Catherine Beirne

Catherine Beirne married Eugene [Owen] Reilly in the Tibohine Parish - Fairymount, Co. Roscommon, on 19 Feb 1857. Witnesses were John Shanly and Malachy Cregg. [NOTE: The NJ Reillys were very close with the Shanlys from Connecticut.  The Creggs were from Tonroe, where Catherine and Owen raised their children.  Thomas & Eleanor Cregg were baptismal sponsors for Gene Reilly in 1873.] Christening records for Mary, Winifred, Catherine and Eugene indicate they were born in Ballinameen [Tonroe] in the late 1850s through 1873.

It seems Owen died 5 months after their last child, Eugene, was born. He was only 52.

Catherine's brothers, Michael, Thomas, and Patrick Beirne/ Byrne, settled in Orange and West Orange in the late 1860s. Catherine's older children Michael, Patrick, and Mary came over to St. John's Church in Orange around 1882. The 5 June 1891 Britannic ship manifest shows a Catherine O'Reilly from Roscommon, age 50, with [?? maybe Patrick?] O'Reilly, farmer, age 30, Catherine, servant, age 20, and Eugene, farmer, age 17 emigrating from Roscommon. They appear in the Orange Directories [Catherine, widow of Owen], and 1895 census records along with Michael and Theresa. In Irish and US records the spellings of the names frequently change, as does the "O".

A Catharine O'Reilly, age 53 then 63, appears in the 1900 and 1910 census records as an an assistant at the convent, House of the Good Shepherd, Newark. Her daughter Winifred Reilly [Sister Frances Marie deSales], is listed on the same page, as Director at the convent. Catherine is buried in the Reilly plot at St. John's Cemetery, Orange.