John Foy - Margaret Eagan - Bernard Joseph Foy Family

John Foy was our first Foy ancestor to emigrate from Ireland. He arrived in New York City in the early 1870s. He married Margaret Eagan and had two sons. The first one was Bernard Joseph Foy (see information below), who was born in 1875. The second son was John Foy, who was born around 1876, and died July 12, 1878. John Foy (Sr.) died of TB, four days later. According to his death certificate, he was 30 years old, worked as a Coachman, and resided at 241 E 29th St. (Manhattan). According to Bernard's baptism record from the Church of the Holy Innocents, 128 West 37th St, his sponsors were Neil (Cornelius) Duross and Rosannah Foy. Unfortunately, we have been unable to determine the relationship between John Foy and Rosannah Foy. We believe John and Neil were friends through work. Neil came from Derrygonnelly, County Fermanagh, Ireland. After John Foy died, Margaret and Bernard moved to Newport, RI, to be with her family. (To learn more about this Eagan family, click here.)

According to the 1880 census for Newport, RI, Margaret and Bernard were listed as living with her brother, John Eagan. Also residing in that household were a Thomas Foy, 37, born in Ireland, and a Michael Foy, 27, born in Ireland. We suspect that Thomas and Michael were related to John Foy, but we have been unable to confirm the relationship.

Since John Foy named his first son Bernard, we believe that he was following the Irish naming custom of naming the first born son after the child's paternal grandfather. Going on that assumption, we reviewed the Irish birth, marriage and death indexes, in an effort to learn the commonality of the name "Bernard Foy." We found that most of the Bernard Foys listed in all of these indexes were from County Cavan. Our next step was to contact as many Irish genealogical centers as possible to see if they held a baptism record for a John Foy, born around 1848, whose father was Bernard Foy. We received responses from several centers who found baptism records for a John Foy, who was born around 1848. However, only the Cavan Genealogical Center was able to find a record that listed John's father as Bernard. The baptism occurred on July 28, 1852, in the townland of Lisboduff, in the parish of Drung. The parents were listed as Bernard Foy and Anne Foy. The sponsors were John McDonald and Anne Brady. We think this could be our John Foy, but we have no way of knowing for sure. We asked the Cavan Center to search for the baptism records of Rosannah, Michael and Thomas Foy, but the results were negative. It is possible that the baptism records have not been indexed, and that is why they weren't located.

	Name	Born	Married	Died
Husband	Bernard Joseph Foy	Mar. 31, 1875, New York City.		Died Oct. 11, 1949, Bethesda, MD.

Wife	Annie Cecilia Sullivan	Nov. 29, 1877, Newport, RI.	Married Feb. 4, 1896, Newport, RI.	Died Oct. 6, 1966, Wash. D.C.


Children:	Margurite Crowley Foy	Dec. 4, 1896, Newport, RI.	Married Edward Golden.	Died Apr. 15, 1984, Rockville, MD.

	John Francis Foy	Feb. 16, 1899, Newport, RI.	Married Margaret Louise Francis	Died Jan. 30, 1974, Gettysburg, PA.

	Harold Bernard Foy	Feb. 20, 1901, Newport, RI.	Married Catherine Alice Bowman on Jun. 25, 1927, New Orleans, LA.	Died Nov. 14, 1973, Silver Spring, MD.

	Dorthea Agnes Foy	Feb. 14, 1904, Brookline, MA.	Married Charles Lowndes on Jun 14, 1928.	Died Aug. 14, 1985, Tampa, FL.

	Eleanor Ruth Foy	Sept. 5, 1905, Brookline, MA.	Married Walter Holden.	Died Jan. 1984, Los Angeles, CA.

	Larz Bernard Foy	Jul. 26, 1907, Brookline, MA.	Married Elizabeth Dunlop.	Died Apr. 22, 1994, Charlotte Hall, MD.
	Anna Catherine Foy	Mar. 15, 1900, Brookline, MA.	Married Alvin Webb Kremer	Died Dec. 15, 1976, Annandale, VA.