MacCaffrey History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Often leaving from racial discrimination and colonial oppression, thousands of families left Ireland in the 19th century for North America aboard passenger ships. Many early immigrants found a plot of land to call their own, something unimaginable for most Irish families. Those that arrived later were often accommodated as laborers since there was a large demand for cheap labor. This was the fate for many of the families that arrived in North America during the Great Potato Famine of the late 1840s. Whether they became agrarian settlers or industrial workers, the Irish that came to North America were invaluable for rapid development of the infant nations of the United States and Canada. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the Irish name MacCaffrey or a variant listed above:

MacCaffrey Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

• Arthur, Charles, Edward, Hugh, John, Michael, Patrick, Roderick, Thomas, and William MacCaffrey all, who arrived in Philadelphia between 1840 and 1860

MacCaffrey Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

• Mr. Michael MacCaffrey who was convicted in Liverpool, Merseyside, England for 7 years, transported aboard the "Duchess of Northumberland" on 1st October 1842, arriving in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) 2

• Wallace T. MacCaffrey (1920-2013), American Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University, awarded a Guggenheim fellowship
• Monsignor James MacCaffrey STL PhD (1875-1935), Irish priest, theologian and historian