This tree, created in 2002, and revised 2004-2006, is based on information parents and grandmother obtained from letters and research, and on some on-line research I did. I have been to date unsuccessful in tracing this ancestry back to anyone but persons who appear to be--or even are of--European ancestry. But there is a paucity of records of non-Europeans in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Check out also the War and Military Records Page!

Alfred M. Parker, was born in Ohio in around 1866 according to the 1920 Worcester County, MA census for the township of Fitchburg. His mother was born in Ireland, and his father in England according to the census. (Earlier censuses list his father as born in Pennsylvania.) His wife was Mary C. Parker, age 49, born in around 1871 in Massachusetts. Daughter Anna M. Parker, born in Illinois, is still living with household in 1920.
The Parker family is also listed on the 1910 Worcester County, MA census (Mr. Parker works in a saw factory) and on the 1900 Cooke County census for Chicago's 12th Ward, with the birth date for Anna listed as 7 September, 1899. On this census, Alfred's father is listed as born in Pennsylvania, and not in England.
Mary C. Bagley (wife of Alfred Parker) is listed as the daughter age 9 on page 19 of the Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts census, with her mother born in Ireland and her father born in Maine. Mary C's sisters are Celia and Annie. Mary's mother, also Mary, age 41, is at this date a widow and working as a laundress. She may have had one previous marriage to a man who was born in Ireland before marrying Charles Bagley because one child's father's birth place is given as Ireland (though this may be an error!)
On the 1870 census, the most likely listing for Mary and a Charles Bagley is in Connecticut -- there is a Charles and Mary Bagley of the right age listed in Connecticut, with a daughter born the same year as one of the children listed with widow Mary C. Bagley on the 1880 census, but this family's birthplaces are all listed as Connecticut -- the birthplace listing here also could be of course an enumeration error. Charles here is a machinist (which railroad workers could become, with experience); Mary is keeping house; the one child's name is either Minnie or Annie (Mary's daughter was Annie; and the handwritten page suggests that the daughter here is Annie). There is no Mary C. and Charles Bagley listed in Connecticut/s 1880 censu, and so it's reasonable to assume that they could have by then moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts. The problem is there are several "Charles and Mary Bagley"s in New England at this time. It is of course possible that some of the Bagley listings include both work and home addresses; there are Charles Bagley's living with children and older men, and there are several Mary Bagley's, all born in Ireland, all about the right age, listed as working as servants in New York and Pennsylvania; it is possible that Mary was listed at her place of work; Charles at his residence.
Charles H. Bagley's Civil War record lists his occupation as a laborer, his birth date as around 1839, and his home as Fitchburg, Ma.
Charles is listed also -- with other railroad workers -- on page 86 of the Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts 1860 census as, "C. Bagley," born around 1831, possibly in Massachusetts (but the last is probably a census taker error; the census taker probably listed everyone automatically as born in "Mass."). Other workers include an engineer (driver), a fireman (?), and a brakeman and his family. I cannot decipher C. Bagley's occupation (R. R. something, probably "hostler"). The workers live (perhaps) with either the Boulettes or the Wrights. For more about the Boston and Albany Railroad, with its Boston-Worcester railroad line, its Norwich-Worcester railroad line, its Boston--Clinton-Fitchburg railroad line, and its Western (Worcester-Springfield) line, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_and_Albany_Railroad; and Caleb A. Wall's (1877) Reminiscences of Worcester from the Earliest Period, historical and genealogical (Tyler and Skagrave) https://books.google.com/books?id=9BsC4Asqv1IC&pg=RA34-PA294&lpg=RA34-PA294. (Also, check out Mom's favorite railroad song: "I've Been Working on the Railroad" at Popular Songs in American History!)
There are several Charles Bagley's listed on the 1850 census for Massachusetts and Maine, all born in Maine though of Irish ancestry, all generally working as laborers -- and I am not sure which is ours.
A likely listing for Mary Leahy (married name Bagley, she is Charles Bagley's wife, and the mother of little Mary) , is on page 250 (or p. 544 revised numbering) of the 1860 Cook County, Illinois census. This Mary Leahy is living in Chicago's 2nd ward, at the Tremont House hotel, where she worked as a laundress (The Tremont House hotel occupies several pages of the census [pp. 249-254; pp. 543-548 new numbering]; Mary is listed with all other laundry workers and it is not clear whether she works in the hotel laundry or not (for a transcription of this census, see TremontHotel_1860ClarkCoChicagoWard2IL_census_ancestry.txt). Several railroaders are at the hotel at the time (and were censused here, whether or not they were also censused at their home addresses). There's also a Mary Leahy working as a servant in the 4th ward of about the same age, a bit younger, perhaps too young, but probably not a relation -- unless Mary held two jobs, worked one place and lived and worked the other.) Both Marys appear to be a recent immigrants because 1860 is the first time they appear on the U.S. census, as far as I can discern.
Mary apparently arrived in the U.S. on one of the ships that brought potato famine immigrants here in the 1840's and 1850's (1851 is the date she gives the 1900 census; see below). These ships picked up passengers in Ireland, and then made a stop in Liverpool. There are several Mary Leahys of about the right age on these ships -- the majority list their occupation as 'spinster' (the most common occupation for Irish girls on these ships), though some list their occupations as workmen/workwomen, servants, or even dressmakers. Most persons travelling are teenagers or young adults, and most travelled in steerage, a not very comfortable third-class sort of compartment, lacking good food and adequate bathroom facilities (see "Steerage" at Wikipedia).
Mary A. Bagley, mother-in-law of Celia O'Brien (sister of Mary C. Bagley Parker), is listed on page 1 of the Fitchburg, Worcester County, MA 1900 census with her daughter and son-in-law; she says here birth date is November, 1834 (this would appear as 1835 on earlier censuses), and that she immigrated in around 1851!
I've located on lists of nineteenth century immigrants to the U.S. four Mary Leahys born in around 1836 in Ireland who came to the U.S. in the 1850's; all arriving first in New York; one departing from Tralee, Ireland, another departing from Tralee, Ireland but also stopping in Liverpool, England before making her way to the U.S., and two departing from Liverpool, England; two are spinsters (or spinners of cloth), one is a laborer, and the fourth is either a dressmaker or a servant -- it's not entirely clear from the entry because of confusion with the adjacent entry; two of the women travelled alone; two with other young Leahys. Names of ships on which the women travelled are: Irvine, William Stetson, Bridgewater, and Constitution.
A Mary Leahy, born in 1835, who listed her occupation as "spinster," travelled with her brothers and sisters on the Fidelia and arrived in New York in August, 1851. I believe this is our Mary Leahy!