Excerpt from family history researcher on parentage of James Mahoney

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"Since Canada did not officially become a country until 1867 the first national census wasn’t carried out until 1871. The 1861 Census of Canada is a collection of five provincial censuses. My search was obsured by that fact that Canada was just a budding country which was begining to record state records. Therefore hampering definitive confirmation of family relationships, (ie lack of church and state records).

In the 1861 Census of Canada (Ancestry.ca), I found a James Mahoney in the County of Sydney. (Keep in mind that in 1863 the name of the County of Sydney was changed to Antigonish County.) James Mahoney was enumberated having two males and four females in his family. This census was basic with very little information recorded about the inhabitants of Sydney County. I did note that among James Mahoney’s neighbours were Samuel Mahoney and family, John Mahoney and family and Allan Mahoney and family. It is extremely likely that all these Mahoney families were very closely related.

Several members of the extended Mahoney family lived in neighbouring houses on the 1871 census of Canada including whom I believe to be James Mahoney’s parents Samuel Mahoney and Francis Dunn. There is no birth or baptismal record in existence for James Mahoney born 1827. There are a number of online family trees which say that James Mahoney was the son of Samuel Mahoney and Francis Dunn, although I cannot prove this with records, it is extremely likely as they were neighbours, proximity along with the common surname and family naming pattern adds weight to this summation. Samuel Mahoney, husband of Francis Dunn according to the online collections of family trees in ancestry.com was the son of another Samuel Mahoney born 1760 and Mary ? . I believe that this Mary may have been Mary McDonald. ( I have no actual proof of this other than, there was a nearby settler family called McDonald and some of the following generations of Mahoney children were called Donald Mahoney probably emulating from a marriage between a McDonald and Mahoney). There is a beach in Nova Scotia called after the Mahoney family."