This part of the McElroy clan pronounces their surname as "Mac" Elroy. Michael's nephew and oldest brother Larry's son, Johnny, pronounced it as read "Mic" Elroy.

ANCESTRY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD IN IRELAND

Catherine is a daughter of James and Mary (Markey) Prunty. Although I don't have the actual document, I have found an Irish ancestral record of a church marriage between James Prunty and Mary Markey during 1870 in County Monaghan.

My brother Jimmy has informed me that, Catherine Prunty's siblings, in age order, are: Anne (named after her paternal aunt Annie Prunty), Edward, James Jr., Mary Ellen, (herself) and Rose. Their parents are James Prunty and Mary Markey. Daughter Rose passed on at the age of three in 1903 and is interred with her father in First Calvary. I believe he meant 1893 for Catherine's father James; refer to memorial no. 127091953.

The 1901 Census of Ireland records her father's brother John as the Prunty Family residing at house 15 in Tassan (Annayalla, Monaghan). Their Roman Catholic family being comprised of John a 56 year old farmer (thus, born c. 1845), his wife Rose, daughters Ketty Anne age 14, Sarah age 12, Rosey age 8 and Maggie age 5; sons recorded are Eddie age 10 and John Joseph age 5. All of the children, with the exception of 5 year old Maggie, were noted as being able to read and write. All were born in County Monaghan. Possibly this John is brother to James.

Incidentally, that same 1901 Census records a 15 year old Alice Markey living with and charged with general domestic chores for her farming cousins, 32 year old Henry and his 22 year old sister Mary Ann Carroll at house 24 on Tassan Street in Annayalla, Monaghan.

The 1911 Census of Ireland records John, then 69 and Rose age 52 residing at House 8 on Tassan Street in Annayalla, along with Kitty Anne (Ketty Anne in 1901) age 24, Eddie 21, John James (John Joseph in 1901) 17 and Maggie now 15. It reports John and Rose being married for 26 years, having had 6 children of which all were still living at this time. This 1911 Census shows that there were only 38 Prunty Families living in County Monaghan. As a note, I have the addresses and composition of these families in a spreadsheet.

PRUNTY EMIGRATIONS TO THE U.S.A., PARTICULARLY NEW YORK

According to the 1930 Census, Catherine was 16 when she emigrated with her family from Ireland in 1907. Although this contradicts baby Rose being interred at Old Calvary in 1903.

In trying to document the family's actual immigration date(s), I did a broad "Prunty" screen of the Ellis Island Passenger Record data base, which returned 122 results. Knowing the names of her father and mother and that she may possibly be listed as "Sarah Catherine" (per my brother Jimmy, and I confirm and document this under the "marriage" paragraph below) or Katie or Kathy, et cetera, I then went through these results and retrieved manifests accordingly. To date, I have not weeded out any manifest for these Pruntys.

I did discern an Aunt Mrs. Mead and a Mrs. Gregg to which some of the Pruntys were going to, living a block or so from Larry and Annie McElroy; refer to memorial nos. 104660597 and 106433775. There's a May 16th, 1907 Kate Prunty 22 who last resided in Ballinalee, which is in Longford. She was going to her aunt Mrs. Cash. Ironically, aunt Mrs. Cash address was 320 West 40th St., in Manhattan. The very same address as Larry and Teresa McElroy! The 1905 NYS Census shows that the Cash residence was right next to that of Larry and Theresa. So, in a way, this parallels the paragraph following next. Refer to Lawrence "Teresa's Larry" McElroy, memorial 108280788, for other 1905 specifics.

Needless to say, I performed a similar screen of Castle Gardens, which was the original immigration entry center up to 1892. Rather odd that this is not as well-known given that it was the main port of call for the great influx of Irish immigrants from the Great Famine, id est, an Gorta Mór, between 1845 and 1852; a period of mass starvation and disease. Certainly potatoes are in the McElroy blood line. To wit, see the Lawrence V "Annie's Larry" McElroy memorial no. 104660597, the family patriarch of the McElroy family here in the States.

I did find a Catherine Prunty listed on a May 1st, 1911 manifest out of Liverpool who last resided in and whose place of birth is shown as Gateshead. I suspect this was in error, but have no proof, except as reasoned herein. The person to contact from the country "whence alien comes" is the name of Grandmother Catherine Prunty, of Aughaboy (modern spelling is Aghaboy), Esker, in the vicinity of Drumlish and Newtownforbes, of County Longford. I wonder if there's a family tie-in here with the Pruntys of Annayalla, Monaghan. This Catherine was going to see her brother James Prunty at 4024 3rd Avenue in NYC. This is between 127th and 128th (closer to) Streets – a matter of blocks east of Bro. Edmund Rice High School, my first High School, my brother Jimmy's alma mater. She was noted as having "a cast in the eyes".

Among other things, I noticed some Pruntys were directly going out west to states like Utah and the northern portion of Nevada. Refer to the Edward and Sarah Jane Cullen memorials for a link to Utah. My brother Jimmy had mentioned to me that Edward's and Sarah's daughter Susan (see Dorgan memorial # 19874347) appear to have some ties out west, which he hasn't connected - - this may be a possibility.

I also came across a number of Maggie and Margaret Pruntys, one of which Aunt Margie Lincks, my Godmother, may have been named after (refer to 1901 Census of Ireland foregoing). Another one of note is a Peter Prunty, who also appears in the 1920 and 1940 U.S. Censuses as living in the Bronx who married a Catherine, both he and her born around the same time as Nana (Catherine) McElroy, i.e., 1891. There are also a number of back and forth goings with father, brother and Uncle Patrick – God Bless him.

A final record I'd like to note in re the Pruntys is the Grandmother Catherine Prunty of Aghaboy mentioned above as being the person to contact in Ireland. I have this annotated in my files as: "1904 Nov 04 Catherine Prunty Age 60 Line 23 from Longford to see Annie Prunty; Out of Queenstown; nearly impossible to read, can make out Annie Prunty at (p) 706 or 406 and maybe 33rd Street". This could be Larry and Annie's address. Thus, there may be an outside chance that Larry McElroy's wife Annie Prunty may have been from County Longford rather than County Monaghan. Annie's parents were Susan Duffy and Owen Prunty.

So, in sum, the only immigration manifest that I came across which matches up is for October 19th, 1895 that records a Mary & Katie (i.e., Sarah Catherine) McElroy ages 11 and 9 (lines 139 - 140) from Ireland (no town provided) to NY. Given their ages, it appears that they may have been travelling with a Mary, age 36 (a wife) and Rose (Spinster), age 19, Breen; also on board were Lizzie, age 28, and Annie, age 18, Duffy. Arrival destinations were not a line item, as such they were not noted.

As to Catherine's mom Mary (nee Markey), I haven't uncovered anything – yet. I'm noting the following simply as "break points" that I came across – points just outside of showing any family lines – for the time being. I found a Mary who came over on Aug 01, 1892 (no town or county listed) at the age of 18 being a spinster; another of same name and calling out of Cavan Mary Markey arriving on May 16, 1892 (a cousin?); another on Nov 03, 1897, age 22 out of Crossmaglen (in Armagh, just across the Monaghan border in the North); and, not surprisingly, one out of Dundee, where many Irish went, who was a 35 year old single spinster in 1904 (birth c. 1869) that recorded her ethnicity as Scotch and embarked out of Glasgow.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE IN NEW YORK

In 1911, on the 19th of August, Catherine Prunty and Michael McElroy applied for and received their license to marry (No. 22694). Nine (9) days later they married. The proper documentation of marriage is identified as: August 1911, Certificate No. 20139, FHL Roll 1613233, within which the bride is listed as Sarah Catherine Prunty age 25, the spouse Michael McElroy age 32. They were married at St. Vincent Ferrer’s in Manhattan on the 28th of August, the 240th day of the year and the day before the birth of their great granddaughter Natalie-Anne Sinead Cullen some 87 years later and three days before the birth of their grandson Francis Joseph some 53 years later.

At wedding time, Michael was residing at 407 West 49th Street, while Sarah Catherine’s residence was 107 East 60th Street. The sacrament of marriage was administered by Father P.A. Maher, as witnessed by James E. and Mary E. McElroy. Catherine's sister Mary Ellen apparently married a McElroy too! The church and rectory are between 65th and 66th Streets on Lexington Avenue. The church, rectory, along with the high school occupy the entire block. The two daughters of their oldest daughter, Mary Ellen McElroy Murphy, attended and graduated from St. Vincent Ferrer’s High School.

Their great granddaughter, Anya Sinead Cullen, attended and graduated in 2013 from the Dominican Academy just a few blocks away at 68th Street between Park and Madison Avenues, almost 102 years after their marriage. Anya is the daughter of their grandson Lawrence Vincent, who was named after Michael’s oldest brother by some 19 years (1860 vs. 1879). Both Natalie-Anne Sinead and Anya Sinead carry on the name of Michael’s & Catherine’s daughter Ann Jane, the mother of their fathers.

For clarification, note that Catherine's father is Jas. Prunty Sr., (b. 1845 – d. 1893), the third oldest son of Owen Prunty (b. 1815). James Sr. had a cousin Owen Prunty who married Susan Duffy. Owen and Susan had a daughter Annie (b. ≈1865). On 11/07/1889, Annie married Catherine's brother-in-law Larry McElroy – Michael McElroy's oldest brother by close to 20 years. Larry and Annie had four children: James, Helen or Ellen, Johnny and Owen (Eugene). As mentioned below, James Sr. also named a daughter after Annie, so at first this may be confusing.

As mentioned it was Jimmy who first told me Catherine's proper first name is Sarah Catherine, I documented this foregoing. Apparently, over time she ceased using Sarah and simply went by Catherine. Since most of her records and census data are as Catherine, sans Sarah, I use Catherine herein and elsewhere in all other references to her.

I recall being over at Nana's and Poppa's house as a kid and she showing me a white paper, maybe 5-1/2 by 8-1/2, lined and format like a birth, wedding or some other document of similar nature and import that read Catherine Prunty. It was typed. I recall this as she was showing me the Prunty name. Naturally the Catherine was next to the left of it, and like so many in our family, I too have an eye for the obvious, so I noticed it. I just can't focus in to the left to see if Sarah was next to Catherine or draw out and focus on the title of the document which was several words in bold black typed print. She was showing me this in the kitchen by the opening toward the dining room, away from the back door, in a bent huddle like posture. Boy, she always seemed to be in the kitchen! I have memories of being over at Uncle Jack's and Aunt Margie being in the kitchen a lot too.

Michael and Catherine have eight children: Mary Ellen Murphy (named after Catherine's sister, b. Sun. 03/09/1913 - d. 07/18/2001), Katherine Horan (b. Mon. 02/02/1914 - d. 11/24/1993), Lawrence V. McElroy (after Michael's oldest brother, b. 1916 - d. 10/09/1970), Ann Jane Cullen (formally, Anna Jeanette Cullen, commonly called Annie as were Catherine's sister and aunt Annie Prunty, named after Michael's sister, b. 07/08/1917 - d. 06/29/1962), Margaret (b. 09/21/1919 – d. 12/07/2013), Michael McElroy Jr. (d. 1 yr. old infant died 05/16/1922, buried 05/19/1922), Charles Jos. "their Buddy" (b. 03/03/1922 - d. 11/05/2010) and Virginia O'Keefe (b. 06/12/1925 – d. 08/30/1982). Refer to the Michael McElroy memorial link below under spouse for a family picture c. 1959.

As to the Godmothers of the five Cullen boys of Catherine's middle daughter Annie: Aunt Mary is Jimmy's Godmother, Aunt Kay is Larry's, Aunt Margie is Danny's, and Uncle Buddy is Kevin's Godfather, while Buddy's wife, Aunt Hilda is Frankie's Godmother.

Catherine was interred 12/27/1960 with her husband (b. 04/09/1879 c. – d. 03/18/1960, interred 03/22/1962), their 1 year old infant son Michael (d. 11/15/1919, re-interred 1922), their oldest son Lawrence V. (d. 10/09/1970), Catherine's beloved sister Annie Prunty (b. 1876 d. 1905) and their daughter Margie (b. 09/21/1919 -d. 12/07/2013) and her beloved husband Jack Lincks (d. 06/13/2007). Annie was 29 years old at time of death in 1905, some 15 years older than Catherine who was about 14 at the time. As providence would have it and as stated 1905 was also the year that Catherine's future husband would visit New York. I’m sure they are all in eternal bliss.