John Daniel McGonigle, Sr. and Mary Ann Mullan -- True Love!

Looks like Julie has hit on the biggest family scandal to date. The year, 1884. The players: John Daniel McGonigle, age 16 1/2; Mary Ann (Annie) Mullan, age 29 and 11 months. Place: Garvagh, County Derry, Ireland.

It was the summer of 1884 in the sleepy agrarian community of greater Garvagh, County Derry, Ireland. John was the oldest surviving son of a local farmer, Patrick McGonigle, and his wife, Bridget Quigley. Annie, the oldest daughter of Peter Mullan and his second wife, Mary, passed her days sewing shirts for a local clothier. She wasn't getting any younger, and most everyone had given up hope of her ever finding love. Annie was a confirmed spinster.

That is, until she caught the eye of young John McGonigle.

We might never know what drew these two seemingly disparate people to each other. Annie was nearly twice John's age. John, obviously taken with Annie, set their lives on a course that is now history.

Neither John nor Annie's families approved of the relationship. It was obvious that John was too young and Annie was too old. But their love grew too strong to let family stand in their way. They got married in Londonderry and immediately afterwards boarded a ship bound for America. Posing as brother and sister for the first year of their married life, John and Annie settled in Pittsburgh, PA. Eventually, they had five children, four of whom grew to adulthood: James, Alice, Mary, and John, Jr.

How was it that John, while a mere lad of 16, managed to woo a woman nearly twice his age, convince her to marry him, and fool the authorities into believing that he was of age? The answer lies in a bit of buried family history.

You see, John had had an elder brother who died before John was born. The elder brother's name: John Daniel McGonigle. The first John had been born in 1864, and died a few years later. When Bridget bore Patrick another son, they named him John Daniel McGonigle just as they had their first son.

It was by using the birth certificate of his elder brother instead of his own birth certificate that John Daniel McGonigle, then 16 years old, convinced authorities that he was 20 years old -- two years beyond the age of consent.

In a strange twist of fate, John and Annie's first son, John Daniel McGonigle, Jr., also died as a young boy. The next son born to them was named, ironicly, John Daniel McGonigle, Jr. -- our grandfather.