Tag Archives: Ireland

From Netting Mackerel to Starting a Bio-Tech Company

                  “I was running as fast as I could. My mother on her blue bicycle, followed my father as we made our way in the direction of the water. My brothers and sisters ran alongside my parents as we raced towards the end of the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire Harbor. I ... Read More »

Pivoting With Changing Times (Ireland)

In the words of my dad, “I was born in Dublin, raised in Cork, educated in Tipperary, and exported before the age of eighteen.” He actually had a rather difficult childhood in that he was expected to grow up early. He took a city bus by himself to school at the age of four and went away to boarding school ... Read More »

Immigration Story of James Larkin (Ireland)

Filling the air of the living room with the unique smell of tobacco, James Larkin smokes his pipe as he reads the newspaper. His son-in-law, James Connors, asks him, “Want a whiskey Pops?” to which James Larkin nods in the affirmative. Wafting in from the kitchen is the smell of raisin bread, freshly baked by his daughter. This is 1940s ... Read More »

Story of Mary Kathrin McDermott (Ireland)

Where in Ireland was Mary from? Having been there what did you think of the town? How does it compare to America? Mary was born in 1914 and was from a small town in Ireland called Leitrim. She was the oldest of 10 children in an extremely poor family who made their income by rolling and selling peat bog. Her ... Read More »

The Moore Family and a Captured Marymoore

In the 17th and 18th centuries, England gave land in Ireland to Scottish people in order to bring more Protestants into Ireland, where it was predominantly Catholic. As the power of the Church of England increased, the Irish became outraged and began persecuting the immigrants from Scotland. In the early 1700’s, James Moore I immigrated to the U.S from Ireland for ... Read More »

William Davis and his lineage

For the most part my family comes from the British Isles. We have been on this continent for 300 plus years, that I have been able to document. For the bulk of that, in what is now Grayson County, Virginia and just over the border in Ashe County, North Carolina. All came here due to religious presecution and generally getting ... Read More »

Hugh Crawford

My grandfather’s father, Hugh Crawford, came to the US from Ireland with his older brother, during the years of massive Irish immigration due to the potato famine. As young men of 16 and 18, they purchased a farm in Ohio with their portion of their family farm. Soon, their parents and younger siblings joined them, selling their farm in Northern ... Read More »

Samuel and Elizabeth Cavanaugh

The Story of Samuel and Elizabeth Cavanaugh (Also Kavanagh: In Ireland they spelled their name with a K when they came to America they changed it to C.) Elizabeth (Liz) Keegan, daughter of John Keegan and Mary Ann Coleman Keegan was born in Dublin, Ireland on 6/7/1860. Samuel (Sam) Cavanaugh, son of Patrick Cavanaugh and Sarah Reed, was born on ... Read More »

Daniel O’Connell

The Irish: O’Connell’s My Grandmother who lived with my family for about 10 years marred a Kinney, however her family and maiden name was O’Connell. Grandfather Kinney I never met as he died the day I was born. I was given the name of Charles as it was his name also. The O’Connell family immigration to the United States goes ... Read More »