One of the brick walls in my Irish family history on my mother's side is the connection of her great grandmother Abbie Callahan Leary to the other Callahan's living in the town of Concord NH where they settled in the 1850's. Abbie died in 1875 and when her death was registered her husband John Leary did not give her parents' names even though he must have known them. Since they followed the traditional Irish naming pattern I suspect that her father was Daniel (from her second son Daniel who died in Ireland) and her mother was Mary (from her second oldest daughter). John's parents' names James and Hannah were given to the first son and the oldest daughter. (note - other areas of Ireland have a slightly different pattern with eldest son named for paternal grandfather and the eldest daughter for maternal grandmother)
So I began collecting Callahans in Concord - hoping that somehow I could make the connection. After exhausting all the vital records available I checked out the parish registers in Concord and Manchester where some family weddings were recorded for Learys and Callahans. Baptisms and weddings required two witnesses for each. The Irish custom was to ask family members when possible, to serve as sponsors for these events. I came across two possible links - At the wedding of Abbie's daughter Mary to Andrew Bresnahan in 1854 at St. Ann's in Manchester one of the witnesses was a John Callahan. In 1859 Margaret Callahan daughter of John and Mary Walsh had Catherine Leary (daughter of John and Abbie) as her godmother. Joseph Patrick Leary baptized 1879 had an Eugene and Margaret Callahan as his godparents. A John Callahan served as pall bearer for John Leary Sr. at his funeral in 1881.
The next task was to figure out which "John", "Margaret" or "Eugene" was the person mentioned in the record since the Irish are often repeat similar names in each generation. I was able to eliminate some who were deceased before the event took place, too young to serve as a godparent or living in another state.
The most likely of the Callahans in town (although other Callahans may also be related) are two brothers Michael and John P. Callahan who were born in Ireland and arrived in Concord in around 1849-54. Their parents are Eugene (Owen) Callahan born 1799 in Ireland and Margaret O'Connell from the brothers' death records. There is no indication that their parents immigrated.
In Irish records I have found a Eugene Callahan and a Margaret O'Connell living in Glen Flesk Kerry who baptized three children - a son Eugene born 20 June 1837, a daughter Johannah born in 1839 and a son Jeremiah born in 1844. Since the father's name was usually given to the third born son according to the Irish tradition, they could be the parents of Michael (who could have been born as early as 1825) and John born about 1833. Records from earlier times are sometimes not extant. There are no earlier entries for this family so if this is the family of Michael and John Callahan who settled in Concord they might have been the only ones who immigrated to America.
I strongly believe that Eugene is related to Abbie Callahan Leary based on the involvement of this family in events in the Leary family and viceversa. Based on his age he could be her elder brother. It also might explain why the Leary family immigrated to Concord NH (John possibly first with his two eldest daughters Mary and Hannah landing in Boston and then John going back to bring the rest with him) In 1853 when John and wife Abbie Callahan landed in NYC with James, Catherine and John they went directly to Concord NH. The families lived close to one another in Concord and members of each worked for the railroad.
Michael born in 1825-1830 in Ireland was married in 1854 to Hannah Prendeville. He and Hannah had three children between 1857 and 1860. Michael served in the Civil War and served in Company E of the New Hampshire 18th Infantry Regiment 24 Sept 1864 to 10 June 1865. He, with wife and his sons Eugene and John appear in the 1870 census in Concord, His daughter Margaret b. 1860 can't be found in the 1870 census so she may have died. All three Michael, Eugene and John die in 1871 - perhaps from some illness.
John P. born in 1833 in Ireland married two years later to Mary Walsh. If his is the immigration record from 1855 for a John Callahan from Concord, NH, he arrived in 1849. John and Mary had 10 children and they alone are the progenitors of most of the Callahan's who live in Concord. (I have found several other families Barney F.and wife Ellen Kelliher, another John and wife Bridget Fitzgerald and some other stray Callahans but I cannot connect them with each other or with this Callahan line.)
I suspect that John P. Callahan was the man who witnessed the marriage of Mary Leary, daughter of John and Abbie, in 1854 to Andrew Bresnahan. Catherine Leary, daughter of Abbie Callahan Leary was godmother for John and Mary Walsh's daughter Margaret born in 1859. Their first born son Eugene (named for his grandfather) with his sister Margaret were godparents to Abbie's grandson Joseph Patrick in 1879. Michael and Hannah Prendeville also had a daughter Margaret about the same age as her cousin so she also could be the godmother. John P. was living near the Leary family when John Leary Sr. died and is probably the John Callahan who was a pall bearer for his funeral in 1881. There are other John Callahans in town at that time but they seem less likely because there is no other connection with the Leary clan.
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| St. John the Evangelist Church Concord |
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| Msgr. Eugene O'Callaghan |
Even the parish priest in Concord at the time my family lived there was O'Callaghan - Msgr. Eugene O Callaghan from Kinsale, Co. Cork. No connection found with him either although he officiated at a number of family baptisms and weddings. The Leary family had a persistent oral tradition handed down in both lines of the immigrant family (James - mine and his brother John) that they were from Cork which is likely since they lived about a mile from the Kerry Cork border. Certainly Abbie could have been from Cork. It is also possible that the Callahan's were from Kerry.
Oh, if only my great great grandfather had remembered to put his wife's parents on her death record!
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