William Martin Connery was his name. He came from Ashgrove, Bansha, County Tiperary, Ireland by ship Rip Van Winkle to New York arriving April 24,1852." William Martin Connery was Brendan's 3rd Great Grandfather.
As a young man he came to America with his brother Thomas. On the same ship came Thomas Tobin of Barnalough, Kilmoyler Parish, County Tipperary, his wife Ellen Doherty and their nine children: John, Michael, Bridget, Thomas, Mary (born 1835), Daniel, Morgan, Ellen and James.
The Tobin family, originally of Aubyn in France, was first called De St. Aubyn. They came to Ireland in the wake of the Middle Ages and by 1200 had settled in Tipperary. They became so influential there that in medieval times the head of the family was known as Baron de Coursey, though this was not an officially registered title.
The Connery brothers and the Tobin family settled in Rhode Island. Soon after Thomas Connery and Ellen Tobin were married and on November 1, 1853, William Martin Connery and Mary Tobin were married in Bristol.
The early years of William and Mary's married life were passed in Bristol where six of their children were born: William Martin, Jr. (b. 24 Jan 1855), Thomas (b. 11 Apr 1857), Robert (b. 25 May 1859), John Tobin (b. 10 Jan 1861), Michael Morgan (b. 05 Oct 1862) and another son (b. 1864). This child, Thomas and Robert died in infancy and are buried in St. Patrick's Cemetary New Gounds, East half of lot 380, Douglas Street, Providence, Rhode Island with Ellen and Thomas Tobin (their grandparents, who both died shortly after their arrival from Tipperary in 1852).
In 1862 Mary and William Connery moved to Chicago where the rest of their children were born: James Patrick (b. 17 May 1865), Francis Daniel (b. 12 Apr 1867), Ellen Maria (b. 21 Jan 1869), Joseph F (b. 02 Mar 1871), Helena Bowen (b. 14 Dec 1873), Henry (b. 23 Sep 1874), Catherine (b. 21 Dec 1875), Vincent Augustus (b. 22 Jan 1878) and Elizabeth (b. 21 Oct 1879). In Chicago, William worked for a time on the construction of a pier in the Chicago River and later engaged in the work of bridge building on the railroad. At the time of the Chicago fire in 1871, William ran a grocery store at the corner of Des Plaines Street and Grand Avenue. Shortly after the fire he established a retail coal business in the same block in which his grocery store was located. In 1881, because of ill health and the feeling that he would like to have his children grow up in the country, he bought a farm near Jewel Junction, Iowa. In 1883 his illness induced him to return to Chicago for medical treatment and here he passed away August 27, 1883 at his brother-in-law Michael Tobin's home. Mary Tobin Connery died December 14, 1896. She is buried with her husband in Evanston, Illinois, Calvary Cemetery, Sec Y, Block 21, Lot 2.
From "Constructive Americans from Tipperary," Mar-Apr, 1965, Illinois Public Opinion (this is the first of an historical series of articles on the builders of Chicago):
The roots of an ancestral family tree that ultimately left a profound and beneficial effect on early Chicago history started in Tipperary, Ireland when William Martin Connery was born in 1831 The friendliness as well as the good managerial abilities of the member offspring of this tree who later came to Chicago or were born here had a large part in building social, business and political life in Chicago.