Connecticut Research Trip

Several years ago, through the wonder of connecting on the internet, I discovered that my mother had relatives. My mother had no siblings and, although her mother was the oldest of seven children, my mother had no known Irish first cousins. All my known cousins came from my father’s side of our family. However, after my mother’s death, I have discovered third cousins; Irish cousins living in the northeast.

Our little group has grown over the last several years. We try to assemble once a year and this year’s gathering is approaching. Two of us, Pat Brady & I, are the researchers. We uncover bits about our history to share with the rest of the group.

In preparation for the trip I am making an excel spreadsheet with a quick summary of what we know about the children of Thomas Brady & Catherine Gibney. Thomas & Catherine spent most of their lives in Co Cavan, Ireland. Eight of their children came to the USA, settling in CT & NJ. The spread sheet will make it easy to see what facts we are missing, such as birth, immigration, marriage or death dates.

Last year we searched in Derby City Hall & the Derby Library. We found bits of our family puzzle in both locations. This year we plan to focus our research in these locations:

Ansonia City Hall

253 Main Street, Ansonia, CT. We are hoping to find a death certificate here. We have a range of years when we believe he died.

·         AnsoniaPublic Library

53 S Cliff St, Ansonia, CT. Our family lived in the area & I hope to find genealogies or histories or city directories. It is hard to get a feel for the library’s holdings from the website.

·         DerbyHistorical Society

37 Elm Street, Ansonia, CT. The website looks very promising. They are only open 3 hours a day so I want to be there when the door is unlocked and they might need to boot us out at four o’clock!

·         EvergreenCemetery

New Haven, CT. Pat is lining up the cemetery research by contacting the offices in advance. We are hoping for maps, lot cards & opportunities to photograph the stones.

·         Mt.Saint Peter’s Cemetery

219 New Haven Ave., Derby, CT. We know that some of the main characters in our family’s story are buried here. Perhaps there are even more.

·         PineGrove Cemetery

15 Church Street, Ansonia, CT. The online search option shows two of our family members.

We will have two weekdays for our research. Then we will meet up with the cousins on Saturday for catching up, sharing our findings & just enjoying each other! Last time we gathered we had dinner at an Irish pub. Our ever increasing group gathered around a very large table for good food & laughter. Looking around the table at all the cousins from preschoolers to teens and on up to us seniors I thought of my mother and how much she would have loved to join in.

Related Posts:

• Derby, CT Public Library Research
• Derby, Ct City Hall Research
• Pine Grove Cemetery, Ansonia CT
• Ansonia City Hall
• The Ansonia Library