Daniel Whelan and Bridget Phillips

When Daniel Whalen/*Whelan was born on July 4, 1863, in Hungerford, Ontario, Canada, his father, Thomas Whalen (1815-1900), was 48 and his mother, Margaret (nee Coughlin) (1823-1888), was 40. He had two sisters and six brothers.

(*Although Daniel’s parents spelled their name “Whalen”, Daniel’s name is spelled “Whelan” in most documents, and I will use his preferred spelling.)

Daniel married Bridget Phillips on August 10, 1888, in at St. Carthagh’s Roman Catholic Church in Tweed, Hungerford, Ontario. Daniel was 25 years old, and Bridget was just 16.

Ontario Marriage Record (image via Ancestry.com)

When Bridget Phillips was born in 1872 in Ontario, Ontario, Canada, her father, John Phillips (1839-1913), was 31, and her mother, Mary (nee O’Donnell) (1849-1920), was 23. She had four brothers and three sisters.

They had one child during their marriage, Mary Anne Whalen, born August 18th and baptized on August 24th in St. Patrick’s Church in Napanee. The baptismal record suggests that her sponsors were John and Nellie O’Donnell, her mother’s maternal uncle and his wife.

St. Patrick’s Napanee Baptismal Register (image via Ancestry.com)
Baptismal Certificate

The family is first found on the 1891 Canada Census in Desorento, Hastings, Ontario. Daniel is a labourer.

1891 Canadian Census (image via Ancestry.com)

I haven’t been able to locate a death record or burial plot, but I know that Bridget died sometime between the 1891 census and 1901 (likely closer to 1891). On the 1901 census, Mary Anne is shown both in her father’s household, where her father is listed as a Farm Labourer:

1901 Canadian Census (image via Ancestry.com)

And at her maternal grandparent’s home (it is from these records that we know the date of Mary Anne’s birth). From her descendants, we know that Mary Anne spent a lot of time in the Phillips home as a child.

1901 Canadian Census (image via Ancestry.com)

By the 1911 census, Mary Anne is married and living in Toronto, Ontario.

Daniel hasn’t been located on either the 1911 or 1921 Canadian Censuses. There is some speculation that he moved to the United States (Michigan) for work, but that has not been verified.

Daniel died on September 14, 1938, in Maynooth, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 75. His death certificate lists his daughter as his next of kin. Mary Anne’s daughter has suggested that her mother returned to Read for the funeral and washed her father’s body in preparation for burial. The record suggests he was buried in Stoco, Ontario, but I haven’t found a burial.

Ontario Death Registration (image via Ancestry.com)

Main image: Postcard of Huyck’s Hotel on the east side of Victoria Street North in Tweed, Ontario, with a car parked in front of it. (image via Wikimedia)

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ABOUT AUTHOR
AG Knapper

I’ve been researching my tree for over twenty years…and I’ve found some easy branches, and some gnarly ones…

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