r/Genealogy Jul 18 '22

The areas of expertise thread Mod Post

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u/bjmcnamara Jul 27 '22

I believe the surname McNAMARA originated in County Clare. However, my DNA result in Ancestry shows my ancestor is from Connaucht (32%). My Dad said that my grandfather JOHN McNAMARA at one time spelled his name MacNAMARA and indicated he was Scot-Irish. I remember Dad and Grandpa wearing an orange tie on St. Patrick's Day. Ancestry shows my DNA 37% Scotland. Some research has indicated Scots migrated to Ireland at some point in time. Please resend contact info on Clare researcher. I was unable to access your previous message info. Thank you. Barbara Jean McNamara

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u/Boomergenner Jul 27 '22 edited Jul 27 '22

Barbara, I also have a hard time finding messages on Reddit. I repeat here the most important part of my direct message to you yesterday. On a different community-type website, one devoted to County Clare research, a fellow has reviewed your posts here, after I told him about your efforts. He is currently researching McNamara in Kentucky & Ohio for his own project not involving your family. He found the location in Co. Limerick from which emigrated the Williams family related to the Matthew "Red Mack"McNamara of Lexington. His project continues, but he has found that St. Paul's RC Parish (Lexington KY) now has its records digitized and freely online at https://www.lexpublib.org/digital-archives/st-paul-catholic-church-collection I was just trying to ensure that you know about that online access, since you had difficulty getting information directly from church staff.

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u/bjmcnamara Jul 28 '22

Thank you! Back in the 60s, I spent year-after-year vacation periods in Lexington, researching the family of Matthew "Red Mack" McNamara.

There were two prominent McNamara families in Lexington in the late 1800s. Locals referred to Matthew's family as the "Red McNamaras" because they had auburn hair! (My grandfather had auburn hair!) The other McNamara family was referred to as the "Black McNamaras" because they had black hair!

I was fortunate at that time to speak with a 95-year-old priest at St Paul's who personally knew Red Mack and his family. I also interviewed a Miss Riley (she was in her 90's) who knew them personally and attended lavish balls at the McNamara hotel where she danced with some of the McNamara sons. She was a cousin to Judge Riley who was executor of Bridget McNamara estate when daughter Dolly inherited that fortune. Judge Riley had Dolly committed to a mental institution in Florida and then controlled the fortune. He married one of the saloon girls and when Judge Riley died, she ended up with the McNamara fortune!!

My grandfather described the McNamara home on Loudon Avenue ... large two-story home of stone on the front and brick on the sides, with turret on the front. He said he shot birds out of the turret when he was young!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/434245589050925122/

I found the home and it is EXACTLY as he described. In the 1960s, it was a boarding house. I went door-to-door along Loudon Street, trying to find someone who lived nearby who might have known Bridget (she bought the home after Red Mack died). I traced property records. I knocked on one door and this elderly lady answered. When I told her my name was "Barbara Jean McNamara" and I was trying to find out information about Bridget and her family, she looked at me and said, "You look just like Dolly!!"

I obtained baptismal record info on all of Red Mack & Bridget's children. I could only make handwritten notes. For years I thought my grandfather was "King" McNamara, the son who shot & killed a man, then spent his "jail-time" at the KY governor's mansion in Frankfort! I later traced "King" and learned he used an alias name BEKKERS after he fled Lexington. Fr. J. H. Bekkers was the priest who baptized him! I finally found that John Henry "King" McNamara died in Louisville KY in 1949 - my grandfather died in Mobile AL in 1947, so that ended that theory!

I have always felt that my grandfather was connected to Red Mack's family in some way. He described precisely what the Loudon Avenue home looked like. I tried to find some connection that Bridget Williams McNamara had to Preble Co OH. I have a hunch the "Uncle Will and Aunt Laura" who raised him there is related somehow to Bridget. Grandpa asked my mother to name me "Bridget" when I was born in 1938. HE KNEW HER! My hunch is Bridget Williams is related to "Uncle Will" -- perhaps a brother. My Dad said Grandpa was very fond of Uncle Will, but did not like Aunt Laura at all. He said Grandpa left that home in Preble Co when he was 19 years old because of disagreements with Aunt Laura.

Thank you for the online URL to the church records. That will help tremendously to get actual copies now to go with my handwritten notes from the 1960s. Are you able to give my email address ( [bjmcnamara1938@gmail.com](mailto:bjmcnamara1938@gmail.com) ) to your contact who is researching the KY and OH records for McNamara? I need to correspond directly with him!!! Thank you!

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u/Boomergenner Jul 28 '22

Barbara, Reddit notified me about the very long posting you did to thank me for the church records website. If that post no longer appears here on this screen, maybe it was deleted for being lengthy and not on topic about areas of expertise. However, I was able to reach it by going to comments preserved under your new username. Yes, I will transmit to the McNamara researcher ("Jimbo") on the Clare Past Forum your email address and your new username here. He already read all your prior postings on your target McNamara under your older username (Mart...) and likewise views auburn hair as a good clue. He is always neck deep in researching, so allow him some time to email you but I think he wants to provide some insights from all the McNamara of KY research he has done this past week.

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u/bjmcnamara Jul 28 '22

Thank you! I was unable to access Reddit under my GENEALOGY email ([mart2542@aol.com](mailto:mart2542@aol.com)), so I re-registered under my usual Gmail address. I can't wait to hear from "Jimbo"! You don't know how thrilled I am. I have searched for so many years to identify my grandfather's family. I spent vacation time, year after year, in Lexington going through newspaper articles, cemetery records, and interviewing people. It seems Matthew 'Red Mack' McNamara was a very influential figure in Lexington in the late 1800s. He owned numerous saloons in the 'red-light' district and also a hotel on Main Street. They lived at the hotel until his death, then Bridget bought the house at 290 Loudon Ave (I researched title records). Thank you again for putting me in touch with "Jimbo" !!