Connors

We know less about the Connors than we know about other families of our ancestors. All we know of the origins of Fredrick Edward Connors, my great-grandfather, is that he was born in San Francisco in 1869 (or 1871--a different source) on October 6 and began work when he was 16 as an office boy in the purchasing department of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. He was a life-long Catholic and, of course, his name is Irish.

The San Francisco birth creates challenges in tracing his origins. All city records were destroyed in the great earthquake and fire of 1906. California did not begin to collect copies of vital statistics until 1904. However, there is some hope that we might get lucky and find a record of his birth in newspaper files or in records of his Baptism maintained by the parish (currently unknown) or by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Recently, a record of Frederick's marriage in Racine, Wisconsin, was discovered which does include the names of his parents. No other information is known at this time.

Some information on the Connors is maintained by other family members. I haven't had the opportunity yet to collate and transcribe it. I hope to do that in the coming months and place the information here.

Although all the relatives I know about have used the "Connors" form of the name, there are several other forms: O'Connor, Conners and Connor are examples. The differences between the forms appear to mean little. The "O'" prefix, common in Irish names, simply means "grandson of." Similarly, the "Mac" and "Mc" common in Celtic names means "son of." I know from experience how easy it is for clerks to change the spelling of "Connors" to "Conners." The "O'" appears to have been added or dropped easily. When I was very young I was told a story, probably by my grandfather, Harry Connors Sr., about an ancestor who got on the boat in Ireland an O'Connors and got off it in America a Connors because he used the "O" as a life preserver for a pet dog during the voyage. There may be some truth behind this story as dropping the "O'" makes the name appear less Irish and may have been thought an advantage in America.

The O'Connor clan was one of the royal clans of Ireland. The name indicates descent from a "Conor," a popular Irish given name in the past and means hero or champion.