William Connelly

William Connelly and his wife Mary Donnelly came to America sometime between the birth of their first daughter Mary in 1851 in England, and that of Winnifred in 1855 in Cincinnati. Both William and Mary are said to have come from County Galway, Ireland.

John Connelly was born in 1856, and my great grandfather James in 1858.

I do not know if James and Mary were married in Galway, or met and married in England, most likely in Liverpool.

In 1860 they were living in the Cincinnati area and William was listed as a schoolteacher in a Catholic school. They had four children by then: Mary, Winifred, John, and James; by 1870 only Mary and James had survived.

William was struck by a train while working for the city as a street cleaner and died at his home at 187 6^th Street, Cincinnati, on 7 June 1883; he was 72 years old. He was buried at St Joseph's Old Cemetery, and later moved to a plot at St Joseph's New when his wife Mary died in 1888. She was 61. They are buried in a lot with James Connelly (an infant son of James and Annie), Cornelius Flannery (James' brother-in-law), and Ann {Tracey} Flannery. There are no markers for any of these people at the cemetery.

Here are more details on William and Mary.

Mary married James Heaney in 1870. By then the Connellys were living on East Sixth Street at the foot of Mt Adams in Cincinnati, and were attending St Xavier's Church. Mary met with a tragic death at the age of 28 in 1881.  They had these children:

• James HEANEY was born 1871 in Ohio.
• Annie HEANEY was born 1873 in Ohio.
• Margaret HEANEY was born 1875 in Ohio.
• William HEANEY was born 1878 in Ohio.

James is listed in the 1880 census as a painter/granier, and they were living at 312 Sixth Street in Cincinnati. Heaneys appear in the Cincinnati city directory until about 1910, then I lose track of them.

The Cincinnati Post, December 26, 1881:

It's interesting that when my great-grandfather James was buried, his parents were listed as William Connelly and Anna Heaney, which is indicative that the informant at the time of James death was unclear who the Heaneys were.

James Connelly married Annie Flannery, the daughter of Patrick Flannery and Hanora Tracey, on June 4, 1881, at Holy Cross, atop Mt Adams, which was a popular church for marriages and other significant events in the lives of the many Irish living on the side of the hill. Their children were: William J Connelly, 1881-1965, married Stella Bicknell. Patrick James, 1883-1962, married Dorothy Waters. James, 1885-1889 Mary, born 1887 and married William Lynch. Stella, 1889-1973, married Elwood Volz. James J, 1893-1963, married Hilda “Pete” King. Nora, 1894-1970, married Ed Besse. John Robert, 1899-1978, married Stella Luxenberger.

Patrick Connelly married Dorothy Waters in about 1914. Dorothy was the daughter of Michael Waters, whom I haven't learned much about, and Augusta Phillips. Augusta was born in 1852 and died in 1937, the daughter of Louis Phillips and Lezetta Woepkenberg, who was born in Germany.