Falveys of Worcester

[corky3]

  I recently signed up for genealogybank.com and it has been a fascinating experience -I think I may subscribe for a year. If your family was in Worcester ( and I have not even tried other branches of the family in other places) the Spy certainly gives you a wonderful insight into families and events during the period ( it appears the Spy ceased publication mid 1904-drat!!!).

    I just discovered that my husband's  gggrandmother, Margaret Falvey Doyle ( and I had gotten her obit from another Worcester paper which did not list this information) had quite a few brothers and sisters living in the Worcester and Massachusetts area.

    Her sister Julia Falvey married a John Mara. Sister Johanna Mara married a John Pickett. Both lived in Worcester. There were also two brothers John of Worcester and Michael of Boston. This is a major find since I just thought Margaret may have immigrated alone. This may lead to clues where the Falveys came from in Ireland.

    Also interesting was the information that one of the daughters was living-obviously a single woman l-in Concord New Hampshire. I do know that Mary-wife of Francis "Frank" Beaulac/Bolack-was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. I still have to try and see if Michael Doyle and Margaret Falvey were married in Nashua. It makes me wonder if there are more Falveys up here. If the Irish naming pattern holds there should be a Patrick Falvey somewhere out there-Patrick was the Falvey patriarch.

    The wedding article ( as well as the legal troubles and sad deaths-remember the Logans-it appears not only did the father kill the son but the mother committed a rather gruesom suicide. Guess modern families were not the only disfunctional ones.) are insightful as well as well as a nice change of pace for genealogical research.

    I was just curious if anyone in this group may have Falveys in their family tree and might able to share any information?

[corky3]

  When I was in Ireland I noticed that Falvey was a big name in Kerry. So was Margaret's mother's name Kelliher.  Doyle is like Smith -all over Ireland

    I strongly suspect the family is from Kerry but so far no physical paper proof.

    It is like I suspect may be from the Ennis area of Clare due to a school record which seems to fit my husband's great grandfather. And one of the Census of Clinton-one of the Maroney children states their parents were from Tipperary.  I did trace one family who all seemed to be from Westport Mayo-quite a few of them and those they married. Later immigration seemed to actually ask the question of where last lived-that seemed to have started in the early 1900s.

    The only firm proof I have gotten is the Mulvilles-one married a Maroney brother-in an obit and proven in one of the Griffin Valuation is Milltown Malbay, Clare. If you are lucky, in this day and age, to find the county-to find the exact place in the county is near impossible unless someone wrote it down or you knew the immigrant personally. Otherwise it is a big mystery.  It is almost like no one wanted to talk about it-yet you have to wonder-didn't these people have family left at home?

     

[corky3]

 I finally got around to doing some research in Nashua New Hampshire concerning Margaret Falvey. Unfortunately it tends to confuse the issue more than clarify. I found a marriage between Michael Doyle of Nashua New Hampshire and Margaret Farvee -hopefully a major spelling corruption of Falvey-on of many may I add -on February 15, 1862.

   That would mean Mary Doyle, my husband's great grandmother was born nearly 6 years after the marriage-that or the birth date is incorrect by at least 5 years.

    It appears that John Falvey of Worcester( who married a Julia Sheehan in Boston in 1875) had at least two children-Johanna who married a Cornelius Sullivan in Boston, where they appear to have remained. Also a Patrick Falvey who I cannot trace.

   Julia and her husband John Mara appear to have had 4 sons, Patrick, Francis "Frank", John and Frederick "Fred" and a daughter Margaret T.

   Johanna and her husband John Pickett had at least one son John who appears to have married a Josephine Foley, and two daughters, Johanna and Elizabeth "Lizzie" who married a Frank Wolcott.

  Michael Falvey of Boston appears to have married a Margaret Degnan and had 3 sons, Patrick, John Joseph and Michael who died in 1888 of heart disease and a daughter Mary Elizabeth.

   With all those descendants you would think we could come up with some present connections. This family seems strongly to indicate this is a Kerry family but it would be nice to see where in Kerry. There seems to be quite a few Falveys in Killarney.

[merski]

Are all those families in worcester?  I can check my database...   By the way one of my Shea relatives Hannah (Anne) married Thomas Mara in 1872 in Worcester.  He was born in W. Boylston to Edward & Mary Marra (Marro, Maro).  I think that people from around killarney actually gave Killarney as place of birth, which is like saying you're from Worcester when you're really from W. Boylston.  Though Killarney would be the diocesesean (?) seat, I think.

[corky3]

All of them, except Michael Falvey and his family, who I can't seem to trace beyond 1880 in Boston, lived in the Worcester area.

   The daughter who married Cornelius appears to have been living in Boston, probably as domestic help, and probably why they got married in Boston.

[corky3]

  Just recently I discovered that Johanna's brother Patrick married in Boston-a Mary E.  McGrath. Both Johanna and Patrick are the children of John and Julia Sheehan Falvey.

   The McGrath family research is so typical of the kind of luck I have had with auxiliary branches of my family tree, mainly because they were recent immigrants-Irish immigration speaking-after 1900. First through Henry Thomas McGrath's WWI records-he states he was born in Balforan, Galway, Ireland. I knew his parents (thorough Margaret's and Patrick's marriage license were Lawrence (it is actually Laurence) McGrath and Margaret Ellis McGrath). In total ,so far, three brothers, most working for the railroad, Michael J., Henry Thomas and Patrick Laurence and two sisters. Mary and Eliza immigrated-Henry being the last -so far- 1909. Interestingly I almost discounted some of the immigration records because the place of origin is stated as Muckloon Galway Ireland. Finding the family in the 1901 Irish Census I investigated the area and this I guess is the rationale.

   Muckloon is indeed in Galway-Balforan is actually across the bridge in Roscommon-they are side by side towns . The family is listed in the 1901 (both Henry and Patrick had not immigrated yet -Patrick did in 1905, followed by Henry in 1909). There appears to have been two more sisters, Gretta and Kattie and another brother Joseph.  And the census gave me a general birth year for Laurence and Margaret. Granted a side branch but interestingly nonetheless.

  Getting back to the Falveys-John and Mary appear to have had four children-Margaret in 1908 (John and Mary were married in November of 1907 in Boston), May (Mary E.) in 1909, Lawrence F. in 1912 and, oddly, Joseph in 1928- a little late in the game for Mary Falvey but he is listed as a son.  The family seems to have remained in Boston-although beyond the 1930 Census I have not been able to trace any of them-McGraths or Falveys. Boston just seems to be too big and too Irish to narrow down too easily.
 
    The 1901 Census is much better than the Griffins Valuation-as a tool-if you know that there  was still family in Ireland to trace. Unfortunately for my main truck of the family tree-the Curtins-all members, that I know of( I have no idea if John Curtin or Bridget Daly Curtin had siblings-since I really don't know where in Clare they were from) were in this country by the late 1880s.