Gloucester, Salem Cumberland and Cape May Counties, Circa 1840. It may well be that the Clan Conley arrived in the Port of Baltimore or the Port of Wilmington and travelled east across New Jersey, with different branches of the family settling as they moved. For more old maps, try this site: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Second Generation:
Philip G. Conley of Dennisville and Millville

Infant Earnest CONLEY, born on 6 Aug 1882 in South Dennisville, died nine months later on 30 Mar 1883 of typhus. The baby was buried in South Dennisville Cemetery (aka Union Graveyard). There is reason to believe that this burying ground was also known as Dennisville Methodist-Episcopal Cemetery, where the child's grandfather George was laid to rest some fifteen years later.

Seeley Earnest CONLEY, apparently named for Hannah's father, was born on 1 Feb 1884. Seeley married Mary JAGGERS on 12 Jan 1931 in Millville, Cumberland County, NJ. The couple's last address was a half-house at 314 "D" Street in Millville; the other half-house at 312 "D" was the Conley-Finch homestead of his sister Katherine and her husband. Mary JAGGERS died on 17 Feb 1942 and Seeley passed on 29 Aug 1943, at age 59. He was buried in Greenwood Memorial Park, Millville, NJ. We have not heard of any children of this marriage.

Katherine Stites CONLEY was born on 4 Feb 1886. Although she used the formal "Katherine" during her adult life, her birth certificate names her Kate Stites Conneley. She was named for her mother's sister, Mary Cathrine Earnest Stites, who was lost at sea with her husband in 1884. Katherine married Walter Joseph FINCH in 1902 when she was 16.

Mary CONLEY, known as "Mamie," was born on 6 Mar 1888. Mary married John Foster DILLING. A grandnephew remembers John as "...a staunch Catholic who sold fish from a Model T on Fridays. He had a megaphone or bullhorn and would go around calling out 'Fish, fresh fish.' The couple owned and operated a sub shop of the northwest side of the Maurice River bridge in Millville and may have lived on "F" Street, not far from the intersection with Second.

Mary Conley DILLING died on 11 Aug 1932, at age 44, and was buried in Greenwood Memorial Park, Millville, NJ. The cause of her death was tuberculosis.

The daughter of Mary and John was:

Dorothy Marie DILLING. Dorothy married George Dawson BLACK Sr. Dorothy and George had two children, Elizabeth and George Junior. Dorothy died on 12 Nov 1978, and was buried in Greenwood Memorial Park, Millville, NJ.

Ralph A. (Connelly) CONLEY was born on 5 Oct 1890 in Millville. One of Kate Stites Conley's grandchildren wrote, "Grandmom said she was born in Dennisville. She only went to either the third or fourth grade in school because she had to stay home to take care of Uncle Ralph when he was a baby." Deductive math would indicate that if Kate dropped out of school between grades three and four, the year would be about 1894–95, and Ralph would have been closer to four years old than an infant.

The same grandchild also recollects the following: "I was at Grandmom's one day when Uncle Ralph said when he was a child he went to the Catholic school down in Atlantic City. The priest asked him what his name was and he told the priest. The priest told him he was spelling it wrong and the right way was Connelly, so that is the reason Uncle Ralph spelled his name the way he did."

This story is very telling. First, it establishes the family as Irish Catholic. But more than that, it raises the question of why Ralph, son of Philip and Hannah, would have been in school in Atlantic City. A newspaper article from Katherine's later years may give us a clue: "Katherine was born in Dennisville but came to Millville and worked in the Cotton Mill.... [She was] married during May 1902.... [The couple] then moved to Atlantic City for a time and their first child was born there [1903]." Perhaps Ralph was living with his older sister and her new husband? Brother and sister were very close throughout their lives, Ralph lived with Kate until very late in lafe when he went to a Veteran's Home.

Another of Katherine's grandchildren wrote of Ralph: "He was a little, short man, very Irish. Even in his later years he walked down to Broad Street and then down High all the way to the bank and back every day, smoking a cigar. He lived on D Street [312 D Street, the family home]. He was very active in the VFW. I'm not sure if he ever got married, but if he did it must have been early in life. He might have been a lifetime bachelor, I'm not sure."

Ralph served with the United States Army in World War I. He died on 12 Jan 1986 in Veterans' Home, Vineland, NJ, at age 95. He rests above ground, next to his beloved sister, in Greenwood Memorial Park, Millville, NJ.