Early Foys in Ireland
including Egan, Berry, Foy, Morley, Murray, Curry, Sweeney

click on any picture to see enlargement
 

We have no direct link to any persons with the above names at the decade of the Great Famine (1840-1850).  However, County Mayo was one of the poorest counties in Ireland, and it is estimated that over 250,000 persons emigrated to America and Australia during that period.  There are many persons with these surnames listed in USA census records, but we do not know if we are related to any of them.
 

The Claremorris / Knock / Ballyhaunis Triangle

Within County Mayo there is a small triangle of land with vertices at the towns of Claremorris, Knock and Ballyhaunis.  Almost all of the persons on the Foy side of the family can trace their origins to the western portion of this triangle, along the Claremorris-to-Knock road, either by direct descent or by marriage.

About a mile north of Claremorris along the Knock road, another road branches off eastward past the Carmelite Abbey and burial ground (where many Foys are buried) and passes through some hamlets:  Cartronacross (we call it Cartownacross in our family), Knockatober, the Holy Well, and Garryedmond.  A small road branches north at Garryedmond  and a small road branches south from Garryedmond passing through lower Garryedmond (not mentioned on the map, but near the LC or level crossing at the railroad) leading to the Claremorris/Ballyhaunis road near Koilmore (marked Coilmore on the map).

The Egans lived in Cartronacross with fields extending southward towards Drumkeen.  The Berry lands were along the road from Knockatober to Garryedmond.  The Foy family lived in lower Garryedmond.   When Martin and Anthony Berry and their families left for Kansas in 1884, Patrick Foy moved his family onto their farms (along the road leading north from Garryedmond towards Carraun), occupying Anthony Berry's house while Martin's was demolished and a newer structure was built on the site.   William Foye and Michael Foye were born in lower Garryedmond.  William married Ann Halligan and took over a farm in Kilcolman (slightly west of the Claremorris-to-Knock road). 

The Morley family was centered at Maugheramore or Magheramore along the Ballyhaunis-to-Knock road.  The Murray family was centered at Lissaniska, also near Knock.  The Murray girls who came to the United States married men from Kiltimagh and Swinford;  perhaps they did not know each other in Ireland, but they located close by when they came to America, a common migration pattern.

The Curry and Sweeney  families lived close to Knock.  One source places Martin Curry's farm in Ballynabrehon, west of the Claremorris-to-Knock road, midway between Claremorris and Knock and close to Kilcolman, where William and Ann Foy farmed.

The Foy family attended the National School at Koilmore along the Claremorris-to-Ballyhaunis road.   The Egans and Berrys attended the Loughaunnaman school east of the Claremorris-to-Knock road.  All groups walked through fields to reach the schools, rather than taking roundabout roads.
 

USA Emigration Patterns:   Georgia  /  Kansas  /  New York

Savannah, Georgia.  Michael Egan left Cartronacross and migrated to Georgia via Liverpool and New York City in 1881.  He seems to have followed his sister, Mary Egan, who had married William Bouhan.  We don't know if Mary married in Ireland or the US, or from which county of Ireland William Bouhan came, or why the Bouhans wound up in the Irish community of Savannah.  Michael married Mary Berry of Vine Creek Kansas, who had been born in Ballindine Co Mayo.  Later Mary's younger sister, Margaret Berry married Cornelius Dulohery of Kansas and the couple moved to Savannah.   Their daughter Gertrude married Sam Ledlie.  The Ledlie family also came from Ireland in the mid ninteenth century and located in Savannah.

Kansas.  John Joseph "JJ"  Berry was the first one we know who located in Kansas.  He arrived in New York, worked on a farm in Pennsylvania, but because of his health problems he was advised to move west.  He purchased a horse and cart and became a peddler, eventually reaching Abilene Kansas, where he met and married Jane Byrne, born in Pennsylvania to an Irish immigrant family who later moved to Wichita.   JJ convinced his younger brother, Patrick Berry to move to Abilene and together then ran a general store.  Patrick's first four children were born in Illinois, and the remaining six in Kansas.  Previously there were several Berrys living in Illinois:  1870 and 1880 censuses list them living in Chicago, Streator and Peru.  Illinois seemed to be a stopping off place for further western migration.  Bridget Berry married a Richard Cosgrove in Illinois; when he died she relocated to Kansas.

Martin Berry and Anthony Berry brought their families directly from Ireland to Kansas.  The 1880s were a painful period in County Mayo.  The area had suffered a mini-famine in 1878-1879 as well as a blight on chickens and pigs.  The Land Wars began in Mayo under Davitt who had been born in Mayo;  Captain Boycott was the superintendent of a large farm where it became necessary to import  workers from the north of Ireland to harvest the crops and soldiers to protect the workers.  And the Berrys could only be tenants, now owners of land in Ireland. Representatives of the American Railroads recruited farming families through Ireland, England, and the Scandanavian countries, offering to pay their way to America and the train ride to the western countries.  The prospect of being able to own their own land and leave it to their children must have been most appealing.

William Foy and Michael Foy also brought their families to Kansas.  So did John and  Ellen Morley Sweeney and several Currys. (Earlier Currys stopped off in Streator Illinois.)  It is likely that others from the triangle also migrated about the same time.

Metropolitan New York.   Some of Ann Halligan's family settled in New York City before the 1880s.  The Murrays came to New York around the turn of the century.  Patrick and Daniel started families in the Bronx and Manhattan.  Three sisters,  Annie, Cecelia and Delia located in Jersey, where they married Durkin, Sharkey and Quinn — all from Ireland, either Mayo or Roscommon.  Paddy Murray acted as an older brother/senior advisor to the Foys, taking Patrick Foy under his wing, getting work for him on the elevated railroad and later as a policeman.

My father's family is typical of an Irish immigration family.  His father, Patrick Foy, died in 1904 and his mother Brigid Morley in 1903.  The oldest boy, John, inherited the farm.  The oldest daughter, Mary, married a shopkeeper, Michael Mullin and moved into Claremorris.  The next daughter, Ellie, married Willie Costello. (John married Delia Costello, an arrangement called "swap marriages"). The next three daughters became the equivalent of Licensed Practical Nurses and came to America:  Delia and Margaret to Jersey, and Jane to Westchester.  Michael Mullin was suspected of being an informer, and his parish priest urged him to go to the USA. He became a mailman in NYC, and Mary came later to the USA.  Mary's house became the first stopping off point for the others who came to America.  Patrick worked for a while in England, but then came to New York.  The next three girls — Cecelia, Hannah and Elizabeth — became nurses, probably training in England.  They all served with the US Army in France during World War I.  Young Peter Foy (my dad) became an accomplished horseman and his uncle Peter used him as a jockey during the races at the county fairs.  The family decided this was an unsavory life for a teenager, and he too was dispatched to America, landing in Mary Mullin's living quarters.  He put his horsemanship to good use during World War I, breaking in, training and using horses as a caisson driver in the US Army.  The youngest boy, Luke, was tubercular.  Somehow the nurses managed to smuggle him into the USA where he stayed with Jane and Tom O'Grady until he died in 1920. 

 We have no information directly relating these migrations to the famine which struck County Mayo around 1879, nor can we connect family members to the Land War or the boycott activity, both of which originated in County Mayo.   But we can surmise that the desperate situation in Mayo coupled with the encouragement of American railroads and the later impossibility of acquiring land without funds if you were not the oldest son led most of the children to seek their fortunes elsewhere.  It was said that in America the streets were paved with gold, but the immigrants soon learned that it was they who would do the paving.
 

              Ireland around 1900.   The best description of Ireland that I found is that in Willie Costello's A Connacht Man's Ramble (published in 1997, Dublin, Edmund Burke Publisher).  Willie describes life in the geographic the triangle formed by Claremorris, Ballyhaunis and Knock (each about 7 miles distant from the other), with little reference to automobiles.  Of course the British rule was over by the 1930's, but otherwise life in that rural triangle remained very much the same.  

"Ireland in the 1930s and '40s was largely a country of small farms, the great bulk of the holdings, especially west of the Shannon, under thirty acres. ...  Money was ..exceedingly scarce, and the small farms were compelled to be as self-sufficient as possible, supplying virtually all of their own food, with the exception of tea and sugar, and even some of the clothing from the beautiful, durable thread spun from the wool of heir own sheep."

{Editor's note: this description of Irish life is virtually the same as that described for life in Ulster County on the west shore of the Hudson River by Thomas S. Wermuth in Rip Van Winkle's Neighbors, The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley, 1720 - 1850 (State University of New York Press, Albany, 2001).}

"The Costellos were a Norman family who arrived with the invaders in the twelfth century, settling in East Mayo and spreading out from there... Like many of their race, they became more Irish than the Irish themselves.  The Costellos came to Garryedmond from the Aghamore district towards the end of the eighteenth century. 

"Garryedmond is the Anglicized form of Garrai Eamoinn which means The Garden of Edmond.  It was called after Edmond Burke who became landlord of the town land in the mid eighteenth century.  Garryedmond and Cartownacross lie near the center of the Knock/Claremorris/Ballyhaunis triangle.

"The (Costello) family that came to Garryedmond were weavers as were the Foys who arrived much later from near Westport, and some generations of their descendants continued with that business along with farming.  The Foys were the last family in the area to surrender the craft, but their descendants occupy the original homestead to this day.  There were two intermarriages between the Foys and the Costellos in the last generation so the surviving members of the two families are related."
 

       John Foy, in a communication November 2002, indicated that he thinks the Foys were originally from Donegal, although they may have transited through Westport to Claremorris.  While we have no proof of this, and we know Foys lived in lower Garryedmond early in the 19th century, it is probable that John is correct.  The tradition of combining weaving with farming continues even today in Donegal.   The Reagal Catalog of Irish goods received at Chappaqua in December 2002 writes :

Scattered over the rugged landscape of Donegal, weavers still work from home.  Still settle of an evening by their ancestors' wooden looms, laying down the threads that gradually build into deep, rich fabric.

The Handwoven Donegal Tweed label is your guarantee that the cloth is handwoven to the highest standard.  Only three companies carry this seal of approval:  Magee, Studio Donegal and Eddie Doherty.   You can be assured that their work will be of long lasting practical use.  But practicalities only go so far.  It's the soft, peaty texture of the cloth, woven through with personal technique and the love of the craft that makes Donegal tweed so special.

Eddie Doherty.  Forty-five years ago, Eddie Doherty learned the craft of handweaving, and he learned well.  Eddie weaves from home on his wooden loom  -- just him with complete quality control.  Eddie runs the family pub as well as his weaving business.  Typical Donegal spinning one kind of yarn during the day  -- another at night.
 

              This is the Foy house, completed in 1886 on the site of the house once occupied by Martin and Delia Foy Berry before they left for America in 1883.  Patrick Foy, my grandfather  occupied the farms of Anthony Berry and Martin Berry, both of whom went to Kansas.  He housed his family in Anthony Berry's former home while Martin Berry's house was torn down and a "modern" house was built on that site.

The Foy Family home in Garryedmund circa 1911  It is not known if the Foys rented the land or  purchased the farm from Martin Berry, as the movement towards private ownership occurred during the last quarter of the 19th century.   The house fits the pattern of the kind of houses approved by the landlords.  There were two rooms on the ground floor.  The second story contained a single bedroom for the parents and dormitory-style living for the children.  There was neither electricity nor running water.  The back door opened onto a courtyard leading to the outhouse and sheds and barns. (Click on picture to see full size.)

John Foy currently owns the house, but until recently he leased it to a retired priest from London, who has restored it.  With electricity and indoor plumbing, it is fair to say he has improved it from its original state.  In 2004 the priest moved to assisted living in London, and John continues to improve the house, hoping that family visitors will take advantage of its availability.

 Memoir written by Patrick Foy of Corona NY for Margaret Riley sometime prior to 1977, when she was on her way to Ireland.  My Uncle Paddy was about 85 when he wrote this memo.

Patrick Foy was born about the year of 1848 In lower Garryedmond (Then also known as Boll-na-whel.)  He had seven sisters and three brothers.  His parents names were John Foy and Mary Egan Foy.  As he grew up he learned the trade of "weaving" woolen and Linnen, from his father. About the year 1878 he married Bridget Morley, of Meaghermore, Knock.  They lived in one of his father's houses in Garryedmond, where their four oldest children were born.  The children were named, Mary, Ellen, Delia and John.

About the year of 1885 they bought homes and land of Martin Berry (who was married to his sister Bridget) and Martin's brother Anthony.  As the two Berry families left for Kansas USA.

Late that year Patrick and his family moved into what was formerly Anthony's house, and continued to live there, while Martin's house was being torn down and replaced with a new modern house.

Late in year of 1886 the family moved into the new house where eight more of their children were born.  Their names are: Margaret, Jane, Patrick, Cecelia, Hannah, Elizabeth, Peter and Luke. 

Their mother died June 1903 and father in December 1904.
 

 Patrick J. Foy to Margaret Riley

Patrick J. Foy
12 Lenape Drive
Roseland, N. J. 07068
                                                                                                            July 17, 1989

Hi Margaret,
     Here's that info on Garryedmond or Garredmond.  I've seen it written both ways but I have always used the first.

The chart is much too large for a copy machine, so I did it in sections.  You will have to put it together.  I marked it and written down how it all fits to form the chart.  I also copied a section of a map I used to get around in that area.

The chart was made up when my cousin John Foy was getting his dairy farm approved.  It shows the fields he owns.  Fields 1, 2, 3 & 4 belonged to the Berry's before they came to America.

Bridget (Foy) Berry had 3 brothers that had large families, about a dozen each.  They were my grandfather, Patrick, Nurse Ellie's father Michael, and the third was John.  John & Michael lived in lower Garryedmond and Patrick  upper.

Their father John Foy (1806) lived in lower Garryedmond.  His wife was Mary Egan (1818 - 1896).  That is enough history for now.  I just copied my notes on those families for you.

I hope you enjoy this mess and have the time to go over it.  I've worked out a numbering system for the family tree I hope to put together.

F  -  John Foy (1806 - 1890)
F-3   Patrick Foy (1848-1904)
F-3-7  Patrick Foy (1890 - 1981) my father
F-3.7.1  Patrick Joseph Foy(1919 )

each number represents a generation.

Take care. Keep in touch

Sincerely

Joseph

Addendum:

Old Foy house  --  Lower Garryedmond is where my great grandfather and grandfather lived.  Grandfather moved to the Berry place in Upper Garryedmond in the 1880s, when the Berrys came to America.  My father was born there.  His brother John took over the place after their parents died.  His son John inherited the place but moved to the new house down on the road.  The house was built for Aunt Ellie (Costello) but she would not leave her old place.

Nurse Ellie Foy lived further down the road towards the cemetery. (Knockatober).

I'm adding a map which shows Claremorris and Ballyhaunis.  The red square is the approximate area covered by the chart.

Abbey is where the cemetery is located.  I placed a red dot at lower Garryedmond and another lost in a smear at upper Garryedmond.  The road in the upper part is not shown.  The little black dots on the map represent buildings.