In the above photograph, taken in Lockport, New York in 1914, my grandmother Mary Fitzsimons Dowd (front, right) is pictured with four of her children and one grandchild.
Mary Fitzsimmons was born in County Roscommon in the town of Elphin, near the River Shannon, in 1848. She and husband John O’Dowd emigrated from Ireland in 1871. They dropped the ‘O’ from O’Dowd when they came to America. They had six children, all of whom were born in Lockport, New York.
Pictured above, front row, left to right, are Ella Dowd Knox, her son George Knox, and Mary Fitzsimons Dowd. In the back row are, left to right, Alice Dowd, Nicholas Dowd (who became my father), and Mary Agnes Dowd. ♦
My family also come from Elphin Roscommon