My father's father's father's father's father's father Tim...

Some 260 years ago, Tim Moriarty entered this world. He's the patriarch of the Moriarty line, the reason all of my known ancestors came into existence, the reason I'm here. Problem is, there just isn't much beyond his name that we know at this time.

It was my father's work that uncovered Tim as his 3rd great-grandfather, but he never got terribly far due to a lack of digitally available records from Ireland in the middle of the 18th century. Unfortunately, I've not been able to piece together any additional information to date. Building on this information is among the top priorities in my current research efforts.

What is known? I've no record of the sources of my father's information on Tim, but he is reported to have been born in Ireland in 1754. This is the same year that the French & Indian War began, with a young American-born major named George Washington playing a large role in the British efforts.

It is believed that he marries a woman with the name of Crimmins, which is one of the more uncommon Irish surnames, though most often found in southwestern Ireland, including the Moriarty clan's home turf of County Kerry.

There are two known children of Tim and his bride, a pair of sons named John and Patrick. Their dates of birth, and even their official birthplace, aside from presumably being in County Kerry, are not yet uncovered. For the purpose of this direct line, Patrick is the brother that matters. He marries an Irish lass named Mary Sullivan, though the year is not known.

Patrick and Mary have at least seven children together, three boys and four girls. Nothing is known about one of these kids, John T. Moriarty. There's no information as to when he was born, when he died, whether he ever married or had children, or if he so much as survived infancy. There is information on the other Moriarty children, however. Of these six, they were born as follows: Timothy, Julia, Mary, Margaret, Patrick, and Catherine.

The eldest, Timothy, is my great-great-grandfather. He was born 11 February 1824 in Alohart (sometimes spelled as Alohert), Beaufort, County Kerry, not far from the Gap of Dunloe and Killarney National Park.

Alohart is a pretty small place in County Kerry.

Timothy wed Catherine Murphy, 16 years his junior, in either 1857 or 1858. Soon enough, they started a family of their own with nine children: Patrick, John, Timothy, James, Daniel, Mary, Michael, Dennis, and Julia. All of the Moriarty kids were born in Ireland between 1859 and 1880, leaving for America in 1884. According to immigration records, they arrived in the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, on June 21, 1884, aboard the S.S. Cephalonia.

On May 13, 1892, Timothy passed away, aged 68, at his home on Pleasant Street in Southbridge, Massachusetts, which would become the adopted American hometown of the Moriarty family. According to his obituary, he had been a Southbridge resident for just eight years, but had "cultivated a wide acquaintance and made a host of friends." Timothy had an "attack of the grip, which finally developed into pneumonia, from which he died." Furthermore, he was described as "a thrifty and industrious man" that "took an interest in the welfare of the town and was always pleased to see improvements going on." His bride, Catherine, passed 19 April 1916 in Southbridge, aged 76.

Of Timothy and Catherine's children, it was his namesake and third-born, Timothy T. Moriarty, that is a member of this direct line. Born in County Kerry in December 1864, Timothy is found in state archives as coming to Massachusetts aboard the Samaria on May 28, 1883. A little more than a year after his father's death, Timothy married Catherine T. Sullivan in St. Peter's Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 15, 1893.

Timothy T. Moriarty & Catherine "Kate" T. Sullivan exchanged their wedding vows in St. Peter's Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 15, 1893. Timothy resided in Southbridge, some 60 miles southwest of Cambridge, where Kate lived at the time.

Timothy and Kate would settle in Southbridge and have ten children together, though a daughter named Margaret died as an infant. Between 1894 and 1908, they would add to Southbridge's population with the births of Catherine M., Mary Agatha, Timothy Joseph, Patrick Henry, John "Jack" Lawrence, Margaret C., Julia E., James Brandon, Daniel Edward, and Michael Eugene. Like many in Southbridge at the turn of the century, Timothy would work at the Hamilton Woolen Company, just down the hill from the family home on Pleasant Street.

Timothy T. and Catherine "Kate" (Sullivan) Moriarty surrounded by their sons and daughters circa 1930.

Timothy would passed at age 69, on November 7, 1934. Kate followed eight years later on September 28, 1942, at the age of 75.

Tim and Kate's youngest child, Michael Eugene Moriarty, was born on August 20, 1908, in Southbridge. In 1937, he would marry a pretty 22-year-old named Rita Catherine Hurley, the daughter of Michael Timothy and Louise Mary (Kearns) Hurley. The Hurley family came from the nearby town of Warren, Massachusetts. Mike and Rita had five children of their own, including my father, Michael Timothy Moriarty in 1942.

All of this made possible way back in the second half of the eighteenth century by a man that was probably a poor farmer in Alohart. Now it is on me to dig up the facts and stories of what has followed, and ideally preceded, since the time of my father's father's father's father's father's father Tim, and his bride, Ms. Crimmins.