Thomas Casey

Thomas Casey was born December 1779 in Aglish, County Waterford and died 20 October 1882 in Ballyduff Upper.

Less is known about Ellen Phelan whom he married on 16 February 1822. Our yet undocumented assumption is that she was born August 1795 in Clonmel, SS Peter & Paul, Waterford (Tipperary?).

Griffith's valuation has them living in Ballyduff Upper (1851). Thomas and Ellen both died at the home of their son, Maurice (DOB:1836) and Mary (Daly) Casey in Ballyduff Upper on 20 October 1882 at the impressive age of 102 years. Ellen (Phelan) Casey died just shy of her 88th birthday on 7 July 1883 also at the home of Maurice and Mary. Thomas and Ellen's son, William -- my great-grandfather -- was born 26 July 1835 in Ballyduff Upper (Baptismal record states Lismore). William emigrated to the United States in the early 1850s. He and Ellen Hannon married in South Boston 12 July 1870. They had three children -- Annie Elizabeth (my grandmother), Julia Elizabeth and Catherine "Katie". Tragically, Katie died as an infant in 1881 and Ellen and William died of tuberculosis -- Ellen in November 1882 and William in December 1883. My grandmothr and her sister "Lizzie" were sent from Boston to Dakota Territory on an Orphan Train to an Irish community at St Brigid's Church near Yankton, Dakota Territory. We presume Thomas and Ellen Casey never knew what happened in America to their son, William but were consoled by the presence and Loving care of son, Maurice and Mary in Ballyduff Upper.  They survived the Great Hunger. Their son, having survived the late 1840s in Ireland, did not fare as well in America.