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Lenahan O'Connell collection of O'Connell family genealogical research

 Collection
Collection MS-1996-006: Lenahan O'Connell collection of O'Connell family genealogical research

Dates

  • Creation: 1900-1994

Scope and Contents

Collection compiled by Lenahan O'Connell as part of the research process for Able, Active and Aggressive: the O’Connell family of Massachusetts. It contains original and copied vital records, correspondence, financial and legal documents, and newspaper clippings about members of the O’Connell family. The bulk of the collected materials pertain to Joseph F. O’Connell, including speech transcripts, legal briefs and court transcripts, correspondence, and newspaper clippings. There is also correspondence to and from Lenahan O’Connell concerning the collection of these materials and the research and writing of the book.

Creator

Restrictions on access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.

Biographical note: O'Connell family

The first of the O’Connell family of Massachusetts to immigrate from Ireland were James O’Connell (1845-1924) and Elizabeth O’Connell (1841-1921) who met shortly after arriving in the United States, possibly introduced by Elizabeth’s brother, Jeremiah O’Connell (?-1916), and married in January 1872. James and Elizabeth had seven children: Joseph F. O’Connell (1872-1942), Mary O’Connell Kelly (1875-1964), John O’Connell (1876-1941), James O’Connell (1877-1957), Daniel T. “Don” O’Connell (1878-1964), Frederick O’Connell (1880-1907), and Elizabeth M. “Bessy” O’Connell (1884-1968). James was a plasterer, and may have served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Elizabeth was a seamstress, and also invested in real estate.

The eldest child, Joseph, married Marisita Lenahan (1888-1963) in 1910. Marisita was the daughter of United States Congressman John T. Lenahan IV and Mary Donovan Lenahan, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Joseph O’Connell attended Boston College and Harvard Law School and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1907 to 1911. He worked as an attorney alongside two of his brothers, Don and James, covering a wide variety of cases, including those involving Chinese immigrants, interpersonal disputes, murder, and a German saboteur in Maine. He died suddenly in 1942, days after his 70th birthday.

Joseph and Marisita had twelve children, eleven of whom lived into adulthood: Joseph F. O’Connell, Jr. (1912-1966), John T. Lenahan O’Connell (1913-2014), Frederick P. O’Connell (1914-1990), Finbarr O’Connell (1916-?), Marisita O’Connell (1917-1959), Brendan O’Connell (1919-1953), Kevin O’Connell (1920-?), Meta O’Connell (1923-1967), Conleth O’Connell (1924-1994), Laelia O’Connell (1925-2007), Diarmuid O’Connell (1928-2015), and Declan O’Connell (1929-1929).

John Thomas Lenahan O'Connell, known to family and friends as "Lenahan," graduated from Boston College in 1934, Boston University Law School in 1938 and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1938. He was employed in his father's law firm in Boston, the Law Offices of Joseph F. O'Connell. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in 1936 and graduated from the Massachusetts Military Academy the same year with a promotion to second lieutenant, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1965. Lenahan served during World War II in camps around the United States and in Dutch New Guinea (from July 1944) and in the National Guard and Reserves until his retirement. On September 7, 1942, he married Priscilla Halloran. They had three children: Lenahan Louis O’Connell, Donn O’Connell, and Brendan H. O’Connell. With the assistance of Dennis P. Ryan and James W. Ryan, Lenahan wrote a history of the O’Connell family of Massachusetts and the Lenahan family of Pennsylvania, titled Able, Active and Aggressive: the O’Connell family of Massachusetts. Lenahan died on January 5, 2014, at over 100 years old.

Sources:

“Conleth O’Connell Obituary”, Marietta Times. In Washington County, Ohio, U.S., Newspaper Obituaries, 1884-2013. Accessed via Ancestry.com, September 26, 2023. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/170683:61977?tid=&pid=&queryId=33acb1e12a9e9ff14734d0a618cca65d&_phsrc=wtP12&_phstart=successSource.

“Diarmuid O'Connell Obituary”, The Boston Globe, April 8, 2015. https://www.newspapers.com/image/444546467/?article=fe34541c-c477-4166-8342-099eebe693f9&focus=0.006188207,0.6753541,0.17081766,0.99757624&xid=3355. Accessed September 26. 2023.

John T. Lenahan O'Connell papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0216

“Laelia Novak Obituary”, Tampa Bay Times. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/tampabaytimes/name/laelia-novak-obituary?id=10600122. Accessed September 26, 2023.

“Lenahan O’Connell Obituary”, The Boston Globe. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/lenahan-o-connell-obituary?id=18952734. Accessed September 26, 2023.

O’Connell, Lenahan, and James W. Ryan. Able, Active and Aggressive: the O’Connell family of Massachusetts. Boston: Elizabeth-James Press, 1994.

Extent

5.5 Linear Feet (7 containers)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Collection of original and copied vital records, correspondence, financial and legal documents, and newspaper clippings about members of the O’Connell family. The bulk of the collected materials pertain to Joseph F. O’Connell, including speech transcripts, legal briefs and court transcripts, correspondence, and newspaper clippings. There is also correspondence to and from Lenahan O’Connell concerning the collection of these materials and the research and writing of Able, Active and Aggressive: the O’Connell family of Massachusetts.

Arrangement

Arranged in two series: I. General research materials; and II. Research materials by family member.

Provenance

Gift of Lenahan O'Connell in 1996 and 2008.

Related Materials

John T. Lenahan O'Connell papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

John T. Lenahan O'Connell photographs, 1932-1956. Photo. Coll. 500.57. Massachusetts Historical Society.

Separated Materials

Published works associated with this collection have been transferred within the Burns Library and can be found in the Boston College Library catalog.

  • Duplicates, clippings, financial records
Title
Lenahan O'Connell Collection of O'Connell Family Genealogical Research
Subtitle
1900-1994
Status
Completed
Author
Elizabeth Peters
Date
2023
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the John J. Burns Library Repository

Contact:
John J. Burns Library
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill MA 02467 United States
617-552-4861