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Faheys of Galway

Galway

I'm searching for the origins of my ancestors, particularly the Faheys, in Ireland. My gggrandparents in Galway were John Fahey and Bridget Maloney. My ggrandfather Martin Fahey came to the U.S. in 1854. He arrived in Boston and settled in Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. Census records put his birthdate about 1846. According to his obituary he was born in County Galway, and when he died in 1906, he still had brothers alive in Ireland.

Other Faheys who also emigrated, though not in the same year, and were somehow related to Martin, included:  Bernard Fahey (spelled Fahy in naturalization records) married to Maria Lyman born in the US. They had 3 children I know of, born in Mauch Chunk, Elizabeth (01/17/1869), Mary (12/03/1870), and Margaret (01/18/1873); William Fahey (born abt. 1833) and not married; and Darby Fahey (born abt.1838) with wife Mary Flamming Fahey (born about 1840). They had several children when they arrived here, Julia (born abt. 1859), Richard (abt. 1862), Mary (abt. 1865), and Martin (abt. 1868). Bernard may have gone back to Ireland because there is absolutely no record of him or his family in the U.S. after 1874.

In addition, there was a Martin Maloney who also emigrated, and was also a relative - though I do not know if he was a brother to gggrandmother Bridget Maloney Fahey, or a nephew, or what. His parents were Martin Maloney and Honor Dixon. He was married to Sarah Reilly, daughter of Thomas Reilly and Honor Barrett. All of their children were born here. Maloney descendants have told me that Maloneys came from outside Cong on the Mayo/Galway border, and that Reillys were from Cong.  But I don't know if this is accurate.

Martin Fahey, my ancestor, married Hannah Conroy, in Mauch Chunk, daughter of James Conroy and Catherine Dixon of County Mayo. James Conroy came to the US in 1849 via Liverpool. Catherine's sister was married to a Hefron also from County Mayo. There is evidence that Faheys, Conroys, Maloneys & Dixons were all linked prior to coming to the U.S. They sponsored each other for naturalization, lived near each other, were witnesses for baptisms, marriages etc. Several Conroys were also married to Reillys. 

I hope I explained this clearly enough. I greatly appreciate your help. I have been searching these roots for 16 years. Any pertinent information you could find would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

Jessica Fahey-Petrack

IrelandXO member

2 replies

 

The first place to start your search is in your own home - talk to elders in the family - find out abouttheir parents, grandparents etc. Perhaps they have a story of one of your ancestors? Things to enquire about include: occupations, places of residence, who they were living with(people often stayed with others from their home villages after emigration), siblings & other familymembers, first names (important -as usually past from father to son/mother to daughter) ages attime of emigration, possible dates of birth/death, religious denominations. Also ask if there are anysurviving photographs, old documents or letters - record all the information you can find. Write/telephone other members of your family to check details -perhaps they can remember otherfacts about your ancestors? Hopefully when you have done this - some clues will emerge! After youhave identified the emigrant- begin tracing the steps back to Ireland. Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left, who they mighthave travelled with..etc.? Generally more information was given at the port of arrival rather than theport of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g. Liverpool, Ellis Island), this could be agood place to find more information, and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin. Shippingmanifests can be checked ?which may lead to more clues. The next thing you could do is find the counties and places in Ireland your family names are mostprevalent. Look at the website http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ and perhapssomething will match some other clue you may have found elsewhere? If nothing turnsup ? it is advisable to try different variations of the spellings of the names. If you have a possiblefirst name you could try the Irish Census 1901, 1911 at www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ or the landvaluation record called Griffiths Valuationhttp://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml Also have a look on these web sites that i have listed sir. good luck in your seach. Ellis Island:http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp Castlegarden:http://www.castlegarden.org/ US National Archives/Immigration info:http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/ The Boston Pilot; From October 1831 through October 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a?Missing Friends? column with advertisements from people looking for ?lost? friends and relativeswho had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This extraordinary collection of 40,743 recordsis available here as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad thatappeared in the Pilot. http://infowanted.bc.edu/

 

IrelandXO member

Jessica,

My gggrandparents are James and Catherine (Dixon) Conroy.  I'm afraid I can't be of much help on the Ireland side - I've been working on and off for years and have contacted another relative here in the states and shared information with him.  If you would like to pass on what you have you can email me directly at patrick.conroy@embarqmail.com.

 

IrelandXO member

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