Question

Bill Orme, interested in a) Ormes of RI-USA & Mayo Ireland; b) great-grandfathers Peter O'Neill & William J. Higgings

Answer 1

From the U.S. Record Indexes, 1791-1922 (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1629/images/31191_129601-00351?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=93fce74931220ffb7f77a981731e32bc&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qcN39560&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=3438388), William J. Higgins, who was born on July 7, 1861, in Leitrim County, Ireland, and who immigrated through the Port of New York on Jul 2, 1871, was naturalized on April 15, 1887, in the U.S. Circuit Court in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915 (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5184557:61039) lists Guilielmum Higgins baptized on July 14, 1861, in Gortletteragh, Leitrim, Ireland.  He was the son of Thomas Higgins and Catherine Foy.

Comments

Amazingly swift & illuminatingly factual response - many thanks! The Leitrim-born Mr. Higgins had an extraordinary life in America as an innovative norm-overturning enrepreneur - the first mass marketer (& perhaps inventor) of margarine - only to then face financial ruin and criminal prosecution when the powerful dairy lobby persuaded  the US government to make this butter-colored butter substitute illegal.

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Bill:

     Sounds like a very interesting man.  

     Regards.

                         Roger