Michael Burns

My great-grandfather Michael Burns was born on September 23, 1827 in Shanagolden, Ireland. He was the son of John Burns and Mary Dempsey, whose children were all born in Shanagolden, Limerick, Ireland:

• Katie Burns.
• Michael Burns, my great-grandfather, was born September 23, 1827. He died in 1907 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
• Mariam Burns was born October 28, 1829.
• James Burns was born August 16, 1831.
• Timothy Burns was born December 22, 1833.
• Peter Burns was born about 1834.
• Maria Burns was born April 3, 1836.
• John Burns was born January 10, 1841.

Like many others, Michael fled the great Irish Famine and moved to Canada with two of his brothers, Peter and James. Peter went back to Ireland where he married Margaret Barrett. His descendants still live on the ancestral Burns farm in Shanagolden. James married while in Canada or the United States, but his wife died. As far as I know, James had no children. In his old age he lived with his niece Grace Burns Landers. My aunt remembers how James used to terrify her whenever she and her brothers and sisters visited Grace Burns Landers's home. At the first sight of the children James would race out of the house brandishing his shillelagh and threatening to beat the children. His niece would have to intervene saying "Jimmy, Jimmy, those are Johnnie's children!" Apparently James did not like children, so it is probably just as well that he never had any.

Michael met his first wife, Mary Cagney, in Canada. Mary was born in Ballingarry, Ireland about 1835. She was the daughter of John Mascagni, an Italian immigrant to Ireland who changed his name to Cagney, and Alice Horan Cowie. Mary's family had moved to Boston, so she and Michael went there to marry. They and several of Mary's relatives moved to a farm in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan where Michael and Mary's only child was born:

• Catherine Loretta Burns was born in November, 1863.

Everyone called her Kate. She married William Edward Quinn on January 8, 1896 in Chicago, Illinois. She died on March 7, 1934 in Chicago. Her husband William was the son of John Quinn and Bridget Cowhey Quinn, the sister of Michael Burns's second wife Margaret Cowhey Cagney.

Mary Cagney Burns died of sunstroke in 1864 only a year after Kate was born. After her death, Michael moved to Chicago, Illinois in search of work, leaving Kate in the charge of his in-laws. Michael became a policeman in Chicago, which occupation he held until his retirement. After establishing himself he brought Kate to Chicago to live with him.

While living in Chicago, Michael met and married Margaret Cowhey Cagney, widow of Cornelius Cagney. I do not know if Cornelius Cagney was any relation to Michael's first wife Mary. However, Margaret Cowhey was also from Ballingarry, the birthplace of Mary Cagney, so it is possible there was some connection. Michael and Margaret became the parents of three children:

• Grace M. Burns (1874-1950). She married Robert M. Landers, also a policeman.
• John Michael Burns (1876-1959), my grandfather, who married Eva Josephine Tillotson.
• William Burns (1877?) who died as an infant.

Michael Burns died in Chicago in 1907.

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Last modified by pib on July 6, 2003.