So far as we can determine, John and James Carmody emigrated from somewhere near Kilmore in southeast County Clare, Ireland at some time during the Great Famine. They probably landed in Boston, and settled in Hampden County. James and family were in Chicopee (adjacent to Springfield) by 1850.
In the early 1850s, James and family moved to New York, where they stayed a couple years before moving to Lancaster, Grant County, Wisconsin (in 1854–5).
In 1860, James' nephew Thomas Carmody is known to have immigrated from County Clare and settled in Lancaster.
Back in Massachusetts, John Carmody, his wife Catherine, and their family had settled in Springfield by 1857, and probably stayed in Springfield through the Civil War. In 1962, their daughter Bridget married Michael Patrick Donlin.
After the War, Michael, Bridget, and their son James followed the elder James Carmody to Lancaster, Wisconsin. It is likely that Bridget's parents and some of her siblings moved to Wisconsin at the same time. It is also likely that Tom's parents Michael and Catherine (Lynch) Carmody moved from Massachusetts to Lancaster just after the War.
It is likely that the three elder Carmodys (Michael, John, and James) were brothers.
Michael had a grandaughter Katie, born in 1870, that was close to Bridget (Carmody) Donlin before the latter died in 1877. The two are known to have been related. If this is true, then Michael, James, and John must have been brothers.
For more detail, please refer to the following PDF documents:
4 March 2003