Brogans of Ballycroy 1830's

Hi John,

You could try adding as much information as you can regarding your relatives. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to assit you. Please include what sources you are aware of or have already exhausted...i.e.  Griffiths Valuation etc... so that our volunteers can further your search.

You could also try contacting http://www.mayo.ie/dnn/Blogs/Forums/tabid/92/aft/92/Default.aspx#.UIElDcXA-Io

All the best.

I am interested in the Brogan Family from the Parish of Ballycroy, specifically a family with twin girls (Mary & Matilda) born in 1833.  Matilda married Edward Finn and Mary married my great grandfather James J. O'Donnell.  Both families ended up for a period of time in Whitewater, Walworth, Wisconsin. (Edited to correct Matilda's Name)

Family mythology says that the twins sailed to North America in 1837 on the same boat as Peter Sweeney (also of Ballycroy) and his wife Bridget Conway Finn Sweeney.  Edward Finn was 20 and the Brogan twins about 4 years old.  Peter Sweeney and Bridget ended up in Sauk County, Wisconsin.  We believe the Brogans were living in Portage, Wyoming County, New York in the early 1850's.  James J. O'Donnell (also of County Mayo) immigrated to the USA in 1850 and went to work in Portage, New York.  He met and married Mary B. Brogan in 1851 and they had their first son, John, in 1852 born in Lima, Livingston County, New York.  By 1860 the O'Donnells were living in Kennebec, Maine.  In 1867 they were residing in Whitewater, Wisconsin, where Edward and Matilda (Brogan) Finn had resided since 1857.  Matilda and Edward Finn are both buried in Whitewater.  James, Mary and family moved to Mitchell, Davison County, South Dakota in 1884, James passed on in 1893 and Mary in 1895, and both are buried in Mitchell. James and his offspring were laborers, but he was also a progressive farmer in Maine, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

We "THINK" Mary and Matilda's parents may have been James Brogan, born 1810, and Catherine born 1808.  They are in the 1850 USA Federal Census in Portage, Livingston, New York.  

Brogans and O'Donnells are present in the Griffith time valuation in places such a Claggan and Ballycroy.

John