The Children of Bartley and Judy Lacey: Mary Lacey Feeney

This is the second post in my continuing series about the Lacey family of Rossadillisk, Ireland. In the first post, I talked about our earliest known Lacey ancestors, Bartholomew "Bartley" Lacey and Judith Corbett.

Bartley and Judy Lacey of Rossadillisk, Ireland, had seven children that I've been able to find in historical records. I have been working to trace the descendants of each of these children, and it is fascinating to see how far and wide these lines have spread. The children that remained in Ireland have been harder to trace than those that emigrated, so there is still work to be done identifying those descendants.

This post is devoted to the eldest child of Bartley and Judy, Mary Lacey, and her descendants.

Mary Lacey

Mary Lacey was born about 1843 in Rossadillisk.

According to Irish parish records, Mary Lacey and Patrick Feeney were married on October 12, 1865 in Clifden, when Mary was about 22 years old. Patrick was the son of Simon Feeney. Mary and Patrick had at least six children together.

1. John Feeney (b. 1868)
2. Patrick Feeney (b. 1870; d. 1922 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; m. Brigid M. Murray)
3. Michael Feeney (b. 1872)
4. Mary Feeney (b. 1875)
5. Mark Feeney (b. 1878)
6. Valentine Feeney (b. 1883)

Mary Lacey can be found in Ireland's 1901 census living in Rossadillisk with her husband, Pat Feeney, and son, Val (Valentine) Feeney, age 18. She is listed as being Roman Catholic and unable to read. Pat's occupation is listed as "farmer," and the census notes that both Pat and Val can read and write. Under "language," all three family members indicate that they speak Irish and English. Mary can also be found in the 1911 Irish Census. At this time, Mary was still living in Rossadillisk with her son Val, who was then 30 years old and unmarried. Mary is listed as a widow, meaning that Pat Feeney died sometime between 1901 and 1911. Mary was 68 at the time of the 1911 census. I have not yet found any death records for her.

Patrick Feeney, Jr. and Brigid M. Murray

The only descendants of Mary Lacey and Patrick Feeney that I've been able to trace come from her son Patrick Feeney, who emigrated to Pennsylvania around 1888, as a young man of 18. It appears that he may have followed his older brother, John, to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area to work in the steel mills there. On February 21, 1895, he married Brigid (or Bridget) M. Murray, who was born in Ireland in 1870, the daughter of Thomas Murray and Anne Cannon. They settled in Homestead, Allegheny County.

[Homestead] was chartered in 1880. The building of a railroad, glass factory, and in 1881 the first iron mill began a period of rapid growth and prosperity. In 1883, Andrew Carnegie bought out Homestead Steel Works, adding it to his empire of steel and coke enterprises. Carnegie had recently acquired a controlling interest in Henry Clay Frick's coke works on the Monongahela, setting the stage for the dramatic labor clash in Homestead. 

Homestead gained international notoriety in July 1892 as the site of a violent clash between locked-out steelworkers and hired Pinkerton guards, known as the Homestead Strike. 

The "Battle of Homestead," as the event came to be known, represented a stunning setback for unionization in the highly mechanized steel industry. It also set the stage for the future steel strike of 1919, in which Homestead played an important role. ¹

Homestead Steel Works in 1910. [Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Publishing Company]

More than half the people in Homestead were employed in the steel industry at the turn of the twentieth century, including Patrick Feeney. However, after World War II, opportunities in steel began to drop dramatically. The steelworks was closed in 1986.

Patrick and Brigid raised five children in Homestead between 1896 and 1908.

1. Joseph P. Feeney (b. 1896 in PA; d. 1932 in PA)
2. Marie E. Feeney (b. 1900 in PA; d. 1966 in PA; m. Robert W. Bamford, son of John Bamford and Anna Schulte)
3. Margaret Ruth Feeney (b. 1901 in PA; d. 2005 in Roanoke, VA; m. abt. 1929 Charles Herbert Ringler, son of Charles A. Ringler and Ellen Garlitz)
4. Irene May Feeney (b. 1905 in PA; d. 1969 in PA; m. in 1929 William Francis Logan, son of Thomas Logan and Bridget Beisty of Ireland)
5. James Francis Feeney (b. 1908 in PA; d. 1989 in CA; m. 1st in 1946 La Verne B. Hay, daughter of Allen Hay and Mayme Fritchen; m. 2nd in 1974 Anita Standridge, daughter of Dennis Standridge and L.F. Cannon)

Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1902. [Photo: Library of Congress]

Patrick was employed as a steel worker. He died of bowel cancer in 1922, at the age of 52. The 1930 U.S. Census reveals that in 1930, eight years after Patrick's death, his widow Brigid was living in nearby Munhall, Pennsylvania with her 21-year old son, James, who was unemployed at the time. Also in the household was her daughter Margaret Feeney Ringler, and Margaret's new husband Charles Ringler. Their first child, Patricia Ringler, was born later that year. In addition, Brigid was taking in boarders to earn an income, and there were three single, male laborers boarding in the home. Brigid died on July 2, 1950 in Roanoke, Virginia. Her daughter Margaret Feeney Ringler had settled there with her family, so presumably Brigid was living with or near them at the time of her death.

The children of Patrick Feeney and Brigid Murray largely concentrated in the following areas:

• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Racine, Wisconsin
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Roanoke, Virginia

Joseph P. Feeney

Joseph did not marry. He worked as a laborer near his hometown of Homestead, Pennsylvania, until his untimely death at age 36. Joseph died of uremia, a condition where the kidneys stop functioning properly. This is often the result of chronic kidney disease, so it's possible that Joseph might have been sick for a long time before his death. He did not have any children.

Marie Feeney

Marie Feeney married Robert Bamford, also from Homestead, in about 1922. Robert was the son of John R. Banford and Anna Schulte of Homestead. Marie and Robert stayed in Homestead after they were married, and Robert worked as a laborer for a steel works company. They had their only child in 1923.

1. Margaret Theresa Bamford (b. 1923 in PA; d. 2018; m. in 1946 John Joseph Lacey, son of John Lacey and Nell Moore; three children born to Margaret and John)

Two of Margaret and John's children are still living and have descendants.

Robert Bamford died in 1949 at the age of 57. The cause of death was cardiac and respiratory failure brought on by congestive heart failure. Marie died in 1966, the age of 66.

Margaret Feeney

Prior to her marriage, Margaret Feeney worked as a stenographer for a dry goods store in Munhall, Pennsylvania. She married Charles Herbert Ringler, son of Charles A. Ringler and Ellen Garlitz of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. After they wed in the late 1920s, Margaret and Charles moved their family to Roanoke, Virginia. There, Charles worked as a salesman of electrical appliances, and Margaret raised their three children.

1. Patricia Ruth Ringler (b. 1930 in PA; d. 2014 in VA; m. in 1951 Robert Murray Johnson, son of George D. Johnson and Florence McCloskey; four children born to Patricia and Robert)
2. Daughter (b. 1936) - Living
3. Charles Allen Ringler (b. 1937 in VA; d. 2005 in NC; m. in 1969 Evelyn Alouf, daughter of Fred Alouf and Anna Jabbour; four children born to Charles and Evelyn)

Charles died in 1981. Margaret died in 2005.

Irene Feeney

Irene Mae Feeney and William Francis Logan were married in 1930 in Homestead, Pennsylvania. William was born in Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland, the son of Thomas Logan and Bridget Beisty. He immigrated to Pittsburgh at the age of 21, in 1923. Irene and William settled in Munhall, a Pittsburgh suburb that neighbors Homestead. Their first two children were born in Munhall. Sometime in 1936/1937, they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where William took a job as a laborer in a cemetery. They had two more children in Cleveland. Irene died in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1969, and William died in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1979.

Irene and William had four children, three of whom may still be living. Their families have spread to Virginia and Pennsylvania. The eldest of the children, William Murray Logan, died in Cleveland, Ohio in 1986 at the age of 55. His family remains in the area.

James Francis Feeney

James, the youngest of the Feeney children, was thirteen when his father died. He lived with his mother, obtained a college degree, and in 1943, joined the US Navy. He served until November 1945, when he was honorably discharged following the end of World War II. It appears that James was fortunate enough not to see action overseas during the war.  In 1946, he married La Verne Blanche Hay, daughter of Allen Hay and Mayme Fritchen of Wisconsin. They appear to have met in Roanoke, Virginia, where James was living after the war. James and La Verne then moved to Racine, Wisconsin, and their only child was born there in 1947.

1. Thomas Michael Feeney (b. 1947 in WI; d. 2013 in WI; m. in 1891 a spouse who is still living. Thomas and his spouse had two children)

James was still living in Racine in May 1950, when he filed an application with the World War II Veterans Compensation Bureau. However, at some point after that, it appears that he and La Verne separated. By 1963, La Verne was back in Roanoke, Virgina, working at an auto repair center, where she would remain for at least the next fifteen years. James does not resurface in records until 1974, when he married Anita Standridge, daughter of Dennis Standridge and Leafy Cannon, in Reno, Nevada. They settled in the Sacramento area, where he died in 1989. La Verne died in Racine in 1997. Anita died in Sacramento in 2003. The descendants of Thomas Michael Feeney continue to live in the Racine area.

This branch of the Lacey family tree spread to America, across multiple states. In the next post, I'll explore the fate of another of Bartley and Judy Lacey's children. Follow this link for all posts about the Lacey family.

---

1 Wikipedia.com: Homestead, Pennsylvania^↩