The Coogan Line: Ireland to Fall River

Paternal line — Paternal grandmother’s father

Raymond Edward Coogan → Clare Patricia Coogan → John Joseph Long → John Patrick Long → John, Perry & Patrick Long

Raymond Edward Coogan is your paternal grandmother’s father. Gateway to the Irish-American political families of Fall River.

How Are We Related?

Your paternal grandmother, Clare Patricia Coogan (PID: L693-G7H), was the daughter of Raymond Edward Coogan (1893–1962) and Loretta Emma Pelletier (1894–1951). Clare married into the Long family, connecting the Coogan and Pelletier lines to the Long line documented elsewhere in this archive. Through Clare, the deep Irish roots of the Coogan and Manion families merge with the French-Canadian ancestry of the Pelletier/Harpin line.

The Coogan / Manion Tree

The Coogan Direct Line

The Coogan Marriages

The Manion Line (Raymond’s Mother)

Honora Manion (PID: MKTZ-2ST) married John Joseph Coogan and became Raymond’s mother. The Manion line is also Irish, and can be traced back two generations:

Patrick John Manion & Honora Carrabine — Their Seven Children

Patrick John Manion (1837–1907) and Honora Carrabine (b. 1835) emigrated to the United States in 1873from Connacht, Ireland. No marriage event is recorded on FamilySearch. Their eldest son Thomas was born in 1857 — sixteen yearsbefore the crossing — meaning six of their seven children were likely born in Ireland, and only Mary (b. 1874) was likely born in the United States. The timing aligns with a Famine-era or post-Famine departure from the Connacht coast.

1. Thomas Manion (1857–deceased) · PID: L6MC-9N6
2. Michael Manion (1860–deceased) · PID: L4ZP-NS9
3. Patrick Henry Manion (1862–1936) · PID: LDBY-MD8
4. Honora Manion — aka Nora Annie (1865–1932) · PID: MKTZ-2ST← direct ancestor
5. John Manion (1867–deceased) · PID: GYBM-983
6. Martin Manion (1869–deceased) · PID: GYY1-LVQ
7. Mary Manion (1874–deceased) · PID: GYY1-VTX

The John Joseph Coogan and Honora Manion family, early 1900s. Honora (seated, center right in white) and John Joseph (seated, center left). Their son Raymond Edward Coogan — who would marry Loretta Pelletier and father Clare — is believed to be among the young men in the back row.

John Joseph Coogan (1861–1929)

Born May 5, 1861, Warwick, Rhode Island(per death certificate, City of Warwick, filed April 11, 1929) — not Ireland. John Joseph was first-generation American. His parents — Patrick H. Coogan (PID: LCPF-4D3) and Ellen Conley (variant spelling of Connolly) — were the Irish immigrants. The immigration narrative in the Famine Crossing section below references John's grandfather John Coogan and earlier generations, not John Joseph himself.

He died April 10, 1929 at 7 Cora Street, West Warwick, Rhode Island. Cause of death: erysipelas, a bacterial skin infection. Occupation at death: retired(earlier a print worker in the River Point mills). Buried at Sts. Peter & Paul Church, Rhode Island.

Source: Return of a Death, City of Warwick, filed April 11, 1929. Informant: Honora Coogan, wife.

John Joseph Coogan & Honora Manion — Their Ten Children

John Joseph Coogan (born May 5, 1861, Warwick, Rhode Island — per death certificate, City of Warwick, filed April 11, 1929) married Honora Manion on October 22, 1885 in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island. John Joseph worked as a print worker, and the family lived in River Point, West Warwick / Warwick, Rhode Island from roughly 1870 through 1920. Together they raised ten children:

1. Frank Patrick Coogan (1886–1944) · PID: LMWR-HMC
2. Mary Theresa Coogan (1888–1927) · PID: 27MR-Q1X
3. John Henry Coogan (1889–1969) · PID: 96SX-D55
4. Ellen Margaret Coogan (1891–1917) · PID: LD3Y-XM7
5. Raymond Edward Coogan (1893–1962) · PID: KLCN-CJL← direct ancestor
6. Leo James Coogan (1894–1961) · PID: LD3Y-VKJ
7. William Coogan (1896–1897, died in infancy) · PID: LD3Y-KVR
8. Vincent Joseph Coogan (1898–1970) · PID: LD3Y-295
9. Ambrose Wilfred Coogan (1902–1966) · PID: LD3Y-LR4
10. Robert Aloysius Coogan (1906–1994) · PID: LKFT-W5S

Raymond & Loretta’s Family

Raymond Edward Coogan married Loretta Emma Pelletier in 1922 in Rhode Island. They settled at 5 South Beach in Fall River, Massachusetts, where they raised five children:

1. Edward Coogan (b. ~1923)
2. Helen Coogan
3. Joan Coogan
4. Pauline Coogan
5. Clare Patricia Coogan — married John Joseph Long (Rep. Long). Your grandmother.

After Loretta’s death in 1951, Raymond married Alice A. Kernin (1894–1961, PID: GGL3-GMR). No children from this marriage.

1930 Rhode Island Census — Raymond Coogan household showing Clare as the youngest daughter.

The Ancient Origin: Hounds of War

The Coogan surname (also Cogan, Coggan, Goggin, Keogan) traces to the Gaelic Mac Cogadháin, meaning “son of Cogadhán.” The personal name Cogadhán is a diminutive of Cúchogaidh, which translates to “Hound of War”— a name given to warriors and fighters in ancient Ireland.

The Mac Cogadháin sept originated in the ancient kingdom of Uí Maine ↗ (anglicized as “Hy Many”), a Gaelic territory spanning what is today County Galway and County Roscommon in the province of Connacht, on Ireland’s rugged western coast. Uí Maine was one of the great tribal kingdoms of pre-Norman Ireland, governed by its own kings and chieftains for centuries before the English arrived.

The family motto, preserved in heraldry: Non metuo — “I do not fear.”

The Coogan coat of arms bears three leaves argent on a field of gules(silver leaves on a red background). The geometric design indicates ancient connections to the FitzGerald and de Barry families — among the most powerful Anglo-Norman dynasties in medieval Ireland.

A Note on Two Cogan Origins

There are two distinct families who carry the Cogan/Coogan name in Ireland:

1. The Gaelic Mac Cogadháin— the native Irish sept from Uí Maine in Connacht. Warriors. “Hounds of War.” This is the line most likely connected to the Fall River Coogans, given the concentration of western Irish surnames (Manion, Carrabine, Kelgallon, Connolly) in the family marriages.
2. The Anglo-Norman de Cogan — descended from Milo de Cogan, who arrived in Ireland with Strongbow during the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169. Milo was Strongbow’s right-hand man and was granted vast lands in County Cork. The first recorded spelling of the Cogan surname anywhere is Milo de Cogan in 1171, in the Records of County Cork. His line died out in the male line by the 17th century, but branches survived under variant spellings.

Whether the Fall River Coogans descend from the Gaelic warriors of Connacht or the Norman knights of Cork — or some convergence of both — remains an open question. The surrounding surnames in the family (Manion, Carrabine, Kelgallon) point strongly to Connacht.

Connacht: Where the Coogans Come From

The province of Connacht ↗ — encompassing Counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, and Leitrim — is the westernmost region of Ireland, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most ancient and most Gaelic part of the island, the last region to fall under English control, and the province that suffered most during the Great Famine of 1845–1852.

The landscape is harsh and beautiful: the limestone karst of the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, the bogs and lakes of Connemara. The soil was poor, the farms were small, and the people were tenacious. When the potato blight struck, Connacht was devastated. Entire villages were emptied. Ships left Galway for Boston, New York, and the mill towns of New England.

Every surname in the Coogan family tree points to Connacht:

This is not a family that scattered across Ireland. This is a family rooted in one place — the stony fields and Atlantic coast of Connacht — who emigrated together and married together in the New World.

While Cromwell devastated Munster — seizing the O’Long lands in Cork — and drove the Coffins from Devon, his policy toward Connacht was equally brutal. His order — “To Hell or to Connacht”— forcibly relocated dispossessed Catholics to the rocky western lands where the Coogans lived. The Mac Cogadháin homeland of Uí Maine absorbed thousands of displaced families, forever changing the demographics of Galway and Roscommon.

See how Cromwell impacted both sides of the family →

Battles & Historical Events

The Connacht surnames in the Coogan family tree are bound to the most violent chapters of Irish history — the Anglo-Norman invasion that brought the first recorded Cogan to Ireland, the Cromwellian resettlement that drove native families westward into Connacht, and the Battle of Aughrim fought in the heart of Uí Maine itself.

The Famine and the Crossing

The Great Famine ↗ (An Gorta Mór, 1845–1852) killed approximately one million Irish people and forced another million to emigrate. Connacht was hit hardest — the small tenant farmers of Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon had the greatest dependence on the potato and the least access to alternative food sources.

The Coogan and Manion families likely crossed the Atlantic during or shortly after the Famine years. The exact ship manifests have not yet been located, but the pattern is clear: John Coogan (PID: LD3P-2P9) and Thomas Manion (PID: GVR9-8PX) — both born in Ireland — are the earliest documented ancestors. Their children and grandchildren appear in Rhode Island and Fall River records by the 1890s.

The route was almost certainly: Galway or Cobh (Queenstown) → Boston or New York → Rhode Island → Fall River. Irish immigrants followed family and parish networks, settling near people they knew from home. The concentration of Connacht surnames in the Coogan marriages proves they maintained these networks across the ocean.

Fall River: The Mill Town

Fall River, Massachusetts, was one of the great textile manufacturing centers of the 19th century. By the 1870s, the city had more spindles than any other city in America. The mills needed labor, and the Irish provided it.

The Irish arrived in waves — first the Famine refugees of the 1840s–1850s, then the chain migration that followed for decades. They settled in tight-knit neighborhoods organized around Catholic parishes: St. Patrick’s, Notre Dame, Santo Christo, St. Anne’s. They worked the looms, built the churches, ran the unions, and eventually ran the city.

The Coogans were part of this story. From John Coogan’s arrival from Ireland to Paul Coogan’s current tenure as mayor, the family has been woven into Fall River’s civic fabric for over 150 years.

The Fall River Political Legacy

Paul Coogan, current mayor of Fall River, is family — Clare Coogan’s nephew. Stephen Long served on the Fall River city council (see: Rep. John J. Long). Two branches of the same family, serving the same city across two generations.

The Connection to the Pelletier Line

Raymond’s marriage to Loretta Emma Pelletier in 1922 united two distinct immigrant traditions: the Irish Coogans and the French-Canadian Pelletiers. Loretta’s family had roots in Quebec going back to the 1600s, with ancestors among the founding families of New France (see: The Pelletier/Harpin Line). This Irish–French-Canadian union was common in the Fall River area, where both communities had settled in large numbers by the late 19th century.

Through Clare Patricia Coogan, these two immigrant streams — Irish and French-Canadian — flow into the Long family.

Active Research

• Irish parish records: John Coogan (PID: LD3P-2P9) and Thomas Manion (PID: GVR9-8PX) represent the current end of the documented chain. Both are believed to have been born in Ireland, likely in Connacht. Irish Catholic parish records from the mid-1800s, available through the National Library of Ireland ↗ and IrishGenealogy.ie ↗, may extend these lines further.
• Coogan Research Group: An active online community dedicated to Coogan surname research has documented several branches in Rhode Island and Providence, some tracing to a Peter Coogan of Ireland whose sons settled in Providence in the late 19th century. Whether this Peter connects to our John Coogan is an open question.
• Paul Coogan (Mayor of Fall River):Confirmed as Clare Patricia Coogan’s nephew. The precise generational chain and shared Coogan ancestor back to Ireland is still being mapped.
• Canadian citizenship: Research conducted April 2026 examined whether the Coogan line might include Canadian-born ancestors. No Canadian connection has been found in the Coogan line. The French-Canadian connection runs through the Pelletier side only.

Bottom Line

The Coogan line is pure Ireland — County Galway, County Meath, the Connacht coast. They came to Rhode Island and Fall River as part of the great Irish wave, married within their community, and built a political legacy that endures today. Through Clare Patricia Coogan’s marriage to John Joseph Long, the Irish Coogans merged with the Irish Longs and the French-Canadian Pelletiers — creating the paternal side of the family documented in this archive.

Every link PID-verified on FamilySearch. Research ongoing.

Page added S48, April 13, 2026.