The Two Orphan Sisters

Church of England Female Orphan Asylum

From time-to-time in my family history research, I come across the name of an individual who proves to become a research challenge.  Once I have the name, they seem to drop off the face of the planet and disappear completely.  Sometimes, years later, I might find another tidbit of information that proves they were living in a completely different area than what I had expected, only to then drop out of existence again in that area as I continue my research.  Such is the case with the two sisters I want to tell you about in this post.

David McCourt was the elder brother of my great-grandfather, Joshua Albert McCourt and the second son of Joshua and Elizabeth Cave McCourt.  I don't know his exact birth date, but it was around 1849 near Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland.  He and my great-grandfather traveled together from Ireland to Quebec in 1872 (see my previous post - A ship with two names ...). 

Baptism record of Isabella Chapman McCourt

He married Mary Ann Mairs on November 16, 1873 at Sherbrooke.  Together they had two daughters; Margaret Ann and Isabella Chapman McCourt.  Margaret Ann was born May 25, 1875 at Melbourne, Richmond, Quebec and Isabella Chapman was born August 10, 1877 also at Melbourne.

I discovered the names of these two sisters about 15 years ago.  As I continued to do research on this family, I soon discovered that there was no mention of either of these sisters in later documents.  It was as if they had disappeared completely.

I learned that their mother, Mary Ann, died in 1880 when the youngest daughter was only three years old.  Their father David married Mary Burt in August of 1880, just a few months after his first wife's death.  As fate would have it however, this marriage lasted less than a year when Mary also died unexpectedly, leaving David and his two young daughters alone once again.

At this point in my research, David too, seemed to drop off the face of the planet.  I could find no mention of him or his daughters in any records within the surrounding area.  This is all I would know of them until a few years later when I would stumble across a third marriage record for David.

It appears that after his second wife's death, David left the Melbourne area and moved to upper Ontario where on June 29, 1882 in the city of Cornwall, he married Marcella McBean.  She was the daughter of Alexander and Emily McBean.

David and Marcella lived in Ontario for the next three years where their first two sons, William David and Frank Allen McCourt were born.  I learned that shortly after the birth of their second son, they would move to Arenac County, Michigan where David would take up farming near the town of Au Gres.  Here they would spend the rest of their lives farming and raising a total of six sons.  But during all this time, there was never any mention in the historical records of the two daughters, Margaret and Isabella.  I checked census records to see if they were living with family members in Quebec but found nothing.  I even checked to see if they had been living with distant relatives and neighbors in the surrounding communities where David was known to have lived.  Still, I found nothing.

Then, about a year ago, I came across an 1881 census entry that listed two sisters; Margaret Ann and Isabella Chapman McCourt who were living in an orphanage in Quebec City.  It appears that after the death of David's second wife in late 1880 or early 1881, the girls - ages 5 and 3 - were sent to live at the Church of England Female Orphan Asylum.  Ten years later, in 1891, they were still listed as residents at the orphanage.

I did a little research into this particular orphanage and found the picture that is listed at the top of this post.  I also learned that residents were allowed to live here until the age of eighteen.  After that age, they were on their own.  I have tried numerous times and numerous ways to find records of these girls after they turned 18 to see where they were living, if they ever married or what became of them.  Once again, they seem to have disappeared.  I know that someday I'll stumble across something that will answer these questions - I only hope their stories have a happy ending.

I must admit that when I first learned the details about these two little girls, I was angry at David.  How could a father abandon his daughters like this?  Did he ever have contact with them or did he just send them off and never see them again.  We may never know the answers to those questions and maybe the answers are not that important.

After a few days of being angry about this, I finally realized that it would be impossible for me to pass judgement upon David or anyone else in his situation.  It's easy for me to sit here in my comfortable home with all the luxuries we enjoy in today's world and decide how someone in David's situation should have responded 130 years ago.  In reality, what happened with these two sisters was not that uncommon and, in the long run, was probably the best thing he could have done for them. 

In the years to come, I will continue to search for these two orphan sisters.  As more records are made available, I hope to discover what became of them and hopefully determine just how their stories end.

Headstone of David and Marcella McCourt in the Linwood Cemetery, Au Gres, Michigan.  The headstone also lists three of their six sons; Frank, Wellington and Arthur.  Descendants of this couple still live in the surrounding area.