Mike,
I have wondered about New Jersey. That is what's listed on the death certificate, but I could no record of a Bay Ridge, NJ ever existing. I do think that 1852 is a bit far off to be him though. I have my grand father's birth certificate where William gives his age as 25 (in 1884) which, since his own birthday was still a month away, would have made his birth year 1858. I trust that one the most because he probably gave that information himself, and he was old enough to not feel the need to pad his age, or old enough to want to shave it little.

I'm really hoping to get him back to Ireland, and if God willing I live long enough, its my dream to trace that line back to Scotland. There are some very colorful folks in that tree and I would love to find proof linking them.

Edit: I'm actually happy (in a way) that none of those listing panned out as Bay Ridge. Naturally I would rather find a connection, but when I'm at a brick wall, I'm also happy to be able to rule out possibilities to reduce the overall number of people I have to look at.

But now the NJ connection needs to be examined again as the 1875 state census shows he (William) was born in NJ. I have all the federal census records for him from 1880 until his death, and they alternate between NY and NJ.