The Hannigans of Western New York
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Seen in this 1880 census, Jane and her three children, have moved back to Leicester, next door to her in-laws, Thomas and Margaret.
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:
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| 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.
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