The McDades - Part 1, The Brothers

From family history, I know Wm J McDade came from Scotland. He is Alexander, Eleanor's husband's Father. Wm J lived in Fayette County, Pennsylvania working as a coal miner. From the censuses, he came to the US about 1884. Also from family history, I know he had a brother named Patrick Allan or Allan Patrick. Patrick was the namesake for Wm's youngest son, Allen Patrick. This was told to me by one of Allen Patrick's sons. This is pretty much the extent of what I know about my McDade ancestors.

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Unfortunately, the 1890 census was mostly destroyed in a fire. It would answer many questions I have. Since it is not available, I turned to the 1900 census. In 1900, in all of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, there were 15 McDade's.

Wm J and his family
    Sarah Wife
    William Emmitt Son
    Catherine Daughter

Alexander and his family
    Mary Wife
    Alexander Son
    Margaret Daughter
    Mary Daughter
    William Son
    James Son
    Robert Son
    Peter Son

Mary McDade, a 52-year-old widow

Mary McDaid, the 14-year-old niece of William  and Elizabeth Goodburn

With so few McDades in the area I felt William and Alexander had to be related.

Researching Wm about 5-years ago or so, I found an entry in a book for Alexander as the Treasurer of the local Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 5 of Uniontown. The Ancient Order of Hibernians is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization founded concurrently in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in May 1836. The AOH still exists, so I emailed the Historian to find out if they had any family records. He said they didn't, but offered this;

I have searched the national archives for any information on Alex McDade and found nothing except for the directory information you already have.  Application forms for the AOH do not ask for information on parentage nor Irish County of origin – at least today they don’t.  Not having the records of the early Pittsburgh Divisions, I am afraid I can’t be of much help to you, but I wish you luck in your quest.  Know that to be a member of the AOH around the turn of the century in Pittsburg took a good deal of courage.

               De Bard

The AOH is a faith-based, Roman Catholics of Irish descent, organization and their divisions are based out of churches. The church used by the Fayette County division that Alexander was the Treasurer of was St. John the Evangelist Parish in Uniontown. I contacted the church and asked if they could provide any information. They sent me a letter that Wm's children William Emmett and Catherine were baptized there and Alexander's children, Robert, Peter, Joseph, and Eugene were baptized there as well. But they had no information tying the families together.

Due to the number of children being named after someone else, specifically William and Alexander at this point, I'm going to give them different names to distinguish them.

        William John - Eleanor's Father-in-law will be Wm.
        William Emmett - Wm's oldest son will be Emmett.

        Alexander - Wm's brother will be Alex.
        Alexander - Alex's oldest son will be Alex Jr.
        Alexander - Wm's second son, and Eleanor's husband will be Red.


The first bit of information to confirm my thoughts was a newspaper article I found a couple years ago. Wm's second son, Red, got into some trouble, armed robbery. There were three that participated in the robbery, but of note was Red (Alex) and his cousin James McDade. James is one of Alex's sons.

The Evening Standard, (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 02 Jun 1931, Tue, Page 1

As I continued to search for more information - more confirmation, I found another obituary for Alex that I hadn't previously uncovered. In this one, the last line says, "He also leaves one brother, William McDade, of Uniontown."

The Morning Herald, (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 09 Sep 1916, Sat, Page 3

That's two incidents that indicate they are brothers, but I also came across this newspaper story of Wm's funeral. "Pallbearers were all nephews of the deceased and were Robert, James, Lambert and Joseph McDade, William Cosgrove and James Catney." Robert, James, Lambert, and Joseph are Alex's sons. William Cosgrove and James Catney are Alex's sons-in-law. William was married to Margaret and James was married to Mary.

The Evening Standard, (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), 02 Jul 1927, Sat, Page 16

I'm going to conclude Alex is the older brother of Wm and Patrick.

Part 2 -> The Family

The McDades - Part 2, The Family

As I said in my last post, I don't know a lot about Wm, only that he came from Scotland and had a brother named Patrick Allen or Allen Patrick. But now I know that Alex is Wm's brother there is another branch to trace. Alex came over the year before Wm and Patrick in 1883 according to the censuses. Since Alex was already married to Mary McMahon and his oldest son, Alex Jr, had been born I was able to search for them in Scottish records.

I was able to find Alex and Mary's marriage record. They were married April 25, 1881, at St Margaret's Roman Catholic Church in Johnstone, Renfrewshire. Alex's parents are William McDaid and Mary Stephenson. Alex, Wm, and Patrick, changed the spelling of McDaid to McDade when they emigrated. It also has Mary McMahon's parents as James McMahon and Mary McClain.

Their oldest son, Alex Jr, was born on December 18, 1881.

Referring back to my naming chart, I will add William the father as William.

        William - Alex, Wm and Patrick's father will be William

William John - Eleanor's Father-in-law will be Wm.

        William Emmett - Wm's oldest son will be Emmett.

        Alexander - Wm's brother will be Alex.

        Alexander - Alex's oldest son will be Alex Jr.

        Alexander - Wm's son, and Eleanor's husband will be Red.

William and Mary were married on January 24, 1856, at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.

In 1861, the family was still living in Johnstone, Renfrewshire. We find that William was born in Co Donegal, Ireland. He was working as an ironstone miner. Their first three children, Margaret, Alex, and Catherine had been born in the five years since their wedding.

With William being born in Ireland and the wedding in 1856, I suspect he emigrated due to The Great Famine, 1845 - 1852.

1861 Census

In 1871, William was still working as a miner. I know from the birth records he still working as an iron miner. Two more children, Mary and Wm, had been born.

1871 Census

In 1881, William has switched to coal mining. He switched to coal mining sometime between 1871 and 1877 when Annie was born. Two more children have been born, Allen and Annie,  and Margaret, the oldest, has left home.

1881 Census

As can be seen, they were not good at keeping dates straight in their time. The censuses were every ten years, but their age was never ten years between the censuses. I haven't found birth records for William and Mary yet, but I have found them for the children. There are a few items of information that is useful from them. I'll summarize what I found.

Margaret	03 June 1857	Abbey Paisley, Renfrew
Alexander (Alex)	03 January 1859	Houston & Killellan, Renfrew
Catherine	18 January 1861	Hamilton, Lanark
Mary	13 January 1863	Dalry, Ayr
Sarah	11 February 1865	Dalry, Ayr
William (Wm)	21 October 1869	Abbey Paisley, Renfrew
Allen  Patrick	17 June 1871	Abbey Paisley, Renfrew
Annie	24 November 1877	Johnstone, Renfrew

A summary of things I was able to learn from the Birth records besides William leaving the iron mine to work in the coal mine are;

• The witness for Mary's birth was Margaret McDaid. It says she's an Aunt, so it must be William's Sister.
• The witness for Wm's birth was Margaret Stevenson. It says she's a Grandmother, so it must be Mary's Mother.
• I believe Patrick's given name is actually Allan. Allan Patrick.
• Catherine and Mary were born in different counties than where they were living, so they possibly had family in those towns.
• If you notice they had a child every two years except the six years between Mary and William and the six years between Patrick and Annie. I suspect they had children that didn't survive during these periods.
• Update 2018-10-31: William and Mary had a daughter Sarah born in 1865. The record indicates the witness was an Uncle - Peter McDade

A few years after the 1881 census on January 10, 1883, William died. The cause given is Acute Bronchitis - Miners' Asthma (Black Lung). The age is given as 48-years-old, making his birth year as 1835. The censuses have the years of 1831, 1833, and 1836. This makes 1835 pretty close. Alex was the informant. He recorded William's father as Alexander, a mason and for his mother, only her maiden name, Gillespie. I think this makes her name Mary Gillespie putting together the death record and Annie's birth record.

1883 - Death Record

Time to update the naming chart. Alexander, William's father will be Alexander.

        William - Alex, Wm and Patrick's father will be William

William John - Eleanor's Father-in-law will be Wm.

        William Emmett - Wm's oldest son will be Emmett.

        Alexander - William's father will be Alexander

Alexander - Wm's brother will be Alex.

        Alexander - Alex's oldest son will be Alex Jr.

        Alexander - Wm's second son, and Eleanor's husband will be Red.