Ancestor Report
generation I

1 (0)
man‎Dennis Killeen‏‎
Born ‎25 Mar 1864 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada
Dennis is in the 1870 census of Raymond Township, Stearns County ("Killion"). He is in the 1875 Minnesota territorial census, age 11. Only Dennis and "B.E." (Bridget Elizabeth) of the siblings are in the 1880 census.
generation II (Parents)

2 (1)
manPatrick Bunam "Bunam Patrick" Killeen‏
Born ‎1826 County Roscommon, Ireland, died ‎4 Apr 1884 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 57 or 58 years
Patrick Killeen and his wife Catherine Rooney were natives of County Claire, Ireland and came to North America in about 1837, where were put ashore at Grosse Island, Canada. There were several immigrant Rooney families landed at that place and they moved farther inland and settled in Wakefield Township where they were employed in the timber lands.

When his work in Wakefield Township was finished, Patrick KIlleen removed his family to New York City where Michael was born in 1855. He returned to Canada but was not satisfied to stay there and as there was a big land boom in Minnesota just at that time he decided to locate there. He boarded a steam boat at Lake Superior and came to St. Paul by way of the Mississippi about 1863. He secured an ox team in St. Paul and made his way overland to Stearns County where he obtained 160 acres in Section 24, Raymond township. He hired Joe McDermatt, who had a team of horses and a plow, to put in his first crop which was 10 acres of wheat.

While Indians were always lurking around the lakes near the Killeen home they were never hostile. They stole everything they could, but did not attempt to harm the settlers bodily. One night, Catherine (Rooney) Killeen left her washing on the clothes line, thinking it would dry by morning and when she went out to get the clothing found that Indians had stolen it during the night. It was a very real loss to the Killeen's as they did not have an over abundance of clothing and nothing out of which to make more.

Although, there was a store at Sauk Centre at the time, the Killeens did most of their trading in St Cloud. Eggs were 8 cents per dozen and butter 5 cents per pound.
  Married ‎17 Feb 1851 Farrellton, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, age 24 or 25 years
St. Camillus Church
(married 33 years) to:
3 (1)
womanCatherine E "Catharine on gravestone" Rooney‏
Born ‎1826 Ireland Event Description: probably Roscommon, died ‎31 Jan 1901 Fort Steele, British Columbia, Canada Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 74 or 75 years, buried ‎7 Feb 1901 Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
Geraldine Felling Walsh:
"The 26 hour shoeless walk in 1844 from Parish Moore to Sligo for my great grandfather Thomas, his sister Catherine and the two wee boys must have been a nightmare… I continue to wonder about Catherine. Why was Catherine still in Ireland if her parents went much earlier to Canada? Why would Catherine, one of the younger members (and a female) not travel with her parents? Possible reasons:
"She was ill; she was in love with a local man and didn't want to go; she was the babysitter for Thomas' children. Perhaps Thomas' wife was sickly and they needed Catherine. To further add to the mystery, my genealogical record shows Catherine being born in County Clare!!! AND IT SHOWS HER DYING IN Cranbrook, B.C.
Now I know Thomas' sister Catherine is buried in the Padua Cemetery so something is definitely wrong with this family record."

David Gaffaney:
The children of Catherine and Patrick Killeen were born in Canada, except for Michael, who was born in New York, and Lizzie, who was born in Minnesota. The family apparently went back to Canada after having lived in New York and then re-entered the U.S. and settled in Minnesota.
In her last years, Catherine lived with her daughter Lizzie (Mrs. Thomas C.) Armstrong in Fort Steele, British Columbia where she died at the age of 74 and Lizzie took her body back to Minnesota for burial in 1901.
[In the 1880 census of Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota, Catherine and her husband are both listed as the same age, and we have his birth year as 1826. She died in January at the age of 74, and it's most likely that her 75th birthday would have occurred some time later in the year, confirming that her birth year was 1826. Also, I don't know where the County Clare birth comes from. Seems more likely to have been Galway or Roscommon.]
Cause of death was heart failure caused by the severeness of an attack of la grippe.
Fort Steele and Cranbrook, B.C. are within a few miles of each other, along a road going northeast out of Idaho.

Fourth cousin Jill DaSilva (jfham1@gmail.com), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 2/10/2016:
Patrick Bunam KILLEEN and Catherine ROONEY were my 2nd great grandparents. Their youngest daughter, Bridget Elizabeth KILLEEN or (Elizabeth Bridget depending on what record you find) was my great grandmother. She married Thomas Charles ARMSTRONG, a tinsmith, who had been born in Ontario. They met in Minnesota, then moved to Montana and then to Fort Steele, British Columbia, then Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Catherine (Rooney) KILLEEN, died of influenza in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and Thomas, who adored her, built a tin-lined coffin and shipped her body back to Padua, Minnesota so she could be buried there.
There is a facsimile of Thomas's tinsmith shop built at Fort Steele, which is a historic town. My sisters and I, as kids, used to play in the buildings when it was just a ghost town. The shop contains a few items that he built, and there are some remnants of his work in nearby churches and towns. http://fortsteele.ca/attractions/trades/


Originally published Thursday, February 7, 1901, Cranbrook Herald

Mrs. Catherine Killeen aged 74 years, died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. T. C. Armstrong, on Thursday evening at 8 o'clock. Mrs. Killeen had been suffering from a severe attack of la grippe, and the direct cause of her death was heart failure, caused by the severeness of the attack of la grippe.

Originally published August 1998, Padua Cemetery, by Ginny Walz Borgerding

Patrick Bunam Killeen was born in 1826 County Clare, Ireland. He was the son of Bryan and Mary (Calahan) Killeen. When Patrick first came from Ireland, he was put ashore at Grosse Isle, Canada.

Catharine Rooney was born in 1827 in Ireland. She was the daughter of Michael and Catharine (Caulfield) Rooney. She immigrated to Canada from Ireland with her brother Thomas Rooney in 1847. She was 20 years old when she left Ireland with her brother Thomas. Thomas was a widower traveling with his two young sons, Michael (age 3) and John (age 2). Catharine helped with the care of the children.

Patrick Killeen married Catharine Rooney on February 17, 1851 at St. Joseph's, Upper Wakefield, Quebec, Canada. Patrick was employed in the timber lands in Wakefield Township. They had three children: Thomas, Mary Ann, and Bernard. When his work was finished, Patrick moved his family to New York City where their son Michael was born in 1855. Patrick and family returned to Ontario, Canada, but was not satisfied to stay there. As there was a big land boom in Minnesota, just at that time, Patrick decided to locate there. Patrick and Catharine had two more children during this time: Patrick J. and Catherine Judith. According to an oral interview with Michael (Patrick and Catharine's son) given in 1937, " he (Patrick) boarded a steam boat at Lake Superior and came to St. Paul by way of the Mississippi about 1863. He secured an ox team in St. Paul and made his way over land to Stearns County, where he obtained 160 acres in Section 24 Raymond Township." Patrick hired Joe McDermatt, who had a team of horses and a plow, to put in his first crop which was 10 acres of wheat. While living in Padua they had two more children: Dennis and Elizabeth.

Patrick served as director of the Padua School Board in 1872, and it was he who had to sign the document establishing him as school board director with an X because he did not know how to write.

Patrick and Catharine farmed near Padua along with their eight children: Thomas, Mary Ann, Bernard (Barney), Patrick J. (P.J.), Catherine Judith (Katie), Dennis, and Elizabeth.

Patrick died on April 4, 1884. Catharine later moved to Cranbrook, British Columbia where she stayed with her daughter Elizabeth and family. She died of a heart attack that was caused by a severe attack of la grippe (influenza).

Patrick and Catharine's sons P.J. and Michael and daughter Katie (Catherine Judith) are buried in Padua. Catharine's mother, Catharine Rooney, is buried next to Patrick. Catharine's brothers Thomas and John, and sister-in-law Ellen (wife of Patrick) Rooney are also buried in Padua.
generation III (Grandparents)

6 (3)
manMichael ""Daddy Mick"" Rooney‏
Born ‎1782 Ireland, died ‎12 Jan 1857 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada Event Description: St. Camillus Catholic Cemetery, Farrellton, Quebec, Canada, age 74‎, age 74 or 75 years, buried ‎Jan 1857 Farrellton, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada
Michael Rooney and Catherine Caulfield emigrated to Canada around 1845 (although there are land records showing Rooney's in the Canada farm census of 1841). In their 60's, they followed several of their grown children, the earliest who was in Canada by 1829. They settled in the Gatineau River region of Quebec, north of Ottawa, near the town of Farrelton (present day La Pêche).
The two oldest boys - Patrick (b. 1808) and Michael (b. 1809) - had their own farms in Canada. They also probably did some contract lumbering as this region was rich in lumber and this was the heyday of lumber being shipped by boat to Great Britain.

Michael and Catherine's grandson Thomas T. Rooney, son of John R. Rooney (1854-1925), was possibly a second cousin to his wife Ellen E Rooney (1872-1902). Her grandfather, John Rooney, would have been born at an age to be a brother to Daddy Mick. John's descendants coincidentally fit into the Michael and Catherine Rooney line when a granddaughter married married a Daddy Mick Rooney grandson.

As of 2017, it has been proven by finding DNA matches on Ancestry between the Padua Rooney branch and descendants of the Avon Rooney branch. However, the exact connection is still to be determined.

The Egan's and Rooney's intermarried eight times (all of the couples dying in Pope or Stearns County):

James Rooney (1848-1926)
Ann Egan (1846-1914)

Mary Ann Rooney (1865-1937)
Dennis Egan (1849->1910)

William Edward Rooney (1897-1980)
Mary Emily Egan (1897-1990). Mary was an orphan train adoptee, so not genetically an Egan or a Rooney, even though her "grandfather" was John R. Rooney. Also, her husband William Edward Rooney was one of the "Avon Rooney's." Though not genetically an Egan or a Rooney, even though her "great grandfather" was Michael Rooney on the Padua side, she married William Edward Rooney whose great grandfather was John Rooney the Avon side. Thus by prior relationship they were 3rd cousins, but unrelated by consanguinity.

Mary Rooney (1837-1905)
James Egan (1826-1912)

Eleanor Rooney (1842-1902)
Patrick Egan (1833-1892)

Elizabeth A Rooney (1866-1904) (first-cousin once-removed to her husband)
Thomas Edward Egan (1862-1928)

Martin Gannon (1848-1911) (son of Mary Egan and grandson of Thomas B Egan)
Catherine Kilroe (1859->1940) (granddaughter of Bridget Rooney and great granddaughter of Daddy Mick/Mammy Kitty Rooney)

Daniel Michael Rooney (1955-2014) was related to his wife, Karen Ann Majerus (1957-living): His great great grandparents were Michael and Catherine Rooney, while Karen's 4x great grandparents were Michael and Catherine. Thus, they were third cousins twice-removed. Also, Karen is an Egan descendent as well.

Including the three cousin marriages listed just above, there are these additional three:

In 1877, Sarah Margaret Tracy, daughter of Ann Rooney, married her first cousin, John J. Rooney, son of Patrick Rooney.

In 1888, Hugh M. Rooney married his first cousin, Winifred Sophia Rooney.

In about 1889, Thomas T. Rooney of the Padua Rooney branch married his second cousin, Ellen E. Rooney, of the Avon Rooney branch.


Randy Rooney says (May 2016):

"I have been in contact with my closest Y-DNA result match who has a genetic distance of 1 out of the 37 markers I had tested. His great grandfather, Patrick [Rooney] b. ~1845, was from Dundalk, County Louth , just south of County Down. Is it possible that we aren't finding Rooney's in the area of Parish Moore since Michael wasn't from that part of Ireland, but just started his family there because Catherine was from there? And if Michael didn't have strong family ties to the area, did that prompt their emigration from Ireland. It seems reasonable they lived near Parish Moore at one time if Thomas married Ellen Ward there, and Michael/Catherine are listed as being from Co. Galway on the Canadian marriage record of John Rooney/Mary McCool. However, what else is known about where they had lived prior to Canada? The more we learn, the more questions there seem to be…"

Earlier in his email Randy said: "Clonburren and Moore South graveyards, [the two others besides the Kilbegley Cemetery associated with the Parish of Moore in Roscommon], have been completed already [cleaning, reading and photographing old monuments], so you can see what Kilbegley eventually will include. I found the Moore South graveyard interesting since there were many Caulfield's, but no Rooney's."
Ten Caulfield's, to be exact.


July, 2017:

Looking at Geraldine Felling Walsh's Ancestry DNA pages. She and her siblings and several of her living first cousins are closer to the Rooney ancestors genetically than are any of the rest of us. There are a number of people related to her that have a Rooney in their family tree, but those Rooney's have no known connection to us. The furtherest ancestor any of them listed could be as close as a first cousin or a nephew or niece to "Daddy Mick." They appear so far to come from either Leitrim or Mayo in Ireland. Maybe they are from a "Leitrim" branch?
  Married/ Related to:
7 (3)
womanCatherine ""Mammy Kitty"; Catharine on gravestone" Caulfield‏
Born ‎1783 Ireland, died ‎17 Feb 1875 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: Padua Cemetery, Stearns, Minnesota, age 91‎, age 91 or 92 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
After "Daddy Mick" died in 1857 and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Farrelton, Mammie Kitty emigrated to the U.S.A. with eight of her nine grown children and their families. They came first to St. Anthony Falls, site the present-day Minneapolis, which was so small it could be covered in a half hour by horse and buggy. Later they moved to Stearns County, Raymond Township - a place at first called "Rooneys' Settlement, later called Padua, between 1865 and 1870.

Ambrose Rooney said that his father used to talk about "Grandma Kitty " and thought that there was something funny about her. Ambrose Gaffaney said his mother used to talk about a lady who smoked a pipe (Mary McCool, wife of John Rooney, smoked a pipe; Marilyn Rooney Lysen is now in possession of the pipe).