Surname Alderly, Atherly or Adderly

Roots Ireland gives baptismal records for three children for James Corcoran and Margaret Alderly, who lived in Gash. James Jr. was baptized in the Catholic parish of Camross 22 Oct. 1820.
I hope this is helpful.

Hello, Dawn,

My great great grandfather was James Corcoran, also of Rathaspick.  More specifically, he was from the townland of Crissard in Rathaspick.  And coincidentally, he had a daughter named Mary Corcoran; one of six children (Margaret, Mary, Frances, William, Honora and Patrick).  But my James was born around 1800, with four of his children having been born in Rathaspick in the 1820s (Margaret, Mary, Frances and William), so this can't be the same James Corcoran as yours.  And our Mary Corcorans can't be the same person, either, if both of our research findings are correct. 

It's quite interesting, though, that, like your Mary Corcoran, at least three of my James Corcoran children settled in New York State, including my great grandfather William.  William settled in Clinton County, New York, in the far northeastern corner of the state.  Sister Frances was married to a Patrick O'Brien, and they settled in New York City.  Margaret, like William, settled in Clinton County and both her and William married into the Knowles family, which also originated from Crissard Townland, Rathaspick.  And as for another coincidence, I'm currently in Albany right now, and lived here from 2013 to 2020. 

I wonder if our two Corcoran clans are related.  I do not have any Adderly or Atherlys in my tree.  But I really don't know what became of my Mary, Honora and Patrick Corcoran.  Do you have any other names you can share?

Kevin Corcoran 

Hello Kevin,

Based on DNA, I believe that Mary Corcoran had two sisters, Ann and Sarah, who also emigrated to the US. Ann was married to John Quigley and died in Worcester County, Massachusetts. Ann's death record gives the parent names I included in my original post. Sarah was married to William Joy, who was a Civil War casualty. Her widow's pension file is available on Fold3. The file shows that Sarah and William married in Brooklyn, New York, around 1848 (I don't have my notes, which have the church name, available at the moment). Of her three surviving children who are mentioned in the file, the eldest was born in West Troy (Watervliet) and the younger two in Newburgh, where Sarah eventually died. According to the Newburgh city clerk, Sarah's death record contains no parent names.

It is interesting that some of your family settled in Clinton County. Did they travel via Canada? Family lore says that Mary's husband Martin Dollard left Ireland for England and worked there as a bricklayer for a time. He may have spent time in Canada prior to arriving in Albany and it is not clear whether Mary was with him. Martin and Mary had four children (William, James, Michael and Mary) that we know of. James and Michael were baptized at St Joseph's Church in Albany, but I have found no record there for William. Right now I can find this family in Albany late in 1855 (the baptism of James), but not before.

Other than DNA, I don't have anything that ties Mary to Ann. However, regarding Sarah, I did find a Newburgh newspaper blurb stating that Miss Mary Dollard of Albany and her niece Peggy were visiting her cousin Mrs. O'Neill. Peggy was the youngest child of my great grandfather Michael Dollard. The oldest Joy daughter was married in midlife to a John O'Neill of Newburgh.

Unfortunately, although there should be a death record for Mary Corcoran Dollard, the City of Albany says that they do not have it.

Dawn

Hi, Dawn,

I'm not at home so I don't have access to the written records I've kept of dead-ends and failed leads.  But, I do remember chasing, for quite some time, a William Corcoran and his siblings Mary, Ann, Elizabeth and James, all of whom lived in New York State, and all having lived at one point in Troy, NY, which is right across the Hudson River from Watervliet, which you mentioned, and just a few miles from Albany.  What tripped me up for a bit was an Emigrant Savings Record that I found for a William E. Corcoran of Staten Island from 1852.  The record references that he previously lived in a town near Plattsburgh, NY (in the same Clinton County as my William Corcoran) for 16 years.  The record also mentions that he lived in Troy before moving to NYC.  The savings record goes on to identify the siblings I mentioned above, as well as their parents Peter Corcoran and Elizabeth (can't recall her maiden name), who were identified as being from County Armagh, Ireland. 

If I recall correctly, the Emigrant savings record doesn't mention spouses, but it does say that Mary was living in Ohio in 1852, while Ann and Elizabeth were still in Troy.  I don't remember where James was living.  I think he was somewhere in New York State, but not Troy.  I do remember that some of the words and place names in the savings record were illegible.  Mary Corcoran Dollard living in Ohio would explain why there was no death record for her in Albany, NY, but that's a long long ways from being proof that your Mary was "my" Ohio Mary. 

I'm inclined to think that my false-lead Corcoran family is not the same as your Corcoran clan.  The lack of mention of a Sarah Corcoran in the Emigrant savings record suggests that we're looking at two different Corcoran families, but that doesn't mean that William E. did not have a sister named Sarah, of course.  Yet, the false lead Corcoran family that I'm referring to  seems to have originated in County Armagh, which was effectively a world away from Gash, County Laois in the early/mid-1800s.  Also for consideration was the fact that "Corcoran" was a very common surname in Ireland in the mid-1800s, and New York State was awash with Corcorans after Ireland's famine period.

To answer your question, I don't know where in North America or exactly when my William Corcoran arrived.  The only reference I have is from the 1900 U.S. Census, which says William arrived in 1850.  I have a record of William serving as his sister's first child's godfather in 1848 in County Laois, so he was in Ireland at least until then.  And the first written record I have of him in the U.S. was from 1858 when he served as a witness to a wedding in Plattsburgh.   I did find 20+ Ireland-born William Corcorans on passenger manifests between 1848 and 1858; three arriving in Boston and all the rest arriving in New York City.  I know that William's sisters Frances and Margaret arrived in NYC around the same time as William (all separately, it seems), so I'm guessing William came in via NYC, too.  But who knows?  There are no reliable Canadian passenger manifests from that period, so I may never know.  I'll add that the passenger manifests for the 20+ ships arriving with a William Corcoran do not identify any of William's siblings as being on the same ship with him.  That's one of my brick walls.  

It sounds like you've had some helpful DNA results.  I've had good results on my maternal side, but not much on my paternal side; even after taking a Y Chromosome test.  The DNA did help me to trace William's sister Frances' emigration to New York City, where, as I said, I learned that she married a Patrick O'Brien.  Geez, could she have married an Irish immigrant with a more common Irish name? That finding hasn't yielded a whole lot, though.

The last seeming coincidence between your ancestors and mine is that I, too, have a Quigley ("Quilley" in some records) in my family tree.  A Mary Quigley/Quilley Knowles (1806-1879), also from Crissard townland in County Laois, was the mother of my William Corcoran's first wife, Catherine Knowles.

Sorry for the ramble!  And best of luck in your pursuit.

Kevin