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Seeking Egan and Brogan in County Galway

Galway

Hello,

I am looking for information on my 3x great-grandparents Patrick Egan and Mary Brogan, from County Galway. They are the parents of Lawrence/Laurence Egan/Eagan (Egan is the most consistent in the records) who emigrated to New York City.

I’m planning a trip to Galway in early May 2026 and would love to have an ancestral place to visit.

I have three questions (and welcome any other input):

I want to know if there’s any way to determine that I have indeed found the correct Patrick Egan and Mary Brogan, parents of Lawrence.

Is there any way to determine if they are the parents of any or all of the children in the baptism records?

And where did they live?

Here is what I know:

  • Lawrence (and possibly siblings) emigrated to New York City about 1860, supposedly on the ship Lucy Thompson. This is on the account ledger of the NYC Emigrant Savings Bank, which states Lawrence is from Co. Galway, born in 1842, as was his wife Catherine Madden, also from Galway. It is likely that Mary Brogan Egan emigrated at the same time.

  • Lawrence died 4 May 1904 in NYC, with Patrick Egan and Mary Brogan listed as his parents on the death certificate. He was a grocer, despite what the cert says.

  • Mary Brogan Egan died 9 April 1877 of pneumonia at a sanitorium in New York City, transported directly to the cemetery; it does not appear a death certificate was issued.

  • While there are many Egans and some Brogans in Lawrence Egan’s NYC neighborhoods, I haven’t been able to find the same parent names for any in marriage or death certificates, when they exist at all. Many NYC vital records just have “Ireland” or blank instead of parent names on death certs.

  • Lawrence became a US Citizen on Oct. 10, 1868, along with a few other Egans/Eagans on the same day. However, naturalization records in NYC are scattered among multiple courts, contain few origin details and I’ve found none so far that include the Irish county or parish in the petitions or declarations, so it is difficult to ascertain kinship.

  • I searched FindMyPast for marriages of Patrick Egan and Mary Brogan, only one result in Kellysgrove, Clontuskert 2 May 1831.
  • A search on Rootsireland for baptisms 1830-1848 with parents’ surnames Egan and Brogan found these results for first names Patrick and Mary:

    • Lawrence (1834, Killagh, Clontuskert)
    • Patrick (1832, Liskelly, Clontuskert)
    • Martin (1842, Aughrim, Kilconnell)
    • James (1845, Aughrim)
    • There is also an Egan with no first name, no parents’ or witnesses’ names in 1841 in Aughrim, Kilconnell.

  • A search on johngrenham.com for surnames Egan and Brogan both appearing in Co. Galway, shows 8 parishes and 49 households with both names. There are no relevant Griffiths listings in any of the above parishes except one Patrick Egan in Kilconnell parish, one Patrick Egan (Killuppaun) and one Patrick Brogan (Mountain) in Ahascragh parish.

  • DNA results have not yielded anything here in the US, there are few matches and the individuals know less than I do.

Thank you!

amklingen@gmail.com

3 replies

A good idea is to Iook at aII US records for the famiIy to see if you can find the connection to IreIand and to confirm the names of Iaurence's parents (the person giving the data for the death cert was not aIways accurate). For instance, have you seen aII birth/baptism/marriage records for Iaurence's chiIdren? They sometimes give parents' pIace of origin. His wiii? interment records? His marriage certificate (not just the transcription)? Obituary/death notice?

I found a transcription on findmypast for the Egan-Madden marriage in 1865 in NYC:

First name Iaurence

Last name Egan

Spouse's first name(s) Catharine

Role Groom

Spouse's last name Madden

Marriage year 1865

Location Manhattan

Marriage date 25 Jan 1865

Language English

Parish Immaculate Conception

Record set New York Roman Catholic Parish Marriages

Archdiocese New York

Category Birth, Marriage & Death (Parish Registers)

County New York County

Subcategory Parish Marriages

State New York

Collections from Americas, United States

glanvil3@aol.com

Meant to say that sponsors at baptisms and marriages were usuaIIy cIose famiIy/friends. So if you get originai church/civiI records, you wiII have the names. Sometimes searching them ieads to the pIace in IreIand.

On another issue, it seems odd that Iaurence did not have a son Patrick. Irish naming patterns caIIed for the first son to be caIIed after the paternaI grandfather and it was common to foIIow this practice.

glanvil3@aol.com

Thank you so much for the quick and comprehensive response, Patricia. I have started from the US records (since 2002), which are all in New York City where records are being digitized but are often incomplete, mislabeled, non-existent (several fires) and inconsistent (e.g., for the 19th century only 7 years of death certificates are digitized: they are now faster to respond to requests for others with a digital copy but several I’ve requested were “not found”). In my experience (on both sides of my family) most NYC vital records, if they list parents’ origins, only give the country. I have only seen “County Galway” and sometimes a parish name on accounts at the Emigrant Savings Bank, which was established to serve Irish immigrants.

Yes, I have the marriage certificate from the church; it is a typed copy from the original register, of which I do have a copy. Usually the transcripts reflect all that is in the register, in my experience. I even tried to visit the church office when I was in NYC, without success. The witnesses are a Curley (which I’ve seen a lot in and near the Egan records and I am looking into them) and a Haely. I have not found a NYC civil marriage record; before 1866 it wasn't required to submit them to the city, and I request one every so often from the city, just in case.

I've been through as many birth, marriage, death records here in the US as I can find. Usually the parent’s birthplace is just listed as “Ireland” when there is one. I was also surprised that there is no child Patrick -- there are gaps of a few years between Lawrence and Catherine's children and it's possible there were several that didn't survive (she had at least 8 of whom 6 survived and she died of septicemia from carrying a dead fetus). Their first child James Mathew was born 10 months after the marriage (Mathew was supposedly Catherine's father's name, no luck yet finding him in NYC or in Galway, there are actually rather few Mathew/Matthews among the Maddens and Egans). Good point, though, about James as possibly Lawrence's father's name? I only have two of the Egan childrens’ baptism sponsors (no Egan sponsors, but Maddens). It’s quite frustrating, because the churches in NYC have merged multiple times and no one seems to be able (want?) to provide copies of the records, and they aren’t all online.

Lawrence was naturalized but his papers do not give any origin information – common in New York City until the 20th century. I have found no will, and I have the interment list (and have visited the cemetery which has no gravestones.) The list includes several family members buried there which has given me some of the information here (including his mother Mary Brogan’s death), but nothing about place of origin. No obituaries except for his wife Catherine’s in 1882 (which is quite unusual in this milieu at that time). And I have checked Irish newspapers in NYC as well.

I’ll keep plugging away at the FAN club as well…thanks again!

amklingen@gmail.com

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