Meghan’s grandparents and the ancestors the records confirm so far. On her father’s side, Frank McCauley of Bay Ridge and Diane Byrnes, with a mail-carrier McCauley whose family had been New Yorkers since before the Civil War, a Herbert–Boyle line in Brooklyn and an elevator-operator Byrnes father with a Rooney mother from County Monaghan. On her mother’s side, Michael F. Kelly, Sr., a Westbury horse groom whose father came from near Tulsk in County Roscommon and whose mother, Mary Froehlich, came from a German family in Queens and Elmont, and Agnes M. Kelly of Northport, very likely a daughter of Joseph Healy and Louise Boehm of Hicksville. Behind them are German immigrants from Prussia, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hanover, and an Irish-born Healy who came over in 1850. Only facts found in records are shown, and each card says how firm the link is. Living family members are kept private.
Switch between Meghan’s father’s and mother’s sides above the chart. Select anyone to see their dates, places, family and the records behind them.
Frank’s place in the Frank L. and Helen McCauley household rests on a close fit: name, age, Brooklyn, and two family memories (the postal-worker father and the Boyle name). Three documents would settle it. His full 1956 New York City marriage certificate names both sets of parents; the City Clerk’s office issues genealogy copies of marriages more than 50 years old. His Social Security application (form SS-5) also names his parents; the Social Security Administration releases it to anyone for a deceased person. His military file, from the National Personnel Records Center, would also work. Any of these also confirms his birth date.
The family remembers Frank serving in California in something like codebreaking, without seeing combat. Born in 1930, he’d have served in the early 1950s, around the Korean War. Army signals intelligence of that era was the Army Security Agency. No service record is online yet. As next of kin, his children can request his personnel file and DD-214 from the National Personnel Records Center at archives.gov. Frank Sr.’s World War I file (corporal, U.S. Army) is public now and can be ordered from the same place.
John McCauley and Margaret McHugh married in Manhattan on 6 August 1892, and the record names their parents: Patrick J. McCauley and Alice Cavanagh, and Martin McHugh and Mary Moran. John’s 1913 death record names the same parents and says Patrick was born in New York, so the McCauley immigrant is a generation further back still. The next records are Patrick and Alice’s household in the 1860 and 1870 censuses (John was born on 18 November 1864), and the 1892 certificate image, which gives addresses and birthplaces. Martin McHugh is probably the 68-year-old Irish-born porter living in New York City in 1880 with a daughter Margaret. On the Herbert side, John E. Herbert and Catherine Boyle’s own marriage, about 1890–91, hasn’t turned up in the New York City indexes yet. It would name their parents. Thomas Boyle (born about 1882) and Francis Herbert (born about 1872), the “uncles” in the 1940 and 1950 households, are the other way back.
Elizabeth’s own Social Security file names her parents, John Rooney and Teresa Murray, and her birthplace, County Monaghan. In 1911 a John and Teresa Rooney, both born in Fermanagh, were farming at Lennaght, County Monaghan, with daughters Lizzie, Mary Kate and Agnes. Her Irish civil birth entry would prove the link, and John and Teresa’s civil marriage entry, about 1903–04 in Monaghan or Fermanagh, would name both their fathers, Meghan’s 4th great-grandfathers. It should be in the 1905–1907 registers for Clones district, free at irishgenealogy.ie. Her ship hasn’t been found yet. Four Elizabeth Rooneys who landed at New York in 1926–1930 have been checked and ruled out: they came from Lurgan, Manorhamilton, Leitrim and Glasgow, and none had parents named John and Teresa. Her naturalization papers would name the ship, if she was naturalized. So would the 1930 census, once she is found in it.
A Daniel and Margaret Byrnes household in New York City (1915) and Brooklyn (1920) includes a son James, born about 1907 in New Jersey, which fits James Edward exactly. Margaret was born in Ireland and came over in 1903; a James McPhillips, listed as Daniel’s brother-in-law, points to her maiden name. James’s own Social Security application, or his 1907 Jersey City birth record, would confirm it. A Daniel Byrnes of Brooklyn who died in Manhattan in 1939, husband of a Margaret and son of James Byrnes and Elizabeth Whalen, may be the same man, but his age (born about 1882) doesn’t fit, so his parents haven’t been added.
The family names Agnes’s parents as Joseph Healy and Louise Boehm. The records fit: an Agnes Healy of the right age lived with them in 1930, 1940 and 1950. Her sisters Augusta and Florence are buried at St. Philip Neri, the same cemetery as Agnes, and Augusta lived in Northport. What’s missing is one document that uses both names. The best is Michael and Agnes’s marriage record. They married after April 1950, probably in Nassau or Suffolk County; the town clerk where the license was issued can supply a copy, and the New York State marriage index (free through Reclaim the Records, and on Ancestry) gives the town and certificate number. Agnes’s Social Security application (form SS-5, available for a deceased person from the Social Security Administration) would also name her parents. So would the obituary of her sister Marion (1925–2010) or Doris Martens (1913–2004), if it lists a sister Agnes Kelly.
Rudolph Boehm’s 1887 marriage certificate names his parents as Robert Boehm and Mary Haller. The 1870 census says Robert was born in Prussia, about 1818, and Mary in Württemberg, about 1828; she came over about 1853. A Maria Haller was baptized in the Catholic parish of Frittlingen, Württemberg, on 5 January 1829, born the day before to Johannes Haller and Magdalena Zepf. That is the same birth date as on Mary Boehm’s Find a Grave memorial, which makes Johannes and Magdalena possible 4th great-grandparents. It isn’t proof, because Haller is a common name in Württemberg; a church record in Brooklyn naming her parents or her home village would settle it. For Robert, the 1850s passenger lists and his naturalization record are the places most likely to name a town in Prussia. Augusta’s parents were Gottlieb Menz and Dorothea, whose maiden name is written “Elles” on the marriage certificate. Dora was born in Germany in May 1825. The Menz family’s German church in Manhattan, where Augusta would have been baptized in 1857, is the best place to find their home town.
Thomas Healy, born in Ireland in January 1826, came over in 1850 and was farming in Oyster Bay by 1870 with his wife Ann and their sons Joseph and John. Ann’s maiden name and the family’s county aren’t known yet. Thomas’s naturalization record, or the baptism of Joseph (born April 1856) in a Catholic parish near Oyster Bay, would give one or both. Mary Cashman was born in New York in March 1857 to Irish parents. In 1870 a Mary Cashman of her age was a 14-year-old living in another family’s house in Oyster Bay, so her parents may have died young. Her marriage to Joseph, about 1875, is the record most likely to name them.
A family note lists these names together, apparently from Michael Joseph Kelly and Mary Froehlich’s 1922 marriage: Mary Froehlich of Elmont; Michael’s parents Thomas and Eliza Kelly; Mary’s parents Jacob Froehlich and Christina Pasker; and Patrick Kelly, Caroline Froehlich and John J. Moran. Every one of them fits the records. Mary had a sister Caroline, born 1899, and Michael had a brother Patrick, born 1885, who also emigrated, so they were probably the witnesses. John J. Moran may be the priest. The record itself isn’t in the FamilySearch indexes yet. A copy, or its certificate number and town from the New York State marriage index, would make it the main source for this marriage and both sets of parents.
Thomas Kelly and Elizabeth (Eliza) Beirne married on 15 April 1872 at Ballinameen, County Roscommon, and their children were baptized in Ogulla parish (Tulsk) and registered in Strokestown district between 1873 and the late 1880s. Michael, born 24 September 1881 according to his Find a Grave memorial, is the one child not yet found in the indexes. The Ogulla baptism register for 1881 (images at registers.nli.ie) and the Strokestown civil birth register for 1881 (free at irishgenealogy.ie) would settle it. Michael isn’t in his father’s house in 1901. The most likely crossing is the SS Cedric, which landed at Ellis Island on 17 May 1903. Its list includes a Michael Kelly, 20, from Strokestown, going to his sister Winifred at 324 Lexington Avenue in New York. His naturalization papers would confirm it.
The 1872 parish marriage entry names a James Kelly and a Luke Beirne beside the couple. FamilySearch’s index records them as Thomas’s and Elizabeth’s fathers; in Latin registers of the time they could also be the witnesses. Their civil marriage entry for 1872 (Boyle or Strokestown registration district, free at irishgenealogy.ie) gives both fathers’ names outright, and would confirm whether James Kelly and Luke Beirne are Meghan’s 4th great-grandfathers. The Ballinameen register image at registers.nli.ie would also show how the entry reads.
In 1880 Jacob Froehlich, 14, was living in Jamaica, Queens, with his father Frank, a 57-year-old German-born farmer, and the census says Frank’s parents and his wife’s parents were all born in Bavaria. Jacob’s Find a Grave memorial names his mother as Magdalena Breiner, but the 1880 census calls Frank’s wife Eliza. Jacob’s baptism (about July 1866) or his marriage to Christina, about 1889, would settle her name and might name the Froehlichs’ village. Christina’s parents were very likely Adolph and Angelina Pasker of Hempstead. In 1860 Adolph, then 31, was living with a Henry Pasker (58) and Elizabeth Pasker (54), all born in Hanover. Henry and Elizabeth are probably Adolph’s parents, which would make them Meghan’s 4th great-grandparents, but the 1860 census doesn’t state relationships. Adolph’s naturalization (an Adolf Pasker, born in Prussia, was naturalized in New York in 1853) or a Hanover church record would confirm it.
In 1950 Michael was still grooming horses in Westbury; his Grumman years came later. His 2018 obituary hasn’t turned up online. Newsday’s death notices for February 2018, or the funeral home that buried him at St. Philip Neri, would have it, and would likely mention Grumman and any military service.