Here were my starting points:
1. Mary Haggerty Kellington’s father John Haggerty lived at some point in Northeastern Pennsylvania before moving to Crabtree in Western PA. Mary’s notes refer to McAdoo and Honey Brook. The historian Kevin Kenny tells us that Honey Brook (which no longer exists) was a coal patch, that is, a mining area with company housi
ng for workers. Honey Brook and McAdoo, a borough that was incorporated in 1886, are both in Kline Township, Schuylkill County, just a few miles from Hazleton, a town in Luzerne County that was itself established as a coal patch in the mid-1830s. According to Kevin Kenny, the Irish comprised the overwhelming majority of mine laborers in this area until about 1880. There were of course Germans, English, Scottish, and Welsh mine laborers in PA at this time, as well as some Southern and Eastern Europeans. But it wasn’t until the last two decades of the 19th century that miners of other ethnicities began to make a dent in the Irish majority.
2. According to Mary Kellington, John Haggerty’s father (Mary’s grandfather) was named James Haggerty, and his mother was Mary Castle. (More likely her name was Castles).
Based on Mary’s notes and my own research, I came up with this list of James and Mary Haggerty’s children, all born in PA (birth years are not necessarily exact): Elizabeth 1864; Mary A. 1866; James P. 1868, Ellen 1870, Margaret 1873, Kathryn 1875, Michael 1877, Hugh 1879, and John 1884. Either Mary or Margaret died at quite a young age, probably Margaret.
3. Mary Kellington notes that James Haggerty had a brother, “Great-Uncle Connel.” (More likely his name was Cornelius, and he was called Connel.) [See elsewhere for more on Connel]