The O'Donnell Family Album

James or Patrick O'Donnell & Rosanna (Regan)
by Marie Ann O'Donnell Bierly

   Although I tried to document everything that was either told to me voluntarily and verbally, or that I had prompted answers to, the dates on so many different documents are not consistent, as you will also find with the names on several documents. Most of the following information was given to me by Mrs. Dorothy (O'Donnell) Cluvey, just before she passed away. She was alert at the time, as she told me the same story as was told to me by her brother, Edward O'Donnell, later on who is now deceased.

   Mrs. Culvey claims that Tom and Mike O'Donnell who were the children of James (or Patrick) which is on the birth certificate's of two of the children that were born in England, and Rosanna (Regan) O'Donnell, were put on a ship in England and looked after by the ship's commander, until they reached the Port of Philadelphia, at which time an Uncle Peter was supposed to meet the young lads. Uncle Peter was waylaid in a pub and accidentally forgot to pick up the boys, thus a policeman asked the boys where their relatives were located and where they were going. They apparently only knew of relatives in the Renovo area, which they were somehow taken. It is unknown who the relatives were.

   To begin with, James or Patrick and Rosanna (Regan) O'Donnell were both born in Ireland and were also married there. I have no further information as to where or when. I have written to Ireland and was unsuccessful. Their records are skimpy. They had their first born child while still living in Ireland, whose name was Thomas ________ ? sometime during the potato famine they went to England to live, thinking life had more to offer, and while there they changed their name to either Kinley or Kinsley, in order to obtain work more easily, as the English did not look kindly upon the Irish folks. While there, they became the parents of another son, Michael Henry, and according to the census, also a daughter, Marion. Since that time I have sent for her birth certificate, bearing the name, Mary Ann.

   Mrs. Culvey stated that the parents, James and Rosanna O'Donnell, decided to try to go to America, but only had enough money at the time for the boys fare. They were placed in custody of the ship's commander until they reached the port of Philadelphia. (see above) I'm repeating.

   The next month, the parents, along with their baby, Mary Ann, boarded a ship and headed for the port of New York ? When the family finally were all reunited in the United States, their first home was in Porter Township in Lamar, at the Hublersburg Hotel. It is still in existence today. They then moved their family to the Jacksonville area, where they grew the first celery in the area, with seeds they brought with them from England.

   How long they lived there is not known but they are found in the 1870 census in the Fourth Ward of Lock Haven. Thomas then married and resided in Beech creek for a short time until moving to Lockport. Mike married and settled on the Island where he reared a family of eight children. It is my belief that the older O'Donnell's lived and farmed on the Island until later in life, when their health deteriorated and moved to the Philadelphia area to reside with their daughter, Frances O'Brien and her husband, James. They died in Philadelphia and are buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. You will find the entire family buried in the same plot in the cemetery. That is, James and Frances O'Brien, Dorothy and Leonard Irons and James and Rosanna O'Donnell.

   Just recently I received a lineage chart of another daughter, Mary Ann, who married a McCloskey. The same Mary Ann I spoke of earlier and the sister of tom, Mike, Frances and Kate. I have never been able to locate anything concerning the line of Kate or Katherine, another daughter of the James O'Donnell's. She supposedly lived and died in the Philadelphia area. Had one son, Frank McNeill, who is deceased. Her husband was Joseph McNeill. He is also deceased. I believe Frank McNeil was a police officer but not positive. Only through verbal talks with family.

   Mrs. Dorothy Culvey said, "My dad's mother was a Regan, born in Mayo County, Ireland and Aunt Frances (or Aunt Frank) lived in a little white house next to the boiler house for the college on Susquehanna Avenue". Her husband was a contractor and they only had one child, Dorothy. When the O'Brien's moved to the Philadelphia area he joined his brother, John, in the contracting business and they built the better part of Germantown which is today considered a slum area. Dorothy's husband was a WWI veteran and was badly gassed in the war. He had a nervous breakdown and spent forty some years in a nursing home in the Philadelphia area.

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According to the Census of Clinton County of 1870 on Page 32...4th Ward I found:

James O'Donnell	Age 49	White	Male	Laborer	B. Ireland
Rose (wife)	Age 37	White	Female	Housewife	B. Ireland
Thomas (son)	Age 18	White	Male		B. Ireland
Michael (son)	Age 15	White	Male		B. England
Marian (daug)	Age 10	White	Female		B. USA ?
Catharine (daug)	Age 5	White	Female		B. USA
Frances (daug)	Age 1	White	Female		B. USA