Sunday, February 24, 2019

Finding Our Hussey Ancestors in Co. Galway, Ireland

This blog post is the third of several that I hope will assist me in locating the townlands and parishes of my ancestors in Ireland. My brother, sister and I will be visiting Ireland and staying in Co. Galway in 2019.

  

Co. Galway, Ireland: 1840-1860

"Like most towns in Ireland, Galway was used to food shortages; they had occurred here in 1816, 1817, 1822, 1831, and in 1842 there were food riots in the city. Nobody, however, was prepared for what happened in 1845 when the potato crop failed. As winter approached, the situation did not seem any worse than usual, though people were concerned about food being exported from the docks while there was a shortage locally."
Potato riots : Panic as starving people attack and steal potatos
from a shop in Galway
(London Illustrated News 1847).
The winter of 1846/47 was the most severe in living memory, and the number of deaths from hunger in the city averaged between 25 and 30 a week. Auxiliary workhouses opened in Newtownsmyth, Merchants Road, Barna, and Dangan. Epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery broke out, and by May 1847, these fevers were accounting for 100 deaths a week. During 1847 and 1848, 11,000 inmates died in Galway workhouse. On the bitterly cold morning of January 26, 1848, two children were found naked and dead on High Street, and another on an adjoining street."     (Source: The Advertiser)


Mary Hussey (1842-1913)

So little is known for certain about my 2nd great-grandmother Mary (Hussey) Broderick. We do know that:
  • Mary was born in Ireland circa 1842 (the exact year/date is unknown)
  • Mary's parents are Robert Hussey and Mary Keveney
  • She may have emigrated first to Boston with three sisters
  • Mary "crossed the Atlantic from Galway, Ireland"
  • Mary crossed the Atlantic to "fulfill a vow made several years after young (Martin) Broderick left the Emerald Isle"(Martin left around 1844)
  • Mary has two emigration stories: one in print and one that has been passed down orally through her grandchildren
A Crayon Portrait done of Mary Hussey from the private photo collection of Bernard Broderick

Mary Was Born in Ireland
Between 1842 and 1848

We know that Mary is the daughter of Robert Hussey and Mary Keveney. This is the information on Mary's 1913 death certificate provided by her son Detective Leo William Broderick (1879-1920).


Source: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.Original data - Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1934. MS 935, 496 reels. Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Ontario O; Roll: MS935_185.
According to the details on this death certificate, Mary was born in 1842, (her headstone at Assumption Cemetery in Windsor says 1841) and based on census data 1871-1911, Mary's recorded age fluctuated as follows:
  • 1871 Census: Age 29 - therefore born in 1842
  • 1881 Census: Age 35 - therefore born in 1846
  • 1891 Census: Age 47 - therefore born in 1844
  • 1901 Census: Age 56 - therefore born in 1848
  • 1911 Census: Age 66 - therefore born in 1845 
For genealogists, seeing such a wide variation in potential birth years is challenging when searching records. For basic searches, I have been using 1842 (+/- 3 years) for Mary's birth date.

Mary's Emigration Story

There are several versions of Mary's emigration story:
  1. From the oral history of Mary's grandson Bernard Broderick (1916-1992)  (see below) Bernard's record indicate that Mary "came to USA with three sisters - worked around Boston - I heard that she ended up as a barmaid in Detroit - exchange of a locket of hair before leaving Ireland - married Martin"
  2. From Martin Broderick's 1915 obituary, it indicates that Mary "crossed the Atlantic from Galway county, Ireland to fulfill a vow made several years after young (Martin) Broderick left the Emerald Isle"
In January 1849 there was a letter in the Detroit Post Office for Mary Hussey
 
Source: Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) 04 Jan 1849, Thu  • Page 3

Mary's Marriage Between 1863 and 1865

The marriage records for Mary and Martin have not been located. The following factors taken into consideration:
  • Marriage after 1861: Martin Broderick was single on the 1861 census. 
  • Marriage before 1865: Mary and Martin's first child Margaret Ellen (Broderick) Dufour was born September 1866 
  • Marriage 1865: In the 1915 obituary for Martin Broderick in the Detroit Free Press, it read, "Fifty years ago he was married to Miss Mary Hussey who crossed the Atlantic from Galway county, Ireland to fulfill a vow made several years after young Broderick left the Emerald Isle".
  • Marriage 1863: In the 1915 obituary for Martin Broderick in the Detroit Free Press,"Mrs Broderick died two years ago, This bereavement caused the husband much sorrow, as he expected soon to celebrate their golden wedding."

1866 Martin and Mary (Hussey) Broderick's Family 

Their first child Margaret Ellen (Broderick) Dufour who was born September 14, 1866 making their probable marriage date in 1865 (record not found). In total, Mary and Martin had nine children one of whom was our great grandmother Mary Anne Elizabeth (Broderick) Moynahan (1869-1960)



Oral History: Information from Bernard Broderick 

Bernard Broderick (1916-1992) in 1989 at his parents new headstone
St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Maidstone, Essex County, Ontario, Canada

I had the opportunity to record a family history oral interview with my 1st cousin (twice removed) Bernard Broderick (1916-1992) in November 1987. He was the son of Patrick Francis Broderick (1871-1943) and grandson of Martin and Mary Broderick. Bernard had made several trips to Ireland in search of his Irish Roots and he offered some clues. After doing a review of Mary Hussey's records

Source: Photo archive of Bernard Broderick (1916-1992)

Mary (Hussey) Broderick's Death 1913


Source: Photo archive of Bernard Broderick (1916-1992)
Source: The Evening Record; 3 July, 1913.
Source: Essex Free Press; 11 July 1913

Source: CanGenWeb: Photo by Douglas Gammon [2011],
( Bob Garant, Denis Dupuis, Gilles Caron)
Indexed by Alison Mitchell-Reid
The Love Story 
Mystery
 
Martin (born in County Clare) left Ireland in 1843 when he was only  twelve years old. 

Mary left "several years after him" crossing the Atlantic " from Galway ... to fulfill a vow"

And what of the "exchange of a locket of hair before leaving Ireland " that their grandchildren, (like Bernard Broderick) recall hearing about? These and many more mysteries have yet to be solved.

Some Galway, Ireland Links
"Galway is one of the five counties in the province of Connacht and is situated on the western seaboard of Ireland. County Galway became an official entity around 1569 AD. In modern times, a number of inhabited islands are also administered by the county; these include the Aran Islands and Inishbofin. County Galway is home to the largest Irish-speaking region in Ireland." (Source: County Galway, Ireland Genealogy)

Galway History Links
Irish Famine & Emigration Links

Miscellaneous Links
The large number of fatalities aboard overcrowded vessels carrying immigrants away from famine-devastated Ireland led them to be labeled "coffin ships." This political cartoon from Harper's Weekly, by W. A. Rogers, ran with the caption, "The balance of trade with Great Britain seems to be still against us. 630 paupers arrived at Boston in the steamship Nestoria, April 15th, from Galway, Ireland shipped by the British Government." The Irish vessel is labeled "Poor House from Galway." The smaller vessel to the left is marked with the words, "From New York. The Dynamite." The small box on which the man in the plaid coat is seated also contains the words "the dynamite."
Harper's Weekly.

My Previous Blog Posts 
About Mary Hussey Broderick
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