The children and grandchildren of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon

This tree, showing the children and grandchildren of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon also shows the number of children that were born to each of the grandchildren.  After an impressive start of ten children and 36 grandchildren, the following generation produced only 55 children.  As of May 2020, only four of that generation of direct descendants survive.

Things picked back up by the time of James and Catherine's great-great-grandchildren as there were 137 in that generation, as well as 262 in the next generation.  So far, there are 265 great-great-great-great-grandchildren and 44 more children born to them.  That is a lot of direct descendants and these are just the ones that I could find.
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This is a photo of the original parish registry for St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Philadelphia showing the entry for the 1 January 1849 wedding of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon.  As you may expect, it is in Latin.  The witnesses were John and Joan Devlin and the priest was Fr. William Loughran.
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The gravestone of James and Catherine McGovern in Baltimore's New Cathedral Cemetery, also know as Bonnie Brae Cemetery.

The initials after the death date in the tree above tells where the person was buried.
NCC = New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore (followed by plot number)
LPC = Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore
SPC = St. Peter's Cemetery, Baltimore
BNC = Baltimore National Cemetery
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham, Pa.
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The Dixon Family in Ireland....

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A letter from Emma L. Smith, a granddaughter of James McGovern and Catherine Dixon, to her niece which was written in 1975.  In it, she writes about the McGovern and Dixon families in Ireland.  Note that she had incorrectly identified Archbishop Dixon as a cousin of her grandmother, rather than a brother.  The biography of the Archbishop contradicts this.

Who was Margaret C. O'Neill Brennan?

I started this post as somewhat of an electronic worksheet.  A DNA relative on Ancestry.com had a tree that showed some ancestors Nicholas T. Brennan and "Margaret Ella".  There was little information about them but one thing was clear, they lived in Baltimore.  Although I could not know for sure which branch of the Ancestry member's family I was related to, I thought this was the best place to look as my family goes back five generations in Baltimore.

From the list of DNA relatives that we shared, I knew that the member was connected through my McGovern / Dixon branch and she was estimated to be my 4th to 6th cousin.

It took three hard days of work but eventually, I was able to build this tree around Margaret and Nicholas:

nc - no children

nm - never married

c - had children but not named here for confidentiality reasons

SMG - St. Mary's Govans Cemetery

NCC - New Cathedral Cemetery

BNC - Baltimore National Cemetery

SAE - Saint Augustine's Elkridge Cemetery

Some of the pieces of evidence to prove the family, with notes from when I found them)  include:

This is the index card from the Maryland State Archives where wedding licenses and weddings were recorded.

This is the 1900 census form showing Margaret O'Neill and Nicholas Thomas Brennan family.  Note the last name in the home: Jane O'Neil, born in August 1823 in Ireland.  She was listed as "mother" but it is most likely Margaret's mother, rather than Nicholas'.

This is the obituary for Margaret C. O'Neill Brennan who died on 29 September 1911 in Baltimore.  Note that she has a sister named Ella O'Neill.

Nicholas Thomas Brennan appears to have died in Baltimore around early August, 1939.

Interestingly, Nicholas appears to have married again after Margaret died.  I am willing to bet you a dollar to a hole in a donut that his second wife was Margaret's sister, Ella, based on the following obituary:

The sister shown as "Mrs. Christopher Maddox" in Margaret's obituary was Catherine Alice O'Neill (12/1862 Md. - 9/26/1934 Md.).  Christopher died on 2/22/1907 in Baltimore and is buried with his wife in New Cathedral Cemetery.  They had three sons, only one of whom appeared to have married.

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The obituary of the mother of the three girls leads me to believe that she is the link to my family.  My great-great-grandmother was Catherine Dixon, the sister of Joseph Dixon, the prelate of Ireland.  I knew from Joseph's biography that their mother's name was Jane Casey and that they also had a sister named Jane.  This sister though was born about 1815 and she had married James Magill and stayed in County Tyrone, Ireland when her sister Catherine came to the US.  Based on the name and date of birth, I suspect that Jane Dixon O'Neill  is most likely a cousin of my great-great-grand mother Catherine Dixon.  That would make the Ancestry member my fifth cousin.

The obituary of the father of the three girls was easier to find after finding Jane's.

One surprise popped up while I was looking for the father though.  Margaret, Catherine and Ella had an older brother that died, unmarried, many years before the girls did.