Bridgeport, Connecticut · a family story, 1912–1942
A family
takes root.
The crossing brought James to America.
This story belongs to two people—and the family they built.
James McPaddenMary and Michael’s son.
From Tullynascreen, County Leitrim.
Catherine McNiffSarah and William’s daughter.
Her family’s world was Bridgeport.
Catherine McNiff is James’s wife—not his sister Catherine Kelly.
Begin on their wedding dayBackground: detail of their wedding report, published 1 February 1912. Cropped and shaded for this opening; not a photograph of the ceremony.
31 January 1912 · St. Peter’s Church
White roses.
A morning Mass.
Catherine wore marquisette over white satin and carried white roses. A nuptial Mass was sung. Afterwards, a reception and wedding breakfast took place at her mother’s home.
These small details survive because a newspaper printed them. They let us glimpse a day shared with other people—not just two names joined on a family tree.
The report looked ahead to a home in Bridgeport. We follow the records into that future: work, changing addresses, and five children growing into lives of their own.
Follow the household they builtFull newspaper page · Library of Congress (new tab)
Their courtship, private thoughts and first married home remain unknown. The newspaper describes the occasion, not the whole marriage.
St. Peter’s Church → Bridgeport · 1912–1917
A Household Appears
The wedding opens a future the record cannot show.
We do not yet know their first married address or the routines through which two lives became one household. The silence matters. Marriage began a future the wedding report could not preserve, and the next secure household record does not appear for five years.
Evidence boundaryNo honeymoon, first home, pregnancy, income or domestic routine is reconstructed as their experience.