G2G: St. Patrick's Day Pop-Up Challenge!

Question

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Help WikiTree celebrate St. Patrick's Day with this one-day-only pop-up mini challenge. 

Improve upon three WikiTree profiles, one from each of the following categories:

- One Irish profile

- One profile of a person whose last name begins with "St."

- One profile of a person named Patrick

When you're finished, head over to St. Patrick's profile to determine how many degrees separate you from the Patron Saint of Ireland. 

As an additional bonus, head over to the Ireland Project to see what they've been working on and perhaps consider joining one of their teams.

Once you've completed today's pop-up challenge, be sure to report back here and let us know how you did. 

(Posted midnight Ireland time)

Comments

Quick Fact: Did you know that St. Patrick wasn't Irish? He is actually believed to have been born in England (or perhaps Scotland), but at age 16 was captured by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland as a slave. He spent six years there working as an animal herder, before escaping back to his family. 

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Quick Fact: Do you know the significance of the Shamrock? According to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock as a symbol to explain the Holy Trinity to nonbelievers as he converted the Irish to Christianity in the 4th century. He said the three leaves stand for the three beings of God while the stem shows how they are all united into one.   

Answer 1

Thank you for the pop-up challenge! It inspired me to improve the profile of Patrick Hannagan (Hannagan-75), born 1839 in England from Irish parents. I only had him in the 1851 census, but today I finally found his baptism record (Patricius Hennegan) with both parents' last names mispelled. Also found him in the 1841 England census where he was recorded as Patty Haligan and female. No wonder I hadn't been able to find him.

Comments

Congratulations Francesca. Sounds like you received a little Luck of the Irish today!

Answer 2

I did  the challenge and learned a lot about St Patrick on his profile. i am 47 degrees, which i think is the most ever for me.

Irish profile:

[[Rochford-358|Catherine (Rochford) Moloney (abt.1808-1870)]] lived in County Clare, where my husband's grandmother was born.

[[St._John-5022|Helen St. John (1896-1961)]] is a St. John who lived in my home state of New Jersey

[[Higgins-8860|Patrick Higgins (abt.1811-1861)]] is my husband's 3rd great grandfather on his mother's side.

So you can see my husband has Irish ancestors on both sides, mine not so much.

Answer 3

Awesome pop-up. 

I improved Patrick Conner, son of Sarah Conner. SON OF SARAH CONNER? He saved us from the Terminator!

I improved [[St_Marie-41]] and added her father's profile and found that he was murdered in an ongoing dispute with another man. 

I improved https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McGahern-10 Bridget McGahern, born in Ireland.

And I was surprised to find that I'm the 45th grand-niece of St. Patrick!

Answer 4

I just discovered I descend from St. Patricks's father.  St. Paddy is my 48th Great Grand Uncle.  And thanks to the magic of WikiTree I see I have multiple lines of descent.

However, is anyone here a direct descendent?

Comments

I don't believe St. Patrick had any children. Thus, he would not have direct descendants. Most of us would likely be descendent from one of his two known sisters.

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Good info. Thanks. So he has that in common with George Washington.

Answer 5

I am the 48th great grandnephew of St. Patrick. I am descended from his sister, Tigridia, my 48th great-grandmother. Very cool!

Comments

I've spent most of my day working on my grandfather's profile. For many decades he was an official with the Califonia Horse Racing Association, but in 1940 he was a stable boy working at Santa Anita Race Track when he witnessed Seabiscuit run his dramatic final race. After that, he came to know all the great jockies from Johnny Longdon to Willie Shoemaker and witnessed some of the greatest races of such legendary horses as Citation, John Henry, and Affirmed. Researching his story and that of California racing has been a fascinating venture.

My grandfather, a World War II marine, was born Jack Maddox Meyers, on 5 July 1917, but his entire life he was know as Jack "Patrick" in homage to his Irish roots, and celebrated his birthday on the 4th of July as a symbol of his American patriotism. He's been gone nearly 30 years now - it's mindboggling how time flies!

Ok, just a couple of hours left and I've still got two more profiles to work on. I'll be back soon...

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This evening I worked on improving the profile of my grandfather's great-grandfather, Patrick Gunn, who sometime in the 1850s immigrated from Ireland to Northwestern Illionios (Gelena, Jo Daviess County to be exact). In the process, I found a newspaper article outlining of the tragic demise of Patrick's father, as he traveled home from work in Dublin one evening. While attempting to cross a bridge, the driver of the omibus on which he was riding lost control of his horses and the omnibus plunged into an empty loch below. The lochmaster tought quickly and determined the best bet to rescue the stranded passengers would be to fill the loch with water and allow the omnibus to float to the top like a boat. Unfortunately, omnibuses don't float like boats and all six passengers drown.

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I don't have any Saints in my family (literaly or figuarativly), so I decided to look for a notable to add. I came up with the 19th century Irish-American sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He now has a WikiTree profile and I'll spend some time this weekend adding a few family memebers. 

Update: I should have him connected tomorrow.

Answer 6

I'm still working on my Irish line but 

Kelly is Patrick's 45th great grand niece

Answer 7

Great challenge idea! I improved.......

1. Annette (Meyer) Hutton (b. England, d. Ireland)

2. Theophile St James

3. Patrick Washington added more sources, it only had a single source before.

Answer 8

Thanks for the challenge, David.

I improved the Westmeath-born Anne Phillips (née Lestrange), the "Patrick" of Patrick Phillips, and the "St..." of Acadia Chappelle (née St John).

I went over to the profile of the man himself, Aul' Paddy, and I currently sit at 57 degrees from him.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir!

Comments

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you too, Feargal.

Answer 9

I took this opportunity to clean up my great grandfather's (Irish) profile, [[Downes-1330|John Peter Downes (1895-1957)]]. I find it interesting how every time I revisit a profile there is always work to be done.

I also found a Ms Star who was in need of sourcing, [[Star-155|Ethel Bernice (Star) Weed (1896-1971)]] and a Patrick ([[Grogan-906|Patrick Pat Grogan (1869-1953)]]) who just so happened to ALSO be born on March 17th (1869)!

I am a full 53 degrees from the man himself but if I keep working on my Irish ancestors maybe I could close that gap some.

Thanks for the fun challenge! Hope everyone had a great day.

Answer 10

Well it took me a while but I finally finished a Patrick Profile. My middle name is Patrick and for many years I went by Patrick/Paddy. It is also my great-grandmother's maiden name. I did the profile of her sister Ida Patrick Kash Kincaid today.  - Also it appears St. Patrick is my 45th great granduncle.https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Patrick-5760

Answer 11

A fun small challenge! I worked in my watchlist, improving the bio on a St. (Clair) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brown-144675 , adding parents to one Irish Patrick https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clarke-21716 and improving the bio on another Patrick https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cosgrove-976

The relationship finder says I am the 46th grand-niece of St. Patrick!

Thanks.

Answer 12

Maybe I will work on my elusive Sullivan brick walls. Thank you, David!

Answer 13

A big thank you to Francesca, Nancy, Natalie, Michael, Kelly, Elaine, Fergal, Erin, Lukas and Michelle for your participation in WikiTree's first ever "pop-up" challenge. I had a great time, fleshed out my grandfather's profile, learned some new things about an Irish ancestor, and connected a new notable to the global tree. From your posts, it sounds like many of you had an equally successful day, so I'll consider this challenge a win for all of us.  

So, who has the honor of being the most closely related to St. Patrick himself? That would be his 45th great-gandniece, Nancy Wilson! You beat me by three generations.

Oh, and who's the most closely related to me? That would be my 7th cousin, Michelle Ketcham. Nice to meet you Cousin Michelle.

Pop-Up challenges are a new brainstorm idea from our amazingly creative Events Committee. We have no idea when the next one will pop-up so keep your eyes open - and be sure save the Events tag to your profile to ensure future postings are directed to your G2G feed.

Thanks again everyone!