John Andrew Driscoll

by Denyce Cribbs

In my last post, I shared what I was able to find about Lawrence Kevin Driscoll who had served in WWII, as we knew from his Navy discharge certificate having been donated to our library.  I was interested to look back into his family tree and looked closer at his father, John Andrew Driscoll (1891 – 1957).  That research revealed a couple of things that are common when doing genealogy:  conflicting information when it comes to dates and places, and buried secrets.

In following John’s records, I was able to find draft cards for both WWI and WWII, census records going from 1940 back to 1900, along with birth, marriage, and death index records for Cook County, where he was from.  Notably, what was listed in each census for his “father’s and mother’s birthplace” seemed to change.  Their birth places were listed as “Ireland” when he was young, and then changed to “Pennsylvania and England” when he was seventeen.  It rang true that a young man trying to get a job would disguise his Irish roots.  At this time in history, anti-Irish sentiment was still strong, with signs being posted in windows that said, “Irish need not apply.”  In one census, John’s parents are listed as being from Illinois, but this is a common mistake I’ve seen many times in genealogy.  The “father’s birthplace” is many times listed as the head of household’s birthplace, regarding himself as “father” and not noting that the census taker means to collect the birthplace of HIS father.

Then the most interesting discovery occurred in the 1900 census.  John was found as a 10-year old boy in St. Joseph’s Providence Orphan Asylum in Cook County, Illinois.  According to ChicagoAncestors.org (https://www.chicagoancestors.org/place/st-joseph-provident-orphanage) this Roman Catholic orphanage for dependent boys was in operation from 1885 – 1911.  Today, as you can imagine, many descendants are trying to get records and information about this orphanage.  Over 100 people are listed on the census page, including Mother Xavier Mahoney, eleven nuns, and scores of boys, including John Driscoll and his five-year old brother, Walter.  One can imagine that this piece of John’s history was never discussed with future family members, as was common practice at the time.

John went on to live a productive life, get married, and have several children including Lawrence Kevin Driscoll, the subject of my previous post. Although 8^th grade was the highest he achieved, he had a career as a machinist and street car motorman. We will likely never know the circumstances that landed him and his brother in the orphanage in 1900, but he serves as a good example of someone who just got on with it and made a life for himself.