After their 1902 marriage, Thomas Patrick Kenny and Ellen Xavier O'Connor moved their growing family from West Town to the Humboldt Park area. At St. Sylvester's Church—a territorial parish founded in 1884—they baptized the daughters of their new life together: Mary Frances Kenny (March 5, 1905) and Margaret Katherine Kenny (January 12, 1908). Margaret Katherine would grow up to marry Thomas Eugene Hamall, bridging the Kenny and Hamall family lines. Unlike Old St. Stephen's, which fell to the Kennedy Expressway in 1952, St. Sylvester's still stands today—over 140 years of continuous service to the Logan Square community.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies From Research to Story

In tracing the Kenny and Connors families of Prince Edward Island, a curious pattern emerges: children baptized at St. Dunstan's in Charlottetown, yet their families buried at St. Eugene's in Covehead. This companion piece explores the history of both churches and explains why our ancestors traveled between them—following a rhythm of births and deaths that connected the rural parish to the urban cathedral.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy Series: Documentary Biographies From Research to Story

On April 11, 1894, Thomas Patrick Kenny stood at the altar of Old St. Stephen's Church to marry Mary "Maime" O'Connor—witnessed by Laurence Walsh and Nellie O'Connor. Two years later, their daughter Eleanor was baptized there, with Thomas's brother Hugh Kenny and Mary's sister Ellen O'Connor as sponsors. That same Ellen O'Connor would become Thomas's second wife after Mary's death in 1901. The parish records reveal how Catholic godparent traditions helped prepare families for life's uncertainties—and how a 1902 sororate marriage kept orphaned children in the care of the aunt who was already their godmother.

Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies From Research to Story