Meet James Fitzgerald, the Tailor, and Elizabeth Graney
James, a tailor by trade, arrived in Boston aboard the Catharine on November 13, 1848, having left behind his wife, Betsey, a little tyke (Thomas), a challenging toddler (Mary), the baby (John), a son just forming in the womb (Patrick), and the memory of the infant daughter (Joanna) who had died a few years before. James Fitzgerald was about the same age as one of my husband's ancestors, Henry Webster, whom I have previously introduced. James relocated from Ireland to America about the same time Henry immigrated from Scotland to Ireland. Both men were in their mid-thirties when they made these significant changes. James Fitzgerald struggled to find a way for his wife and family to join him in America, whereas the transition was less arduous for Henry. James and his wife, Betsey, were both from county Kerry. I believe Betsey was a Graney from Killelton, a townland on the north shore of the Dingle peninsula in the civil parish of Kilgobban. I suspect that James also wa...