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Our Cassidy Branch
The Cassidy's listed on this web site
originated from County Donegal, specifically the Donegal Town area,
located in the southeast section of the county.
Within the Donegal Town area, our
branch of Cassidy's stemmed from four townlands: Aghlem (Aughlem), Clogher,
Drumbar, and Leghawny (Leghowney). Nearly all the Cassidy relatives featured in
the surname
database can be linked back to one of these four townlands.
The Oldest Generation
The information contained within these pages spans seven
generations and more than 200 years. The furthest our branch of
Cassidy's can be traced is to brothers William Cassidy and John
Cassidy, both of Drumbar. These brothers have produced two different
lines of Cassidy's featured on our web site.
The William Cassidy Line
William Cassidy, the oldest known Cassidy, was born in 1799 in
Drumbar and was married, although his wife's name is unknown. Right
now we only know of one child that William and his wife had --
Francis Cassidy, born probably in the 1820s or 1830s. Francis
Cassidy married Annie Kelly and had eight children, most of whom
married and had children of their own.
Unfortunately, portions of this side
of the Cassidy Family Tree are incomplete. Many branches of the
William Cassidy line stretching to the present day have hit dead
ends. There are potentially hundreds of William Cassidy descendants
that have not been accounted for on this site. Our hope is to gather
this information as our work continues.
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Kitty McGinty in the
1880s. |
The John Cassidy Line
John Cassidy, the only known brother of William Cassidy, was born in
1802 in Drumbar. He married Kitty McGinty of Barnesmore, a townland
just outside Donegal Town, and moved to Clogher where they had six
children between 1835 and 1851: Francis, John, Hanna, Jane, Sara
Ann, and Hugh.
Of the six children, we have so far
gathered information only on the descendants of Francis and his
wife, Sally Freel (Friel); and Hugh and his wife, Mary Ann Kennedy. (Jane
married Patrick Meehan, and Sara Ann married Brian Meehan, but
nothing is known of their children).
To date, we have identified more than
115 descendants of Francis Cassidy and Sally Freel spanning five
generations. Some immigrated to the United States around the 1910s
and 1920s. Others still reside in Donegal.
Descendants of Hugh Cassidy and Mary
Ann Kennedy amount to nearly 120, spread across Ireland and North
America.
All totaled, the descendants of the
two lines -- the brothers William and John Cassidy -- make up nearly
350 of the names found within the pages of the Cassidy Family Tree.
Still, this is only a fraction of the total number of descendants of
these two brothers. Hopefully we will be able to identify more
descendants as the years go on.
The Leghawny (Leghowney) Cassidys
A few miles outside Donegal Town is the townland of Leghawny (or
Leghowney), where many of the Cassidy's included in this family tree
originated. Many of the Leghawny relations included Cassidy's,
Devlin's, Slevin's, and Murphy's.
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Leghowney, 1970 |
The oldest branch of Leghawny
Cassidy's, that we know of, begins in the late 1700's with Mary
McGuire Cassidy, who had eight children. (See Chart--
Descendents of Mary MaGuire Cassidy). Her daughter Margaret
(1814-1914) married Edward Murphy who was born around 1810 in Leghawny.
They had three daughters: Bridget, Margaret, and Mary Ann
Murphy.
Bridget Murphy, born 1866 in Leghawny,
married James Cassidy, who was born in 1854 in Leghawny. Together
they had nine children, many of whom immigrated to America in the
early 1900s. Some stayed behind in Leghawny and maintained the
Cassidy Family Farm through the 1970s.
Bridget Murphy's sister, Mary Ann
Murphy, married Neale Gallagher and they migrated to Pennsylvania.
Their son Neale became a well known mine superintendent. His son
Walter Neal became a Navy dentist and author, eventually settling in
Bethesda, Maryland. His son, Walter Neal Gallagher is a
retired Navy dentist living in Illinois.
There is some indication that
Margaret married a man named Slevin, but little is known about
their descendents.
As mentioned, Bridget Murphy's
husband, James Cassidy, was also born in Leghawny. His parents were
Frank Cassidy and Mary Devlin, both born in Leghawny. (See chart--
Descendents of Mary
Devlin Cassidy ). Frank was
likely born around the 1820s and died around 1890 in Leghawny, while
Mary Devlin lived from 1827 to 1897. Frank's brother, Hugh Cassidy,
was born and raised in Leghawny. We don't know Hugh's wife's name,
but we do know they had at least one daughter, Katie Cassidy, born
probably around the 1840s or 1850s in Leghawny.
We are always looking to accumulate
more information on our ancestors. If there's anyone with additional
information, please e-mail Chris Cassidy at
chris@cassidyfamily.com.
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