Mary Ryan

Wife of John Dwyer and mother of Cornelius. Her maiden name is in Cornelius’s death index and in the records of four of her other children, in four states, all naming their parents John Dwyer and Mary Ryan (record). Born in Ireland about 1822-1827; with John from New York to Minnesota (see his page), and living at Bandon Township, Renville County, in 1885. Two Ryans lived with the family later, perhaps her kin: Anne Ryan, 28, a boarder at Cohoes in 1875, and Patrick Ryan, 60, Cornelius’s “partner” at Turlock in 1910.

Their children, as the 1860 to 1880 censuses and the children’s own records show them: Mary Ellen (b. 1848, Canajoharie), William (b. c. 1851-54, Ohio), Mary Ann (b. c. 1853-55, Moriah; married John McCauley, 1879), Margaret (b. c. 1856-57), Catherine “Kate” (b. c. 1858; Mrs. Dalton; d. Butte, 1908), John J. (b. c. 1860; married at Butte, 1905) and Cornelius (1862). A Michael J. Dwyer (1849-1935, the Bronx) also named them as his parents, but he is not in their household and was born in Ireland in May 1849, fourteen months after Mary Ellen; possibly another family’s.

Open questions

• Her origin. Some fourteen John Dwyer and Mary Ryan marriages are indexed in Co. Tipperary between 1812 and 1862, three in the right years (Anacarty 1845, Knockavilla 1847, Clonoulty 1849); without a sponsor, a townland or a sibling’s record, none can be chosen.
• Her death, after 1885.