My own experience looking for HAGGERTY parallels what Sharon Haggerty has described. Dennis HAGGERTY left Ireland, I know not when or where from. In the early 1850s he was likely mining lead in southwest Wisconsin when he met and married my great grandfather's older sister, Margaret KELLY, who was born in Allihies parish, Beara peninsula about 1829 (parish record not available. The marriage was performed in New Diggings at St. Augustine church (still standing), on 20 Aug 1854, by Rev. Samuel Mazzuchelli. Samuel was an Italian missionary who designed and/or helped build at least 10 churches in the upper Midwest of the U.S., and ministered to various immigrant communities. The Irish immigrants, of whom there were many at that time in New Diggings, had difficulty with his Italian name and instead knew him as "Father Kelly" or "Father Matthew Kelly." There were other KELLY family members baptized or married at that church, but Margaret was the only one I know of whose marr! iage was performed by this famous missionary. She and Dennis moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where copper mining was a popular occupation for Irish immigrants. If you have Irish immigrant ancestors who mined, there is a good chance they came from the Beara peninsula, in or around Allihies, where there also was a copper mine for many years. Some died mining, others mined for awhile then switched to farming when they accumulated enought money to buy land. Dennis and Margaret had two children, one born in MI and the other in WI. Dennis Haggerty returned to New Diggings and enlisted 22 Aug 1862 in Company H, 33rd WI infantry regiment. He survived the war and was mustered out 5 Jun 1865, but apparently died sometime before 1870. His widow remarried to a Sullivan (another ubiquitous Beara name) and his daughters married, one to a Sullivan and the other to a Thornton, and had many children and grandchildren in the upper Midwest of U.S. The 1860 census has them as Haggerty. In the 1870 census the widow and children were Higgerty, and in 1880 the children, now grown, were Haggarty. By the time Margaret KELLY SULLIVAN HAGGERTY died in Iowa, her tombstone read Hegarty. Margaret and her siblings certainly were illiterate when they arrived in the U.S., and I can understand how any of these spellings made perfect sense when the family member pronounced their name in front of a clerk or census taker. I have always been curious about the origins of Dennis HAGGERTY. It has been difficult to trace him back further than the marriage to Margaret KELLY with any reliability. I would love to hear from anyone who thinks he and his progeny fit into their family history. Kevin KELLY in MO "Sharon Haggerty" <smhaggerty@rogers.com> wrote: >The 1901 Irish census noted whether or not people could read and/or write. Even that late, many Irish were not literate. Throughout the 19th century, when many of our Irish ancestors came to North America, those who were not literate had no set spelling for their names. Whenever someone recorded their name, it was spelled however the scribe thought it sounded...