Welch, Michael, 1806 or 7-1876.

Michael Welch was a missionary for the American and Foreign Christian Union. Born Michael Walsh in 1806 or 1807 to Patrick Walsh, Waterford Co., Ireland, and raised on a leased tract of farmland named Ballitaylor, owned by John Musgrave. Welch immigrated to the United States in 1827, married Deborah Mills in 1830, and established a home in Stamford, Conn. The Welch's had two daughters, Mary Powers Welch Lockwood and Susan M. Welch June. Around 1838--during the Second Great Awakening--Michael Welch converted from Catholicism to Protestantism in Easton, Pa. and became a member of the Methodist Episcopalian Church. Soon after his conversion Welch became a missionary for the American and Foreign Christian Union, converting Catholics--to whom he referred as "Romish people"--to Protestantism. Michael Welch traveled across the country enrolling children in schools and delivering sermons.