The Goughs, Houlihans, and related families
(last updated 27 November 2011)
All branches of our Gough and Houlihan families came to the US from Ireland in the 19th century. Of our eight immigrant great-grandparents, however, only three were "famine" Irish, strictly speaking; the rest came either before the famine began in earnest or arrived about thirty years after the peak famine years.
The Goughs were the first to arrive. Peter Gough and his wife Letitia Naulty (or Nulty) arrived in 1842, having sailed from the British port of Liverpool, a common departure point for Irish immigrants to North America. (A Peter Gough arrived at the port of New York on 9 May 1842, according to the New York City port arrival index, and we plan to check the passenger registry at our next Archives visit.) Peter was born in County Monaghan and Letitia in neighboring County Meath. The family came to Hazle Township in eastern Pennsylvania, settling in Beaver Meadows (just over the county line in Carbon County) before moving to Hazleton after the town was founded in 1851. All six of their children -- Arthur, Mary, John, Alice, Richard, and Catherine -- ultimately married and continued to live in Hazleton and the surrounding area, generally either in Luzerne County or Schuylkill County.
Peter and Letitia's son John married Susan McCloskey, who also was born in Ireland (perhaps in County Roscommon). John and Susan's son John (born in 1865) married Anna McGeehan, daughter of immigrant Hugh McGeehan and his wife Mary Kiernan; Hugh was from Co. Donegal and was the son of John and Mary McGeehan; he met and married Mary after his arrival in Pennsylvania (we do not yet know Mary's county of origin). All but one of Hugh's siblings also emigrated to the United States; his brother, Patrick McGeehan, remained in Ireland with their parents John and Mary McGeehan, but Rose, Susan, James, and Daniel all came to Pennsylvania.
On the Massachusetts side, Bartholomew Houlihan first arrived in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1876; after working as a laborer for a year, he apparently went back to Ireland for two years before returning in 1879 with his wife Johanna McCarthy, and their eldest son Patrick. The Houlihans were from County Kerry, where they married in 1873. Johanna's obituary also states that she was from Ballyhar townland (Bally Trasna parish), where their eldest son Patrick was probably born. Their other children -- Thomas, Bartholomew, Catherine, John Francis, Johanna, James, Eugene, and Mary Ellen -- all were born in Worcester.
Bartholomew and Johanna's son John Francis married Mary Agnes Lowrey, the third child of Dennis Lowrey and his wife, Mary E. Dwyer, who were the last in our family to emigrate, arriving around 1882 from County Tipperary. The Lowreys' eldest daughter, Margaret, was born in Ireland and remained there with her grandparents, while their other children were born either in Rhode Island (son John) or Worcester (Mary Agnes, Katherine, Helen, William, Elizabeth, and Josephine).