James Carey : Short Biography

                          My GG Grandfather James Carey  and family from 13th st Brooklyn

                                                                    1825-1880

James Carey my  GG Grandfather was  born around 1825 in the RC parish of Murroe and Boher in the Townland of Moher on the County Limerick /Tipperary border.   His parents were Martin Carey and Rebecca Blackwell. I could not find a baptismal record for him . James I believe was one of the attackers of the farmers cows of his father Martin’s former property at Forkeala in 1851. He was sentenced to prison  for 10 years but served 7 . Per what was written in the prison record , James Carey was born 1825 at Abington( Murroe and Boher) County Limerick. He lived there before being convicted of attacking cattle in 1852. His friends live in Newport County Tipperary and he would like to go back there when he gets out. He got out June 1st 1859 and was going to Shallee Newport County Tipperary to be with his wife and family before emigrating. 

Before James went to prison  he was married to a  Ellen Simms Feb 22 1846 at Murroe and Boher County Limerick. They had two children ,   Martin b aug 14th 1847  and a John b Aug 18th 1849 . When James got out of prison , per the records he went back to live with them in the Newport area. What happened to his wife and kids after that , I am not sure. Per Marie Butler , Aunt Sadie Fischer told her  that James Carey was married before he came over and that his first wife died in Ireland. That maybe the case as I believe James came over by himself .  I am not exactly sure when James came over  but I believe it was in the early 1860’s. He married his second wife Bridget Walsh on april 2nd 1862 in St Paul’s Church Brooklyn so we know he was here by then.  What happened to his kids in Ireland I am not sure. Maybe they were left with relatives. James was in prison for 7 years so anything is possible. Somebody must have taken care of them.

James’s sons  Martin and John eventually came over in the 1860’s.  John became  a Dairy farmer in Queens. Not sure what happened to Martin. Per Marie Butler, Aunt Sadie Fischer said  John the Dairy farmer in Queens was a half  brother to her father Tom Carey, who was James son by his second marriage.  This would make  sense as Aunt Sade would have knowledge about this through her father. They probably visited each other but I don’t think it was very often as the families did not seem very close.    

There was also a prayer book that family members remember seeing that belonged to James Carey. In it supposedly it said James Carey leaving Tipperary. The people that saw it were not sure of the date but thought it was in the 1850’s or 60’s. Unfortunately the prayer book has been lost . Nobody seems to know what happened to it. It does jive with where James Carey was living at the time before he came over, Newport County Tipperary. The Ships passenger list has been indexed and is on line. I will keep checking to see if I can find out when James came over.

What was going on with James in Ireland before he came over is still a work in progress. Things are a little murky but I think as time goes along things will get clearer. It sounds like things were chaotic in Ireland . This chaos unfortunately continued after James came over as you will see from my write up.    

The first actual record that I can confirm as being our James Carey in Brooklyn is a marriage record of James Carey and Bridget Walsh in St Paul’s RC Church in   Brooklyn NY on April 2nd 1862. The church is located in the 6th ward on Congress and Court St in what was then known as South Brooklyn. Today this area is known as Cobble Hill. The church has been combined with St Peters church and is now known as St Peter and Paul our lady of Pilar on 234 Congress st. The witness to the wedding was a Michael and M Slattery and a E Bohen.  This is our James Carey as he did marry a Bridget Walsh and this would be the correct time frame they would have married. 

There is a 1865 NYS State census that I have been checking for years to try and find the Carey family. Family members thought that James’s son Tom Carey was baptized in St Joseph’s Church on Vanderbilt Ave and Pacific St which is in the 9th ward . So I looked in the census record for the 9th Ward and guess what? I found the Carey family. Listed was a Bridget Carey 28 born in Ire, Mary A 2 6/12ths born in Kings County and Thomas 7/12ths (G Grandfather) born in Kings County. This matches up to our Carey family except for one small problem . Where’s James Carey? Bridget was listed as a Widow  but this can’t be as James appears again in the 1870 Census and has 4 more children. 

There are several articles in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting Oct 1864 about a James Carey  who was arrested and prosecuted for attempted ravishing .  In a article dated Oct 26th 1864 it said the attack happened the day before in a vacant lot off of Clove road (Crow Hill area) . In another longer article dated Nov 24th 1864 , the Crow Hill area ( now Crown Heights) is described as a sparsely populated area in the 9th ward  where such a attack could take place. The article also says that James Carey produced two witness’s that said he was at work at the Atlantic Dock or Commercial wharf when the attack happened. The prosecution had 4 witness’s that said James Carey was in the Crow Hill area between 10:00 and 11:00 am when the attack happened. 

The article goes on to say he had attacked other woman . The Judge had James held for Grand Jury action. The article also gives a description of James Carey as a dark hair , red faced looking man with a low forehead who looks like he could commit such a crime.  The article also says that James was married and his wife was present with babe in her arms ( Tom Carey) at the hearing.  

There is a even longer article dated Dec 7th 1864 under the heading the 9th ward outrage.  It describes the trial that James Carey had in the Court of Sessions before Judge Dikeman. The witness for the defense of James Carey was his brother in law Nathan Walsh and his wife Ann.  For the prosecution there were several witness’s who saw what happened and said that James attacked a woman as she was gathering fire wood along clove rd. in a area known as wood lots. Each side claimed that they tried to buy each other off for $ 125 to keep quiet. James’s lawyer a Mr Hughes tried to have a motion to have the case thrown out because no one said it happened in Kings County. The Judge denied the motion. The case was presented to the jury and James was found guilty and remanded for sentencing.     

The James Carey in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article and the James Carey that is my GG Grandfather are one and the same. James was not in the 1865 NYS census because he was in state prison. I checked with the State Archives and they found a James Carey (spelled Cary) in the Sing Sing prison records who was sentenced on 12/17/1864 in the Court of Sessions Kings County by a Judge Dikeman to 4-6 years for attempted ravishing.  This matches up to what was in the Dec 7th Brooklyn Daily Eagle article as it said he appeared before Judge Dikeman and was found guilty and was awaiting sentencing.  (The state has more detailed records for Sing Sing prisoner’s starting in Jan of 1865.   Just missed this info with James going away in Dec 1864.  Oh well that is genealogy for you!)  

Bridget had her hands full taking care of the family while James was away in prison .  Bridget probably cleaned houses and did laundry. I am sure it was a struggle. She had no income from James. Before going to prison James was making his living as a stevedore working on the docks on the East River . ( per the Nov 24th article Brooklyn Daily Eagle   James Carey normally worked on the Atlantic Dock commercial wharf . The Atlantic Dock was a boat basin in the East River off of Red Hook Brooklyn that sailing ships and Erie Canal barges could come in to load and off load cargo. There were several large grain Elevators there. )  

Per prison records James was supposed to be discharged from prison June 17 1869. I believe he got out in 1868 probably time off for good behavior . I found our James Carey in the Brooklyn Directory for 1868 back in the Crow Hill area living at Clove Place near Bedford ave . He was working as a Horse Trader. James had a daughter Delia born around 1868/69 so this would match up to as when James was released from prison.

I found the family in the 1870 federal census . The family had now moved from Crow Hill and the 9th ward to the  22nd ward on 13th street on the corner of 9th ave. (now  Prospect Park west) . James Carey  is listed and is now  40 with his wife  Bridget  30 and children Mary A 8, Thomas  F 5 and Delia 1 . . (I have not been able to find  the Baptismal  record for Mary A, Thomas or Delia Carey but I will keep trying to find it. I wrote to St Joseph’s church on Vanderbilt Ave and they said they don’t have it but I will try again. They had to be baptized somewhere in the Crow Hill area. St Joseph‘s would be the nearest Church. I am not sure what other church it could be. I checked St Paul‘s church  on line records where James and Bridget were  married  and I couldn’t find anything. ) James worked as a laborer and was a naturalized citizen and could read and write.

James Carey appears in the Brooklyn Directory for 1870 living at 477 13th st working as a laborer. The area was called at one time South Brooklyn but today is called Park Slope. Before the Carey’s moved in it was farmland . Edwin Clarke Litchfield owned the land as an estate and it was sold off to developers in the 1850’s . The City of Brooklyn purchased some of the estate around 1859 to build Prospect Park. Prospect park was built by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux in the 1860’s after the Civil War ended.

On 10 17 1872 James Carey purchased a plot in Holy Cross Cemetery for the burial of his daughter Catherine. She died when she was 7 days old. I found the baptism for her in St John’s the Evangelist Church on 21st Street. . She was born October 9th 1872 and was baptized October 15th 1872. Her sponsors were Peter Campbell and Elizabeth Donovan. 

There is another article about James Carey in the Brooklyn daily eagle from 1874 that I  found. James Carey was still having problems and was fighting with his neighbor Mary Dugan. The article really gives a sense of what was going on at that time with the Carey family. It sounded like real chaos.

According to the article there was a pond next to James Carey’s house that Mary Dugan’s son was fishing in . James Carey became upset because he felt he owned the pond  because he paid rent for it to his landlord and nobody else should fish there. Mary Dugan said she waters her horses there and has claim to the pond as well. James and Mary pushed each other and wound up in court . Mary said James was no good because he served time in prison. (This further confirms that James Carey went away to prison ) . James said Mary was drunk. The Judge ordered James to pay a fine or go to Jail for 10 days. James went to jail for 10 days. 

The Carey family is in the 1875 State census still living at 477 13th street. Appearing in the Census is James Carey 50 and Bridget age 35. With them are children Mary13, Thomas 10, Delia 7 , Maggie 4 and Katie 1. James Carey was listed as a laborer and his normal work place is in Brooklyn. Both James and Bridget were listed as born in Ireland . James was listed as a naturalized alien. The House was listed as a plank house and its value was $1000. ( There are later articles in the Brooklyn Eagle that describe the house as a white washed one story two room shanty in a vacant lot on the corner of 13th     street and 9th ave. now prospect park west . They were really poor. It must have been close quarters for the family.)  

I found the baptismal for Maggie and Katie in St John’s the Evangelist Church on 21st st. Margaret was born Dec 31st 1870 and was baptized 22nd January 1871 Alex Kavanaugh and Honora Fair were a witness. Katie was born May 15th 1874. She was baptized May 24th 1874. Witness was Alex Kavannaugh and Mary Slatter (Slattery) . 

James Carey died  Feb 9th 1876 at 477 13th Brooklyn. I was  able to get his death certificate which was misfiled under Jane Carey. This explains why I and others had such a hard time finding it. For starters I didn‘t think NYC had death certificates this far back but I was wrong. I know other Counties don’t go back anywhere near this far. I was very happy to find it.  James died of the congestion of the lungs, probably TB.  He worked as a Laborer and was born in Ireland. The death cert says he was 12 years in the country and the city. This is off as we know James was married in 1862 in Brooklyn. He probably came over shortly before he was married.

James Carey is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery section letters range r plot #224.   The owner of the plot #224 is a Ann Keary (Carey) , who was  the wife of James Carey’s brother Thomas Carey. For the longest time I and fellow genealogist Marie Butler  couldn’t figure out why James was not buried in his own plot #200. We thought maybe he went back to Ireland, went back to prison , was dumped in the East River or maybe Holy Cross wouldn’t bury him because of his past record. (we sort of discounted that theory as mobsters get buried in a Catholic Cemetery all the time). We didn’t think he was buried in Holy Cross. Turned out he was buried there right near his original plot that he purchased for the burial of baby Katie. (I will talk more about James’s brother Thomas Carey and his family at the end of my report.)  

 After James died his widow Bridget Walsh Carey on Nov 8th 1878  was re-married to a Michael Sheehan in the Holy Name Church on 245 Prospect Park West in the presence of Robert Cavanaugh and Annie O’Day with the reverend Thomas O’Kelly officiating. The family continued to live in the Shanty at the corner of 477 13th st and 9th ave.