Jame P Duffy was born on April 28, 1870 in Lockport, New York.  He was the son of John Duffy and Susannah Holland Duffy. His middle initial probably stands for Patrick, after his grandfather, but I’m still trying to document that. He was an iron and steel worker almost all his life.

On January 25, 1891 he married Nellie Smith, the daughter of John and Sarah Smith, in Lockport, New York. The couple moved to Muskegon, Michigan. James’s brother William joined their household by 1900. Both brothers were working as roughers in an iron  foundry. A rougher “sets up, adjusts, and regulates the rolls and guides on a continuous roughing train of a bar mill.”

 

On August 10, 1901, the Nellie and James were granted a divorce on the grounds of “extreme cruelty.” Without seeing the court records, it is hard to know exactly what was alleged or who was cruel to whom — it could apply to anything from verbal to emotional to physical abuse. Nell remarried on August 25, 1901. She married a grocery store employee, James Roach, and later became a “saleslady” at the grocery store herself. There were no children by either of her marriages.

James was married again on July 3, 1903, in Muskegon, to Eleanor “Ella” J. Monson [sometimes spelled Munson in documents]. Ella was born in Michigan and was about 14 years younger than James. [A Canadian birth record for their son Richard states this marriage date as being 1901, but the actual Michigan certificate is dated 1903.]

James and Ella had eleven children:

Ralph Duffy 1903–1918
John J Duffy 1905–1986
Margaret Duffy 1907–1917
Richard F Duffy 1910–[after 1930]
Helen M Duffy 1914–[after 1930]
Alice Elizabeth Duffy 1916–1991
Francis Duffy 1917–[before 1930]
Robert M Duffy 1918–1994
Elizabeth (Betty)  Irene Duffy 1919–1997
Marion Ellen Duffy 1920-1921
Thomas Russell Duffy 1923–2006

Ralph Duffy was born in Michigan, but John and Margaret were born in Cleveland, Ohio, so the family must have been there from at least 1905-early 1907. We know from Canadian census answers that they emigrated to Welland, Ontario, Canada, in 1907. James, and later at least one of his sons, worked for the Canadian Steel Foundry there.

In late 1920 or early 1921, the family moved to Toronto. James was working as a rougher at a steel plant. The years 1917-1921 were difficult years for the couple.  Their teenaged son Ralph died in August, 1917 while working at the Welland steel plant, as a result of electrocution. Just four months earlier, in April of that same year, ten-year-old Margaret had died of typhoid fever. Marion, born in Welland in April, 1920, died in February, 1921 in Toronto of bronchial pneumonia.

By 1923, the family had moved back to the United States — their youngest child, Thomas, was born in Woodlawn, New York, just outside of Buffalo.  By 1925 the family had settled in Hamburg, New York, another town near Buffalo.  Buffalo was home to a thriving steel industry at the time.

In 1940, James and Ella were still in Hamburg. Their sons John, Robert, and Thomas lived with them. James, at 70, was retired.  All three boys were single. Robert, the only employed member of the household, worked at a steel plant. Thomas was in school.

James died on August 7, 1945 just as World War II was coming to a close. He was 75 years old. I have not yet learned Ella’s date of death.

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Patrick Duffy (b 1812) + Elizabeth Dillon (b 1818)
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John Duffy (b 1838) + Susanna Holland (b 1838)
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James P Duffy (b 1871) + Nellie Smith (b 1875)
+ Ella Monson (b 1883)

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Photo credits from the Library of Congress:

Detroit Publishing Co., Copyright Claimant, and Publisher Detroit Publishing Co. R.R. Station & steamer dock, Muskegon. [CBetween and 1920, 1900] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/det1994022833/PP. (Accessed June 12, 2016.)

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Sources Include:

“Ontario Births, 1869-1911,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9H-T58G : accessed 11 June 2016), Richard Duffy, 09 Nov 1910; citing Birth, Welland, Welland, , Canada, citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 2,413,402.

“Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J66C-CPG : accessed 11 June 2016), Ellen Monson in entry for Ralph J. Duffy, 10 Aug 1918; citing Crowland Twp, Welland, Ontario, yr 1918 cn 41336, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,86

“Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDZ2-96Y : accessed 11 June 2016), Ellen Munson in entry for Marion Ellen Duffy, 28 Feb 1921; citing Toronto, York, Ontario, yr 1921 cn 2102, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,863,413.

“United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQLF-YG3 : accessed 11 June 2016), James Duffy, Hamburg Town, Erie, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 15-88, sheet 3A, family 50, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 2528.

“California Death Index, 1940-1997,” database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGPK-NBY : accessed 11 June 2016), Duffy in entry for Alice Elizabeth Christie, 19 Oct 1991; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.

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Information presented here is based on my interpretation of the sources I’ve found. As new sources are found or inaccuracies discovered, the site will be updated.

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