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The BIRMINGHAM Family of Cumberland Maryland

Introduction

The BIRMINGHAM family name first appears in Cumberland Maryland in 1851 with the birth of Michael Birmingham, the third child of James and Bridget Birmingham. James Birmingham, born in 1818, and his wife Bridget emigrated from Ireland to the United States, possibly through “British Canada”.  They first arrived in the United States before 1847 and their first child was born in New York. Their emigration was likely a part of the Irish Potato Famine.

My great-grandfather, Daniel Birmingham was the brother of James Birmingham. He was born in Ireland on July 3, 1809 and immigrated to the United States in 1830. He first resided in Baltimore where he worked as a Quarryman in the stone quarries north of the city of Baltimore. There he would meet his wife to be, Ellen Collins, also an immigrant from Ireland. They would marry in Baltimore on December 31, 1849. Daniel and Ellen would start their family in Baltimore (Towsontown) where their first six children were born. Around 1871 the family of Daniel and Ellen would move to Cumberland where Daniel’s brother James and his family lived. The two Birmingham families would raise their 17 children in Cumberland on Wineow and Orchard Streets, near the present-day Fairfield Inn.

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