1. Bridget Hoban was born about 1829. She died in 1867 at age 38. She married James Nevin. James was born in 1799 and died about 1892. He grew up in County Clare, Ireland.
   Briget and Nevin went to Manchester, England and set up a china shop. Anti-Irish sentiment caused them to move to Utica, NY in the late 1840s, where James's sister Mary lived with her husband, Unknown Doherty. Finding Utica too cold, Bridget and James moved to Louisville, where James was a successful contractor.
   In 1860 James Nevin, born about 1813, and Bridget Nevin, born about 1831, were living in Louisville with their children Joseph, born about 1849 in New York, and Annie, born about 1856 in New York. James was a stone mason and six labourers lived with them. [Ref] In 1870 James was a pit contractor living in Louisville with Amy, born about 1854 and Maggie, born about 1860. [Ref] In 1880 James was a contracter living in Louisville with his widowed son Joseph, also a contractor, Joseph's son "Guidonie", age 6 months, and Margaret, age 18. [Ref]
   
   1. Joseph Nevin was born about 1849 in Utica. He married three times and left five children but no grandchildren. He married a first unknown wife. She died by 1979. He married second Kate Unknown about 1886. [Ref] In 1910 Joseph and Kate were living in Louisville with their six children. Joseph was a brick manufacturer. [Ref]
      1. J. Guy Nevin was born in Dec 1879 in Kentucky. [Ref] In 1910 Guy was an assessor, living with his parents. [Ref]
      2. James A. Nevin was born in Nov 1887 in Kentucky. [Ref] In 1910 James was a clerk living with his parents. [Ref]
      3. William Nevin was born in Sep 1889 in Kentucky. [Ref] In 1910 William was a leveler living with his parents. [Ref]
      4. Lillian Nevin was born in Dec 1892 in Kentucky. [Ref]
      5. George I. Nevin was born in Feb 1895 in Kentucky. [Ref]
      6. John Nevin was born on 3 Mar 1897 in Kentucky. [Ref]
   2. Annie Nevin was born about 1857 in Utica. She married and had a daughter whose descendants lived in Louisville.
   3. Margaret Nevin was born in 1861 or in May 1865 [Ref] in Louisville. She married Daniel Doherty in 1882 or about 1885. [Ref] Daniel was born in Jan 1853 in Indiana. in May 1865 [Ref] He died about 1905.
      
      1. Mary Doherty was born in 1903. She married Marvin .... She was an only child.
2. Winifred Hoban was born in Feb 1848 in Ireland. [Ref] She married Thomas Nalty about 1870. [Ref] Thomas was born in Feb 1847 in Ireland. [Ref] He was a policeman. [Ref]
   In 1900 Winnie and Thomas were living in Louisvilee with Stephen and Anna. Winnie had had six children and four were living. [Ref] In 1910 Winnie and Thomas were living with their son Stephen. [Ref]
   
   1. Stephen Nalty was born in Feb 1871 in Kentucky. [Ref]
   2. Maggie Nalty
      1. Loretta Unknown married Paul Hornung. [GB]
         1. Paul Hornung b. 23 Dec 1935 [GB] Louisville, hall of fame football player
      2. Annie Nalty was born in Feb 1880 in Kentucky. [Ref] She had a daughter but no grandchildren.
      3. Katie Nalty had 14 children

GB: Hornung, Paul, Golden Boy, NY, Simon and Schuster, 2004.

December 29, 1976

Dear Madeline:

I was as, as I always am, so very glad to have your card and the nice note and both Marvin and I wish you a very Happy New Year.

You asked about the Hoban line of our ancestry. Well, here is what I recall hearing my mother tell. Her father (my grandfather) was named James Nevin. He was born in 1799 and grew up in County CLare, Ireland. He married Bridget Hoban, of County Roscommon, who was much younger than he. As a bride and groom they went to Manchester, England, where he set up a delft (china) store. But he could not make a living in Manchester because the English people simply refused to do any business with any one from Ireland.

His sister, Mary, who had married a man named Doherty, had already gone to America and was living in Utica, New York. Accordingly, James and Bridget Hoban Nevin came out to Utica in the late 1840's and the lived there several years during which time two of their three children were born, Joseph and Annie. Wile they were living in Utica a sister of Bridget Hoban Nevin, named Julia Hoban, came out from Ireland and joined them. She found work as a governess with a well-to-do family named Palmer in Syracuse. [I don't think she worked for the Palmers.] Julia Hoban changed her name to Estelle and fell in love with and married the son of the family, George Palmer.

James and Bridget Hoban Nevin found the weather so very cold in Utica, so different from that in the British Isles, that they could stand it no longer so, since she had a cousin named William Kearney, who was living in Louisville, Kentucky, they moved down to Louisville. My mother, Margaret Nevin, was born in Louisvilee in 1861.

James Nevin became a very prosperous contractor; he built streets in the fast growing town of Louisville; he worked dthe then celebrated architect who was building the largest and the best of the big buildings then going up. In 1867 his wife, my mother's mother , died at the ripe old age of 38 years. A new house was at that time under construction and James Nevin with his son, then 18 years old, his daughter Annie, then about 10 years old and my mother Margaret, 6 years old, moved into the new plae. He wanted someone to oversee the running of this place (there were already plenty of servants) and to be a housekeeper. He brought out from Ireland a sister of his late wife Bridget, whose name was Winifred Hoban.

This must have been an elaborate set-up because, besides the large house, there was a stable for forty mules and carts and the negroes to handle all of this. He was, as I have said, quite successful and, though he had learned in Ireland to read, write and "cipher", his character and credit were so good that he got his operating loans from banks who asked only for a handshake from him.

Winifred Hoban did not like her duties in the household very well and while she was still very young she married Thomas Nalty, an impecunious policeman.

My mother had an unusually fine voice, well trained at home and also in New York, and as a young girl she had a very pleasant time -- a well-to-do father, a fine voice which opened many doors to her, and a fine home. During this time Uncle George Palmer made many visits to the Nevin household. Sometimes Aunt Julia came with him and my mother and her father always called her Julia; they wanted to tease her because she demanded to be called Estelle, but she was always Aunt Julia. Uncle George came out of the Civil War as a Major, did recruiting work for the Army in the chicago area and perhaps some of his trips to Louisville were business related but he was always warmly received in the Nevin household because he was a very likable person, a fine gentleman, courteous and kind, and it made no difference to him whether his wife called herself Julia or Estelle. He told about his children, three boys, Guy, Bruce and Ned, and two girls, Ruth and Mary. Later Guy and Bruce were to go to West Point, Ned to become a farmer and Mary and Ruth were to marry Army officers.

And here was something that was always very wonderful to me. About 1932 or 1933 my mother and I went over to Washington, D.C., and called on Ruth Carey and Mary Noble with whom was living their mother, my mother's Aunt Julia. My mother's mother had died in 1867 and her sister was still living in 1932!

In 1882 my mother married Daniel Doherty [related to James Nevin's sister?] and after 21 years I was born, in 1903, an only child. Her father, James Nevin, had died about 1892. When I was two years old my father died and I was brought up by my mother who was the age of a grandmother. My mother's brother Joseph Nevin, in time took over his father's business, ran it into the ground, married in turn three well-to-do women, went through their fortunes, had five children in all but not one grandchild and died almost in want. My mother's sister, Annie married and left a daughter whose descendants live in Louisville.

Bridget Hoban Nevin, as I have said, had two sisters, Julia Hoban Palmer and Winifred Hoban Nalty. Winifred, my mother's Aunt Winnie, had a son who died a very bad cripple, and three daughters Annie, Maggie and Katie. Annie left a daughter but no descendants; Maggie left a daughter whose only child is the celebrated Paul Hornung -- the football player from Notre Dame and the Green Bay Packers and now the CBS announcer for football events. Paul is not married and lives around the corner fom us (when he is not on the road announcing sporting events).

Aunt Winnies third daughter, Katie, had 14 children, some of whom are now dead and others live in Louisville. They have done very well for themselves though, of course, they are not as famous as Paul Hornung.

... I hope this gives you some information about the ... You say that your brother is interested in all this so I am sending you a carbon copy of this letter so that you can sent it on to him. If either you or he wants to know anything more, I shall, of course, be glad to try and answer you. My mother lived in the past and talked so much about the old times that I used to get bored by it -- but now I wish that I had listened more closely.

Marvin joins me in sending you our love and every good wish for the New Year.