Patrick Leahy : Short Biography

A few years ago my wife and a couple of cousins and I made a trip to Ireland to, among other things, chase down my family origins. I had gotten some info from a distant cousin about one location to research, Bruff in County Limerick. We were staying in Tipperary and on our route to Bluff stopped in Emly. We enjoyed the beautiful church and sounds and discovered the immigration monument. I believe at the time there was only one.

The monument described the destination of families from the Emly area who were forced to immigrate to Australia, Canada (as I recall), and of course, America.

I was astounded to find at least two families that immigrated to Try, New York, which is where my family is from. I remember saying to my wife, “if I had any doubts we are on the right path to finding my roots, this removed any doubt. There is now a very active website “Troy Irish Genealogy” that I have used for research. All eight great-great-grandparents of mine immigrated from Ireland.  The ones from nearby Bluff were the Leahys.

I know that in America the Irish patterns of immigration tended to follow the idea that people from common areas in Ireland (e.g., Bluff and Emly) migrated to areas in the USA where others from those areas in Eire had originated from. In troy, the overwhelming majority of Irish came from Tipperary and Limerick. So there is a chance I may have “cousins”(not necessarily Leahy’s) from the Emly area. 

When I was in Emly, I happened by chance to meet a guy who told me he was the local historian. I got his contact information, but could not locate it when I came back home.

I am hoping you can help me by 1.) providing me with contact info for the current local historian, and 2.) pointing me in the right direction to do additional local research in the Emly area, by sending me some suggestions, web links, and other people to assist me on my research.

By the way, I have visited Bruff three times and gained a wealth of information through the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Church and local people I met.

I am nearly 77 years old, and I am working on giving my children and grandchildren a detailed family history so they will always have the roots research I have done to pursue in any future research they wish to do.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

go raibh maith agat