Here’s what I’ve extracted about John O’Reilly the lightkeeper from church records:

[1837 Oct] 23rd Married John Kielly of Placentia to Johanna Bohana of St. Mary’s Witness’s Sylvester Blanch & Daniel Corbon & Dorothea Corbon.

[1837 August 25] Bap’d Thomas of John Reily & Hana Bonea Sponcers Thomas Whealan & Hanah Bradsha

[1840 November the] 15 Bap’d Mary of John Rellay & Hanah Bonea Sponcers Silvester Blanch & Ruth Rellay

The marriage is in the records of St. John the Baptist Basilica in St. John’s. The baptisms are in the records of Holy Rosary Parish in Argentia (which covered Placentia during those years). Although the names in the marriage record are badly misspelled, I’m pretty confident it’s the correct couple. Also, the date at the top of the page for Thomas’s baptism says 1837, but there are some weird discrepancies in the Argentia records, and I think the date should actually be 1838.

I also found John’s estate and probate papers online, beginning with this image: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSRN-Z9NN-7?i=1116&cat=788690. The estate file lists Thomas and Mary (by then deceased) as his heirs; there is no mention whatsoever of William. This leads me to believe that William O’Reilly who married Sarah Bonia is not actually a son of John and Hannah, as he would have been listed as a child on the estate papers even if he didn’t inherit anything.

There seems to have been some confusion between the different William O’Reillys. I think William O’Reilly who married Sarah Bonia was actually the son of William O’Reilly and Bridget Whelan. I have down about 5 or 6 more possible children for William and Bridget.

I’m interested to see that there are other researchers working on the O’Reilly family.

My great-grandfather, Stephen O’Reilly, was born in North East Placentia (Dunville) in 1892. He immigrated to New York in 1914 and lived in the US for the rest of his life.

His parents were Patrick O’Reilly (born 1859 in Dunville) and Margaret Teresa Power (born 1863 in Dunville).

Patrick’s parents were Stephen O’Reilly (born in Placentia or Dunville) and Anne Walsh (born about 1827 in County Waterford, Ireland).

Stephen’s father was Patrick O’Reilly, who was born in Placentia in the late 1700s. We have no information on Patrick’s wife.

I’ve been trying to piece together all of the O’Reilly families. I’ve combed through an enormous amount of records, and I think I’ve figured out how almost all of the families most likely fit together. Some of my connections are based on the circumstantial evidence of Irish naming conventions where children were often named after their grandparents (the eldest son after the father’s father, the second son after the mother’s father, and the two eldest daughters after their grandmothers). There are a few O’Reilly families from nearby towns like Freshwater, Red Island, and Argentia who don’t seem to be related, but all of the O’Reillys from Great Placentia and Dunville seem to trace back to either Patrick, John, Garrett, or William O’Reilly, who all probably would have been born in the late 1700s in Placentia. I think that they may be brothers, possibly all sons of the Garret Reilly who was living in Placentia in 1786 and 1789. Patrick, John, and William all seem to have had large families, but I have only two children for Garrett so far.

Patrick would of course be my ancestor. Based on the naming conventions, I think his wife might have been named Mary. John would be the same one who married Mary Whelan (side note: I’ve never seen any documentation for Mary’s maiden name of Whelan…does anyone know where that came from?) William would be the same one who married Bridget Whelan. I have very little on Garrett, but based on the naming conventions his wife’s name might have been Sarah.

My current thinking is that William O’Reilly (married Sarah Bonia) is a son of William O’Reilly and Bridget Whelan and that William O’Reilly (married Margaret Collins) is a son of John O’Reilly & Mary Whelan.

The 1871 Lovell’s directory of Newfoundland lists 2 William Rieleys: “William, of William, fisherman” and “William, sen., fisherman.” Presumably one of these men is William who married Margaret Collins and the other is William who married Sarah Bonia. Terms like junior and senior in those days often did not imply father-son relationships. Since the William who married Margaret Collins was about 15 years older. he would probably be the William, Sr., leaving William who married Sarah Bonia as the son of William.

It has been claimed in many trees that William (married Sarah Bonia) is a son of John & Hannah O’Reilly (John being the keeper at the Cape St. Mary’s lighthouse). No baptism record exists for William. (I estimate he was born in the timespan 1832 to 1835, and baptism records don’t start until Jun 1835. However, William’s death record from Massachusetts gives his parents as “John O’Rielly & Sarah Bonnair.” This is almost certainly incorrect, as Sarah Bonnair was actually the name of his wife! It’s quite possible that the informant didn’t know the real names of William’s parents. (I’ve certainly seen similar errors many other times.) So John might not be the correct name of his father after all.

Additional evidence that William might not be a son of John and Hannah comes from John’s will (http://ngb.chebucto.org/Wills/oreilly-john-6-298.shtml), which lists only his son Thomas and does not even mention William.

The “double first cousins” claim is slightly puzzling to me. As far as I can tell, a son of William O’Reilly & Sarah Bonia was a “double first cousin” of a daughter of Garrett O’Reilly & Margaret Leonard. Double first cousins would have all four grandparents in common. Garrett and William could very well have been brothers, but Sarah and Margaret could not possibly have been sisters. Perhaps they were just first cousins, not double first cousins.

The obituary for Margaret Collins O’Reilly (found on the family tree maker site) says that she is the “aunt to the Collins’s and O’Reilly’s of Placentia, and to the businessmen of the latter name in St. John’s.” The O’Reilly businessmen of St. John’s can be none other than the sons of Patrick O’Reilly and Rose Larkin. Patrick O’Reilly is supposedly a son of John O’Reilly and Mary Whelan, so for Margaret to be an aunt to Patrick’s children, William would also have to be a son of John and Mary.

More circumstantial evidence comes from the naming conventions. The eldest son of William O’Reilly and Margaret Collins was John, and the eldest daughter was Mary. (The second son was Joseph, and the second daughter was Anne, which are the names of Margaret Collins’ parents). The naming conventions are less useful for the children of William and Sarah, but William did name his eldest daughter Bridget, which would seem to fit with his being a son of William O’Reilly and Bridget Whelan.

I’m interested to hear what you think of all this.

Kevin Roche
Baltimore, MD, USA
kroche.md@gmail.com