George Francis O'Dwyer was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on July 15, 1877, the eldest of seven children, to Jeremiah and Margaret O'Dwyer. He spent the majority of his life in Lowell, and often lived with his sister, Anna O'Dwyer. In 1917, George F. O'Dwyer joined the American Irish Historical Society, and would go on to serve as Secretary and Archivist of the Lowell chapter in the early 1920s. He was a self-employed historian, predominantly compiled genealogies of Irish families in New England, and published The Irish Catholic Genesis of Lowell in 1920. During this time, O'Dwyer was also published widely in local newspapers, sometimes as a contributor, and sometimes in letters to the editor. He wrote Stone Inscriptions in St. Augustine's Cemetery, 1819-1900 for the Boston Athenæum around 1926. It may be the case that O'Dwyer completed a law degree sometime in the 1920s, as some of his correspondents addressed him as Esquire. Throughout his lifetime, he also wrote plays, short stories, and poetry, and performed as a pianist. O'Dwyer died on May 18, 1942.
