Kathryn, have you found your Edward and Catherine (nee Cavanagh) Donnelly in any US census records? How about her Cavanagh family? Do you have a marriage record for Edward and Catherine? Did they marry in New Jersey? In the 1920 census, I found a loom fixer (silk mill) named Edward Donnelly with a wife Catherine who was a doubler (silk mill). With them were children Margaret 14, Edward 12 and Francis ["daughter"] age 10. The census listed the birthplace of the children as New Jersey. Edward was 43 and born in Connecticut, and Catherine was 37 and born in New York. They were living in the First Ward of Paterson. In 1930, they were living in the Second Ward of Paterson at 38 Redwood Avenue with children Edward C. 22, Frances J. ["son"] 20 and John 8. Edward was a foreman in the silk mill and Katherine's occupation was "none". Edward worked in a radio store and Francis as a salesman in a furniture store. I found the same family in Paterson in 1910 also. It appears that the Donnelly family worked in the silk mills of Manchester, Connecticutt before they moved to Paterson. Are these your family? There was a Donnelly connection in my own family, although I don't know if they are related to yours in any way. Annie Cavanagh (b. abt 1870 in NJ) was the daughter of Stephen Cavanagh (b. 1838, brother of my gg-gfather John Cavanagh b. 1825). Both were sons of Daniel Cavanagh and Ellen (nee Keyes) from the civil parish of Killavinoge, Co. Tipperary (along the Laois border). In 1902, Annie married George Beirne, son of Michael Beirne and Eliza Donnelly, in Paterson. There was a connection by marriage between another Kavanagh family that lived in Paterson and a Donnelly family. I'll continue this correspondence offlist... Geralyn Wood Barry in Oregon kenorman22@comcast.net wrote: >My great-grandfather John Cavanagh,b.1852,(not sure if the family was from Tipperary) was born in Scotland though his father was from Ireland. The siblings were also born in Ireland. When the mother died, 5 Cavanagh siblings were taken in by the Bell family of New York City...while John eventually moved to Wortendyke, (Midland Park) New Jersey... his daughter, Catherine, worked as a silk weaver in Paterson, N.J. I believe her siblings may have also. Catherine married Edward Donnelly, whose father, Thomas Donnelly,b.1835 was from Tipperary. All of the Donnelly siblings also worked in the silk mills in Paterson, N. J. > I have tried to research my Cavanaghs though it's been difficult. I know that besides my great-grandfather, John, there was , Catherine & Charles ( the other two names I don't know.) Perhaps there is nothing to this...but when you mentioned Paterson, New Jersey, where my grandmother (Cavanagh) and grandfather Donnelly settled. I believe the silk mills were the draw for these families...for Paterson was the silk capitol of the world at this time. >