Pictured in this photograph is my Scotch-Irish grandmother, Carrie (O'Neal) Miller, the shining light in our family. Over the years, she wore a variety of hats: cook, nanny, housekeeper, nurse, and coach, among others. Many times she was gently teased about her height, or lack thereof. Petite at less than 5 feet, she and grandpa made an interesting pair, as he was over 6 feet … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Grandma Carrie
Photo Album
The Irish Scrubwoman
In the days when "No Irish Need Apply," my maternal grandmother, Margaret McCabe Ackerson, was lucky to find work scrubbing office floors to support her five children. My aunt remembers sitting as a little gift on the curb in front of their East 29th Street, Manhattan tenement until her widowed mother came home around midnight. This was not the American dream Margaret's father, … [Read more...] about The Irish Scrubwoman
Photo Album: Cummings Coalminers
1890: Jackson's Patch, Pennsylvania. ℘℘℘ In this picture, Patrick Cummings of Loan in Clogh parish near Castlecomer in County Kilkenny sits with his wife Margaret Crennan, also of Loan, on the front porch of their house in Jackson's Patch surrounded by their sons. Areas of settlement near the mining shafts were called 'patches' and Jackson's was near the Maple Hill Mine, not … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Cummings Coalminers
Graduation Day
Seated at the right of this photograph is my mother, Elizabeth "Bess" Cashen when she was 13. She was valedictorian of the class of 1909 in St. Mary's School, Wharton, New Jersey. The other students in the photograph are (clockwise from left) Elizabeth Bobo, Leo Sodon, and Anna Harman. Bess was one of 11 children born to John J. Cashen, an iron miner, and his wife, Sarah … [Read more...] about Graduation Day
The Irish Shawl
This is a photograph taken of my mother, Elizabeth Schultz Daily, at the age of 16 wearing the shawl that her great-grandmother Jane McDonald McCarthy brought over from Ireland when she and my great-great-grandfather John immigrated to America. Jane was born in Dublin in 1814 and John in Blackwater, County Wexford, in 1807. My mother Elizabeth married Elmer Daily in Boswell, … [Read more...] about The Irish Shawl