My great grandfather (John Flynn) has been a complete mystery to my family. He left the family before my grandmother was even 1 year old. My grandmother was told that he died. Later, I tracked down some cousins that were grandchilren of my grandmother's older siblings. They told me that they grew up knowing that John Flynn had left the family behind in Scotland and went to America. From that information, I was able to track his trip over to Ellis Island.
All we know about his birth is that he was born in Ireland. The Scottish marriage records list his age as 32 in Feb 1899. The Ellis Island records list his age as 40 in Dec 1909.
We are not sure where in Ireland that he was born. There has been much speculation about it. However, we have never been able to pin point it definitively. We do know that he was illiterate so would not have been able to spell the name of the town to the people writing the list. He also spoke gaelic in the home so he may have even provided the gaelic form of the name instead of the english form.
As for death, my great grandmother filed for divorce in Scotland in 1918. In the divorce records, she stated that she received letters from his sister Ann Flynn Devitt and his brother Owen Flynn in 1912 stating that he was deathly ill. The records state that she attempted to write them back but had received no response.
We know that his last known location was Manhatten, New York, US.
