Stories

27 ITEMS

FEATURED WORK

1840-1886. Patrick Hassett: A Sapper from Clare

Patrick Hassett, my 2nd great-grandfather, was born around 1840 in County Clare, Ireland. The population of Clare peaked in the year after his birth – 286,394 souls. By the time he left, 42% of that population was lost to famine or emigration. Just a year after coming to America, he was among the first to answer Present Lincoln’s call for soldiers. This story traces his movements, step by step, during the Civil War – and miraculously there are photographs taken of his unit in the last few weeks of his service.
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Margaret Teresa Costello Stories

1838-1897. Margaret Fahy, Child of the Famine

My 2nd great-grandmother, Margaret Fahy, crossed the Atlantic, at the age of 12, with 37 other unaccompanied Irish children. On 10 OCT 1850, when the S.S. Ellen Marie docked in New York City, they were all left to fend for themselves.
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1645-1727. Walloons, Huguenots and a No Man’s Land in Brooklyn

Joost Duryea was ethnically a Walloon and religiously a Huguenot. On a good day, that would severely restrict your rights, limit your access to employment and force your conversion on pain of imprisonment. On a bad day, you just got burned you at the stake.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1871-1923. Daniel William Mullan

My great-grandfather, Daniel William Mullan, was born 2 JAN 1871 on the grounds of the Lime Park Estate in Moyaver, County Antrim. He spent over 30 years working for the Postal Service.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1907-1978. John Patrick O’Mullan

On January 4, 1907, my grandfather, John Patrick O’Mullan was born to Daniel William Mullan and Elizabeth Gallagher in Moyaver, County Antrim, Ireland. They christened him at St. Olcan’s church – where his father was christened and his family is buried.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1911-1966. Pat O’Mullan’s Cottage

In the 1980s, my parents were directed by locals to the O’Mullan homestead. They didn’t realize it at the time but they photographed a cottage that was occupied by my great-grandfather’s siblings – Pat, Elizabeth and Mary Anne. My direct ancestors never lived there.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1832-1837. William O’Mullan’s Farm at ‘Lake’ Hamilton

The O’Mullan family, including my 3rd great-grandfather William O’Mullan, leased a fair bit of acreage in Mount Hamilton – but it looks as though they had to drain a lake to get it. They rented portions of what was a lake in 1832, drained it, and brought it entirely under plough by 1837.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1791-1916. Patrick Scally’s Farm

My 3rd great-grandfather, Patrick Scally, was born in Moyaver around 1791. Though his life largely predates Catholic parish registers, we can piece a lot of it together from census and property documents. An agricultural census shows that his father, Daniel Scally, was working in Moyaver as a farm labourer in 1803. Pension records show that…
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1877-1857. Elizabeth Gallacher, very nearly Scottish

My great-grandmother was born in Dundee, Scotland to parents who were born in Scotland, and grandparents who were born in Ulster, Ireland. In the Scotland of her day, that made her Irish – not Scottish.
Musings Private Stories

So who do I think I am?

When people find out I have ancestors going back 13 generations in New Jersey, they think I must be largely Dutch or British – but that’s not the case. I know about these ancestors because they left a record, and that record survives. That isn’t the case for most of my ancestors. Genes and genealogy…
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1795-1916. Did we have a farm in Ireland?

As a kid, I remember thinking that my grandfather’s family owned a farm called ‘Moyaver’ in a place called ‘Armoy’ – – but none of that turns out to be true. Here’s what’s true…
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1633. New England Heretics

Six of my ancestors emmigrated to the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1633. Within 5 years, all of them would be exiled for heresy.
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1508-1913. The Formans

One of my Forman ancestors loaned money to Henry VIII – bad idea. One arrested the governor of NJ for holding court while Scottish. There was a patriot tarred as a traitor for ages, and a religious refugee who persecuted Quakers on Long Island. Knights, vicars, patriots & scoundrels – 12 generations of Formans.
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1652-1847. The Dutch New Yorkers

Theodore Clarence Brintzinghoffer was my great-grandfather. Every branch of his family tree came to America before the Revolution. This is the story of his paternal grandmother’s Dutch family.
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1650-1950. The Brintzinghoffers

My grandfather, James Henry Brintzinghoffer, was very proud of his German roots and his family’s long history in America. He once told me they came over on the Mayflower – which wasn’t quite true – but it was closer to true than any of us realized until long after he was gone.
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1840-1886. Patrick Hassett: A Sapper from Clare

Patrick Hassett, my 2nd great-grandfather, was born around 1840 in County Clare, Ireland. The population of Clare peaked in the year after his birth – 286,394 souls. By the time he left, 42% of that population was lost to famine or emigration. Just a year after coming to America, he was among the first to…
Elizabeth Irene Wiggans Private Stories

1916-1995. Elizabeth Irene Wiggans

My grandmother, Elizabeth Irene Wiggans was born on the 16th of April, 1916, in the back bedroom of 290 Peshine Ave, Newark, NJ. She was named ‘Elizabeth’ after her mother but to her father, she would always be ‘Lovey’. Everyone else called her Irene.
James Henry Brintzinghoffer Stories

1821-1920. The McAllens of Westminster, London & Orange, NJ

Daniel McAllen was a shoemaker born in Ireland around 1821 to James McAllen, a labourer. He emigrated first to England before the age of 20, and then to America at the age of 28, in 1848.
Elizabeth Irene Wiggans Stories

1730-1965. The Wiggans of Lancashire, England

The surname Wiggans came to England with the Normans in 1066. It’s the patronymic form of the name – literally, “son of Wigand” and while I can’t trace my line back to the Normans, it may extend as far as a man named James Wygan, born around 1520 in Chorley, Lancashire – though more documentation…
Elizabeth Irene Wiggans Stories

1744-1870. The Bakers & Stopards of Lancashire

My 6th great-grandmother, brought her daughter Margaret to Douglas Chapel in Parbold, England to be baptized. It wasn’t illegal to have an illegitimate child, but it was illegal to withhold the father’s name. She did.
Elizabeth Irene Wiggans Stories

1780-1909. Scottish Highlanders & Islanders

James Wiggans, my great-grandfather, was born August 1st, 1881 to Sarah McIntyre. As far back as I can trace, her father’s people were West Highlanders from in and around the Firth of Lorn.
Elizabeth Irene Wiggans Stories

1849-1910. The Smiths of Euxton

This tracks the English Catholic line of the Smiths in Lancashire back to 1823. It’s hard to go back any further in a country where being a Catholic could get you executed – record keeping was dangerous.
Elizabeth Irene Wiggans Stories

1844-1932. The Rooneys of Chorley

Elizabeth Rooney, my great-grandmother, was born in Chorley, Lancashire on the 7th of October, 1883 to John Rooney – an Irish immigrant to England who worked all his life as a farm labourer.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

1866-1910. Daniel O’Mullan & the Shoemaker’s Cottage

My 2nd great-grandfather, Daniel O’Mullan, moved to Moyaver from Mount Hamilton around the time he married Isabella Scally. They lived in a cottage on the Limepark Estate.
Margaret Teresa Costello Stories

1903-1997. Margaret Teresa Costello

My grandmother, Margaret Teresa Costello, was born to John J. Costello, a blacksmith, and Honora Brown in Newark, NJ on the 3rd of August 1903. Her father would died of kidney failure when she was not yet 3 years old, and she grew up in her mother’s boarding house on Plum St. in Newark.
Margaret Teresa Costello Stories

1872-1939. Honora Brown & Eleanor Costello of Newark

My great-grandmother, Honora Brown, was baptized ‘Honora’ in Newark, NJ in 1872. She was called ‘Lenora’, then ‘Eleanora’, and finally ‘Eleanor’. Her granddaughter and 2nd great-granddaughter are both named Eleanor.
Margaret Teresa Costello Stories

1841-1919. The Costellos of Newark

My great-grandfather, John J. Costello, was a blacksmith born in Connecticut probably in June of 1871. He moved to Newark, NJ sometime in early childhood and lived there until he died at the age of 35 from kidney failure.
John Patrick O’Mullan Stories

Where does the name O’Mullan come from?

O’Mullan derives from the Gaelic surname O’Maoláin, which dates to before the 10th century. ‘Maol” means bald or tonsured. So Maoláin refers to a monk or a disciple, or really anyone who shaves their head as a sign of religious devotion.