Deported

On May 29, 1884, a huge ship named the Furnessia, pulled up to the little island of Valentia, on the western coast of Kerry, Ireland. It was far too big to meet the shore, as Valentia hosted only little fishing boats. Waiting ashore were hundreds of locals who were leaving for America. A British charity

Upstairs Downstairs

This is not the mansion where Mary Lynch worked and lived in 1900 in Norwich, Connecticut. That was down by the other end of Sachem Street, on broad beautiful Washington Street. This is the multi-family house where she died in 1938. Mary was living at that time with her retired, widowed brother John, her widowed

Irish Connector

Catherine “Kate” McMahon came to America in 1900, and last year, from a farm in County Kerry, Ireland, I got a message from someone looking for her. Kate was the McMahon that left. The rest had stayed behind in the then gritty city of Cork. My online family tree had provided the missing link for

The Weaver

John J. Lynch, my great-great uncle, lived here in 1900 with his wife Delia. Their home was the left one of the four in this multi-family building. It’s within walking distance of the big factories of downtown Norwalk, Connecticut. Both John and Delia were from Ireland. John worked as a “cotton weaver” according to census

Upper Falls

On a cold clear day in late November, as the sun was setting, I drew at the Upper Falls Heritage Park in Norwich, Connecticut by the remains of an old mill building. Norwich was a town of water-powered industry and in the last century, my great-great grandfather lived here. A few weeks ago, I had

John and Mary

John Lynch was an uncertainty. Years after my great- grandfather Michael Lynch died young, the story goes, family visited old John Lynch in Southeastern Connecticut. Maybe in New London? Maybe in Norwich? He might have been blind. There was talk of a sister Mary Lynch, too, who might have lived down there. But no details

Lonsdale Landlord

John Joseph Lynch (my grandfather) was named for his immigrant uncle, an Irish-born mill worker in Norwich, Connecticut. Younger John worked in mills too, as a young man in Providence. He had dropped out of school to help support his poor family. Later, he went to night school and eventually got himself an office job

Overseers

The Lonsdale Company (1831-1946) built this big red brick house in 1888. It is identical to the one next to it, and to the others running up Blackstone Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island. This was a row of “Overseers” houses, built for executives of the Londale Company which ran a group of big mills along

Ipswich Immigrant

Edward Colborne was an immigrant from Cornwall, England and probably walked these fields in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He was a farmer for the wealthy Saltonstall family in the early years of his new life in America in the 1640’s. Edward did not come by himself – his brother Robert emigrated on the same ship, landing in

Highway Lost

In 1903, Johanna (Cashman) Ivers lived here after her husband Patrick died. The house on Printery Street in Providence, Rhode Island, is gone now. So is John and Nora Ivers’ house which was down the street. Actually, the whole neighborhood is gone. Behind those trees now is Route 95, the main thoroughfare connecting the entire