My Meloy lineage can be traced back to Daniel Meloy & Grace O’Donnel, both of whom were born in County Donegal, Ireland. They first appear in US census records on 01 Oct 1850 at Benton, Lafayette Countv, Wisconsin with four children, Peter, Barney, Ann and Daniel, all, of whom, were born in Ireland. All of the males, except the youngest, were listed as being miners.
Daniel & Grace Meloy left the UK from the port of Liverpool on 01 Feb 1847, and entered the US at the port of New Orleans, Louisiana on 15 Mar 1847. On their immigration forms they indicated that they intended to settle in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, and both of them remained there for the rest of their lives. Their son Barney had emigrated from Ireland a few years earlier, leaving Liverpool on 18 Apr 1845 and arriving in Rochester, New York on 05 Aug 1845. He also stated his intent to settle in Lafayette County, Territory of Wisconsin. According to the 1900 census, two of his siblings, Peter and Ann, indicated that they had also arrived in the US in 1845, so perhaps Barney, Ann and Peter traveled together. It seems likely that their other brother, Daniel, would have accompanied them, but he spent most of his life committed to various mental institutions. In 1900, the institution caring for him did not record the immigration date of their patients.
Not long after they had settled themselves in Lafayette County, the California gold strike mesmerized the nation, and large numbers of Lafayette County miners headed west. The 1852 California state census for Sierra County lists three Meloy males from Wisconsin employed as miners. While both Barney and Daniel’s names can be read, damage to the document unfortunately removed the given name of the third. A historical sketch by my grandmother, a granddaughter of Barney, provides some background color to this California gold mining endeavor.
"… They settled in Lafayette County, Wisconsin - they were old "'forty-niners" going to California via the Panama route. On this voyage he and the other passengers suffered from hunger - subsisting on two small crackers a day. While working in the gold mines he was thrown from a lever falling on rocks and broke his left arm. Infection developed and the arm had to be amputated. This was before anesthetics were known - four men held him while the doctor operated."
Peter Meloy and his sister Ann (who had married Daniel McDonald) remained in the Lafayette County, Wisconsin area for the rest of their lives, but Barney moved to the part of Dakota Territory that eventually became organized into Yankton County, South Dakota in 1872, where he spent the rest of his life.
Family Structure
Daniel Meloy (1784 – 21 Ape 1860) & Grace O’Donnell (1788 – 01 Jan 1783
Peter C Meloy (July 1821 – 08 June 1907)
Bernard “Barney” Meloy (1825 – 03 Mar 1902)
Daniel Meloy (1832 – 24 Sep 1905)
Ann Meloy (Mar 1833 – 1909)
My wife and I are actively researching my Meloy lineage, and we would be quite interested in learning more about Meloy family history and structure. We have a number of questions about several Meloys that we don't quite know how to fit into our known Meloy family structure and would be extremely interested in being able to extend the history of this family back in time in Donegal.
Jim & Debby Jackson
