Our earliest roots in Brooklyn can be traced to the arrival of Martin Delaney, who immigrated to this county in the late 1840s. The first record of Martin is in the 1850 U.S. Census where he is listed as living with his wife Mary (Skelly) Delaney and ten-month old daughter Catherine, in Brooklyn’s 4th Ward. When and where Mary Skelly and Martin were married is not known, but the couple had begun to establish a family as early as 1849 with the birth of their first child, Catherine Delaney, in October of that year. Martin was a carpenter, whose trade would have been in great demand at the mid-point of the 19th century when the population of Brooklyn was beginning to boom. Although it would be many years before all of the various localities – Flatbush, Gravesend, Williamsburgh, etc. – had been incorporated into Brooklyn as it is known today, by 1850 Brooklyn already had a population in excess of 139, 000 and would, in the next ten years, more than double by adding another 140,000 people. The famine in Ireland, which may well have been the cause for Martin’s immigration to this country, was in full swing and continued to drive people to the shores of New York by the tens of thousands. The burgeoning population would have required the construction of large numbers of new dwellings and business establishments, making carpentry a valued skill for a newly arrived immigrant to possess. A Henry Delaney, age 27, is also listed as living in the household. Henry, a carpenter who was born in Ireland, appears to be Martin’s brother. Martin, Mary, Catherine, and Henry Delaney are listed as part of the household of John Scotty, a gardener, age 55, who was born in Ireland.

Ten years later, the population of Brooklyn was continuing to boom and Martin was doing quite well in his profession as a carpenter. We learn from the 1860 census that he has a net worth of $300, and the family has grown to three children – Catherine, now ten, John Francis, age five, and James Henry, at two months of age. This is the first record that we have of my great-grandfather John Francis Delaney. A birth record for him has not yet been found. Although the census returns did not list street addresses, we do learn from those records that the family was living in Brooklyn’s 11th Ward. By the time the 1860 census was taken, there is no record in the household of John Scotty, with whom the family had resided in 1850.

The clan continued to grow during the 1860s with the addition of Mary Frances Delaney on 23 June 1862 and in 1864 with the birth of Martin, the last child born to Martin and Mary (Skelly) Delaney. But about 1869, tragedy struck the family when Martin died, leaving Mary with five children ranging in age from four to twenty.

After searching without success for the Delaney family in the 1870 U.S. Census, I was surprised to find Mary and her five children still living in Brooklyn’s 11th Ward, but in the household of William Shelly. Mary had recently been remarried at the time that the 1870 census was taken, and was enumerated as Mary Shelly, which accounts for not being able to find her in the census indexes under the Delaney surname. The children, however, were still listed with the Delaney surname and it was through a search for Catherine Delaney that I finally found the family in the census.

In March of 1870, Mary (Skelly) Delaney married William Shelly, whose occupation was listed as “working for a carpenter.” William, like Mary and her first husband, was born in Ireland. If the census data is to be believed, William was about ten years younger than Mary, who by this time was about 37 years old. Catherine Delaney, age 19, is “at home,” while John at age 15 is working as an errand boy. Two of the other children, James Henry at age 10 and Mary at age 8, were attending school, while Martin at age 6 was presumably still at home and not yet in school. We also find Thomas Delaney, age 28 and also born in Ireland, living in the household. He’s working for a book binder. Thomas’ relationship to the family is unknown, but it is possible that he is a much younger brother of the now deceased Martin Delaney, who would have been about forty years old in 1870. It would appear that Mary inherited a considerable estate from her deceased husband, Martin, because the 1870 census indicates that she had real estate valued at $4,000 and a personal estate valued at $1,000. The estate values are listed next to Mary’s name and not William’s name.

By June of 1880 when the U.S. Census was taken, Catherine Delaney had left the Shelly household, but William, Mary, and four of the other children are residing at 120 Somers Street, Brooklyn. Inexplicably, William, at age 44, is now sixteen years older than he was ten years prior when the 1870 census was taken, and Mary, at age 45, has aged only eight years. Now working as a clerk in a store, John Francis, is supposedly only 23 years of age whereas he should be 25. James Henry at 20 years of age is working as a hatter, while Mary Frances is listed as “family serving” for her occupation. Martin at age 15 is still attending school. By 1880, William is working as a carpenter, instead of working for a carpenter as he had been doing ten years earlier, and Mary is keeping house. As a carpenter, William must have had plenty of work since Brooklyn's population had continued to boom, reaching nearly 600,000 by 1880.