The Moynihan Hedge Schools and Irish Education

My Kerry ancestors arrived in Canada without having had the benefit of an education. This was in large part the result of the Penal Laws. My Irish ancestors could not read and write when they arrived in North America (which explains the variations in the spelling of our surname Moynahan/Moynihan/Minehan)

In the 1800s, my great-grandfather John Moynahan became a teacher (with his sister Nellie) in Essex Ontario and education became a very important part of our family history.

This blog post summarizes what I have learned about education in Ireland before our ancestors emigrated.

Louise M. Minihan - I Found Her At Last

Tracking women in your family tree can feel like an insurmountable challenge and that is why I am so delighted this week because I finally found Louise M. Minihan - the daughter of James Minihan (1840-1899) and it happened entirely by accident!

And then I found her mother Frances E. (Hiles-Minihan-Kellerher) Keeler in New York City where she died under tragic circumstances.

The Story of the Orphaned Colorado Moynahans

This is a complicated story to tell because it is full of tragedy but also remarkable events that want to be told. It's the story of the three children of Matthew and Amy (Smith) Moynahan of Colorado, USA: James (1903-1946), Donald (1906-1954) and Robert (1910-1963).

So Many Stories - So Little Time To Tell Them

I love to tell the ancestor's stories. So many new stories have come to me in recent weeks that I cannot possibly keep up and write about them all but I DO have a few interesting ones lined up already in the queu!

October 2019 Research documents

Blessings: Distant Cousins Find This Blog!

When I started this blog in 2014 , I did so because I wanted to share the photos and stories of the ancestors with my family. With my blog, I could give a little bit at a time. A picture here, a story there, in the hope that someone out there would enjoy and appreciate what I was sharing.

I never knew at the time that one day I would be writing about what my blog has given back to me!

Through the "Blogger Contact Form", this past summer I met three distant cousins for the very first time:

1. June 2019: A distant 2nd cousin from our Foreman family tree contacted me
2. July 2019: A distant 5th cousin from our Colorado Moynahan family tree contacted me
3. August 2019: A distant 4th cousin from our Tilbury Moynahan family tree contacted me

The Blogger Contact Form