When I found a newspaper clipping about someone searching for a Michael Mattimoe, it gave me goosebumps. This was a whisper from the past. A small one, but one that was 166 years old. Was this our Michael Mattimoe? Our immigrant ancestor who left Ireland during the Great Famine? Was someone in his family looking for him so long ago?

The ad placed in the Boston Pilot, America’s oldest Catholic newspaper, was from June 30, 1855 in its “Missing Friends” column. Someone was searching for a Michael Mattimoe. Seeing the actual ad as it appeared back then really makes the name into a real, live person for me. Generations slip away and I feel the urgency in the words. A sister Bridget lying dangerously ill. Oh! What happened to her? Did Michael ever find her? I needed to know if this was our Michael Mattimoe. But how? All I had to go on was this small ad. The same ad appeared in the paper for three days in 1855.

Many who do genealogy are too quick to accept facts or documents as pertaining to their ancestors. I fall more on the other end of the spectrum and look for proof beyond a shadow of a doubt before “claiming” something. For a couple of years, I kept coming back to the ad, doing more research. I really wanted it to be our Michael. If it were, there were important clues here. We would know:

— He was from the townland of Mountallen in the Catholic Parish of Kilronan, in Co. Roscommon; a huge piece of information!

— He landed in New York sometime around 1852, which would have been “about 3 years ago” from the publication date of June 1855

— He worked in Medway (Boston area) for a man named Mr. Mulloy, with whom he left for Pennsylvania

— He had a sister named Bridget who was dangerously ill, perhaps married to, or at least in the care of, Thomas Toben in Milford, Massachusetts

First of all, I can tell you from research that there were not that many immigrants with the surname of Mattimoe, Mattimore, Milmoe or other variants with the first name of Michael who came to America. So the universe is small-ish to begin with. We know our Michael lived in Dedham as a laborer and was married to Theresa Madden in Roxbury — both locations are in the Boston area. But the most important clue is that our Michael did, indeed, move to Pennsylvania. According to church records, Michael and Theresa had a son named James in January of 1856 in Lock Haven, PA, before they settled in Renovo. Chances are they were already in Pennsylvania when this ad appeared in the Boston Pilot in June of 1855.

I had no luck tracking down a Mr. Mulloy in Boston or Pennsylvania; just too little information to go on. There seemed to be too many leads to follow on Toben or Tobin families in that area. But I kept ruling out other Mattimoes I came across. There were just too many coincidences here. This had to be about our Michael Mattimoe. My gut was telling me so. Years of doing genealogy led me to feel certain I could claim this source as our own.

Being home bound for most of 2020 due to Covid allowed me to spend lots of time on genealogy research. I also started this blog (and another about our travels!). Two revelations from this more recent research:

1. I found a Bridget Tobin who died in 1886 in Lowell, Massachusetts at the age of 62 from cancer. She was from Ireland, widowed at the time, and was married to a Thomas Tobin. I can’t say for certain this is the right Bridget, but if so, she didn’t die back in 1855 after all. A key clue is that the parents listed for this Bridget on her death records are Michael and Mary. If you read my post As Éirinn — Out of Ireland, you’ll recall that Michael Mattimoe’s marriage record to Theresa Madden lists his parents as Michael and Mary. Bingo.

2. The townland of Mountallen sits next to Lough Allen near the borders of Co. Leitrim and Co. Sligo. Digging deeper into my mother’s DNA matches (and those of her brothers Hank and Dick), I discovered a few matches with people who share DNA with other known Mattimore lines. Their ancestors were from Co. Roscommon, and two places kept coming up: Mullaun and Cartronavally. Guess what? These are both townlands in Kilronan Parish only a handful of miles from Mountallen. Bingo. Our DNA connects us to families in Roscommon with the surnames of Early and Redican. I haven’t figured out (yet) where a Mattimoe married into these families, but we share identical segments of DNA with descendants of these people who were near Mattimoes in Mountallen.

With this added information and the knowledge of DNA matches with people from the Lough Allen area, I am certain that this newspaper ad from 166 years ago was a search for our great great grandfather, Michael.

I don’t know if this kind of case study is something you find interesting (thanks for indulging me), but for those doing family ancestry, making a connection like this is a great eureka moment. I guess I could have relied on the old adage from the beginning: if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. But then I would have missed all the fun doing research.