Birth Certificate of Thomas Edward Mulligan

At first glance, this appears to be the birth certificate of my great-uncle, Thomas Edward Mulligan. But as I looked more closely, I realized it tells a much larger story, not simply about one child, but about an Irish family that helped shape the history of my own.

Thomas was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on June 15, 1902, the fourth child of John Mulligan and Mary Kirk. One line immediately caught my attention. His father, John Mulligan, was born in Ireland.

For years I had thought about my maternal grandparents as the Irish side of my family because they had both immigrated from Ireland before settling in New Hampshire. This document reminded me that my paternal family carried that same heritage. My great-grandfather John Mulligan was also an Irish immigrant.

Like thousands of Irish men who came to New England during the late nineteenth century, John brought with him more than hope for a better life. He brought a valuable skill. His occupation is listed as “Stone Cutter,” a trade that was in high demand in Concord, one of America’s leading granite centers.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Concord granite was known throughout the country. It was used to construct public buildings, bridges, memorials, and monuments from New England to Washington, D.C. The work required experienced craftsmen who understood how to cut and finish stone with remarkable precision. Irish immigrants became an important part of that workforce, helping transform rough blocks of granite into structures that still stand today. John Mulligan was one of those craftsmen.

His work brought him to Concord, where he built a home, raised a family, and became part of a growing Irish community. Churches, neighborhoods, schools, and social organizations helped preserve the traditions of Ireland while creating new lives in America. Concord became much more than a place to earn a living. It became home.

Among the children growing up in that home was my grandmother, Catherine Mulligan. Although her birth certificate records her full name as Mary Katherine Mulligan, she was known throughout her life as Catherine. She spent her childhood surrounded by the city’s Irish community before eventually leaving New Hampshire to begin a new chapter in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where she married Roger Edward Watson.

It would have been easy to think that her connection to Concord had ended. It hadn’t. Her parents and siblings remained there. Family ties drew her son, my father, back to Concord over the years to visit relatives. Those visits kept him connected to the city where his mother had been born and where her family still lived.

At the same time, another Irish family was building a life only a few streets away. My maternal grandparents, James Hannigan and Margaret Dawson, had also come from Ireland. They met in Malden, Massachusetts, married in 1916, and soon moved to Concord, where my mother was born in 1919. Like John Mulligan, they became part of Concord’s Irish community, building a home, raising a family, and contributing to the city’s life.

Concord became the common thread that connected all those lives.