How can I find this missing person in my family tree?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Liz N
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Liz N

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I have been looking for this man for nearly 4 or 5 years. He was born around 1900 named John Deegan and in 1923 had a child, Mary Deegan, with Bridget Gilsenan. In 1924 he was a driver of a limo and got into a car accident. He was in a coma for a bit, but may have lived until 1925. Bridget told almost nothing of John to her daughter (my grandmother) except these few facts. I have thought of the possibilty that there was never really any John Deegan or they were never really married, because I can't seem to find any record of him.
Does anyone have any suggestions of where I might turn to look for him?
It was in Brooklyn, NY sorry.
 
What state and county did he supposedly live?

UPDATE: I am finding a lot of John Deegan's in NY in the general age range but without knowing who his parents may be, I cannot determine which one he would be. I cannot find any with a wife named Bridget, so they may have married after the 1920 census if Mary was born in 1923 (didn't usually take 3 years to have a first child back then); and then if he was dead by the 1930 census, then that means I have to look at 1910, at which point he would be about 10ish living with his parents or 1920 at age 20ish living with parents probably if he was not married yet. In any event, without knowing who the parents were, I cannot find anything that will narrow it down any better for me at this time.

Your hunch may also be correct. I have one line where my husband's grandmother never knew her father because he supposedly died when she was young. She was born in 1907, but the 1910 census shows her living with her mother, who was using her maiden name, and living with the mother's parents. No signs of the father and the mother was not using his last name. By 1920 census, the mother was also deceased. It is suspected that maybe the father and mother were never married and/or he is not who the mother said he was. The father's family is unknown as well, so that also leads to the suspicion that maybe he did not exist as the way the story was told, but was maybe a passing fling or something, which was very taboo back then.
 
There's a John Deegan born 4/9/1900 in Manhattan, New York. Birth Certificate #14751.

Census of 1910 for Manhattan NY show that his parents were: John T Deegan and Mary A. Deegan. He had two older sisters Mary D. Deegan and Harriett Deegan.

I do not see him on the census of 1920 nor the census of 1930. I also don't see Bridget Gilsenan on the census of 1910 nor Bridget Deegan on the census of 1920. I also can't find Mary Deegan or Bridget Deegan on the 1930 census.
 
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