Coakley Family Origins

The Coakley family of this web site affectionately calls Shersha Faha, County Kerry, Ireland its home. The Coakley name, however, is considered a Cork name and our Coakley family originated in Cork. It is believed that they came from Clonakilty, County Cork. There are some 15 Clonakilty Coakley's in the telephone book, many of them having some of the familiar family names like Jeremiah and Con. Clonakilty also is also the home of another notable Irish family, the Collins family. Michael Collins was born in Clonakilty.

A Coakley ancestor married into a family from Shersha Faha, relocated to Kerry and Shersha Faha henceforth became the home of the Coakley family, as we know it. The precise name of the Coakley ancestor or time when he married into Shersha Faha cannot be pinpointed, although, it most likely occurred sometime after the famine. Perhaps Cornelius Coakley was the one because his wife, Lucy Brick, was a Church Of Ireland member and could very well have been landed

The above information was developed from discussions with Sr. Ethna Coakley, Sr. Francis Coakley, Jerm Coakley and Nellie Coakley.

IMMIGRATION

Cornelius and Lucy had two sons, Patrick and Jeremiah. They may have had other children, but we do know for sure. There is some talk in the states of a Coakley who immigrated or more likely was "transported" to Australia, but the trail grows cold at that point.

Nevertheless, the Coakley family immigrated to America in two successive generations. Patrick and Nora (Dwyer) Coakley were the first to immigrate to America. Patrick was a brother to Jeremiah Coakley who stayed behind with his bride, Lucy Sullivan Coakley.

Patrick and Nora lost a child in passage to America and started their family in Chicago in 1876 with the birth of their first child, Patrick E. Coakley. Patrick and Nora likely arrived in America within a year or two before the birth of Patrick E. Why did they settle in Chicago? Who knows? Perhaps they came because work was so abundant as Chicago struggled to rebuild itself form the ashes of the 1871 Chicago fire. The exact reason will likely remain a mystery forever.

In addition to Patrick E. Coakley, Patrick and Nora had 6 other children: Nora, Julia, John, Jeremiah, Catherine and Mary. See the Patrick Coakley Family Tree. They settled into the Bridgeport area and began to take root in Chicago.

Patrick E. Coakley married Catherine Clare. Their first cousins in Ireland were Jeremiah and Lucy (Sullivan) Coakley. Jeremiah and Lucy's children would represent the second generation of Coakley's to immigrate to America. They obviously came to Chicago because there was an established Coakley family who could look after them and integrate them into American life.

Nine of Jeremiah and Lucy's children immigrated to Chicago (Cornelius, Mary, Margaret, Lucy, Jeremiah, Hannah, Nora, Tim and Jack). They knew the Patrick Coakley family well and maintained contact with them. Also, long ago there was contact between some of their children and the Patrick Coakley family. However, each of the two immigrant generations of Coakleys would develop large families of their own and after a while they tended to concentrate within their own families. Contact between the families diminished over time and never transcended to the next generation.