ANCESTOR NO. 16: ROSANNA McGUIRE (~1842-1903)

My great great-great-grandmother Rosanna McGuire is another brick wall ancestor. So far, I have found no birth or marriage record for her, so we have no information about her parents or where she came from. She is also our most scandalous ancestor.

Rosanna was born in Ireland, probably about 1842, and emigrated to America about 1855, settling in New York City.[1] She was one of the fortunate ones who survived the terrible Irish Famine that killed over a million people from 1845 to 1849. In about 1860, she married an American-born son of German immigrants, John Joseph Körner. Over time, the name morphed to Kerner and then to Kirner.

On May 27, 1861, Rosanna gave birth to John Joseph Kerner Jr., and on February 12, 1864, she had a second son, William Henry Kerner.[2] The family moved across the Hudson River to Jersey City, New Jersey about 1867. Rose’s last child, George Washington Kerner, was baptized at St. Boniface, a Catholic church attended mostly by German immigrants. One of the baby’s godparents was Catherine Burns. Often, godparents were relatives; since Burns was not a German name, perhaps she was a relative of Rose’s.[3] On April 12, 1874, when her son Joseph Jr. was confirmed in the church, normally about age thirteen, Rose also was confirmed as an adult.[4] This was unusual, but she must not have had the opportunity when she was a young teen.

In 1880, the federal census enumerator recorded that, unlike her husband, Rose could not read or write.[5] Although she only had three children, she had many grandchildren, starting in 1884.

Sometime after that, Rose started running into trouble with the law due to alcoholism. In June 1892, the local newspaper reported, “Mrs. Rose Kerner, of 46 Walker avenue, was found in a beastly state of intoxication on Ocean [avenue] last evening…” She was taken to the police station.[6] In May 1893, the article headlined “A Female Nuisance” called her “a frequent but involuntary visitor to …court.” She was given a sentence of thirty days in the county jail for public intoxication and “calling her neighbors vile names.”[7] Not two months later, a headline read “Perhaps She Really is Insane.” It reported she had been arrested at least a dozen times in the past year and said she had been arrested again at her house at 26 Walker Avenue. “Her shouts and boisterous actions annoyed her neighbors…Rose comes of a good family and has several grown up sons. A too free indulgence in liquor has affected her brain, and her friends think she is demented. She has already been pronounced sane by Dr. Converse, but Justice Kimmerly decided that she should be re-examined. She was committed for ten days.”[8]

It was about this time that records for her sons were under the name Kirner, not Kerner. Perhaps they were trying to distance themselves from the publicity. Also at this time, it was easy for husbands who wanted to be free of their wives to have them committed to mental hospitals indefinitely.[9]

No more news items appeared about Rose until December 27, 1898, when she and her husband were drunk and she hit him in the head with the barrel of an air rifle or shotgun and a hammer or an axe, depending on the news story. Joseph ran out of the house and was found by a policeman who arrested her on a charge of “atrocious assault,” today called aggravated assault. The police said her reason was, “Oh, the Dutchman gave me sass and I thought it time to shut him up.”  Another account said she said, “He got too d__d fresh and I cooled him down.” The newspaper said, “…both staggered all over the station house floor.” The judge said, “Did you have a quarrel with her? Her husband said, “Oh, we quarreled going on forty years.” Joseph was admitted to the hospital.[10] I conclude from this that she was not a petite woman. On December 31, the paper called them “A gray-haired couple…,” said “…both husband and wife drank heavily,” the judge fined her “…$10 and costs, in default of which she was sent back to her cell. Kerner and his wife took the pledge.”[11] This refers to the temperance pledge to abstain from alcohol, very prominent in the late 1800s.

In 1900, Rose and Joseph lived in a house, not an apartment, at 100 Armstrong Place. The census taker wrote that she was born in April 1842, came to the U.S. in 1855, was married 40 years, and had borne three children, all still living. This question was asked because child mortality was so severe. It also indicated she had learned to read and write since 1880.[12] It was unusual for a Catholic woman of that time to only have three children, but Rose and Joseph had a stormy relationship. In September 1902, they sold the house they bought in 1869.[13]

Maybe they were successful in abstaining from drinking. No more stories about her appeared in the newspaper until her obituary. Few women got an obituary then, so her family must have loved her in spite of it all. Her name in the obituary was Rosanna Kerner.[14] Her death certificate said she died of a heart attack in a coach on the way to the hospital, on September 10, 1903. She was buried in a large plot her son Joseph Jr. had purchased when several of his children died, in Holy Name Cemetery, a Catholic only cemetery.[15] When her husband Joseph died in 1907, he was buried in New York Bay Cemetery, a non-Catholic cemetery.[16]

 

 

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[1] 1900 United States Federal Census, Hudson County, New Jersey, Ward 7, Fifth Precinct, Jersey City, ED 128, sheet 206A, 100 Armstrong Ave., dwelling 216, family 270, Rose Kerner in household of Joseph Kerner; “1900 United States Federal Census,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/: accessed 5 Nov. 2025) > image 28 of 58.

[2]  For Joseph’s birth date: U.S. Passport Application, 15 March 1906, John Joseph Kirner, no. 8424; “U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925,” database and images, Ancestry  (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1174: accessed 8 November 2025) > “Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925 1906-1907 Roll 0003 - Certificates: 8182-8881, 14 Mar 1906-26 Mar 1906,” > image 273 of 811. For her second son, New Jersey Dept. of Health, Rutherford, Bergen County, N.J., Death Certificate, 14 Jan. 1942, William H. Kirner; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/: accessed 8 Nov. 2025) > Bickel Family Tree. "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN8Z-P3S: accessed 10 November 2025), Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, United States; population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 39, page 6 (penned), sheet 146B (stamped), dwelling 47, family 55, Rosana Herman [as indexed, appears to be Kernan], NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0784; FHL microfilm 1,254,784.

[3] "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9ZM-3ZM2?i=176: accessed 1 Oct 2019). Carolus Körner, born 07 Jul 1868, baptized 17 August 1868; IGN 7433521, image 177. Note: Catholic children were often baptized with a saint’s name, not the name they used in daily life.

[4] St. Paul Catholic Church (Jersey City, N.J.), “Confirmations,” p. 31-34, esp. 34, Rosa Koerner, 12 Apr.1874; images, “Church records, 1862-1947,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:227441), IGN (image group number) 7433470.

[5] "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN8Z-P3S: accessed 10 November 2025), Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, United States; population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 39, page 6 (penned), sheet 146B (stamped), dwelling 47, family 55, Rosana Herman [as indexed, appears to be Kernan], NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0784; FHL microfilm 1,254,784.

[6] “Greenville Gleanings,” The Jersey City News (Jersey City, N.J.), 3 June 1892, p. 4, col. 2; image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 10 Nov. 2025).

[7] “A Female Nuisance,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), 17 May 1893, p. 6, col. 6; image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 10 Nov. 2025).

[8] “Perhaps She Really is Insane,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), 11 Jul. 1893, p. 4, col. 2; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image-view/1188942255/: accessed 6 Nov. 2025).

[9] Kate Moore, “Declared Insane for Speaking Up: The Dark American History of Silencing Women Through Psychiatry,” 22 June 2021; article, Time Magazine (https://time.com/6074783/psychiatry-history-women-mental-health/: accessed 9 Nov. 2025).

[10] “Struck Him With a Gun,” Jersey City News (Jersey City, N.J.), 28 December 1898, p. 4, col. 3; images, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 10 Nov. 2025). “Did She Use an Axe?” Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), 28 December 1898, p. 3, col. 3; images, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 10 Nov. 2025). “She Beat Her Husband,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), 28 December 1898, p. 10, col. 7; images, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 10 Nov. 2025).

[11] “Both Took the Pledge,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), 31 Dec. 1898, p. 10, col. 5; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image-view/1189998468/?match=1&terms=Kerner: accessed 6 Nov. 2025).

[12]  1900 United States Federal Census, Hudson County, New Jersey, Ward 7, Fifth Precinct, Jersey City, ED 128, sheet 206A, 100 Armstrong Ave., dwelling 216, family 270, Rose Kerner in household of Joseph Kerner; “1900 United States Federal Census,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/: accessed 5 Nov. 2025) > image 28 of 58.

[13] “Real Estate,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), 27 Sep. 1902, p. 10, col. 6; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image-view/1189186971/: accessed 7 Nov. 2025).

[14] “Obituary: Rosanna Kerner,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), Saturday, 12 September 1903, p. 3, col. 1; images, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 10 Nov. 2025).

[15] The Archdiocese of Newark (N.J.), “Find Your Loved One”, database, Catholic Cemeteries (https://www.rcancem.org//find-a-loved-one-search/: accessed 23 Aug. 2025), results for Kirner, Holy Name Cemetery, Blk-M Gr-111.

[16] Bayview-New York Bay Cemetery, Letter, 19 May 2019, regarding burial of Joseph Kirner, Lot #3, Grave #4, Q South.