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Below is a family biography included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuyler Counties, New York published by Chapman Publishing Co., in 1895.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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REV. JAMES O’CONNOR, pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church at Seneca Falls, was born in the town of Wheatland, Monroe County, N. Y., April 8, 1844, and is a son of John and Winnifred (Dooley) O’Connor, both of whom were natives of Ireland, but who emigrated to the United States at an early day. At first they located in New York City, afterward removed to Rochester, and later settled in the village of Scottsville, in the town of Wheatland, where the father died in 1855, at the age of forty years. The mother survived him until 1879, and at her death was sixty-seven years of age. They were the parents of nine children, five sons and four daughters, our subject being fifth in order of birth. His education was obtained in the district schools, and in Niagara University, from which he was graduated in 1867. The same year he was ordained priest by Bishop Timon, of Buffalo, N. Y. His first charge was at St. Mary’s Church at Rochester, where he was assistant pastor, and he was later pastor of the church at Weedsport for one year. He was then transferred to the village of Ovid, in Seneca County, where he remained six and a-half years, and from that place went to St. Bridget’s Church, at Rochester, remaining fifteen years. In 1891 he came to Seneca Falls as pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, which is the largest congregation in the county, there being at least two thousand four hundred souls in the parish. In connection with the church there is a parochial school, taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph, which has an attendance of four hundred and thirty scholars. Since being ordained to the priesthood, Father O’Connor has been very successful, as is attested by his long service here. He is a man calculated to win the love and esteem of his parishioners, who go to him without fear for counsel. He has always been interested in the cause of temperance.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuyler Counties, New York published in 1895. 

View additional Seneca County, New York family biographies here: Seneca County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Seneca County, New York here: Seneca County, New York Map

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