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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Genealogy Travel: Derby, CT – City Hall Research

1 Elizabeth Street, Derby CT

Derby, New Haven County, CT has a City Hall Clerk’s office full of treasures as I discovered in a recent trip there. I was there as a part of an Irish Cousins Gathering. We third cousins from NY, NJ, MA & CT who have connections with Thomas Brady & Catherine Gibney try to gather yearly to talk about our shared history & to enjoy each other.

The first day of the weekend was for research. My first stop was at Derby City Hall. I wasn’t sure how long I would be there but I had high hopes of finding birth, marriage and death certificates. Once inside the clerk’s office was easy to find and the woman I spoke to was very helpful. She let me in behind the counter and into an attached room full of records. She gave me instructions on how to use the index and the volumes of registers.


Each index is clearly typed and alphabetized by surname. I began by looking for Kilday because the first thing on my list of goals was a marriage certificate for Ann Brady Kilday. I also wanted birth records for her children and a death certificate for her husband, James Kilday. It did not take long to find all of those:

Index Page

Kilday
Marriage Record for James Kilday & Ann Brady, 18 August 1881. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 4, Page 358, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. James Kilday, 28 b Ireland. Ann Brady, 19 b Ireland. Residence: Birmingham CT.

Marriage Record for Ann Brady & James Kilday

Birth Record for Mary Kilday, 12 June 1882. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 4, Page 170, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. Parents: James Kilday, 28 b Ireland & Ann Brady, 26 b Ireland. [This child was previously unknown.]

Birth Record for Annie Kilday, 3 March 1887. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 5, Page 14, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. Parents: James Kilday, 33 b Ireland, Laborer & Annie Brady, 28 b Ireland. Mother of three children/ 2 living. Residence: Birmingham CT.

Birth Record for Margaret Kilday, 8 September 1889. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 6, Page 35, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. Parents: James Kilday, 35, b Ireland, Laborer & Ann Brady, 31 b Ireland. Mother of 4 children/ 3 living. Residence: Birmingham CT.

Birth Record for James Leo Kilday, 28 May 1892. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 6, Page 68, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. Parents: James Kilday, 41 b Ireland, Laborer & Annie Brady, 39 b Ireland. Mother of 6 children/ 4 living. Residence: Cannon St., Birmingham CT.

Birth Record for Frances Kilday, 14 Mar 1895. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 7, Page 25, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. Parents: James Kilday, 43 b Ireland, Brass roller & Anna Brady, 34 b Ireland. Mother of 6 children/ 4 living. Residence: Derby.

Death Record for James Kilday, 11 November 1899. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 8, Page 12, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. James, 49, Laborer b Ireland. Parents: Patrick Kilday b Ireland & Mary Fitzpatrick b Ireland. Place of death: 44 Cannon, Derby CT. Cause of death: chronic meningitis. Duration of disease: 25 weeks. Buried at Mt St Peters.



I was very happy to find so much Kilday information. Then I went back to the index to look for Brady relatives. About that time my cousin, Pat, arrived to join the search. It is very good she was there because we found a long list of Bradys. I won’t list all our findings here but will share the most exciting record, information on the death of William Brady which proved he was the son of Thomas & Catherine Brady.

Death Record for William Brady, 4 October 1926. Birth, Marriage, Death Register, Volume 15, Page 213, Derby City Hall Town Clerk Office, Town of Derby, CT. William Brady, 78 b 1848 Ireland, Laborer, son of Thomas Brady b Ireland & --?—Gibbony b Ireland.

Pat & I took lots of notes on our findings. We only asked for four actual certificates because each certificate cost twenty dollars. We stayed for hours. At one point one of the ladies working in the office came and told us where we could get some lunch. We assured her that we only had the one day to look through the records and wanted to work without taking a break. We kept working till almost three thirty when we went up the street to the Derby library.
William Brady Death Record



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