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
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 Freedom Fıghters
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
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 … [Read more...] about Photo Album