Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett
The East Cork and Rhode Island family branch connecting Ballybraher, Carrigkilter, Cloyne, emigration, Providence, and later descendants
Patrick Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett are important because they connect the East Cork Dorgan / Dargan family story to the later Irish-American family story in Providence, Rhode Island.
Patrick Dorgan was connected to the Carrigkilter family line and married Mary Catherine Hartnett in Cloyne on 26 November 1886. This marriage connects the Dorgan family to the Hartnett and Duhig / Doohig family networks in East Cork.
This branch is also important because it marks the family’s move from Ireland to the United States. Patrick left Ireland in 1896, and Mary Catherine followed with the children in 1897. Their records help connect Carrigkilter, Cloyne, emigration records, United States census records, Rhode Island records, and later descendants.
This page brings together the evidence for Patrick Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan, their East Cork origins, their emigration story, and the later Providence branch of the family.
Why Patrick Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Matter
The 1886 Cloyne Marriage Record
Patrick Joseph Dorgan married Mary Catherine Hartnett in Cloyne on 26 November 1886.
This marriage record is one of the key pieces of evidence for this branch of the family. It connects Patrick Joseph Dorgan to Mary Catherine Hartnett and links the Dorgan / Dargan family of Carrigkilter and Ballybraher with the Hartnett and Duhig / Doohig family network of East Cork.
The record is also important because it helps distinguish this Patrick Joseph Dorgan from other men with the same or similar name. He belongs to the later Carrigkilter / Ballybraher branch and later emigrated to the United States.
The 1886 marriage should be studied with parish records, civil records, sponsor and witness names, related family surnames, Carrigkilter and Ballybraher land evidence, Hartnett family evidence, and later emigration and Rhode Island records.
Emigration from Ireland to the United States
Patrick Joseph Dorgan left Queenstown, County Cork, on 21 October 1896 aboard the White Star Line ship Teutonic. He arrived at Ellis Island, New York, on 28 October 1896.
Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan followed the next year with five children: Anne Theresa, Michael Joseph, Patrick Francis, David Andrew, and William Joseph. They left Queenstown on 2 June 1897, also aboard the Teutonic, and arrived at Ellis Island on 9 June 1897.
This emigration story is one of the major turning points in the family history. It connects the Carrigkilter, Ballybraher, Cloyne, Hartnett, and Duhig / Doohig evidence in East Cork to the later Dorgan family records in Providence, Rhode Island.
The timing is also important. Mary Catherine and the children arrived at Ellis Island only days before the June 1897 fire that destroyed the original Ellis Island immigration station buildings. Their arrival belongs to a very specific moment in American immigration history.
The 1896 and 1897 passenger records should be studied together with the 1886 Cloyne marriage record, Carrigkilter land evidence, Providence census records, Rhode Island state census records, city directories, naturalization records, cemetery evidence, and later family memory.
Providence, Rhode Island Records
After leaving Ireland, Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan became part of the Irish-American community in Providence, Rhode Island.
Their early American records show the family moving through several Providence addresses. In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Patrick, Mary, and their children were living at 39 Ashburton Street in Providence. Later records place the family at addresses including Charles Street, Osborne Street, Wayne Street, Bergen Street, Rosedale Street, and later Cranston-area locations.
These records are important because they show how the family settled after emigration. They help trace household members, children, occupations, addresses, citizenship status, and connections to other Irish and Rhode Island families.
Patrick worked as a laborer and later as a stationary fireman / boiler man, including work connected to Providence buildings. City directories, census records, naturalization records, and family documents help follow the family’s life in Rhode Island after the move from East Cork.
The Providence records should be read together with the earlier East Cork evidence so the family is not treated as two separate stories. The Irish records and the American records belong to the same Dorgan / Hartnett family branch.
The 1900 U.S. Census places Patrick J. Dorgan, Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan, and their family in Providence, Rhode Island, after their emigration from East Cork. This record helps confirm the family’s early American residence and continues the documented sequence from Carrigkilter to Providence.
Children and Later Family Connections
Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan carried the Carrigkilter, Ballybraher, and East Cork family line into the next generation after emigration.
When Mary Catherine followed Patrick to the United States in 1897, she traveled with five children: Anne Theresa, Michael Joseph, Patrick Francis, David Andrew, and William Joseph. After the family settled in Rhode Island, two more children were born: Timothy John and Mary Catherine.
The children’s records help connect the Irish and American sides of the family. Passenger lists, census records, Rhode Island state census records, marriage records, city directories, cemetery evidence, photographs, and family documents can be used to trace the family from East Cork to Providence, Cranston, Warwick, and later generations.
One important later record is the 1917 marriage of William J. Dorgan to Jessie Greig at St. Patrick’s Church in Providence. That marriage record remains important evidence, although William J. Dorgan later divorced Jessie Greig and later married Helen Louise McIntosh.
Family memory also suggests that Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan had children who died in infancy. That detail should be preserved as family tradition unless or until matching birth, death, baptism, burial, or cemetery records are identified.
Read William J. Dorgan and Jessie Greig
William J. Dorgan later married Helen Louise McIntosh, continuing the direct Dorgan family line in Rhode Island.
Keeping This Patrick Separate from Other Patrick Dorgans
This branch requires careful attention because the name Patrick Dorgan appears in more than one generation and in more than one place.
The earlier Patrick Dargan / Dorgan is the Carrigkilter figure connected to the 1847 Valuation Office record, the 1853 Griffith’s Valuation entry, and Johanna / Anne / Nancy Flynn.
Patrick Joseph Dorgan, the focus of this page, belongs to the later Carrigkilter / Ballybraher branch. He married Mary Catherine Hartnett in Cloyne in 1886, sold or left the Carrigkilter farm context before emigration, and left Ireland for the United States in 1896.
Another Patrick Dorgan belongs to the Cloyne branch as the son of Michael Dorgan and Johanna Garde. He appears in later Cloyne records and should not be confused with Patrick Joseph Dorgan of the Rhode Island branch.
Patrick Joseph and Mary Catherine also had a son named Patrick Francis Dorgan, adding another generation with the same first name.
These men should not be merged. Their records should be separated by date, residence, spouse, parents, children, land evidence, emigration records, census household, and family branch.
Related Records for This Branch
The Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett branch should be studied through several connected records.
1886 Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Marriage
This Cloyne marriage record connects Patrick Joseph Dorgan to Mary Catherine Hartnett and links the Dorgan / Dargan family to the Hartnett and Duhig / Doohig family networks in East Cork.
1896 Patrick Joseph Dorgan Passenger List
This passenger record documents Patrick Joseph Dorgan leaving Queenstown on 21 October 1896 aboard the Teutonic and arriving at Ellis Island on 28 October 1896.
1897 Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan and Children Passenger List
This passenger-list evidence documents Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan following Patrick to the United States with five children in June 1897. The family also traveled on the Teutonic and arrived at Ellis Island on 9 June 1897.
1900 United States Census — Providence, Rhode Island
This census places Patrick, Mary, and their children at 39 Ashburton Street in Providence and helps document the family shortly after emigration.
Rhode Island State Census Records
The Rhode Island state census records help trace the family through Providence addresses, occupations, household members, citizenship status, and later family changes.
1930 United States Census — Cranston, Rhode Island
The 1930 census helps document Patrick and Mary later in life, after decades in Rhode Island, and connects them to later family members and household relationships.
Providence and Cranston City Directories
City directories help trace Patrick’s addresses and occupations over time, including his work as a laborer and later as a stationary fireman / boiler man.
Naturalization Records
Patrick Joseph Dorgan’s naturalization records help document his later life in Rhode Island and connect him to family sponsors and addresses.
Death, Obituary, and Burial Records
Patrick Joseph Dorgan died in 1937, and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan died in 1950. Both are buried at St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island. Their death records, obituary evidence, cemetery records, and gravestone should be studied together, especially because some age and birth-date details conflict across records.
Family Letters and Oral History
The Jo Cashman and Pete Morrison correspondence, later family memories, and recollections from descendants preserve important family context about Ballybraher, Carrigkilter, Garryvoe, Providence, and the later Dorgan family.
Research Cautions and Open Questions
This page should be read as a working family-branch narrative rather than a finished proof of every detail.
Patrick Joseph Dorgan’s exact birth date remains uncertain. Different records point to different dates or approximate years, including 1856, 1860, and 1863. His gravestone and later family records use 26 April 1860, but the conflicting evidence should be preserved and compared carefully.
Mary Catherine Hartnett’s age and birth date also require caution. Her baptism record identifies her as Mary Hartnett, baptized on 22 November 1866, daughter of John Hartnett and Kate / Catherine Duhig. Later Rhode Island death information gives an incorrect younger age. For this archive, the baptism record should be treated as the stronger birth evidence unless another original record proves otherwise.
Place references should also be handled carefully. Mary Catherine is connected in records to Churchtown South, Ballintemple, Ballygourney, Midleton, and the wider Cloyne parish area, while family information from Jo Cashman connects the Hartnett family to Garryvoe. These places may reflect overlapping parish, townland, market-town, and family-network references rather than contradictions.
The 1886 marriage record, 1896 and 1897 passenger records, Providence and Rhode Island census records, city directories, naturalization records, death records, cemetery evidence, obituary evidence, and family memories all support this branch, but they should be compared together before every detail is treated as proven.
Open questions remain about Patrick Joseph’s exact birth record, Mary Catherine’s wider Hartnett family network in Garryvoe and Churchtown South, the relationship of James Hartnett in Rhode Island, children who may have died in infancy, and the full movement of the family through Providence, Cranston, Warwick, and nearby Rhode Island communities.
Related Pages
Patrick Dargan / Dorgan of Carrigkilter
The main family narrative for the earlier Carrigkilter generation connected to land records, Johanna / Anne / Nancy Flynn, and later descendants.
Johanna / Anne Flynn Dorgan of East Cork
The companion maternal-family narrative focused on Johanna / Anne / Nancy Flynn, her name variants, possible Flynn origins, children’s records, and burial evidence.
Carrigkilter Land Story
The land-history page connecting Carrigkilter valuation records, Griffith’s Valuation, map reference / holding 8, the 1896 farm sale, and emigration.
Cloyne: Parish and Market-Town Reference Point
A place page explaining Cloyne’s role in parish records, marriage records, civil context, and related East Cork family branches.
Records Archive
The main records page for parish registers, land records, census records, emigration records, Rhode Island records, photographs, and other evidence used throughout the archive.
Family Branches
A guide to the major surnames and related family lines connected to the Dorgan / Dargan archive, including Hartnett and Duhig / Doohig.
Mary Catherine Hartnett: East Cork Origins
Mary Catherine Hartnett was part of an East Cork Hartnett family connected to the Cloyne, Churchtown South, Ballintemple, Ballygourney, Garryvoe, and Ballycotton area.
Her baptism record identifies her as Mary Hartnett, baptized on 22 November 1866 in Cloyne parish. Her parents were John Hartnett and Kate / Catherine Duhig. This record is important because it connects Mary Catherine to the Hartnett and Duhig / Doohig family lines in East Cork.
Some records connect Mary Catherine with Churchtown South, also known as Ballintemple or Ballygourney. Family information from Jo Cashman also states that the Hartnett family originated from Garryvoe. These places should be studied together because East Cork families often appear across nearby townlands, parishes, villages, and family networks.
For this archive, Mary Catherine Hartnett should be studied as part of the wider East Cork Hartnett family network connected to Garryvoe, Churchtown South, Cloyne parish, Ballycotton, and the Dorgan family of Carrigkilter.
Patrick Joseph Dorgan: Ballybraher, Carrigkilter, and Birth-Date Caution
Patrick Joseph Dorgan belongs to the later Carrigkilter / Ballybraher branch of the Dorgan family. He should be kept separate from the earlier Patrick Dargan / Dorgan connected to the 1847 Valuation Office record and the 1853 Griffith’s Valuation entry.
Family information connects Patrick Joseph Dorgan with Ballybraher and Carrigkilter, two nearby East Cork townlands. According to family tradition preserved by Jo Cashman and Pete Morrison, Patrick Joseph Dorgan left Ballybraher and moved to Carrigkilter, about a mile away.
Patrick Joseph’s exact birth date remains uncertain. Different records give different ages or birth dates, including evidence pointing toward 1856, 1860, and 1863. His gravestone and later family records use 26 April 1860.
For this archive, Patrick Joseph Dorgan should be treated as a later-generation Dorgan connected to the Carrigkilter / Ballybraher family line, while his exact birth date should remain a research caution until all original records are compared.
Death, Burial, and Family Memory
Patrick Joseph Dorgan died in December 1937 in Rhode Island. His death and obituary records connect him to County Cork, Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan, their children, and later Rhode Island family members.
Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan died on 23 November 1950 in Warwick, Rhode Island. Her Rhode Island death record gives an incorrect younger age, while her East Cork baptism record supports an earlier birth year. This difference should be preserved as a research caution.
Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan are buried together at St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island. Their gravestone records Patrick J. Dorgan, 26 April 1860–9 December 1937, and Mary C. Hartnett, 16 May 1869–23 November 1950.
Family memory adds important personal context to the records. Barbara Moriarty-Andrews remembered Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan speaking of seeing mermaids on the rocks in Ireland, wearing her long hair braided and rolled into a bun, and holding a rosary constantly. These memories do not replace documentary evidence, but they preserve the human story behind the records.
Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan — repaired image
This repaired and enhanced version was created from the only known surviving photograph of Patrick Joseph Dorgan and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan. It is intended to make the image clearer for display while preserving the original photograph separately as the primary historical source. The originals appear in the Photos section.
