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James Donahue married to Catherine Reardon - Co. Kerry to Holyoke, MA

Kerry

So I've seen these names spelled every which way, so it could be listed as any sort of variant. I'm looking for any info on James Donahue (and his wife), born about 1831 in County Kerry (I have no documentation to back the county name up, besides my father being told this by his father) to a James and Mary Donahue. He possibly arrived in NYC in 1850. Either in the US or Ireland he married Catherine Reardon. They had two children, Mary E. Donahue (born 1855, death unknown) and Edward A. Donahue (1851-1920). Edward was born in New York, and Mary was born in Lee, Massachusetts.

James was in the Navy in the Civil War. The cemetery has no record of him, but he is indeed burried next to Edward, and Edward's daughter and son-in-law (Scollards) at Saint Jeromes in Holyoke, Mass. I suspect Catherine, his wife, must be there too. I cannot find James' Civil War widow's pension records, so I assume Catherine died before him.

James died on 6/23/1884 in Holyoke, Mass. His son Edward raised his family in Holyoke, so I believe he was staying or living with his son, though I can't find any census records to prove that. He has a government issued Navy headstone.

Would love it if anyone knew any actual info about him from before he immigrated. I only pick up the clues once he is in the US.

IrelandXO member

3 replies

emd330:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

The RC church records for parishes in Co. Kerry are on the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie ; I did a search and the only record I could find that would fit your information is below. Since you don't know his mother's maiden name this record would have to be considered a "soft" lead.  I did not see a marriage record to Catherine Reardon so likely they married in the States.

You may want to add James' story to our XO Chronicles site and maybe someone will see a connection.  https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/ancestor-dat…

Have you considered DNA testing?

Roger McDonnell

 

Area - KERRY (RC) , Parish/Church/Congregation - KILLARNEY

Baptism of JAMES DONOGHUE of KILLARNEY on 3 November 1833

NameJAMES DONOGHUEDate of Birth3 November 1833 (BASED ON OTHER DATE INFORMATION)AddressKILLARNEYFatherJAMES DONOGHUEMotherMARY FLYNN

Sponsor 1THOMAS SULLIVANSponsor 2JOHANNA MCCARTHYPriestREV. G. PRINDIVILL

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you! Quite unfortunate they all have such common names.

I have my dad's Y-DNA on FamilyTreeDNA, and have gotten no leads. Admittedly I don't really understand how that all works, but I expect he should have a close match with a Donahue/Donoghue/O'Donoghue/Donohue, etc. and there hasn't been one. I've emailed a few close matches and none seem to know of a Donahue connection. As for Ancestry, I'm on there and have found all decendents of Edward's children, but no one has any more information than I do about James. Each branch has esentially the same geneology information written by one relative. She and her mother seem to have been the family historians.

IrelandXO member

The Y-DNA is less helpful compared to the Family Finder test that you can get thru Family Tree DNA. The Family Finder test will track all of your lines on the paternal and maternal sides and you get more matches to contact.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

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