CONDRONs of County Longford

County Longford, in the province of Leinster, is bordered by the counties of Westmeath (also in Leinster), Roscommon and Leitrim (both in the province of Connaught) and Cavan (in the province of Ulster).  The county is covered by three registration districts: Granard in the north-east (which extends also into Cavan and Westmeath), Ballymahon in the south (which extends into Westmeath) and Longford in the west. Unlike for Co. Cavan across the border, the Co. Longford CONDR*NS appear all to be Catholics. From the beginning of universal civil registration until 1910, the only births, marriages and deaths in the county are to be found in the Granard registration district, and the baptisms of the period are found in the parishes of Abbeylara and Edgeworthstown.

The 1901 and 1911 censuses show CONDRONs in just two households (apart from a Gerald CONDRON who shows up also in his grandparents’ household in 1901, and a servant called Mary CONDRON, born in Co. Westmeath, who appears in the 1911 census). One family is that of James CONDRON , born about 1872, who married Mary Ann KELLY in 1895. Their children, who were mostly baptized in Edgeworthstown, include Gerald (born 1896), James (1899), Bridget (1900) who married in 1924, Peter Joseph (1904), Mary Catherine (1906) who married in 1926, Elizabeth (1909) who died in 1911, Agnes (1912), Christopher (1913) and William (1918). The other family is that Anne CONDRON (nee ARKINS), widow of Patrick CONDRON (born about 1852). Patrick married Anne in Delvin, Co. Westmeath, in 1886, and died at the age of 40 in 1892. The couple had a son, William Joseph CONDRON (born 1890) and baptized in Abbeylara. I believe that William married Rose Anne CASSIDY in 1920 and proceeded to have a number of children who were all baptized in Abbeylara: William Joseph (1923),  Emily (1926), Brendan Thomas (1929) who married Gertrude “Cherry” JOY, Ernest Philip (1933), Aidan Augustine (1935) who married Mary O’LEARY, and Anna (1939).

As usual, I’d be very happy to receive any corrections to the above information, or to hear from any descendents of these families: Condran [AT] one-name.org .

Condr*n as a given name

Some weeks ago I had a few hours to spare in Washington DC and visited the library of the Daughters of the American Revolution (see picture), which is located close to the White House. I didn’t have high hopes of finding any CONDR*N leads, but in fact there was one book in the library catalogue with CONDR*N connections: “The Ancestors and Descendants of Michael Dan Mitchell (1759-1995)” compiled by Marlene Wilkinson (revised July 1996).

The book details the genealogy of Michael Dan MITCHELL, son of Charles Reeves MITCHELL (1890-1953) and Grace Lenora CONDRAN (1887-1962). As stated there, Grace was the daughter of Patrick CONDRAN and Rachael MORRISEY, both offspring of unknown parentage. Grace was born on 15 May 1887, married Charles MITCHELL on 1 August 1910 in Mitchell, South Dakota (Grace’s home town), and died on 18 February 1962. Charles worked for the Chicago Milwaukee Pacific Railroad and the family lived variously in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Spokane, Washington; and Linton, North Dakota. Charles MITCHELL and his wife Grace (nee CONDRAN) had five children as detailed by the book:

            Condran Finch MITCHELL (1913-1921)

            Charles Thomas MITCHELL (b. 1915)

            Rachael Beverly MITCHELL (b. 1918)

            Mary Patricia MITCHELL (b.1924)

            Michael Dan MITCHELL (1926-1994).

Has anyone else come across Condran, Condren, Condrin or Condron used as the given name (first name, Christian name) of a child, as in Condran Finch MITCHELL?

The U.S. 1910 census shows Grace CONDRAN (aged 22) shortly before her marriage to Charles, living in Mitchell, South Dakota, with her parents Patrick (born in Iowa about 1861 of an Irish-born father and Canadian-born mother) and Rachael, and her younger siblings Michael (aged 20), Anna (18), Harry (17), William (15) and Lucy (13). All the children were born in Iowa. Another child (Patrick and Rachael had seven in total, following their marriage in about 1883) is not present in the household.

Do you know anything more about this family?

Incidentally, ancestry.com announced this week that they have completed the indexing of the U.S. 1940 census. According to the ancestry.com indexation, there are 1352 CONDR*Ns in that census: 164 CONDRANs, 277 CONDRENs, 78 CONDRINs and 833 CONDRONs. There’s quite a bit of research to be done to fit all these people into CONDR*N trees! I happened to note that only one male CONDR*N in this 1940 census was born in England: that was Edward CONDRON (aged 13) in Passaic, New Jersey, son of John (aged 39, a dyer, born in Ireland) and Emma CONDRON (aged 41, born in England). Their other child, Mary (aged 12), was born in New Jersey. Research in the UK births and marriages records reveals that John CONDRON married Emma TAYLOR in the Salford registration district (in the county of Lancashire) in the second quarter of 1924, and Edward CONDRON was born also in Salford registration district in the first quarter of 1925.