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Tag Archives: New Haven County Connecticut

Waterbury Irish!

14 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Irish in Waterbury, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Uncategorized, Waterbury

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Tags

Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish in Connecticut, New Haven County Connecticut, Waterbury Irish

©2015 Janet Maher, Home Ec, photograph from personal collection

©2015 Janet Maher, Home Ec, photograph from personal collection

Waterbury Irish: From the Emerald Isle to the Brass City is scheduled to be published by the History Press in the first week of September! More details will appear, as well as a link to a Facebook page, in upcoming weeks. For those who are within driving distance to New Haven, Connecticut, please come to my talk-with-images on Tuesday night, June 16 for the Irish History Round Table at 7:30 p.m., Knights of Saint Patrick Hall, 1533 State Street, New Haven.

©2015 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Coming to Ireland!

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Mahers, Meaghers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Pilgrimage, Waterbury

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish in Connecticut, New Haven County Connecticut, Patrick Maher

©2014 Janet Maher, St. Patrick's Church Window, Vox Hiber Hi Ocum

©2014 Janet Maher, St. Patrick’s Church Window, Vox Hiber Hi Ocum

When I speak with my friend, Jane Lyons, owner of the amazing web site, From Ireland, she reminds me what an unbelievable work of fate and luck our meeting is. That I have been studying a particular subset of Irish immigrants into New Haven County, Connecticut, and have found several of the specific places from which they arrived, and that Jane has been studying the same from her end is one phenomenon. That we have become friends, that she flew all the way from Ireland to attend my first book signing, and that I could bring her to the primary cemeteries in Waterbury and Naugatuck and point to the specific graves that link back to her neck of the woods is another. That I will be spending the last part of my huge Irish research trip with her and that we will be scouring together the area that I have honed in on is a true miracle! What were the odds back in 2006 when I was just learning how to do Irish research that I would be, essentially, collaborating across the ocean with the person who set me on my path and showed me the way? Although I am no longer on her massive listserv, Y-IRL, she has been at my home in America, we talk on the phone, and I will be at her home in another week! (Although I thanked them in my book, I thank again the members of Y-IRL who gave me so much welcome advice all those years ago.)

On this trip I am thrilled that I will also be meeting people I feel to be friends that I met “in real time” when my husband and I were in Ireland three years ago. I will also be lucky enough to meet some new friends that I have only conversed with through email. This is truly a dream! While it is a bit unnerving to anticipate driving on the left side and managing my way to and through so many places alone (until I get to Jane’s), I am grateful for my husband’s support in this “obsession” which is clearly not yet over. He’ll hold down the fort—and water my garden—while I proceed upon this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am eternally lucky on so many fronts!

Last week several of us attended a visit to Waterbury Connecticut’s third Catholic Church — from 1880, St. Patrick’s. I’m including here a photo of a portion of one of its majestic windows, the bottoms of which include The Lorica of St. Patrick all the way around in Gaelic. This image illustrates Patrick’s dream in which an angel showed him a scroll upon which was written “The voice of the Irish call you.”

As the voice of the Irish is calling me loud and clear, I wish you all well in the big spirit of it all!

©2014 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Researching Irish Family History in Connecticut

29 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, Naugatuck, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish Genealogy, Irish in Connecticut, Janet Maher, Naugatuck Connecticut, Naugatuck Valley Genealogy Club, New Haven County Connecticut

©2011 Janet Maher, View from Rock of Dunamase, County Laois, Ireland

©2011 Janet Maher, View from Rock of Dunamase, County Laois, Ireland

Recently I presented a talk for the Naugatuck Valley Genealogy Club that I’d like to post (in part and expanded) here. I hope it may be helpful for researchers at any stage of experience.

Many years ago I worked at a public library. This was where I first encountered people actively looking up information in city directories. It seemed to me like such an odd thing to do, as if they were stalkers! I remembered this ironically when poring over the archives of Naugatuck Historical Society city directories myself. Preserved moments in this format initially helped me locate primary people throughout decades of time as I began to envision a larger picture. Now I feel much more poetic about this and other kinds of research we do in the world of genealogy, which is ultimately about honoring our ancestors while learning about who we, ourselves, really are. One thing is certain. Our stories are not simply lying in wait for us—neither physically nor virtually, details all neatly in place somewhere—unless we or one of our relatives already did actual research and published it. The pieces of our stories, however, may be lying in wait everywhere.

Genealogical research is often referred to as a puzzle, but, as an artist by primary profession, I’ve come to think that the process is actually more like making art. Those who do puzzles usually have a reference image already printed on a box cover to which they can compare their progress. In doing genealogical research, by contrast, we have no idea what might be revealed until we finish collecting all the unknown elements and eventually become able to put them together in some logical, beautiful way. That is a creative process. In many ways, I feel as if what I have accomplished in this area has been the most difficult and most rewarding work I have done in my life to date. It has, however, required all my skills acquired over a lifetime as an artist, and those of a hitherto-unrealized professional scholar to uncover what I have. These experiences and struggles joined in opening a new world to me. I feel that this work has been entirely worth doing, and is important for posterity—not typically the feeling I have after mounting an art exhibition! The work would probably never have been done if I had not decided to commit to a challenge that seemed to have fallen intentionally into my lap, then simply roll up my sleeves and begin.

©2006 Janet Maher, Maher-Martin graves, St. Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, CT

©2006 Janet Maher, Maher-Martin graves, St. Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, CT

Simultaneous to creating a beautiful product, family historians and genealogists search for TRUTH. This is where genealogy takes a turn from the act of art-making. In this type of endeavor we need to be careful about accuracy, which leads us into the scientific method. Even as novices we need to approach our project as if we would actually become experts about our particular area of research. (Thank you to the person who once told me—received, albeit, in utter disbelief—that I would become an “expert” on the Mahers!) This means that not only must we gather information from far and wide, but that we must spend the extra time trying to be as thorough and accurate as possible. It is important to find some way to keep our notes in order, to look for multiple sources of the same information, and to document EVERYTHING. Anyone should be able to find the information we present by retracing our foot- and endnotes to our sources, so they can decide for themselves if we were correct in our findings and hypotheses. (This is decidedly NOT like art-making, where we create as we will and call it complete as we feel.)

We develop our research methods along the way. One friend introduced me to her system of keeping three-ring binder notebooks for every family or person, including clear slip sheets that protected documents and were able to contain varied sized pieces of paper. This seemingly small tip was extremely helpful, affording me not only practical advice but also hinting at how vast an undertaking this project might end up becoming. (Forewarned is forearmed!) We all eventually end up with many different kinds of computer files, physical boxes of stuffed folders, overflowing shelves, data in family tree software, as well as, publicly and/or privately, trees on Ancestry.com. In addition to good storage systems, I highly recommend investing in a good magnifying glass. It will become the handiest of tools!

©2012 Janet Maher, portrait of the author's great grandfather

©2012 Janet Maher, portrait of the author’s great grandfather Maher, born in America to Irish immigrants

We typically start with very little information beyond the knowledge of our immediate family. Like artists, we dare to face a blank beginning and trust that something good will result, worth the time we’re willing to invest into a long and complicated process. As we sense how some information relates to other information, more and larger questions emerge. We may find that we need to pause and go off on what could seem to be a wide range of tangents. We might, for example, need to study more about an aspect of history in order to better understand the context for a small but important fact that we found. We will likely read a mountain of books about topics we never dreamed would some day become fascinating to us.

We often work on different parts of the amorphous overarching story at different times, allowing some parts to rest until other aspects come into the mix that will allow earlier topics to develop further. This multi-faceted activity requires an all-consuming focus (generally unavailable) that will allow for a larger view to develop over myriad tiny details. It is an organic, intuitive process that requires open-ended time and a fair amount of wandering in wonder. As in art, in the world of genealogy we know that our wanderings are simply part of the path toward other discoveries and that the work is also part of the satisfaction.

We try to picture our ancestors alive in order to holistically grasp who they were or might have been. We imagine ourselves as flies on their walls. What would they reveal if the veils between us suddenly dissolved? We try to speak with whomever is alive, available and willing to share stories about the time and place that our ancestors inhabited. This, if it is possible, is the most important gift. The concrete memories that another person has, the little details that would rarely be found in an archive, best illuminate the humanity of the people with whom we are hoping to connect through our research.

It is only recently that someone told me that into the twentieth century the last of my family’s first generation Irish-American ancestors pronounced our surname in Naugatuck in the Irish way, with two syllables, not in the way I was taught to do, with one! That is one of many treasures living people have made possible for me along this journey.

©2012 Janet Maher, presumed Leary-Farren families, Naugatuck, CT

©2012 Janet Maher, presumed Leary-Farren families, Naugatuck, CT

We look for everything that pertains to individuals in our various tree branches—vital records, baptism and marriage data, voting registrations, bits about them in newspapers, yearbooks, military and land records—anything that might provide more clarity. I am interested in also finding every person’s tombstone. What is inscribed on it? What does it look like and what might that say about the person? Who is buried nearby?

Importantly, for Irish-Catholic immigrants and their descendants, the witnesses at weddings and baptisms may be invaluable for helping to establish connections between people. While many Connecticut church baptism and marriage registries were microfilmed and can be viewed at the Archdiocese of Hartford, some were not filmed and several early books have long been lost. Whether or not one would be allowed to look at records in a rectory is a gamble. The Immaculate Conception Basilica in Waterbury, for example, will not allow this. To see early Immaculate Conception records one must make an appointment at the Archdiocese (and bring your magnifying glass along!).

Data helps to inform photographs, and so can images help to inform data. There are many articles about estimating dates of old photographs through the fashions of the time and types of photography produced. One book I recommend is Joan Severa’s Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900, which provides a broad study of cultural, photographic and clothing history. Since childhood I’ve had an artist’s sense that if I stared at certain photographs long enough and puzzled over them, eventually they would start to reveal themselves to me. Similarly, as I learned in adulthood more about my family’s history, certain characters from the past who peered out from old photos seemed to will me to find them and give them a chance to live again through my researching and chronicling of their life stories.

©2010 Janet Maher, Three Women (including the author's gg grandmother)

©2010 Janet Maher, Three Women (including the author’s great-great grandmother, from Ireland)

In order to try to identify unmarked photographs we may need to learn more about an entire community. Who else might have ended up in photographs that were saved over the decades? Who made up the extended families? What groups were individuals involved with? Where did everyone live? Who were their neighbors? The earliest Irish settlers of Naugatuck, Connecticut, were a very tight and interconnected community. Studying their neighborhoods and intermarriages became illuminating, combined with an in-depth focus upon the first Catholic cemetery, where so many of them ended up buried together.

©2010 Janet Maher, Woolen Mill, ca 1870s-80s, Naugatuck, CT

©2010 Janet Maher, Woolen Mill, ca 1870s-80s, Naugatuck, CT

Tools for Irish and Other Research in Connecticut

In Connecticut it is necessary to become a member of a genealogical organization recognized by the various departments of Vital Records (such as the Connecticut Society of Genealogists) in order to be able to do independent research. The Connecticut State Library website clearly explains what is allowed to be accessed. Do not assume that finding an immigrant’s death record will neatly provide the person’s parentage or his or her townland in Ireland. If one is lucky, however, a county might be listed and a mother’s maiden name. The early records usually do not include parents’ full names, and the birth place listed is usually, simply, Ireland (hence the title for Irish genealogist Jane Lyon’s premier web site — From Ireland).

Early in my years of researching in Connecticut I would plan to stay over in hotels or with very generous friends and family members. I was primed for (mostly) standing up throughout the days taking notes in various vital records offices, always prepared with cash to purchase certain ones (at $20 a pop!). I eventually learned that it is possible to rent microfilm from Utah that can be read at one’s nearby Latter Day Saints Family History Center. Thankfully, I happen to have one about 45 minutes away from where I live, and after renewing a film three times it remains on semi-permanent loan there. This allowed me to look at some Connecticut and Irish data when I cleared time to go out there, without the pressure of having the reels sent back within a few weeks.

Like places in Connecticut include: New Milford Public Library, and Family History Centers in Goshen, Newtown, Southington and New Haven. In these offices one can sit and study to heart’s content or until the places close, then come back again another day. In some, digital copies of the records can be saved to a thumb/flash drive and taken home.

Newspapers and microfilm can also be accessed at the Connecticut State Library, some of which can be checked out three reels at a time via interlibrary loan. See their web site for a list of what is available in their collection (in addition to clicking on other links I’ve provided here). You can also purchase a card to easily use their copy machine and not need a pocketful of change. By researching in these ways to find index information, it is then possible to go to a Town Hall and purchase copies of the necessary documents—a much more convenient way to go about things.

All town libraries have some kind of local history collection, and the main Silas Bronson Library branch in Waterbury is a good size. This library also has nineteenth century newspapers on reel that can be researched. With a library card you can access Heritage Quest from home via most libraries, and, likewise in some libraries, Ancestry.com. (At some point you will likely bite the bullet and pay for your own subscription.)

In Middletown the Godfrey Memorial Library is a treasure-trove of a collection, and they offer an online subscription membership, as does the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. I have also found the publications of the Irish Genealogical Society International, based in Minnesota, to be quite good. Their Sept back issues that focused upon Irish counties were very helpful when I started out.

I had a subscription for a few years for Newspaper Archive, which has three Connecticut papers in its database, one of which is the Naugatuck Daily News. (Some of these may also be available on Ancestry.com.) The early papers were full of excellent tidbits about people visiting each other between cities and states and other human interest events that may help tie people together in one’s research.

Boston College hosts a database of October 1831 – October 1921 Missing Friends postings in the Boston Pilot Newspaper by Irish nationals and immigrants trying to find one another. This can prove to be of help in one’s research, as can finding evidence of ancestors in the Emigrant Savings Bank.

©2011 Janet Maher, Saint Brigid's Well, Kildare, Ireland

©2011 Janet Maher, Saint Brigid’s Well, Kildare, Ireland

Research about Irish immigrants is especially difficult if critical documents do not exist. Given all of the above, one might still not find important missing pieces. While learning how and what to research in America, it is necessary to simultaneously attempt to comprehend the history of Ireland, particularly in the era that a known family member had lived there. Historical clues might suggest possible reasons for a family or individual’s emigration and even, perhaps, why they might have kept “a low profile” once they arrived in their newly adopted homeland. Maybe there was a good reason that one’s ancestors cannot be definitively found in a passenger-list database.

It is important to know that the earliest decades of Anglo settlement in America were vehemently anti-Catholic (the majority religion of the Irish people), and to recall that religion was the primary weapon used by the English monarchy against the Irish over the centuries. Those who sought their own freedom claimed territory that was already inhabited by Native Americans, a variation on Ireland’s own colonization. Colonial America was predominantly Puritan, as was Oliver Cromwell, who succeeded in devastating Ireland in the seventeenth century. Some members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans came into early Connecticut, which was predominantly Congregationalist, where a few other Protestant sects were also allowed in. Religion ruled the day for our earliest ancestors, whatever their persuasion.

The eventual overt entry of Irish Catholics into a very settled Connecticut society pre-Irish Famine and throughout the 1850s was no small thing. How this played out in all the different towns varied, particularly during the pre-Civil War era of the Know-Nothings. The earliest Irish Catholics, while bound and determined to establish and feel free to practice their religion in America, also likely tried to assimilate as quickly as possible and not make waves among the established ruling class. They sought to be considered Yankees, first and foremost. They often would seek to marry an American, which might help ensure future economic stability, as such alliances with Protestants, other non-native or Anglo-Irish residents had done in Ireland. That so many early Irish-Americans nonetheless died unmarried might have been partly attributed to their difficulty in finding an established or otherwise suitable spouse who was also Catholic or who was not still prejudiced against either the Irish or Catholicism.

Catholic laborers in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries had significantly less means in both Ireland and America than those with aforementioned ties, unless they had finally been able to become educated, enter the merchant, health care or teaching professions, or become part of the wave of Catholic middlemen—i.e. sub-leasing rent collectors. Those who were once noble had been stripped of their ancestral lands. Some sought, or were forced into military service in other countries. Some were able to rise into some level of public service, although information about such individuals is not as difficult to find. There are no bounds to the kinds of details that factored into the quality of life that Irish were able to lead both in their homeland and once they emigrated, particularly in their ability to acquire and retain property.

Many emigrated as outlaws, slaves, or indentured servants and began their American chapter in relative obscurity. Many who worked in the coal mines, quarries, laying railroad tracks, building roads and bridges, or other grueling physical jobs likely experienced life in conditions far worse than those which they had left in Ireland. Working extremely hard, earning very little money, many died quite young, some from the infectious illnesses that spread quickly through communities. (Tuberculosis appeared amid many of the families I have studied.) There may have been few or no records at all generated about many of the early Irish in America, especially if they lived and died here between the census years.

I’ve spent some time studying databases that contain indexes about Irish men and women who were considered convicts—even for such actions as stealing food during times of starvation. It could well be that someone’s elder siblings and/or parents were convicted of crimes, killed or deported, lost in such ways to the genealogical winds.

Whether we find what we need or not, in this collaborative endeavor, I, for one, am grateful for the wonderful people I’ve become involved with over the last seven years. Some have helped me learn to do this kind of research and others have been willing to share their families’ stories with me. All have helped to build a picture of early Irish New Haven County through our various perspectives and lenses, and I am bound now, in turn, to offer guidance to others. There will always be more to learn and to do in our time available, even as life pulls us in so many other directions. I have returned 180 degrees back to my studio practice, although I suspect that I will never entirely leave this research. It may simmer quietly on the back burner, so to speak, forever. I, however, am somehow altered due to what I have learned about my own lineage. For that grounding I will be forever grateful.

I have honed in on a particular area of Ireland and am interested in scouring that location in the way that I have New Haven County and the Naugatuck Valley. I am even more interested in revisiting my new-found Irish friends and meeting in person potential future ones. I have untangled some of the origins of Kilkenny-based Meagher families who have Connecticut connections, and even found Maher links to the original Sisters of Mercy in America and New Zealand. However, I can’t help but still hope to learn more about my TEN southern Irish immigrant direct ancestors with two intermarried other lines—not only all there is to learn about the illusive Meaghers!

May those who read this have much success in finding all you still seek and true Irish luck in also finding happiness and friendship along the way!

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

NEHGS Announcement and Upcoming Presentation in Naugatuck!

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Naugatuck, New Haven, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Saint Francis Church, Tombstone Transcriptions

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Early Irish History, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Irish Catholic History, Irish in Connecticut, New Haven County Connecticut, Saint Francis Cemetery

Civil War Monument and Headstones, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, CT ©2007 Janet Maher

Civil War Monument and Headstones, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, CT ©2007 Janet Maher

Thank you to the New England Historic Genealogical Society for announcing the publication of my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut, in their current issue of American Ancestors. They are among several locations that own a copy for their library. I have begun to receive emails with questions about the cost and content of my book, so I’d like to take this opportunity to provide that information again here, as well as to announce my upcoming talk for the Naugatuck Valley Genealogy Club on Saturday, October 12 at the Naugatuck Historical Society, in Connecticut. This will follow a brief business meeting at 1 p.m., and it is open to the public.

My talk and Power Point presentation will include selections from the 363 images of people, places, details and maps included in my 400-page book, and I will discuss methods of finding illusive information when doing this kind of research.

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley explores the history of Ireland through the perspective of religion and centuries of discord that led millions of Irish Catholics to leave their native land. It traces the origins of the Catholic Church in Connecticut, then to several Irish families whose personal stories extend to the present. It includes complete transcriptions and section maps of the first Irish Catholic cemetery in Naugatuck, Saint Francis. My research of particular families in the Naugatuck Valley has led me to the location in Ireland from which many of the early settlers and priests originated. More general information may be found throughout this blog (where the info is more specifically Maher-related) and on my Irish-oriented Pinterest site.

My book, which lists for $65.95, will be discounted for those interested in purchasing a signed copy on that day. Whether or not you can attend the talk, mention this blog posting to purchase it for $60 with free shipping in the U.S. throughout the rest of this year. (Makes a great Christmas present!) Send your check to me at P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212, and let me know if you would like it inscribed.

Table of Contents 

Acknowledgments

I: Background Ireland; Arrival of the Normans; Conquest of Ireland; Rebellion; Thomas Francis Meagher; Some Potential Connections Between New Haven County and Ireland

II: Catholicism in New England; Catholic Churches; Christ’s Church, Saint Mary’s Church, New Haven; Immaculate Conception/Saint Mary’s Church, Derby; Catholic Schools in Early New Haven; Early New Haven County Cemeteries; Early Catholic Waterbury; Catholic Schools in Waterbury; Old Saint Joseph Cemetery

III: Catholicism in Naugatuck; The First Catholics; Saint Anne and Saint Francis Churches

IV: Vignettes of Selected Families: The Butlers; The Brennans; The Martins; The Conrans; The Learys; Some New Haven Mahers; Adelaide Maher Quigley, Thomas Maher, Matthew Maher, Michael O’Maher; Anthony Meagher, John Maher, Jeremiah Maher; Ireland and America Letters; Josephine Maher and Family

V:  Saint Francis Cemetery Transcriptions: Sections A & B; Sections C, G & Portion of H; Sections F & Portion of H; Sections E & Portions of D, H; Section H; Modern Section; Tombstones That Cite A Location in Ireland

Conclusion

Appendix: Selected Additional Photographs

Notes

Image Identification

Bibliography

I welcome anyone who has read and (I hope!) feels positive about my book to comment here, or add to the lovely review that one reader wrote on Amazon.com. Thank you all for continuing to follow and read this blog, and I look forward to sharing my labor of love with any who can show up on October 12!

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ni Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Who You Are is Where You Come From

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Exhibition, Thoughts

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Early Irish History, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, New Haven County Connecticut

Coming Into Ireland, 2011

Coming Into Ireland, 2011

Felicity  Hayes-McCoy’s memoir, The House on an Irish Hillside, contains such poetic chapter headings as this one, and “Enough is Plenty,” “Nothing is Unimportant,” “Dancing Through Darkness,” and “The Music of What Happens.” Each of these phrases resonate for me. For most of my life I’ve been fascinated in probing where I came from, having always felt my present reality to be a great mystery. I intentionally left what I knew as home, ran as far as possible within my limited means, and eventually delved deeply into historic roots trying to truly find a literal and metaphoric right place.

Hayes-McCoy explained the importance of identity in Ireland. “When people meet,” she wrote, “they try to place each other and they’re not happy till they find links that join their story to yours. They want to know where you come from. If they can, they’ll find they’re related to you. But they’ll settle for knowing you were born a couple of roads from their mother’s cousin, or that you use the same broadband provider, or your best friend owns a a caravan near a beach where they once caught a cold.” Some part of me continually longs for this kind of community and mourns the impossibility of being in touch with those who make up the web of my emotional life, flung far between states and countries. I like to believe in reincarnation in order to trust that one day my spirit will know a simpler, more rooted way of existence, somewhere beautiful and slow-moving.

My early dreams of being a gardener in Vermont making my living supplying restaurants or having one of my own disappeared into a reality where decades later I avoid cooking at all. Perhaps we are made up of opposite tendencies or are forced into extreme contrasts in order to continue to grow. Maybe some other incarnation of mine knew that country life. Certainly my many Irish ancestors did. This incarnation, however, began with a different set of conditions. Maybe it’s in order to keep the big game moving forward that different entities live out the evolving stages, bringing the lessons from each into the next one. I may garden now, but only as a hobby and without real time for it, though the yearning to work in the land remains from many generations and incarnations past.

The journey of researching ancestry and finding a bridge between Connecticut and Ireland was fascinating for me and, thankfully, for others in Connecticut, Ireland and Australia. Finding the identities of so many interrelated individuals and placing them in time and in other countries kept my brain firing on many levels for half a dozen years. In another time this quest would not have needed to stop. It might have been the role that I played in the community. Here, in America, however, it did have to end. A book is out, a show is up, but it’s the big next thing that others anticipate — the artwork expected to return that must make up for all the time I spent wandering elsewhere. Much hangs on the fact that it must also be good.

Tolkien believed that not all who wander are lost, and so do I. The wandering is the best part! I resist arriving, especially when that simply leads to the questions, so, where will you go now, what will you do? I’d like to be still. I’d like to write another book, the one I already have going on the back burner. I’d like to find a better way to bring these stories to light and keep expanding the web of connections. I don’t want to pack my Irish library away and store my boxes of notes and folders. I’m not ready for it all to be over. But I am ready for the music of what happens when time opens up this summer.

Something has ended and something else must begin. What to keep, to reference, to enlarge, to layer, how to arrange it in the present is all about choice. I am lucky to have that. The layers of where I come from have become clear. That I have these hands, this mind, and a certain range of skills has also been expanded. This feels a bit like graduating, having earned an invisible degree. Like my students I’ll venture out to discover what lies ahead, bringing all of my recent experience into the foundation. Perhaps when I leave Ireland after another visit this summer I will not cry. Maybe it now and will always also belong to me.

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley – Janet Maher Exhibition

03 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Janet Maher in Book Signing, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, Exhibition, Pilgrimage

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

American Mahers, Ancient Ireland, Baltimore, Connecticut, Creative Alliance, Early Irish History, Irish Catholic History, Irish in Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War, Meagher, New Haven County Connecticut

Thank you to all who came out for the book signing/opening Friday night! I was so happy about the turnout and for the experience of working with Ade Tugbiyele, who so generously did the hanging of the work. Please spread the word that the show will be up and the book available at the Creative Alliance, Baltimore, through March 23. Titles are listed below; pigment prints (2013) on Hahnamuhle Photo Rag Matte paper, R1800 Epson printer, sizes are of images. Canvas and wood pieces priced separately. Our governor and his Irish band will be playing there next weekend and we’ll be back for that. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all!

Wall #1, Book and Selected Ireland Photographs

Wall #1, Book and Selected Ireland Photographs

  • Saint Brigid’s Tree, Kildare, 9 1/8″ x 12 1/8″
  • Ballinakill Cemetery, Laois, 7 7/8″ x 9 1/4″
  • Saint Patrick, Maynooth, 11 3/8″ x 8 5/8″
  • Rebel Monument, Shronell Cemetery, Tipperary, 13″ x 10 1/2″
  • Shronell Cemetery, Tipperary, 9 1/4″ x 13″
  • Tullaroan Cemetery, Kilkenny, 8 11/16″ x 11 1/8″
  • Glenadlough Cemetery, Wicklow, 8 5/8″ x 10 15/16″
  • Our Lady of 1798, Monasterevin, 13 3/8″ x 8 9/16″
  • Dunamase Castle Ruin, Laois, 8 15/16″ x 11 7/8″
  • Black Abbey, Kilkenny, 9 1/16″ x 11 5/8″
  • Donaghmore Workhouse, Laois, 9 7/8″ x 15 1/2″
  • Wall of Legends, Tipperary, 8 5/8″ x 8 11/16″
  • McCarthy’s Grave, Saint Patrick Cemetery, Thurles, Tipperary, 9 1/4″ x 11 11/16″
Wall #2 People Photos

Wall #2 People Photos

  • Mystery Child, 8 14/16″ x 8 3/4″
  • Alice Whalen and Friends, 10 1/8″ x 11 3/16″
  • Frank’s Hack, 5 7/ 16″ x 16 1/2″
  • Dennis Whalen and Friends, 10″ x 16 1/16″
  • Woolen Mill, Naugatuck, ca. 1870, 10 1/8″ x 15 7/8″
  • Three Women, 8 1/2″ x 10 7/16″
  • Katherine and Eliza Maher, ca. 1860, 11″ x 8″
  • Mystery Relatives, 13″ x 9 1/4″
  • Joseph Martin and Grandfathers, 7 1/8″ x 12 3/8″
  • Comrades, 8 1/4″ x 11 5/8″
  • Cousins, 8 1/4″ x 11 9/16″
  • Eliza, 9 7/16″ x 12 3/8″
  • The Boys, Naugatuck, 9 1/4″ x 13 3/8″
  • Fuel Ledger, 9″ x 12 15/16″
  • Actor, 8 13/16″ x 15 7/16″
Mixed media collage paintings; pigment prints w/colored pencil and/or paint on wood or canvas, painted edges, sealed with gel medium

Mixed media collage paintings; pigment prints w/colored pencil and/or paint on wood or canvas, painted edges, sealed with gel medium

  • Weavers #2, 2011, 8″ diameter
  • Cousins, 2009, 8″ diameter
  • Irregulars #6, 2009, 8″ diameter
  • Gem Theatre, 2010, 10″ diameter
  • Debating Team, 2009, 8″ diameter
  • Irregulars #2, 2009, 12″ x 9″ oval
  • Celebration, 2009, 10″ diameter
  • Imagined Ancestors #5, 2011, 8″ diameter
  • Lynch’s Farm #2, 2010, 8″ diameter
  • Weavers, 2010, 8″ diameter
Second half of wall #3, Connecticut

Second half of wall #3, Connecticut

  • Fahy Grave, Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, 11 3/4″ x 8 11/16″
  • Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, Section H, 8 3/16″ x 12 3/8″
  • Veterans’ Monument, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, 10 1/4″ x 11 1/8″
  • Irish Priests’ Graves, Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Ansonia, 13″ x 8 15/16″
  • Visitation, 10 3/4″ x 10 1/4″
  • Harp, Tombstone Detail, Saint Bernard Cemetery, New Haven, 9 1/16″ x 10″
  • Grand Army of the Republic Medalion, Saint Francis Cemetery, Naugatuck, 10 1/8″ x 8 5/8″
  • Bronson Stones, Library Park Wall, Waterbury, 7 3/4″ x 11 3/4″
Ade and me at opening, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

Ade and me at opening, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD

©2013 Janet Maher / Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Studying Stones

09 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Tombstone Transcriptions

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Connecticut, Early Irish History, Irish in Connecticut, Irish in the Civil War, Naugatuck Connecticut, New Haven County Connecticut, Saint Francis Cemetery

©1997 Janet Maher, Naugatuck, Connecticut

©1997 Janet Maher, Naugatuck, Connecticut

For those doing family history research it is particularly helpful (and gratifying) to find the grave of someone whose life you have been studying. Research may, thankfully, lead one to the correct cemetery where an official government soldier or sailor’s stone may be found. Someone killed in a war may have been buried in the state where he died. Those who survived a war were usually buried where they later settled and managed to continue on with their lives. Some with notable distinction in American wars were buried in the United States’ Arlington Cemetery. In Ireland, noted individuals are buried in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery.

In some instances veterans who could have been included in either of these cemeteries might, instead, have been buried with family. One of The Forgotten Ten, Irishman Patrick Maher, of Limerick, who was convicted of helping to rescue  Sean Hogan in 1921, was one of these. He was among the ten executed IRA Volunteers who had been buried in the grounds of Mountjoy Prison since Ireland’s final war for independence from Great Britain. In 2001 these men were exhumed and honored with a public motorcade-led funeral and the reburial of nine of them in Glasnevin Cemetery. Maher was brought home to his family’s plot in Limerick. The nine men buried at Glasnevin were Kevin Barry, Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran, Frank Flood, Patrick Doyle, Bernard Ryan, Thomas Bryan, Thomas Traynor and Edmond Foley.

Since data is readily available about veterans, it becomes an important means of learning about some individuals. Those who may not wish to study war or issues about religion may nonetheless need to delve into these aspects of someone’s life.  Nineteenth century or earlier “brick walls” in Irish family history research might well have had something to do with religious conflict that led to death or emigration, and emigration often went hand in hand with serving in the military in some regard.

There is a great deal of interest in the phenomenon of the overly large number Irish who served in the American Civil War. Irishman Damian Shiels has been researching this topic for many years and maintaining an excellent blog (see posting below). He has announced that he will soon be publishing a book on the subject, titled after his blog, Irish In the American Civil War. In Connecticut, Bob Larkin has a special Facebook site about the notable Ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers in the Civil War, also worth the visit for those interested.

When I studied the graves of Saint Francis Cemetery in Naugatuck, Connecticut, I wondered if the soldiers or the native Irish buried there might have been individuals sought currently by families out of town. Might a relative not be aware of their person’s final resting place in this small borough? Complete transcriptions and many photographs from this cemetery are included in my book, From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County, Connecticut. For this posting I have excerpted the names of those veterans and native Irish whose graves are in this cemetery:

Naugatuck Veterans in Saint Francis Cemetery

       Flags are replaced each year on known veteran graves in Saint Francis Cemetery, although no list exists for the original set of names. Those whose tombstones cited their war involvement included:

  • James Adamson, Civil War, Co. B, 20th Regt., Connecticut Volunteers
  • George T. Anderson, WW I, EM3C, U.S. Navy
  • Edmund P. Belletti, WW II, Cpl., U.S. Army Air Corps
  • Frank B. Buckmiller, WW II, M Sgt., U.S. Army
  • James J. Claffey, WW I, Co. B, 113th Inf.
  • John P. Coen, Civil War, Co. F, 9th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Michael Coen, Civil War, Co. K, 20th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Lionell H. Cote, WW II, S2, U.S. Navy
  • Daniel Cullinane, Grand Army of the Republic insignia
  • James R. Dalton, WWII, Sgt., Field Artillery Rep. Dep.
  • John R. Deegan, WW II,  PFC, U.S. Army
  • William M. Dolan, WW I,1st Cook, U. S. Army
  • James Duffin, Civil War, Co. D, 158 Inf., New York Volunteers
  • Thomas Ford, Civil War, Co. H, 15th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Michael Fruin, Civil War, Co. H,15th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers
  • Thomas P. Harper, WW I, 152D Dep. Brig.
  • Horace E. Jones, Civil War, Co. H, Second Connecticut Volunteers, Heavy Artillery
  • Arthur Keefe, Civil War, Co. E 2 Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers
  • Bernard J. Leahy, WW II, RDSN, U.S. Navy
  • Thomas Maher, Civil War, Co. E, U.S. Artillery
  • John A. Martin, WW I, U.S. Navy
  • John William McCarthy, WW I, MM1, U.S. Navy
  • Terrence McLaughlin, WW I., Co K, 53rd Inf.
  • William J. Neary, Jr., WW I
  • John O’Donnell, Civil War, Co. E [7th], Connecticut Volunteers
  • James Thomas Patterson,  WW II, Maj., U.S. Marine Corps.
  • Peter A. Reilly, WW I, 301st M.T. Co.
  • Patrick Ruth, Civil War, Capt., Co. B8, Connecticut Volunteers I

Irish Citations in Saint Francis Cemetery

       While there are many more native Irish buried in Saint Francis Cemetery than those whose tombstones cite their original home, these are the stones that do:

  • From County Cork: James Walsh
  • From County Kerry: James Carroll, Cornelius Shea
  • From County Kilkenny: Nicholas Brennan, John Cuddy, Roland Dalton, John Doolan, Martin Gibbons [likely], Julia Lannen, Patrick McCarthy, William Purcell, Charles Talbot
  • From County Laois: Michael Coen (elder), Eliza Grant, Matthew Maher
  • From County Leitrim: Elizabeth Mulvey, Cornelius Splann
  • From County Limerick: Margaret Burke, Mary Hanley, Julia Quirk, Robert Reardon
  • From County Meath: Ann Murray
  • From County Monaghan: Michael Martin
  • From County Tipperary: William Fruin, Mary Kiely, James Kirwin, William Powers, Maurice Quinlan
  • From County Waterford: Johannah Foley

christmas-swirlsSM

Looking for a Christmas present for someone interested in Irish history, Connecticut Irish, New Haven County, Waterbury and/or Naugatuck? My book may be obtained locally at: Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; Naugatuck Historical Society, Naugatuck, CT; and Quinnipiac University Bookstore, Mount Carmel Branch, Hamden, CT. Online it may be purchased from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and from me via Paypal or by check (P.O. Box 40211, Baltimore, MD, 21212).

I wish everyone much happiness throughout the holiday season and offer prayers for peace throughout the world in the new year!

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Purchasing My Book

26 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, Early Irish Catholics in Connecticut, History, Kilkenny Mahers, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants, Ordering From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Origins

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Tags

Amazon.com, American Mahers, Ancient Ireland, Early Irish History, Gaelic Ireland, Irish Catholic, Irish Catholic History, Irish Catholic Immigrants, Irish Genealogy, Irish History, Irish Meaghers, Naugatuck Connecticut, New Haven County Connecticut, New Haven County Mahers, Patrick Maher, Tombstone Transcriptions

Lynch’s Farm ©2010 Janet Maher, image from our family collection, digitized, restored and hand-colored by the author (pigmented ink on archival paper, 12 1/6″ x 18 3/4″, framed 18″ x 25″) included in From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley: Early Irish Catholics in New Haven County, Connecticut. 

After a bit of editing for unexpected typos that I found, I have reordered my book, From the Old Sod, Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County, Connecticut, which is now in its First Edition, revised, version. It is 399 pages and includes 336 images. It is now back in stock and available for sale. How to purchase my book:

1. From the author! The price is $65.95. I will pay for packing and shipping in the U.S. and will sign it if you’d like. I am offering a price break at three/four ($62) and five/six ($58) copies. You can order my book securely through this blog using PayPal (click below on correct number of copies to activate this feature) or send me a U.S. drawn check at this address: Janet Maher, Department of Fine Arts, Loyola University Maryland, 4501 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210.

Purchase One Copy Here;  Purchase Two Copies Here;   Purchase Three Copies Here;   Purchase Four Copies Here;   Purchase Five Copies Here;   Purchase Six Copies Here.

2. From Amazon.com. If you have purchased it this way and would like for me to sign it, you can mail it to me at the above address and include a self addressed stamped padded envelope for its return.

3. If you live outside the United States, it is possible to purchase my book here: Amazon.com Canada; Amazon.com UK; Waterstones.com. If you would like for me to sign it, please mail it to me at the above address and include a self addressed stamped padded envelope for its return.

I welcome reviews of my book. You can include yours in comment sections on this blog, and/or on the spaces for reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble sites.

To see the Table of Contents, please refer to my May 24, 2012 post here.

I hope that everyone who reads my book will enjoy it and will have found it helpful in their own quest to learn more about the earliest Irish Catholics of New Haven County and the Catholic history of Ireland. Thank you for your interest in my labor of love and thank you in advance for purchasing it!

©2012 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

Happy Thanksgiving!

17 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by Janet Maher in Connecticut Irish, New Haven Irish Catholic Immigrants

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Connecticut, Irish Catholic, New Haven County Connecticut

Lynch's Farm

Lynch's Farm

I apologize to everyone that I have not been able to keep this blog up since school started again, BUT – I am finishing my book and, God willing (as my Irish ancestors would say), it will be out for Christmas! Early Irish Catholics of New Haven County Connecticut! More info will be forthcoming.

To all who celebrate this, a very Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends, near and far!

©2011 Janet Maher/Sinéad Ní Mheachair

All Rights Reserved

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