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Aragorn'sSexyScar
Rohan
Jul 11 2008, 5:39pm
Post #26 of 29
(61 views)
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My mother's side of the family originated in Dublin but the records are hard to trace as the building they were housed in burned down.My Gran, Sarah Ellen, was the first member of Mum's family to be born in England,in 1896, and her father, John MaGee, left her mother and travelled to New York with his five sisters soon after her birth.My great-gran had a disabled sister whom she refused to leave and in the 1890's some disabled people reached America and were returned on the next boat.So, my great-grandfather, 'Handsome John MaGee as he was known, settled in the US and disappeared soon after.We do have a photo of him standing in a doorway somewhere in New York and he was very, very tall.The rumours passed down from my Aunt say that John Magee died in an earthquake in Cuba, of all places, but that may just be myth.The five sisters all settled down in and around Boston but their branches of the family tree were lost many, many years ago.I did visit Ellis Island in 1987 and checked the names on the great wall but I think the US side to my Mum's family will ever be a mystery.
My Mum did tell me that she was afraid to visit her Grandma, who was called Sarah Ellen Whelen, because she'd call her to her side and tell her that there was a "little man under the table". My Aunt Edith wouldn't visit her Gran because she scared her to death.Also, great-gran Whelen lived in Scotland for a time and she had to change her surname to Phelen, as you did in those times.
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Aerin
Grey Havens
Jul 12 2008, 4:14am
Post #28 of 29
(60 views)
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John Magee, that is?
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Aragorn'sSexyScar
Rohan
Jul 12 2008, 8:14am
Post #29 of 29
(116 views)
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The nickname was given to him by a friend when he was a teenager and it stuck.
After he arrived in New York he wrote to my great-grandmother and begged her to sail and join him in America, but she refused to leave her disabled sister and, after a time, he stopped writing to her.My Great-Gran then became a single parent and she had a hard time of it.She gave my Grandmother to a family called the Galley's and they fostered her for a time.I remember sitting with my Gran when I was younger and she told me that the Galley's were kind to her but they used to tie her to a chair while they went out---and that was when she was only two years old.She remembered it very clearly.
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