04/12/2026
Just made a few interesting finds. For yrs I’ve been trying to find out about the family of Peter Geary (my 4G grandfather) while they lived in Cork City in the early-mid 1800’s. The Cork City Directory only seems to mention Business owners, so if the Gearys didn’t own any businesses, what did they do?
With a little help from an Irish researcher Patrick O’Donovan from the Cork Historical Society, he found a couple Cork City Newspaper articles mentioning an Owen Geary and William Geary, who are a great possibility of being Peter’s brothers. William b. 1805 and Owen b. 1808.
Owen was a boat repairman and mentioned in an article from 1842 working on a boat repair, the ship Barbara, in Cobh (pronounced “cove”), a port town situated on the South side of Great Island in Cork Harbor that eventually leads into Cork City.
Cobh is most famous as the last port of call for the Titanic on April 11, 1912 at 11:30am. The Titanic dropped its last anchor in Queenstown (now called Cobh) at Roches Point outer anchorage. Cobh was renamed Queenstown in 1849 in honor of Queen Victoria and kept that name until 1922.
Cobh harbor is also the Port most Irish left Ireland after the famine (1845-51). Even though there were also other Irish Ports that the Irish left from, it is most likely that Peter and son William, my 4g and 3g grandfathers, left Cobh Harbor to come to America. William’s date of departure was in 1852. Peter’s unknown.
Owen Geary is also listed as living on Blarney Lane in Cork City in 1860.
William was the Head Turnkey in Cork Prison in 1843. According to the article, William appears to lose an argument about his wages and duties. A prison Turnkey was a prison guard responsible for locking and unlocking cell doors.
