I had identified their names when I found the marriage record for his great-grandparents, Joseph Gorman and Julia Connolly, during a research trip to the New Jersey State Archives.  One of the difficulties of Irish research is that many of the names are common, John, Joseph, Mary, Bridget etc., and surnames often use or drop the prefixes "Mc" or "O'" at random, and his family was no different.  Here, however were two names that seemed more uncommon.  When I entered the two names into Ancestry.com, I at once came up with an index to marriage records showing these two names.  An index to birth records later showed children of this couple.  The names, although common, matched the known brothers of Joseph Gorman.  Later, when I was researching at the huge Family History Library in Salt Lake City, I was able to acquire this image of the actual marriage record, and the names of the bride and groom's parents..
     Owen Gorman, a laborer, son of Patrick Gorman, was born about 1845.  He married Rachel Winslow, daughter of Nilsen Winslow, on July 24, 1865, in the town of Castleblaney, county Monaghan[1], Ireland.  They had six sons and a daughter born in towns near Castleblaney,  John (Oct 23, 1865 in Kilmore)[2], Joseph W. (Jul 22, 1867 in Kilmore)[3], Owen (April 27 1870 in Ballyhay)[4], Thomas (Jul 10, 1872 in Ballyhay)[5],  Patrick (Apr 29, 1875 in Monaghan)[6], James D. (April 1877[7], and Mary (about 1878)[8].  Thomas died in 1874 in Castleblaney.[9]
       Owen, Rachel, John, Joseph, David, and James all seem to have emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1880s, according to various census records.  John Gorman appears in the 1885 census of Warwick, Rhode Island as a boarder[10].  According to his family, he married Mary Keenan there on November 15, 1887, and lived in Warwick until his death.   In 1895, the New Jersey State census[11] shows Owen, Rachel, David and James living in Somerville, Somerset county, New Jersey, along with Joseph and his wife Julia who had married on November 6, 1894[12].  

1.  Marriage Records 1845-1870 in the General Registry Office of Ireland.  Digital copy FHL film # 101479. Record page # 576 for Castleblaney District, County of Monaghan. Record for Rachel Winslow.
2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.  Ancestry.com Ireland: Select Births and Baptisms 1620-1911. (Provo, UT. Ancestry.com Operations Inc,  2011) records for John McGorman, Joseph Gorman, Owen Gorman, Thomas Gorman, Patrick Gorman, James Gorman, and Mary Gorman.  Records online.
9. Ireland Civil Registrations Deaths Index 1864-1968 (Provo Ut Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2011) Record for Thomas Gorman. Record online.
10. Rhode Island State Censuses 1865-1935. (Provo UT. Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2013) Ancestry.com record for 1885, John Gorman. Record online.
11. Ancestry.com New Jersey State Census 1895 (Provo UT. Ancestry.com Operations Inc. 2007) Ancestry.com record for Owen Gorman.
12.  State of New Jersey Marriage Return for Joseph Gorman and Julia Connolly Nov 6, 1894. New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, NJ.