Weekes Weeks Family from Ireland Genealogy

Welcome to this site dedicated to a Weekes family from Ireland. They lived in the Irish midlands on the border of Tipperary and Offaly during the first half of the 19th century. they married good folks by the name of Delany, Proud, Shea, Samson, Leavy and many others. They moved to Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and and left the country for America and Australia.

Most of us included in this family genealogy site are related to William J. Weekes and Mary Anne Leavy, the handsome couple on the left ot the image above.. William and Mary Anne married in Dublin, Mary Anne's family had come from County Kildare to Dublin around 1870. The couple lived in Dublin , Waterford and Limerick during the last quarter of the 19th century.They had eight children: Catherine, William, Julia Anne, Michael, James, Bridget, Joseph and Henry.

Around the turn of the century Mary Anne and seven of her children came to America and settled in Philadelphia. Those children have become the parents, grandparents, and great grandparents to over 500 of us at last count.
Along the way some of the family shortened the name to Weeks. So if you have family by the name of Weekes or Weeks that came from Ireland and spent a few decades in Philadelphia you are probably related. If you have kin descended from the Weekes family or the Wax family (more on that later) from Shinrone, County Offaly or Kings County Ireland you are probably related. And if your Weekes family has roots in Dublin you have a good chance of being related.

If you use the bar at the top of the page you can navigate to a number of different sections of the site. None are complet. All are waiting for your help. Pictures, stories, information and advice are very welcome. please email me using the email link on the top bar or directly at denweeks@comcast.net.

Many members of the family have shared their family stories with me, and some other bits of the story have been wrung out of church and government records in Ireland and the United States.

Finding and understanding the Irish records would have been very difficult without the wonderful ongoing assistance of Conor MacHale of the University College of Dublin and the Irish Heritage Foundation. Invaluable assistance was also provided by Mary Pyne of Limerick and Fr. John Dardis S.J., Director of the Office of Communications of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

But this would have been impossible without the contributions of all of the wonderful members of our family who shared their time and stories and their photographs to this project.

Patricia Burke Bijwaard deserves our singular admiration and gratitude for her countless hours of family research. Patty began gathering family genealogical information over twenty years ago. She has compiled a wonderful family history of the descendants of her grandparents, William Joseph Weekes Jr. and Anna Marie McDonnell as well as reams of information on many other members of the family. Patty has selflessly shared her information and insights with me and, by extension, with all of us.

This would be a dry volume without the photographs lent by Kitty Collins, Cathy Claud Shelton, Suzanne Claud Dobbins, Kathleen Kelly, Kevin Farrell, Carolann Weeks McFadden, and Joanna Weeks Hitchner. Many members of the family spent hours checking dates and names and places. And they each deserve our thanks. But the following members of the family deserve recognition for their research help: Mary Weeks Pecoraio, Kass Kelly, Rita Madelon Weeks Briggs, Suzanne Marie Claud Dobbins, Victorine Winifred Weeks Mattox and Thomas Joseph Weeks.

What I know about the early family is pretty limited, but it’s more than I knew before beginning to look. It makes me happy to share it with the rest of the family, and I hope that it might stir some old memories that you might want to share with the rest of us.

All the best,

Dennis