Irish Families Identified in the 1880 St. Joseph Church Census, South Bend, Indiana
A Census for St. Joseph Church Parish, South Bend, Indiana was initiated at the end of 1880. A notation was made in the ledger after 1881 indicating, "This census was not taken to the end." There is a page after this point that indicates the following: "St Joseph Church Congregation Census taken in spring of 1883." The page that follows is blank. There are pages in the ledger after this notation, so I am unsure if they are a continuation of the census initiated at the end of 1881 or additions after 1883. I am documenting all of the Irish families that were noted in this census alphabetically by father's surname. There were some French and German families that are not included in this presentation. This census was included in microfilm #1617235, item 5 for St. Joseph Church.
There were numerous individuals of German descent in the early church records and several names such as Wagner (which is listed as a rare surname in Ireland) could be German. I may find this to be the case and I will remove those records when I do. I thought that the surnames Phillian and Neddo would be Irish Surnames, but I couldn't find evidence as such so they are not included. I am presenting them by the father's surname and if only a mother is listed (widowed for example), it will be by her name. There is no way to tell based on this record if her name is her husband's or her maiden name. If the surname of the deceased father is given as well as the mother's maiden name, I will list the record under the father's surname as "Surname, deceased." Several families had grandparents or a child living with them with a different surname. One observation that I found of interest was that the following four individuals (four different surnames) were listed as living in Nebraska when this census was taken: John Burns age 20 (Omaha), Michael Brennan age 23 (New Braska), Mary Fraine age 27 married in Omaha, and James McNulty age 20 (Omaha). It would appear that they traveled together or followed each other out west.
| Surnames A-C | Surnames D-F | Surnames G-I |
| Surnames J-L | Surnames M-N | Surnames O-R |
| Surnames S-T | Surnames U-Z |