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This is a photo from my grandmother’s 8th Grade class in November 1939. My grandmother, Mary Jane CORRIGAN, is in the 3rd row from the left and 4th from the back. Her twin brother, my great-uncle, Tommy is also in the class. He is the boy the in the far bottom right corner, closest to the camera.

Take a look and dive into the Irish history.

My entry for the 13th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Here is what this carnival is about. Share with us the surnames in your Irish family tree, but don’t just stop there. Do a little research and tell us the origin of one or more of those surnames, the stories of how they might have changed over the years, or tales of how they’ve been mixed up and mispelled, etc.

The big Irish surname in my tree is CORRIGAN. The name starts at my paternal grandmother, who is always the family’s biggest Irish supporter. I can trace the surname back to Michael John CORRIGAN who immigrated from Killeeshil Parish, County Tyrone, Ireland to Ontario, Canada in the 1820s. The family lived there for many years before my great-great-grandfather, Thomas CORRIGAN, moved to Wisconsin with his family. The history of the CORRIGAN surname according to Wikipedia is:

The Corrigan (O’Corrigan, Carrigan, Corocan, Courigan, Currigan) surname is of Irish descent. Translated Corrigan means “Spear”. The name is believed to have originated from Coirdhecan of the Cineal Eoghain. It is also believed to be connected to the Maguire clan. The Corrigan surname was popular in the 17th century in County Fermanagh in Ireland. Today, the name is spread out across most counties in Ireland and some of the United States and Canada.

Via my genealogy research, I have met and talked to a lot of CORRIGAN researchers, a lot of whom descended from the same Michael John CORRIGAN family. I have yet to trace back into Ireland, besides County Tyrone as listed above.

There are also few famous individuals with the CORRIGAN surname such as the actor Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, who I posted about in the past.

I actually haven’t run into many misspellings of the name, other than the few listed in the Wikipedia entry above. Soundex usually handles most of the common spelling changes. The few other Irish surnames I have in my tree are MCCANN, THOMPSON, NUGENT, BOYLE and CRONIN, but none of these go as far or are researched as deep as CORRIGAN.

March 1

1653 – Died – Joanna (Pansars) CREIJBECK – Joanna was my 10th-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. She was born about 1610 and passed away in St. Lambertus, Herck, Belgium.

1818 – Born – Jacobus Franciscus KREBBEKX – Jacobus was my 4th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands and married Maria Sophia SCHALLOIR.

1974 – Died – Helen A (Stroinski) ZALEWSKI – Helen was my great-great aunt on my father’s side. She was born 24 Sep 1897 and passed away in Milwaukee, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin.

March 2

1826 – Died – Florentina Francisca (Knudde) CRAYBECK – Florentina was my 5th-great-grandmother of my mother’s side. She was the mother of Jacobus listed under March 1, which, as you can tell, shows all of the last name spellings I came across in the vital records. She was born about 1788 and passed away in Hoofdplaat, Zeeland, Netherlands.

March 3

1855 – Born – Thomas J CORRIGAN – Thomas was my great-great-grandfather on my father’s side. Thomas was born in Mara Township, Brechin, Ontario, Canada to William and Mary (MCCANN) CORRIGAN. His first wife was Ellen FERGUSON. When she passed away, he married my great-great-grandmother, Emma Jane FIRMENICH. Thomas’ first family was the subject of this week’s Wordless Wednesday.

March 5

1754 – Born – Wilhelmus van CRAYBECK – Wilhelmus (who has an awesome name) is my 6th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Genk, Limburg, Belgium and married Anna Catherina CROX.

March 6

1707 – Married – My 8th-great-grandparents on my mother’s side, Petrus van CRAYBECK and Elisabeth BROUCKX were married in Genk, Limburg, Belgium.

March 7

1888 – Born – William H LAST – William was my great-great-uncle on my mother’s side. He was born in Grafton, Ozaukee Co., Wisconsin.

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From what I figured out, this is my great-great-grandfather Thomas CORRIGAN and his first wife Ellen FERGUSON (1854- abt 1890.) I had originally tabbed it as Thomas Corrigan and his second wife, my great-great-grandmother Emma Jane FIRMENICH. Then one day I looked closer at it and at Tom and Emma’s children and they didn’t seem to match up. It occurred to me that this was probably his first family since the kids line up pretty well with their ages. Tom was a busy man. He had 5 children with Ellen and then married my gg-grandmother and had 9 more.

The people in this photo (as far as I know) are: Ellen Ferguson and Thomas Corrigan in the back row. Joseph M. and William J. S. Corrigan (or vice versa) in the middle row. Mary Ellen, Agnes Alvina, and Thomas Francis Corrigan in the front row. This must be very close to Ellen’s death since little Thomas would only have been about 4 or 5 when that happened.

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Maurice Corrigan, Ashland, Wisconsin

Maurice is my great-grandfather. Photo owned by my grandmother, Mary Jane (Corrigan) Zalewski.

Photo: Maurice Corrigan – Original owned by Mary Jane Zalewski (daughter of subject)

This is a photo of my great-grandfather, Maurice Corrigan. At least, that’s what it’s noted as. I’ve been told unofficially that they used to dress up boys in dress-type  clothing in the early 1900s for photographs. I have no reason to not believe this. I assume it was just a custom back then. Does anyone have more information on this custom?