Family Matters - 20.We are off to Arizona
The family of William and Grace Goninan has featured more than once in the Goninan Times. William and Grace were married in 1842 and they had eleven children
(one son and ten daughters). Ten of the children reached adulthood and married.
It’s not easy tracing the families of the daughters because we lose the name Goninan but I have recently renewed my efforts, bringing together all the various bits of information that I have accumulated over the years from various sources and trying again to fill some of the gaps. This reminded me that I had been contacted by a family member a couple of years ago who lives in Arizona. She is descended from William Thomas Cock who was born in 1887 and migrated to Morenci in Arizona in 1907. He was the son of Frederick Cock and Louisa Goninan. Louisa was born in 1865 and was the last child of William and Grace.
Some of the key places in the States, as far as the family are concerned, include Mineral Point in Wisconsin, Ironwood in Michigan, Butte in Montana and Shamokin in Pennsylvania. But now I think we must add Morenci in Arizona because it turns out that William Thomas was just one of at least six family members that went there. What was the attraction? well it was our old friend copper. Copper mining is still very active there, in fact Morenci has the biggest copper producing mine in the United States.
The first family member to go was Catherine Frances Crewes daughter of Catherine Francis Goninan and Joseph Crewes, granddaughter of William and Grace Goninan. Born 1879, she married Edward Thomas Curnow in 1898 at Gwinear Parish Church. (to be reminded of the trouble I had tracing her mother’s marriage see the Goninan Times, July 2011). Edward went to Morenci in 1901 and Catherine followed a year later. They seem to have had six children, the last four being born in Morenci. I have not yet been able to trace any living descendents.
The next to go was Catherine’s brother, Joseph Crewes. He migrated in 1905 and the manifest shows that he gave his sister as his contact in Arizona. Joseph married Elizabeth Kellow in Morenci in 1910.
In 1907 as mentioned above, William Cock made for Arizona and close on his tail was his brother John Hosking Cock He married Theodocia Polkinghorne in Arizona (with the name Polkinghorne she must have been a Cornish lass) Like all the other family members John worked in the copper industry. He died in 1960 in Apache Junction, Arizona
In 1909, Sydney Crewes made his way to Morenci. Sydney was a brother of Joseph Crewes. The manifest shows that he was a miner and that he was joining his brother. Can’t help wondering what sort of journey New York to Morenci would have been.
Finally there is James Henry Harris. He was a son of Louisa Goninan by her second marriage to James Harris (her first husband having been killed in an accident). James Henry arrived in the States in 1923 and seems first to have made for Butte, Montana. By 1930 though he was living in Morenci and was married with one child.
So six grandchildren of William and Grace lived in Morenci, three children of Catherine Francis and three children of Louisa. I wonder if there was much contact between the cousins. There must be quite a number of ‘Goninans’ out there yet to be discovered.
for more information on the Goninan family contact John Saunders email zgoninan1695 followed by @btinternet.com