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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.