Jeremiah O'Sullivan (1857 - 1916) (part 1)

Jeremiah O'Sullivan and children

The picture at the right is the only known picture I have seen of my grandfather's father, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, from Bantry, Cork, Ireland.  With him are 5 of his children.  I believe this picture was taken around 1914 or 1915.  If that is correct, the children are, from left to right, Arthur Lee, b. 1912, Herbert James, b. 1908, Lauretta, b. 1902, Richard George, b. 1905, and Irene Edith, b. 1903.

The family story always was that Jeremiah had immigrated from Bantry, County Cork, Ireland, but his date of birth varied, depending on the source. 

Birth date evidence:

• 1880 Census: his age is listed as 21, and the enumeration date was June 1, 1880,
• which would mean he would have been born between June 2, 1858  and June 1, 1859
• Naturalization papers:
• he gave his date of birth as November 2, 1859
• Marriage record, age 35 on the date of his marriage, May 23, 1897,
• which would mean he was born between May 23, 1862 and May 22, 1863.
• 1900 Census:
• Date of Birth listed as November 1864
• 1910 Census: his age is listed as 50, and the enumeration date was April 15, 1910,
•  which would mean he had been born between April 15, 1860 and April 14, 1861.
• Death record: When he died on January 26, 1916, his age was recorded as 58 years,
•  which would mean he was born between January 27, 1857 and January 26, 1858.

This would lead me to believe that he was born between January 27, 1857 and November 1864.    In the recently released church records for Bantry at Irish Genealogy there at 16 Jeremiah Sullivans born in Bantry between these dates.  In the next post, I'll look at those 16 men and determine which, if any, is our Jeremiah O'Sullivan.

To be continued.....

Photo Credit: thank you to June Casaletto for sharing the above photo with me
Copyright 2011 Kathleen Sullivan. All Rights Reserved