Good Day! James Reilly was born in 1841 to Patrick Reilly and Bridget Doyle. I have found a baptismal record identifying Fr. Eugene Daly as the priest who baptised him and James Doyle and Mary Brady as sponsors at "Colmcille" Parish. James emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio around 1864-65 and was ordained in Cleveland. He established a new parish in Cleveland named after his home parish. He returned to Ireland and apparently convinced a number of his siblings to move to Cleveland with him. His siblings were Charles, Anne, Phillip, Rose and Thomas E. Reilly. Thomas E. was my great-grandfather. I have noticed in the 1870 US census the Reilly surname was very quickly changed back to O'Reilly. When Rev. James was transferred to Toledo some of the clan followed him. Thomas was born in 1854 so he would have been 15 years old when he left home. He married Annie Farrell in 1878 in Cleveland and later moved to Toledo (1880) and had four children, one of whom was my maternal grandmother Mary O'Reilly.
I have found no records for Rev. James' parents, Patrick Reilly and Bridget Doyle. I would love to learn more about my great-granfather's family and life in Ireland and connect with any relatives who might still be in the area. Thanks!
Mark Madden Sheahan
Sunday 4th Jun 2017, 06:03PMMessage Board Replies
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Mark:
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!
I located the December 1838 amrriage record for Patrick and Bridget on Roots Ireland. See transcription below. You can check the register to see the entry at this link http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0158
Date of Marriage:09-Dec-1838
Parish / District:COLMCILLE
County:Co. Longford
Husband PatrickReilly
Wife BridgetDoyleThe 1854 Griffiths Valuation head of hosuehold listing shows there were many Reilly families in Columbkille civil parish including Patrick in Rosduff http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/longford/columbkille.htm
The 1901 census for Rosduff again shows many many Reilly households.
http://census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Longford/Columbkille/Rosdu…
Looks like Bridget died at age 80 in 1899. Son John was the informant. You will have to sign-in to see the record.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…
Possibly John in the 1901 census
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…
Have you considere autosomal DNA testing?
Let me know if you have questions.
Roger McDonnell
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Sunday 4th Jun 2017, 07:00PM -
Roger - Thanks very much for your reply. I will follow up on your suggestions. There was an abundance of Reillys in the area in the late 1800's. I have thought about doing the autosomal DNA test. Perhaps it is time.
Mark Sheahan
Mark Madden Sheahan
Monday 5th Jun 2017, 07:37PM -
Mark - It's possible that we're related. My DOYLEs also came from the Columbkille area and I've been trying to reconstruct the family through records and DNA matches. My ggg-grandfather was Thomas DOYLE (born c.1805-10, died 1886), who married Rose ROGERS in 1826 (evidently). He seems also to have have had an older brother Bartholomew DOYLE (c.1798-1868). Most of Thomas and Rose's children wound up in western Pennsylvania in the 1860s and '70s. Have you or any of your siblings or cousins tested your DNA yet? It's really been a game changer.
Ian
ianschoenherr
Saturday 16th Mar 2019, 03:35PM