Starting Point

This stone wall spanning across the Yantic River may be the foundation of the Lynch story in America—a sort of Plymouth Rock. It’s in a wooded area, under a little now-closed bridge, on a dead-end street, in rural Lebanon, Connecticut. This place has been left behind and forgotten, as has so much of my family’s

Tenant to Tenement

This was the first home of my Lynch ancestors in America. In 1884, John Lynch and his wife, Mary Sullivan, along with their six surviving children abandoned Cahersiveen in Kerry, Ireland, and joined relatives and neighbors who had settled in Southeastern Connecticut. They switched from tenant farming to tenement living, leaving behind a tiny windswept

Looking for Patrick

In the top left apartment of this house in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, in 1885, lived the recently-arrived John Patrick Lynch and Mary Sullivan along with their six children. They were recent immigrants, but Lynches and Sullivans had been in the area for years—some for decades. John and Mary had nine children, but two died at young

Mistakes and Beginnings

This was the last residence of my immigrant ancestor Timothy Lynch. He and his wife, Elizabeth, lived in an apartment on the left-hand side of this big house on Water Street in Stonington, Connecticut. As I drew, well-dressed retirees walked by and waved to me, as if an artist on this street was normal. Back

Uncertainties

Was this where Timothy J. Lynch and his young family lived in Stonington Borough, Connecticut in 1910? I used to think so, but now I’m not so sure. It was either here or the house next door. More research is needed. Census records can be tough to read and they can be filled with mistakes.

Times Have Changed

It took me two tries to draw this house, where lived the family of Timothy Lynch, an immigrant ancestor of mine. The house sits on a short dead-end street in the town of Stonington, Connecticut. Actually it’s in the charming section of that town called the “Borough.” Residents of the town make the distinction clear

Pleasing Characteristics

My immigrant great-great-grandmother Mary Sullivan Lynch lived in this house for a year in 1903 with her son Timothy. She was a widow at the time. I’m confident that she had little or nothing to do with the church next door which was built in 1890 because she was a Catholic and belonged to St.

Gun Factory

It must have been an odd transition for the Lynches to relocate from farming the oceanfront bog lands of Cahersiveen, Kerry, Ireland, to the factory life in the small industrial city of Norwich, Connecticut, in the 1800s. Among the places that my ancestors worked, was here, at the big now-empty firearms factory downtown. Connecticut has

On the Job

Sitting outside the former home of Margaret Lynch Scott in New London, Connecticut, I feel odd, but dedicated to the mission. A large middle-aged man passes me on the sidewalk, glancing over at what I’m up to, as the bells of St. Mary Star of the Sea Church chime “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” It’s

Mill Workers

I grew up in a mill town. Massive red brick structures like this one sat abandoned along the Blackstone River in Cumberland, Rhode Island. They were the beached whales of the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, some have been converted to condominiums with wonderful loft spaces. Some are scrappy artists’ studios. Others wait and rot.  Norwich, Connecticut,