Another Eagan in Rochester

In March of last year I wrote about my grandfather, Stephen Eagan, the Traveling Man. In that post I mentioned that in 1880 when he was in New Haven, CT he boarded with a fireman named Eagan and his family on Adeline Street. In addition to the Eagan family that he boarded with, there were four additional Eagan families on the same block. At the time I asked the question, "Were they related to my Eagan family?" I have corresponded to Eagans in New Haven but none were related to the Eagans on Adeline Street in New Haven. I guess that we will never know.

Yesterday when reviewing Rochester City Directories and noticed that in the directory for 1870 there were eight Eagan entries plus additional Egan entries. One of these was my great-grandfather, Patrick M. Eagan, a grocer who lived at 55 Prospect Street. (The house at 55 Prospect St. is no longer there.)  Across the street at number 58 was a William Eagan, a blacksmith. (My grandfather Stephen was also a blacksmith - a carriage blacksmith.) In the federal census for 1870 William Eagan is listed as twenty-seven years old, born in New York, his wife  was Jane who was born in Scotland. Was this neighbor, William Eagan, relaled to my great-father? Who knows. I traced through the city directories and census records to see if I could see when he died as obituaries sometimes add additional family information.  William moved from Rochester to Chicago in 1896 and I was able to find him in the 1900 census but that was the last I could find. (I do not yet  found Chicago City Directory for that period.

One last curious findings for Eagans. In the Chicago census record for the area where William and Jane Eagan lived, the census taker was Frances J. Eagan!