Michael Curley not son of Patrick and Mary of Sonnagh

I have determined that my grandfather Michael Curley is not the Michael Curley who was born on 17 October 1874 to Patrick Curley, farm laborer, and his wife Mary, nee Dillon, residents of Sonnagh, County Galway, since that Michael was still living with them in 1911.

McLaughlins of Brooklyn

I've been putting on WeRelate information on two Mclaughlin families in Brooklyn that I am sure must be related. One family is that of Hugh "Boss" McLaughlin, a Brooklyn politico of the second half of the nineteenth century. The other, to which I know I am related, is the family of Henry McLaughlin, one of whose descendants was George Vincent McLaughlin, a banker, who was Police Commissioner of NYC for a short while under Mayor Walker. I am hoping that someone can make a connection.

I also added some information about the Kilcommons family. I had been told that Mary Kilcommons, who was born in Jersey City in 1903, had married a Weinberg. Using the SSDI, I found that she married Gilbert Whinberg.

I am hoping that more people start using WeRelate so that mistakes can be corrected easily. I am annoyed when I see a pedigree on Ancestry.com with a child born before the supposed parent, and the most you can do is put a post-it noting that fact.

Wilbur Family of Butte Co., California

This morning I added to WeRelate some information about the James B. and Rose Gertrude (Byrne) Wilbur family of Butte County, California. They are descendants of the Haley family who went to California from New Jersey at the time of the Gold Rush, and settled in Yuba County.

WeRelate.org

A few months ago I discovered WeRelate.org, a wiki type web site that allows collaboration in doing genealogy. I have already connected my Donnelly line with some Donnellys who were already on there. I have contacted some of the people with whom I share ancestry and asked them to consider participating. I am still working on the fine points, and I am adding people individually, and not just uploading a Gedcom file, so that I can check my work as I go along. I have added information for most of the families I am working on: Curley, McEnery, Connolly, Donnelly, McLaughlin, Kilcommons, and several others.

Searching for Michael Curley

I have been doing family history for about forty years now. I have had a great deal of success with my mother's side of the family: McEnery, Connolly, Donnelly--mostly from Essex County, NJ. I have not had much success with my father's side. I have a bit of information on the Kilcommonses (Bridget "Delia" Kilcommons Curley was my father's mother). I have never been able to get beyond my father's father, Michael Joseph Curley. He was (probably!) born in County Galway. He may have immigrated through Canada. He ended up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he worked for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He died in Philadelphia in 1931.