Patrick Ryan and Catherine McGrath
Patrick Ryan and Catherine McGrath were born in Ireland, Patrick about 1813[1] and Catherine about 1818[2]. They were married around 1834, possibly in New York where their eldest child, Ellen, was born.[3] About 1840, they moved from New York to Illinois where their third child, Mary Jane, was born in 1841.[4]
Patrick likely died between 1845, when his youngest child, William, was conceived,[5] and 1860, when his wife Catherine is listed as a widow in the City Directory of St. Louis, Missouri.[6] A family story recounts that after Patrick died in Illinois, the family traveled in a wagon to St. Louis. The oldest daughter, Ellen, drove the team and Catherine held the youngest child, William. Supporting the stated timeframe for Patrick’s death and the family story, William H Ryan’s 1909 obituary states that he was two years old (about 1848), when the family moved to St. Louis.[7]
