Among my inherited pictures is this one, of John J. Burgan. He was one of the Gardenville Burgans that grew up on the 500 acres of land owned by his ancestor, Thomas Burgan. Various searches I have done show that the land was in Burgan hands since 1740 or so. John J. was born on Christmas Eve, 1837, and appeared in the 1850 U.S. Census with his father, mother and several siblings. Records show that the Burgans were members of the Episcopal Church.
John J. Burgan was listed in the Baltimore Sun as marrying twice; once to Mary Alice Berenger, on 10/8/1860 (posted 10/18/60), and then to Agnes Kenney, the Irish Matriarch, on 6/04/1863 (posted 6/12/63). I hope that additional research will confirm that these John J.'s are one and the same. This raises a few questions:
- Did Mary Alice die, and was it in childbirth?
- Why did he marry a Catholic.....what would both Moms and Dads say about that?
My Irish Catholic background tells me that their children would have been raised Catholic, as per the church rules. I will be looking into that. I am also curious about their marrying in the middle of the Civil War. Did he have an exemption? One web site gave me some insights into this:
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1994/winter/civil-war-draft-records.htmlAccording to the site, he could have had an exemption for several reasons. Could it be that he was a widower, with dependent children? Or, perhaps he married while serving in the war. There are rabbit trails everywhere.
Enoch Pratt Free Library's Maryland Room has a few books that are called, "Index to Marriages in the Baltimore Sun", with various dates. These are where I found my marriage information.
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