The Hannigans of Western New York

The Hannigans of Western New York

Thomas Cole, Genesee Scenery

Letchworth Falls is in Livingston County, NY and also borders Wyoming County, too. The Hannigans would have been very familiar with this beautiful river and gorge. As well they may have been familiar with Mary Jemison and her famous captivity narrative of that region. She was kidnapped by the Seneca in 1742. This part of New York had only been settled by the Dutch about 50 years before the Hannigans arrived there.

Thomas Hannigan and Margaret Gilmartin

Thomas and Margaret Gilmartin Hannegan were both born in Ireland around 1805 and emigrated to Canada sometime in the early 19th century. Typically, the price of passage to Canada cost a bit less than the passage to Ellis Island. Margaret had three brothers and they emigrated at the same time, all living in and around Livingston and Wyoming Counties. Margaret's father, Michael Gilmartin, born in 1777, was from Connacht. 

Escaping the potato famine, these Irish farmers suffered through two-week long passages in the middle part of the century. Neither Thomas nor Margaret could read or write. Their first son Patrick was born in 1843 in Canada, named after Thomas's brother Patrick. (Young Patrick's birthplace is alternately listed as Canada and New York.)

By 1850, the Hannigans had crossed the border, mostly likely at Niagara Falls, into the U.S. and lived in the town of China, now Arcade, Wyoming County, New York. The county seat, Warsaw, has a long and interesting history of Abolitionist and Suffragette sympathies. 

Thomas's brother, Patrick, also lived in China with his wife Hannah and their new son, James.  James Hannigan, a first generation American, son of Irish immigrants, was one of the brave Ironclads who fell in the Battle of Gettysburg. 

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Thomas and Margaret's second child, a daughter Mary, was almost a year at the time of the 1850 census.  

By 1860, Patrick, is a farmer like his father. Mary is 10 and a new daughter, Bridget, is 8 years old. 

Whether he was mustered or not, 20-year-old Patrick Hannigan registered for the Civil War draft in 1863 in the town of China. The Smithsonian has an example of the draft wheel.

In 1870, Thomas and Margaret have moved 16 miles to a new farm in Leicester, Livingston County, New York. Living with them are Patrick and his new wife, Jane Manning Hannigan, a widow with four daughters. Two new babes have been born to the young couple: Alice is two years old and her brother, Francis Hannigan, is eight months old. 

1870 Census

Sometime after 1870, Patrick and Jane moved their new family back to Wyoming County but this time to the town of Warsaw. A new child, John, is born in 1873. Sadly, Patrick passed away some time between 1873 and 1875 as Jane is a widow again in the 1875 NY state census below. Her daughter, Agnes, her new husband, Orlando Sayers, and their newborn William, live with the family, as well.

1875 Census

Bridget Hannigan Gaylord Welch

      Bridget does not appear in the 1875 census. She married Howard Gaylord in 1878 and they had two children, Mary Jane "Jennie" and Margaret but Howard died a few years later. A widow with two small children and no way to provide for herself, Bridget married her second husband, William Welch, a widower who had nine children of his own. They had two more children together. 

          An interesting point of history: William's brother, Edward Welch, died in 1864 in the infamous Confederate Prison called Andersonville.

     Bridget's sister, Mary Hannigan, married Cornelius Shien. At some point, they changed their last name to Duffy and had ten children. They remained in Mt. Morris, just next door to Leicester.

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Seen in this 1880 census, Jane and her three children, have moved back to Leicester, next door to her in-laws, Thomas and Margaret.

Jane Manning Hannigan (Manning Family history) sadly passed away in 1894 in Mt. Morris at the home of her daughter Susan Wright. Her obituary is below:

St. Patrick's Church in Mt. Morris, NY

Margaret Gilmartin Hannigan passed away in 1897. My husband and son tramped around the peaceful cemeteries next to St. Patrick's in Mt. Morris as well as the Leicester Cemetery but we found no markers for them. 

Sometime before 1900, Alice had moved to Chicago and married John Leonard and started a family.

See Hannigans Move to Chicago

O'Malleys Set Sail!

This is the manifest of passengers sailing in saloon, cabin, or steerage on the Etruria on October 6, 1907.  They sailed from Queenstown, Ireland. Elizabeth Masterson O'Malley was 40 years old and she had with her six children: John was 10, Patrick 7 (both boys and their mother could read and write), Mary was 4, Rose 3, Eliza 2 and James, my grandfather was 6 months old. They list their nationality as Scotch but their last known residence was Newport, County Mayo. Likely they went to stay with family while they waited to sail to the new country for good. Their destination was to meet with the children's father, Michael O'Malley who lived at 129 Dearborn Ave in Chicago Illinois.

Michael O'Malley had already sailed to Chicago on May 2, 1906. He also sailed from Queenstown and listed his profession as a laborer and was 35 years old. He listed his nephew, Michael Fahey, at 57 Superior St in Chicago, as the person he was going to visit. 

Michael and his younger brother Anthony were probably born in Westport, Ireland but I have yet to pinpoint exact birth records. Michael and Anthony had two sisters, Mary and Sarah. Their father's name was Peter O'Malley and their mother was Rose McDonald.

Not only were Michael and Anthony born near Westport, we got to visit their actual homestead in Cloonfoher, a township north of Newport, near Burrishoole Abbey. The O'Malleys of Cloonfoher 

Michael O'Malley had emigrated to Glasgow, Scotland to find work in the bustling city. There he met Elizabeth Masterson and they were married in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church on January 13, 1896. The marriage record below shows Michael's parents: Peter O'Malley and Rose McDonald and Elizabeth Masterson's parents: John Masterson and Mary McEntee. 

At the turn of the 19th century the Catholic population of Glasgow and its surroundings grew rapidly with the arrival of many Irish people seeking work in the growing number of factories, mills and construction works. This was later to be boosted by those escaping the Famine. The Church of St Mary of the Assumption was opened in August, 1842 in present day Abercromby St, to serve the new congregation in the east and was only the second Catholic church to have been built in the area since the Reformation. 

 http://wikimapia.org/14464141/St-Marys-RC-Church

Birth Records:

Lizzie Malley was born December 2, 1904 at home, 3 Claythorn Street in Glasgow. 

James was born in 1907

Claythorn Glasgow

This website has some really interesting information about Claythorn. Michael Malley was a Bricklayer's Labourer at that time. Calton is the oldest part of Glasgow and one of the oldest Glesga pubs, Hielan Jessie,  is still standing around the corner from where the Malleys lived. 

More photos in Old Glasgow - Calton

Link to more about  The Mastersons

The O'Malleys on Lovejoy

We know that Elizabeth arrived in New York with her six little children.  The next record is the 1930 census when they all lived at 5300 Lovejoy in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Chicago. The parish was St. Cornelius where the children may have gone to school.  By 1930, John, Rose and Elizabeth had moved on. Elizabeth married, lived two blocks away and had children of her own. Michael was a Nightwatchman for a printing company and his sons followed him into the business. 30 year old Patrick was a typesetter. Mary, 28, was a Dental Assistant. James at 22 years old was a Roto Printer and Sarah, 20, was a stenographer.

The OMalley Reunion in 1997

Some of the memories shared at the reunion about the house on Lovejoy:

Aunt Sal: The house was so beautiful. It had a sweat room off the bathroom. I shared a bedroom with Mary. Mom had to know exactly when we came in. The dining room had a huge leather window seat. 

Dorothy: Mom had beautiful crystal. Stenmal glasses in the large cabinets. 

Kathy Keegan: We wanted to go down the dirty clothes shoot on the 2nd or 3rd floor but thought Grandmother wouldn't like it.

When the boys went back to visit the house at the O'Malley reunion in 1986 with Pete's daughter, Peggy, they said that the boys slept in the same room but could not remember where the girls slept. 

Jim and Helen

James Joseph O'Malley was born in 1907

James Joseph O'Malley became a naturalized citizen in November 21,1933 and married a few years later to Helen Schoentgen.

In 1940 James and Helen O'Malley lived at 13158 Appoline in Detroit Michigan. Dennis was one and had been born in that city. James was a printer in the Rotogravure Publishing industry.