This snapshot of my grandparents, my uncle, and the family mutt was taken in 1950 on my mother’s first and only return to County Mayo for a family event. She left in 1915 as a 16-year-old girl and went to Philadelphia, where she worked as a housemaid and nanny for a wealthy family. My grandparents’ names were Nora and John Murray of Lunginashee (Ballina) and my uncle’s name was … [Read more...] about Photo Album: One Family & Their Dog
Photo Album
Photo Album: The Legacy of Grandma Bell
In this photograph taken in 1925, my mother Kathleen (far left) and her ten siblings pose with their parents, Sam and Ellen Bell, as they leave their home in Crossgar, County Down, Northern Ireland. The family immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago where, after only four years, my grandfather died, leaving Grandma Bell to raise a family of eleven children. In … [Read more...] about Photo Album: The Legacy of Grandma Bell
Photo Album: Freedom Fıghters
These photographs of my grandfather, Sgt. Earl K. Giffin, and his sister, Lt. Gladys Giffin, were taken in Paris after the city was liberated during World War II. Both Earl and Gladys had been serving in Europe since June of 1944, and were eventually reunited in Paris. Raised in Plattsburgh, NY, they were two of Mr. and Mrs. G.H. Giffin’s thirteen children. The Giffin family … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Freedom Fıghters
Photo Album: From Annestown to Owosso
My grandmother Johannah Phelan was born in Annestown, Tramore, County Waterford, Ireland in 1849. She emigrated to the United States in 1873, her passage paid by her aunt and uncle, Patrick and Catherine Phelan O’Rourke. Johannah married Jeremiah King, a neighbor of the O’Rourke’s, and they had eight children, one of whom died in infancy. They lived in Owosso, Michigan, and … [Read more...] about Photo Album: From Annestown to Owosso
Photo Album: A Brief Moment in Life
In this 1914 photograph, my mother, Katherine Gallagher, and her older siblings, Anne and Bud, pose in front of their home on West Liberty Street in Cincinnati, Ohio. My grandfather Andrew Gallagher worked at the American Oak and Leather Company for fifty years. On a tanner’s salary he raised eight children, and lived to see all of his seventeen grandchildren. His wife, my … [Read more...] about Photo Album: A Brief Moment in Life