An Unfinished Story
Michael David Coffey
Gateway is a website for the branch of Coffey (O'Coffey) family whose roots are found in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, in Ireland. The region is part of the ancient kingdom of the Celts called Munster. The name O'Coffey or Coffey is an English derivation of an old Celtic family name O'Cobhthaigh, or Cobhthach (kuv-okh). The name Cobhthach can be traced back as far as 590 BC. One of the most illustrious of our ancestors was Fergus Mos O'Cobhthaigh, who brought peace to warring Ireland in 803 AD at Tara, a feat for which he was made a supreme judge of Eire.
It is hoped that this website will enrich the lives of all of us descended from John O'Coffey who left Ireland at the time of the Great Famine (1846-50) and settled in Manchester where he married Anne Laing. Their son John Lee Laing Coffey was trained as a medical practitioner at Owens College, Manchester. In 1875 he married Mary Gaskell, daughter of William Henry and Sarah Gaskell (Sarah Woolley), and the newly wedded couple emigrated to Brisbane, Australia. On July 3, 1881 John Lee Laing Coffey, aged 29, was killed at Nymagee in the Cobar Region of New South Wales. Cobar is the site of important copper deposits first discovered in the late 1860s. After his death in 1881 the young family returned to England via the newly opened Suez Canal.
The youngest of their two children was Arthur Frederick Coffey who married Catherine Cryle Cheyne. Arthur was trained as a Unitarian Minister and served as secretary of the West Yorkshire Branch of the YMCA. Catherine, the eldest child of William Cheyne and Ann Hay , is a descendant of William Cheyne of Peterhead who was born circa 1620. Catherine trained to be a teacher in Aberdeen. Her special interest was Botany. It is with Arthur and Catherine that we will begin opening the Gateway on their lives and times.