Joseph Corley Jennings was the son of Charles Jennings, Monaghan Street, Newry, County Down and his wife Sophia Corley daughter of Patrick Corley, Clones, County Monaghan. He was baptised in Newry.
Joseph of Charles Jennings and Sophia Corley, 1827, sponsors Arthur O'Hagan and Anne Jennings.[1]
He was apprenticed first as an engineer with the Irish railway engineer William Dargan, but subsequently emigrated to USA in 1845.
Joseph married Margaret Jennings [1832-] on the 20th February 1854 in Dubuque, Iowa. Margaret was born in Pennsylvania, the daughter of Peter Jennings and Bridget Jennings. On the 1st April 1854 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Joseph and Margaret had five children.
1. Sophia [1856-1934] was born in Dubuque, Iowa. She became a school teacher and never married. She is buried with her father in Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Cook, Illinois.
2. Charles P. [1858-1920] Charles married Mary H. Garrigan [1853-1922] in 1883. They had three daughters, Margaret Louise [1885], Rose E. [1887-1964] and Mary J. [1889-1965]. Margaret Louise married Thomas Edward Dial in Chicago on the 5th of August 1911. They had two sons: Thomas Edward Dial [1914 -] and Charles J. Dial [1917-]
3. James [[1860 -1927] is buried with his sisters and his father in Calvary Cemetery.
4. Elizabeth Blanche [1863-1949] also became a teacher and never married. She is buried with her father in Calvary Cemetery, Cook, Illinois.
5. Eugenia [1867-] may have died young.
In 1883 Joseph married his second wife Margaret Bryan.[2] She was born in Canada in 1846. They were married in Sacramento, California. The 1900 US Census records that there were no living children from the marriage with Margaret Bryan.
J.C. Jennings, San Francisco City, b. Nov 1827 Ireland. m. 16 years. m. est. 1884. Imm. year 1845.
By 1910 they had been married for 27 years. Joseph was 82. Margaret was 67. They lived at 39 Farallone Street, San Francisco Assembly District 33, San Francisco, California. Joseph owned his own house, and appeared to be self employed as a solicitor working in insurance. [3]
He died in California
on 6th July 1918 aged 91. He is buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Evanston,
Cook, Illinois, United States with two of his daughters, Sophia and Elizabeth
Blanche and his son James.[4]
