Tom Kelly’s father, William Edward Kelly, and his mother Catherine Dowd Kelly, both came to the United States from Ireland as children. William was born on December 4th, 1837, in Brownsgrove, County Galway. Family historian Ann Kelly, advised us of her belief that William Kelly came to this country at the age of 13 with his mother, Rose Kelly, age 35, in 1851 aboard a ship named Sea King. The passenger manifest shows these two as passengers on this voyage, sailing from Liverpool and arriving in New Orleans on November 29th, 1851. We have been able to find very little information about the Sea King except that it was a clipper ship, a fast sailing vessel. The New York Historical Society has kindly provided a copy of an advertisement for this ship. We have been told that, after two years, William’s mother Rose returned to Ireland where she had left other children. We don’t know why William was singled out to come to this country or if there may have been other relatives here with whom he could stay. A librarian in my local genealogy department has indicated that this was an unusual time of year for passengers to make the Atlantic crossing because of cold temperatures and rough seas. Such crossings were usually made because of lower fares or because of some compelling reason to get away from the home country.
William’s wife, Tom’s mother, Catherine Dowd Kelly also came to this country in 1851 at the age of 13. She was born on January 3rd, 1838, in Bridgetown, County Roscommon. Some family historians believe that Catherine’s maiden name was originally O’Dowd, but we have yet to find any records to substantiate that.
It is not known why the families of Catherine and William decided to leave their native Ireland for an unknown future in an unknown land. It is known, however, that the potato famine was raging in Ireland from 1845 to 1851 and some two million people fled the country during this period and shortly thereafter. Malnutrition reduced the resistance to viruses and bacteria, making the people vulnerable to contagious diseases. Typhoid fever, typhus (“black fever”), relapsing fever, cholera, and dysentery were epidemic, and were more feared and probably caused more deaths than starvation. In all, it was estimated that over one million people died.2
2 Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine 1845-1850. pp. 92-95
