Person in this family
John Leahey
This entry is about John Leahey (10 June 1907 – 26 December 1980 (compiled)). For other family members with the same first and family name, see John Leahey (about 1861 – 30 August 1887), John Leahey (Born about 1896; death not recorded).
10 June 1907 – 26 December 1980 (compiled)
The Bayonne birth-index entry “Lahey | John | Jun. 10” is the strongest record for the family-tree son of James Leahey and Barbara Brennan because its exact 10 June 1907 date matches the more detailed family-tree entries; the record itself does not name parents. The free state index corrects John’s tree birth year from 1908 to 1907 and gives the original reference needed to order the birth return: “Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015”.
Partly proved
John Leahey, recorded as John Lahey in a New Jersey birth index, was born on 10 June 1907; the rest of his life is known mainly from our family tree.
Born at New Jersey
Recorded as: John Lahey
Death: From our family tree - no record found yet
How is this person related?
Andrew John Leahey’s grandparent
Gina D. Cacace’s spouse's grandparent (by marriage)
Abigail Ann Leahey’s great-grandparent
Marie C. Fitzgerald’s spouse's parent (by marriage)
Kevin Leahey’s parent
Worked out from the recorded parents and marriages. No sex is recorded for anyone in this archive, so the wording stays neutral.
How this person is related to Andrew:
John Leahey is your grandparent.
Life
John Leahey appears as John Lahey in the 1907 New Jersey geographic birth index. The entry reads "Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015." Its placement in the 1907 index establishes 10 June 1907 as the indexed birth date and corrects the year recorded here 1908. The index line does not name his parents, so the original return at volume 21, page 1015 is still needed to prove that he was the son of James Leahey and Barbara Brennan.
A public family profile gives the same birth date, names his parents as James Dennis Leahey and Barbara Theresa Brennan, and says that he married Catherine Veronica Hoffman in 1936. It reports his death on 26 December 1980. A separate family-tree entry gives only "DEC 1980" and names Holy Cross Cemetery, 340 Ridge Road. None of those later claims is confirmed by a marriage, death, obituary, or cemetery record in this archive.
The relationships recorded here name Catherine Veronica Hoffman as John's wife and James D. Leahey and Kevin Leahey as their children. Those connections remain leads pending contemporary records.
How we know this: Partial: the 10 June 1907 birth-index entry is strong, but parentage, marriage, children, death, and burial remain based on family-tree entries. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
Death and burial
Evidence distinction: [RECORD] means text read from the photographed stone. [COMPILED] means volunteer-typed memorial information and is only a lead.
Find a Grave memorial 62808530
Why this memorial is attached
Matched by exact indexed birth date and named parents James and Barbara, spouse Catherine Hoffman, and child James. Find a Grave memorial 62808530 (findagrave.com).
10 Jun 1907 | Parents James Dennis Leahey 1886–1914; Barbara Brennan Leahey Murphy 1886–1961 | Spouse Catherine Veronica Hoffman Leahey 1910–1976
[COMPILED] Volunteer-typed memorial fields
These fields are leads, not civil or church records, and do not replace documented dates. Find a Grave memorial 62808530 (findagrave.com).
Name: John Joseph Leahey Birth: 10 Jun 1907 Death: 26 Dec 1980 (aged 73) Cemetery: Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum, North Arlington, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA Plot: Blk-64 Sec-A Gr-718 2A Family links: Parents: James Dennis Leahey 1886–1914; Barbara Brennan Leahey Murphy 1886–1961. Spouse: Catherine Veronica Hoffman Leahey 1910–1976 (m. 1936). Siblings: Catherine C Leahey Chambers 1905–1970; George Edward Leahey 1909–1983; James Francis Leahey 1911–1983; Margaret Leahey 1913–1914; Marian Catherine Murphy 1916–1977; William Henry Murphy 1917–1997. Child: James Dennis Leahey 1940–2007.
Photograph status: a photographed inscription is available and shown below. Find a Grave memorial 62808530 (findagrave.com).
[RECORD] Photographed inscription, transcribed verbatim
1886 BARBARA 1961 1916 MARIAN C. 1977 1905 CATHERINE LEAHEY CHAMBERS 1970
Citation: Find a Grave memorial 62808530 (findagrave.com); monument photograph credited below.
The photographed face names Barbara, Marian and Catherine, not John; it does not independently prove John’s dates. Find a Grave memorial 62808530 (findagrave.com).
Family
Parents
Siblings · birth order
- Catherine Leahey
- John Leahey (this person)
- George Leahey
- James Francis Leahey
- Margaret Leahey
- Marian C. Murphy
- William Murphy
- William Leahey
Spouse
Children
See this family in the family treeWhere they lived
Use the place list first. The map below is optional.
Places listed on this page
- New Jersey
- Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey
- North Arlington, Bergen County, New Jersey
- Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington, Bergen County, New Jersey Cemetery or burial place
- United States
The map could not load. The complete place list is above it.
The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 2 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.
Timeline
Born
The free state index corrects John’s tree birth year from 1908 to 1907 and gives the original reference needed to order the birth return: “Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015”. [1]
The record itself
Tap to open a larger copyNew Jersey geographic birth index, John Lahey, 10 Jun 1907, Bayonne
Proved by a record
Died
A public Geneanet tree result states: “Nacimiento: 10 de junio de 1907”; “Defunción: 26 de diciembre de 1980”; spouse “HOFFMAN Catherine Veronica (1936)”; parents “LEAHEY James Dennis” and “BRENNAN Barbara Theresa”. [2]
From our family tree - no record found yet
Died
Dec 1980
From our family tree - no record found yet
Compiled memorial death date
Find a Grave supplies the exact day within the already-known December 1980 death month. [7]
From our family tree - no record found yet
Buried in his mother's grave at Holy Cross
Barbara lies in 1A of the same grave and his brother James Francis in 2B. [9]
Proved by a record
Original records
1 further record is shown in the timeline, beside the event each one documents.
What the records say
9 records transcribed.
Record exhibit
birth-index image
An index is a list that points to where the full record can be found.
Proved by a record
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015 | CHRISTIAN NAME OR PARENTS' INITIALS, | DATE, | VOLUME, | PAGE | Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015, | Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015 | Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015 | Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015
Record exhibit
family-tree entries
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | Nacimiento: 10 de junio de 1907 | Defunción: 26 de diciembre de 1980 | HOFFMAN Catherine Veronica (1936) | LEAHEY James Dennis | BRENNAN Barbara Theresa
Record exhibit
volume
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Lahey | John | Jun. 10 | 21 | 1015 | CHRISTIAN NAME OR PARENTS' INITIALS, | DATE, | VOLUME, | PAGE
Record exhibit
1936 bride index
An index is a list that points to where the full record can be found.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Hoffman | Pearl | Johnson | Norman W | Hoffmann | Helen | Rippe | Joseph,
Record exhibit
E–K
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
New Jersey Death Index - 1980 - Surnames E-K | New Jersey Death Index - 1980 - Surnames R-Z
Record exhibit
R–Z
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
New Jersey Death Index - 1980 - Surnames E-K | New Jersey Death Index - 1980 - Surnames R-Z
Record exhibit
Find a Grave memorial 62808530 and photographed family monument
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
John Joseph Leahey | 10 Jun 1907 | 26 Dec 1980 (aged 73) | Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum, North Arlington, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA | Blk-64 Sec-A Gr-718 2A | 10 Jun 1907 | Parents James Dennis Leahey 1886–1914; Barbara Brennan Leahey Murphy 1886–1961 | Spouse Catherine Veronica Hoffman Leahey 1910–1976 | Family links: Parents: James Dennis Leahey 1886–1914; Barbara Brennan Leahey Murphy 1886–1961.Show the full recordHide the full recordFull record, about 150 words
Spouse: Catherine Veronica Hoffman Leahey 1910–1976 (m. 1936). Siblings: Catherine C Leahey Chambers 1905–1970; George Edward Leahey 1909–1983; James Francis Leahey 1911–1983; Margaret Leahey 1913–1914; Marian Catherine Murphy 1916–1977; William Henry Murphy 1917–1997. Child: James Dennis Leahey 1940–2007. | Inscription: 1886 BARBARA 1961 / 1916 MARIAN C. 1977 / 1905 CATHERINE LEAHEY CHAMBERS 1970 | The photographed face names Barbara, Marian and Catherine, not John; it does not independently prove John’s dates.
Record exhibit
Barbara Murphy household, 1950 United States census, Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey
A census is a government list of the people who were living in a home.
Proved by a record
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Barbara Murphy | Head | Widowed | age 62 | born New Jersey | 10 April 1950 | Bayonne, Hudson, New Jersey | Enumeration District 23-102, page 24, line 22 || Catherine Chambers, Daughter, F, 45, New Jersey | William Murphy, Son, M, 32, New Jersey | John Lahey, Son, M, 42, New Jersey | Marion Murphy, Daughter, F, 33, New Jersey || also in the household: Antonette Shotell, F, 49
Record exhibit
Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington — Leahey burials, searched by cemetery
This old record gives information about the person or family named here.
Partly proved
Verbatim transcription currently held in this archive — reproduced in full.
Eleven Leahey burials. Blk-64 Sec-A Gr-718: 1A Barbara Brennan Leahey Murphy 1886–1961; 2A John Joseph Leahey 1907–1980; 2B James Francis Leahey 1911–1983. Blk-62 Sec-A Gr-1207: 1A Julia Veronica Leahey 1914–1965; 1B Infant Leahey d. 26 Oct 1933; 1C George Edward Leahey 1909–1983; 2A Baby Leahey d. Sep 1968; 2C Barbara E. Spirko 1935–2018. No William Leahey is buried at Holy Cross.
Historical context
These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.
Bayonne and the Industrial Waterfront, 1870–1920
The Bayonne in these family records was a new city built around water, rails and heavy industry. Bayonne Township was formed only in 1861, uniting older settlements on Bergen Neck; it became a city in 1869. The…
A Train Operator in Bayonne, 1914
James D. Leahey’s funeral entry records a compact working life: married, American-born, age twenty-eight, living at 83 West 12th Street in Bayonne, occupation “train operator.” He died on 1 June 1914, twelve da…
What we still don't know
- Does the birth return at volume 21, page 1015 name James Leahey and Barbara Brennan as John's parents?
- Can a 1936 marriage record confirm Catherine Veronica Hoffman as his wife?
- Can a death record, obituary, or Holy Cross burial record confirm the reported death on 26 December 1980 and identify his children?
- [HE LEFT THE MARRIAGE ABOUT 1947 — FAMILY TESTIMONY, AND THE CENSUS AGREES] Andrew Leahey records, 10 August 2026, that his father's father left his father's mother around the time his father was born in 1947. The 1950 census fits it exactly. On 10 April 1950 he is entered as John Lahey, Son, 42, in his mother Barbara Murphy's household at Bayonne — with no wife and no child beside him, though he had married Catherine Veronica Hoffman and their son was then three years old. Read alone, that line meant nothing; a census catches people where they happen to be. With the family's account it stops being an anomaly and becomes the record of a man who had gone back to his mother's house. What the paper does not show is a divorce. Catherine died on 30 April 1976 and the New Jersey death index still calls her Catherine V. Leahey — his surname, twenty-nine years on. Whether they ever formally divorced is not recorded here and has not been searched for.
- Obtain the Bayonne birth return at volume 21/page 1015 to prove parents; locate the Catherine Hoffman marriage outside or beyond the OCR limitations of the 1936 New Jersey index; find the missing 1980 L–Q death-index segment, obituary, and Holy Cross burial record.
- The prior canonical birth field said 1908, while the Bayonne birth index and Find a Grave memorial say 10 June 1907. The 1908 value remains in the earlier timeline pending the original birth return.
References
- [1] birth-index imageBack to citation 1a Back to citation 1b
- [2] family-tree entriesBack to citation 2a Back to citation 2b
- [3] volumeBack to citation 3
- [4] 1936 bride indexBack to citation 4
- [5] E–KBack to citation 5
- [6] R–ZBack to citation 6
- [7] Find a Grave memorial 62808530 and photographed family monumentBack to citation 7a Back to citation 7b
- [8] Barbara Murphy household, 1950 United States census, Bayonne, Hudson County, New JerseyBack to citation 8
- [9] Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington — Leahey burials, searched by cemeteryBack to citation 9a Back to citation 9b