While looking through the genealogy records that my father
put together, I had the idea to fill in the boxes as to the origins of the
names of my generation. So here is my half-serious attempt. Comments always welcome :-)
Francis Xavier Kearns: I had heard that St. Francis Xavier
was the patron saint of conversions. My recent research (on the internet,
naturally,) does not support this, but he was a very active missionary and
co-founder of the Jesuit order. Also interestingly, St. Francis Xavier did a
lot of work in India, a country that had influenced my father during the war
(WW II.) In any case, our mother prayed to St. Francis Xavier for Dad’s
conversion and so it was, and so I was named.
John Allen Kearns: John, my mother’s father, was perhaps the
most distinguished looking grandparent. Allen, my father’s grandfather on my
father’s side, with the wonderful name of Allen Rufus Spooner. One of the links
to the early pilgrims, through several generations of Micah’s. Micah: there is
a name you don’t see much of now.
Mary Ellen Kearns: Mary, my mother’s mother. Now they had
both of her parents covered. Good job. Mary Wrinkle’s middle name was Agnes,
another name not heard very much anymore.
Catherine Elizabeth (Betsy) Kearns: Catherine was the wife
of my mother Ellen’s younger brother, Lawrence. They were a sparkling family.
They aren’t filled out in my Dad’s genealogy record, but I as a child really
enjoyed them. Their son Timothy inherited the house in Mill River. Elizabeth?
Not sure where that came from. But Betsy was the name my sister used nearly all
the time.
Emily Susan Kearns: Emily was my father’s grandmother on his
mother’s side. In our memory she is a wonderful old lady, made more wonderful
by her brilliant smile and nearly complete deafness. For we children, her voice
resonated with creaky traces from the dawn of time. Susan? I don’t know. Our
middle names always seemed to ring well with the first names, so maybe that was
it.
Jeremiah Henry Kearns: This is the name that started me on
this particular writing. My father’s paternal side traces back to what seems
like an oddly named Irish immigrant, Maurice Kearns, in Boston around 1860. He
was born in Ireland, and in Boston married an Elizabeth, also from Ireland,
last name unknown. He named his son Jeremiah Henry Kearns (supposedly born in
1860, but we’ll get to that later.) Jeremiah had a son who he also named
Jeremiah Henry (born 1897.) This
Jeremiah, our Grandfather on our father’s father’s side, named my father Donald
Allen Kearns. Allen for his wife’s father, Allen Rufus Spooner, but Donald?
Where did that come from? But Jere is the third in a line of wonderfully named
Jeremiah Henrys.
Finally Dorothy Ann Kearns: Dorothy, my father’s mother.
Ann, I don’t know, but again it does have a nice ring. And with Dorothy, all
four parents, John, Mary, Jeremiah and Dorothy, had been properly passed on. And ... and ... DAK! The same initials as my father! There you go!
The Maurice Kearns –Jeremiah Henry Kearns puzzle. My Dad’s
records have Jeremiah Henry Kearns born in 1860, and married in 1895. But
census records of the time indicate that Maurice Kearns, his father, was born
around 1852. So perhaps the 1860 birth date is wrong?
Occupations:
Maurice Kearns: Mason
Jeremiah Henry Kearns (1860?) Bricklayer
Jeremiah Henry Kearns (1897) telegrapher in various capacities.
Donald … well, we all know that story
The rest of us are still undecided near as I can tell.
Wrinkle: Genealogists have tended to follow the man’s name. Our
American society is patriarchal, But my mother’s family were proud of their
Wrinkle name. When it came time for my Wrinkle grandparents to pass down the
house in Mill River, Grandmother Mary Wrinkle passed it on to the oldest boy
with the same last name.
Frank Kearns
11/2015
