Remembering my Irish forebearers this St. Patrick’s Day

As we were approaching St. Patrick’s Day this year, I sought out a documentary of the Irish in America that I hadn’t seen before, and came across “Out of America” on Amazon, which tells the history of several Irish immigrants who fled the 19th- century famine and settled in America. One of the immigrants featured in the program was Tom Brick, who made it to Iowa and eventually Vermillion, South Dakota.

These tales of emigration by the Irish facing hard times in Ireland reminded me of my mother’s own Irish heritage.

I’ve written in the past about my Irish lineage through my father’s side of the family. But my mother’s Irish heritage is equally as pronounced.  While on her mother’s side, Mom’s British and Swiss heritage can be traced back to those landing in colonial Virginia and pre-revolutionary Pennsylvania, her father’s Irish side brought several typical tales of departure from the home country that many Irish Immigrants also shared.

My third Great-Grandmother on my mother’s side, Sarah Tehan, was born in Queen’s County, Ireland nearly 200 years ago – in the year 1820 – and became an orphan at an early age. About 1832 she and her aunt came to the United States, locating near St. Paul, Minnesota where she spent much of her young life.

In 1846, Sarah married Patrick Connell, in St. Paul, Minnesota and soon after they came to Clayton County, Iowa, and located on a homestead in Read Township where they resided for half a century, according to Sarah’s obituary.

Sarah and her husband had seven children, one of which was my second great-grandmother, Mary Ann Connell, who was born in July of 1852.

In 1877, Mary Ann married James Foran, who had not known his father for any length of time, and shared a similar tale to Mary Ann’s own mother.  At the age of 4, James and his widowed mother Agnes arrived in America in 1849, where they joined her brother James Scully in the Elkader, Iowa area, where he came to adulthood.

After their union, James and Mary Ann had eight children, with most all of the Foran children farming in Clayton County, Iowa.

James is on the right in the bottom row, and his Mary Ann is second from the left, also in the first row.  Their son James William Foran in the center of the top row is my great-grandfather.

And from there in the lineage, you eventually get to me.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the SDWC!