Julia Leary

Julia was born in Wales in about 1839. She first married a man named Patrick Reardon, who died early. In 1861, whe is listed in the Wales census as a charwoman and living with her father, Michael Leary, in Pontystorehouse in Merthyr-Tydfil, South Wales. She then married an Irish immigrant named Michael Hurley (or O'Leary) and they had at least two of their children (Michael Hurley, Jr. and John Patrick Hurley (later Sr) in Wales. Between the birth of these boys, there may have been a Margaret who did not survive. There is a record of a baptism to a person by that name in Wales with a Michael and Julia Hurley as parents, but there is no record of a Margaret beyond that timeframe.

Michael, Julia, Michael, Jr., and John Patrick, emigrated to the United States sometime before 1870, probably between 1867 and 1869. No records of their travel or arrival in the United States have yet been found. Before he died, Edward Leo Hurley told Terrence Hurley that Michael stayed briefly in Boston, then Upstate New York, before moving on to Pittsburgh, PA.

In 1870, Michael and Julia are found living with their family in Pittsburgh, near several of Julia's sisters, including Honora (now Honora Donovan), Johanna (now Sullivan), and Catherine (now Marshall). Julia's father, Michael Leary is found living with Catherine. The family is in the Pittsburgh area again in 1880, and Julia's father is found nearby, this time living with Julia's sister Johanna.

In 1900, after the death of her husband, Julia is found living with her daughter, Julia Hurley.

Julia died of Senile Dementia at the County Hospital for the Insane in Collier Township, PA, in 1910 and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery with her husband Michael.