Person:Helsina Bohne (1)

"One account of the family is that Billy's mother, Catherine, moved west with her two boys Henry (Billy) and Joseph and William Antrim, settling in Wichita, KS. in 1870. There Catherine ran a laundry business and invested in real estate. After Wichita, the family moved to Coffeyville, KS. for a short time which is where Billy got into his first trouble with the law, arrested for stealing items from a local store. Catherine then decided to move to the southwest with William Antrim and her boys, supposedly because she had tuberculosis and needed the drier climate. She married William Antrim in Santa Fe, NM March 1, 1873, with her two boys present. The family then moved to Silver City, NM where Antrim worked as a miner and Catherine ran a boarding house. Catherine had many health problems and on September 16, 1874 she died, leaving her two sons to live with their stepfather, William Antrim."

"William H. Bonney AKA Billy the Kid his mother's name is Katherine Ann Bonney she married Patrick Henry McCarty, thats where the H in William Henry Bonney he also had an older brother Joseph when Patrick died Katherina married William Antrum. Billy McCarty liked William thats why he took his first name of William. Billy got run out of Texas an changed his name from Billy McCarty to William H. Bonney, Bonney being his mothers maiden name."

"According to the Records that I have, Bonney is Billy's Birth Father's Surname, and Patrick McCarthy. Sr. is the Father that raised him from Birth.
William Antrim is the Step Father's Name, and Billy's Legitimate Name, according to MY Records is this:
William Patrick Henry Bonney - McCarthy - Antrim.
Even though on the Birth Record it is listed only as Henry McCarthy.
Devine is his Mother's Legitimate Surname.
They were from Jamaica and then New Orleans, Louisiana.
McCarty is Katherine Antrim's Mother's Family."

"In Catherine’s obituary, it stated she was forty-five when she died of Tuberculosis on September 16, 1874, which means the year of her birth was around 1829. One passenger arrival list showed a Catherine McCarty, age 17, listed as a servant, that had arrived in New York on April 10, 1846 on the ship "Devonshire" from Liverpool to escape the Famine in Ireland. This sounds very promising due to the fact that this woman is the same age as our Catherine, but because this woman couldn't be traced in other records or documents, it can't be said legitimately that this woman is indeed Billy the Kid's mother. It still could be total coincidence."

"Helsina Bohne was born in Copenhagen on December 3, 1830. She was expelled from Denmark to the United States with a small amount of money, arriving in New York City early in 1846."

"Our story starts with Helsina Bohne who was living in Denmark. She had been sent to the Royal Household in 1845 and became the mistress of the King shortly there after. According to the stories she bore a son who bore too close a resemblance to the King. So the King paid her off with a bit of money to immigrate to the United States. This included either a broach or a watch to remember the King. She gives birth in 1846 to Henry Magnus (Henrich Morten Bohna on the ship’s manifest I have a copy of) And sometime prior to their leaving (I’m not sure on this part) she joins the Church. Reportedly she uses the money she got from the King to bring several other Mormon converts to New York with her. In New York she becomes destitute after a few years and shacks up with an Irish immigrant, Michael McCarty. (It’s not clear they were married formally – although they may have considered themselves married). Now the illegitimate son of the King is my grandfather’s grandfather. She has two sons with McCarty. One is William Henry Bohne otherwise known as Billy the Kid. The other is Joseph Smith McCarty. William goes by Bohne rather than McCarty because McCarty is quite the . . . well add your own expletive. One story has him wanting to pay Tithing and breaking Helsina’s arm trying to get the broach or watch that the king had given her to pay for it."

Surname First Name Age Mig.Year Conference Birthplace Reg.Page
Bohna Anna Sophia 5 1857 Aalborg Jutland 46
Bohna Helsina 38 1857 Aalborg Jutland 46
Bohna Hendrik Morten 11 1857 Aalborg Jutland 46
Bohna Jens Carl J. 13 1857 Aalborg Jutland 46
Bohna Joseph Smith 2 1857 Aalborg Jutland 46
Bohna Sophus Morten 8 1857 Aalborg Jutland 46

"Family Data Collection - Individual Records
Name: William Billy The Kid Bonney
Parents: William H Bonney, Catherine Kathleen Boujean
Birth Place: New York City, NY
Birth Date: 23 Nov 1859
Death Date: 14 Jul 1881
Source Citation: Birth year: 1859; Birth city: New York City; Birth state: NY.
Source Information:
Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Description: The Family Data Collection - Individual Records database was created while gathering genealogical data for use in the study of human genetics and disease."

"Name: Mccarty, Catherine
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Embarkation: Liverpool
Ship: Devonshire
Occupation: servant
Passengers: 277
Compartment: Steerage
Native Country: Ireland
Destination: USA
Arrival Date: 10 Apr 1846
Transit Type: Staying in the U.S."

Name: Catherine Devine
Age: 20
Birth Year: abt 1830
Birthplace: Ireland
Home in 1850: New York Ward 17, New York, New York, USA
Gender: Female
Family Number: 543
Note: Catherine Devine, age 20 from Ireland, was living in the household of John W. Mitchell [age 49, occupation Lawyer] and his wife Caroline [age 46] and son Clarence J. [age 23, Merchant] It appears that there were several boarders living in the household, including Catherine.

Name: Cthn McCarthy
[Catherine McCarthy]
Age: 29
Birth Year: abt 1831
Gender: Female
Birth Place: Ireland
Home in 1860: New York Ward 1 District 1, New York, New York
Post Office: New York
Family Number: 1562
Household Members: Name Age
Patrick McCarthy 30
Cthn McCarthy 29
Bridget McCarthy 7
Henry McCarthy 1

Catherine Devine McCarty Antrim
Birth: 1829, Ireland
Death: Sep. 16, 1874
Silver City
Grant County
New Mexico, USA

Mother of 'Billy The Kid.' Her name is misspelled on her tombstone ("Kathrine"), which is not the original grave marker (originally, there was a cross, and then, when the cemetery was moved out of town, there was a wooden marker).

Her first spouse was Patrick McCarty.
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Catherine McCarty, the mother of Billy the Kid, was known as "a jolly Irish woman". In Wichita, Kansas (the first time she and her sons appear in historical record) she was the only woman to sign the petition that helped incorporate the town. She owned her own property and ran a laundry but soon moved her family to New Mexico. In Santa Fe she married William Antrim and moved again to Silver City. Catherine suffered from tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease on September 16, 1874 when Billy was about fourteen years old. She was originally buried in a cemetery in town but was moved to the Memory Lane Cemetery years later and given a new headstone (unfortunately her name was misspelled).

-bio courtesy of Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang's website.

Family links:
Spouse:
William Henry Harrison Antrim (1842 - 1922)*

Children:
William Bonney (1859 - 1881)*
Joseph McCarty-Antrim (1863 - 1930)*

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2350&ref=acom