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| The Irish famine is remembered on the wall of Viva House in West Baltimore |
My great-great grandparents, James Mooney & Bridget Welsh, emigrated from Ireland sometime prior to their marriage, in Baltimore, in 1850. At the peak of the great hunger they left their rural homes near the town of Dunmore -- an area 30 to 50 miles northeast of the city of Galway-- and made their way to the United States.
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| Ancient map of County Mayo. The town of Dunmore, located just outside County Mayo in County Galway, can be seen in the center of this fragment. |
165 years later their descendants, Jane McCarl and Theresa Slade, still refer to this region as, "Mayo, God help us." Wikipedia's entry for County Mayo includes this: "The catastrophe was particularly bad in Mayo . . . By 1848, Mayo was a county of total misery and despair . . ."
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| Church in Dunmore Ireland, November 2008. This is the probable site of many family baptisms, first-communions and funerals. |
James Edward Mooney and Bridget Welsh were cousins. With dispensation, they married on April 11,1850 at St Peter the Apostle Catholic church in West Baltimore. The fledgling B&O had advertised in Ireland for able-bodied men to come and build its railroad. Whether James was motivated by these ads to settle in Baltimore is unknown. Census documents confirm, however, that James was employed as a laborer for the B&O. He was one of thousands of Irish men in this neighborhood to work at the nearby Mt Clare Shops. Census records and city directories indicate that Bridget kept small grocery stores in a succession of Mooney family homes in the 1000 block of Vine Street, a tiny alley situated between Fayette & Lexington Streets. The 1870 census reveals that Bridget could neither read nor write. The couple had nine children, three of whom died as infants.
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| Church of St Peter the Apostle in west Baltimore, site of James and Bridget Mooneys' wedding in 1850. The foundation was dug and the bricks were laid by the Irish immigrants of this neighborhood. |
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| New houses, built ca. 1987, in the 1000 block Vine St. James & Bridget Mooney lived at this location after their marriage in 1850. |
NEIGHBORHOOD
(Click map to expand)
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| Area of Mt Clare Shops - Irish Neighborhood of West Baltimore, ca. 1850-1900 2014 View |
1. Church of St Peter the Apostle
2. 900 Block W Baltimore St. Site of John D. Mooney Shoe Store
3. 1000 Block Vine St. Home of Mooney and Sweeney households, ca. 1850-1880.
4. Lithuanian Hall
5. B&O Railroad Museum. Site of the Mt Clare Shops
6. University of Maryland Medical Campus
7. Hollins Market
8. 1200 Block of W Lombard St. Believed to be the last addresses of James Mooney and James Sweeney
9. Irish Railroad Workers Museum (Irish Shrine).
Thanks primarily to Jane McCarl, we have assembled a fair collection of Mooney family documents. Theresa Slade, our closest living connection to these ancestors, provided vital information about the lives of the second and succeeding generations of the Mooney family in Baltimore. Judge Thomas Ward of The Irish Railroad Workers Museum shared stories of the lives of the Irish immigrants of west Baltimore.
Thanks primarily to Jane McCarl, we have assembled a fair collection of Mooney family documents. Theresa Slade, our closest living connection to these ancestors, provided vital information about the lives of the second and succeeding generations of the Mooney family in Baltimore. Judge Thomas Ward of The Irish Railroad Workers Museum shared stories of the lives of the Irish immigrants of west Baltimore.
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| Judge Tom Ward at the Irish Shrine, March 8 2014 |
