This post started from research for a presentation on St. Patrick’s Cemetery that I will try to record in a few weeks. There was a newspaper article dated April 14, 1907 that stated the local veteran’s committee wanted to moved some Civil War veterans from the abandoned St. Patrick’s Cemetery to Holy Sepulchre. One of the names on the list was Luke Finn. Doing some basic research brought up some discrepancies related to where he was re-buried in Holy Sepuchre. I’ll describe the mistake at the end of part two of this report. I ended up doing a lot more research than I thought I would and found three men named Luke Finn from around this area in the mid 1800s.

Luke Finn #1

This is the man I really wanted to find information on. I did some digging a few months ago but I ended up waiting for a Civil War pension file that turned out to be a goldmine. Luke was born in Ireland about 1838. I couldn’t find him in the 1860 census. On July 30, 1862 at Clyde, Wayne County, NY he enlisted in the army^[1] for 3 years. He was in Company B of the 111th NY Volunteers. He must have got leave from the army as on Feb. 18, 1864 he married Johanna (born ca. 1843 in Ireland) in the Catholic Church in Clyde, NY^[1]. The Rochester Express newspaper dated May 16, 1864 says that he was wounded in the right thigh at the Battle of The Wilderness. Meanwhile back in Clyde, a son named John Thomas Finn was born Nov. 20, 1864^[1].

Things would take a turn for the worse for Luke. He was discharged from the army for a “disability from wound” on March 9, 1865 in Washington, DC. From records on Ancestry we see he was at Emory Hospital in Washington when he died. Military records say he died on March 20th but the death record says he died March 22th and was buried the same day in Arlington Cemetery. Then the Arlington records show he was exhumed Oct. 25, 1865. Instead of being buried in Clyde, NY he ended up being buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Rochester. He may have had relatives in Rochester or the re-burial may have been paid for by a Rochester military organization. Again, from the newspaper article in 1907 we know he was still in St. Patrick’s. There are records of removals from St. Patrick’s Cemetery that I extracted from the Rochester Diocese Archive. No Luke Finn is in those records. I think that in 1935 when remaining burials in St. Patrick’s were moved to Holy Sepulchre that he was among the many unidentified remains.

Johanna Finn got a pension of $10 per month for herself and her son, John. Normally I would look for her in the 1865 NY census but that census for Wayne County no longer exists. I searched the 1870 census for her in all 146 pages of the Town of Galen (Clyde is in that town) but couldn’t find her. The 1875 NY census for Wayne County also no longer exists. Then on Jan. 10, 1877 Johanna married David Lundergan^[1] (born ca. 1847, Ireland). They were married in the Catholic Church in Clyde, NY^[1]. But on May 12, 1877 David is made legal guardian of John T. Finn in Cleveland, Ohio^[1]. Johanna died on Nov. 20, 1879 and was buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Clyde ^{[Find  Grave, #176578569]}.

I found David Lundergan and John T. Finn in the 1880 census of the Town of Galen, NY. It says that John is the step-son of David. Technically David wasn’t the step-father, just legal guardian. David Lundergan would married again about 1887 and have three children. John T. Finn would move west.

I found a John T. Finn in the 1910 census in Beloit City, Mitchell Co., Kansas. The age is about right and it says he was born in NY state. He was a waiter and also with him was a wife, Della E., who was a maid born in West Virginia. It was noted that they had been married for just 2 years. I wasn’t sure if that was him until I found John’s death certificate. He died Aug. 31, 1937 at Multonmah Farm (a kind of poorhouse) in Troutdale, Oregon. That death certificate had his parents as Luke and Johanna Finn and that John had worked in restaurant work. It also stated he was separated from his wife. John’s remains went to the University of Oregon, presumably for medical research.

One final thing that I didn’t mention was the maiden name of Johanna, wife of Luke Finn. On her tombstone it is Malley. On her son’s death certificate it is Maloy. On the Civil War pension file it is Muller which came from the church marriage record recorded by a German Priest. I decided on using Malloy on her record on FamilySearch Family Tree.

Source #1: Civil War Pension File

— Luke Finn #2, #3 and conclusion in next part