After the Civil War, Philip Cummins, a coal miner from Loon, Clogh, Co. Kilkenny, took his wife Mary Smith (Rakenny, Co. Cavan) and family from the troubling times of the Molly Maguires and Schuykill County, Pennsylvania, and settled in western Massachusetts to work at the Richmond Furnace factory and try his hand at farming. The photo is of the family of Philip's oldest son, … [Read more...] about Photo Album:
4th of July Picnic
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Photo Album: An Ocean Away
My paternal great-grandmother Violet May Carroll McHale was born in 1906 in Castlebar, Mayo, and raised as a farmer’s daughter. She and her sisters (Delia, Lucy, and Jane) did much of the grunt work that was usually reserved for males, since their father Martin had a bad leg and couldn’t do it on his own. Violet eventually had to leave school completely at about age 10 to help … [Read more...] about Photo Album: An Ocean Away
Photo Album: Playing Ball With the FBI
My father was wanted by the F.B.I. Specifically, by J. Edgar Hoover himself. ℘℘℘ The founding director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had heard of Tommy Connor’s prowess on the baseball field. A star player in Washington, D.C., in the 1920s, Dad had graduated from high school at 15, put himself through college by 17, and went on to play Triple-A 3rd base for the old … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Playing Ball With the FBI
Photo Album: Tales of New York
I have no interest in Ancestry.com or tracing my roots. I know most of my DNA and it’s all Irish on my mom’s side. Her father, the son of a Ballylongford, County Kerry, farmer, was named Tom Keane. He emigrated to America sometime around 1900 – it’s believed he had to hightail it out of Ireland because of his IRA affiliation, and that doesn’t surprise me at all. Tom had crossed … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Tales of New York
Photo Album: My Grandfather, the Diver
My grandfather, Patrick Joseph Killen, (“Pop”), was born in Downpatrick, County Down, in 1897. He sailed with his sister Margaret for America in 1911, and arrived in New York on his 14th birthday. Many of his family were already here, but, sadly for him, his older sister Mary stayed behind, and he would not see her again for 57 years. In 1920, Patrick received his Certificate … [Read more...] about Photo Album: My Grandfather, the Diver