This website is managed by Mark Flaherty who is a grandson of Bert Flaherty and Mary Nazar. While I never was able to meet my grandmother based on when she died, I have heard many great stories about her. And I have many fond memories of “Gramps.”
To help show how tightly knit the families were when they came to America, the below map shows where Bert’s and Mary’s ancestors lived in Scranton between 1880 and 1940 (the yellow pins are Hugh Flaherty’s side with the green pins Mary Nazar’s side).
Besides the admin functions, the website is organized into 4 main sections as follows:
- Family Tree – allows you to see both a simplified and 3D version of the family tree
- Flaherty/Nazar Family – provides a history of Bert, Mary, and their family
- Mary Nazar Family – provides a history of Mary’s parents and ancestors who came to Scranton from present day Poland and Ukraine
- Bert Flaherty Family – provides a history of Bert’s parents and ancestors who came to Scranton from Ireland via England
It should be noted that information was collected from many sources in order to create this website. Information from Ukraine and Poland are based entirely on local church records as found by local researchers. Record sources in Ireland are complex as census records prior to 1901 generally do not exist and birth, death, and marriage records were only required by law to be recorded beginning in 1864. As such, prior to 1864, information sources are primarily comprised of parish church records combined with Griffith’s Valuation, Tithe, and local records. Records prior to ~ 1825 generally do not exist in the areas where the family came from. This is why the use of DNA is so important (see the Family Tree page for more discussion)
To help preserve privacy, with few exceptions, only deceased people are discussed on this website. In addition, I have elected to require a login to see this information with access typically limited to family members.
Please feel free to provide any feedback, including corrections and information you feel should be added, to [email protected].