Help with Kelly / Molloy search

[irishdane]

Need help with Molloy & Kelly ancestors. I'm at a dead end. William Molloy, born 23 Apr, 1843, to John & Mary Molloy, maybe Dublin, and his wife, Mary Kelly, born 9 Jun, 1846, to William & Bridget Kelly, also maybe Dublin. They were married when they arrived in the US in 1870, but cannot find a record of that. Family legend has it that William Molloy worked for Mary Kelly's family, maybe w/the horses. They fell in love and ran away to be married. This could be complete fiction. When they immigrated to the US, they lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Their daughter, Mary Molloy, was born there in 1872; a Mary 'Maloy' was one of the two sponsors. Martin Daley the other.

I hope this rings a bell for someone.

[aghadowey]

Have you checked their death certificates?- place of birth might be listed.

Civil registration index is online (free) - search for bride and groom separately then cross-reference results to find match.
http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=collectionDetails&c=fs%3A1408347

[irishdane]

How nice to get such a quick reply. Thank you.

Both death records just say Ireland as place of birth. US citizenship papers indicate Dublin, but are confusing since Cork is also mentioned. I have not been able to find their names on the civil registration, nor did a professional I hired several years ago. I found William Molloy & wife Mary Molly on a ship's record, assuming it was them. I also checked the church records in Bridgeport, CT. Not there either. The other possibility could be that they were married in New York where they landed. Or if the story about running away together is true, could they have used false names? 

I looked at several birth records at RootsIreland, but kind of expensive. At the LDS site, I found a Mary Kelly, daughter of Wm & Bridget, born Ap 1843 in Roscommon. Actual date is wrong, but this could have been baptism date, rather than birth date as most of the records are.

I just keep hoping siblings of Mary Kelly & Wm Molloy, right parents, right timeframe, will turn up.

All suggestions welcome.

[aghadowey]

If they lived in Bridgeport I would say most likely port of entry in U.S. is New York with Boston being the second choice but you could also check Philadelphia. It's possible they were born in Dublin but took a ship from Cork (or visa versa- naturalisation papers should say).

You can search for New York City marriages here-
http://www.italiangen.org/VRECLIST.stm

U.S. census records (I forget which years) ask how long married on at least one census and age at 1st marriage on another.

[irishdane]

Thank you! I will check out these leads.

[aghadowey]

Have you checked cemetery or church burial records? there's a slight chance a place in Ireland might be mentioned depending on cemetery (I know St. Thomas' in Fairfield didn't start keeping proper records until the 1960s but you might be luckier)
Also worth checking newspaper obituaries.