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Wednesday 16 March 2016

An Irish Newfoundlander

Many Newfoundlanders have Irish ancestors, including my mother's paternal family. The family names throughout the island and especially along the southern shore of the Avalon Peninsula, speak to the brave men and women who left their Irish homeland in search of a better life. Many arrived during the Great Famine, when potato blight destroyed the subsistence potato crop between 1845 and 1852. However, the Irish migrated to my homeland before and after the famine as well and such was the case for my great grandfather.



My knowledge of him comes from my mother, the story teller in our family. She loved her grandfather O'Brien who lived with her family when she was young. Her memories of him became mine and with them came the desire to find out more, which has proven difficult.



His name was Edward O'Brien but Mom called him Granda Brien. It is interesting that the O was omitted from O'Brien in the family's Newfoundland baptismal records. The old record books at the Archives at The Rooms in St. John's all had elaborate penmanship, but with each entry for her grandparents, the surname is Brien. Mom had difficulty getting a passport because her own birth records showed her as Mary Brien.

Edward moved to Newfoundland, possibly in the 1870s, but this is conjecture on my part. We believe his O'Brien line was not related to any other O'Briens in Newfoundland. At least that is what was told in the family. How had his family been affected by the famine? What circumstances led him to set out on his own to a new land? We will never know.

In Newfoundland, Edward was a fisherman and farmer. He married Bridget Ann Kielly in Petty Harbour in 1882, and they had ten children, one of whom was my grandfather, Augustine, called Gus. They settled in Maddox Cove, a mile away, where they built a home, and had enough land to grow vegetables and graze animals. Being able to own land was important to a man who only knew tenant farming in his homeland.

Something noticeable about his Newfoundland farmland was the various fields separated by a row of trees or a line of rock/stones. When my husband and I visited Ireland, one of the emotional things for me was seeing how the fields along many of the hillsides were separated the same way. Edward did the same with his land as he had known in his homeland.

I discovered in census records that he was born in August 1853. However I do not know where he was born. I did ask my grandfather once and he told me, but I did not record it, so his father's birthplace is a mystery.

There are stories about Edward. His namesake, my uncle, Ned, Mom's older brother was carrying on one day while Nan, my grandmother Monnie, was bent over a sack of flour in the pantry. Ned dropped something into the flour, causing it to drift upwards in a heavy cloud, covering my grandmother. When she looked up, Nan's face was white except for her eyes. She ran after Ned; he was laughing as she chased him. As they passed through the kitchen where Edward was sitting on the day bed, granda said, "Don't hurt him, Monnie. The world will treat him hard enough." Mom was there and never forgot what her grandfather said. His attitude towards children was one of kindness. Mom always spoke of how good he was to them.

Another story has my great grandfather, my grandfather and two other men entering Petty Harbour in their small fishing boat during a terrible lightning storm. Returning from a fishing trip, they were in the outer part of the harbour. Edward stood up in the boat and shook his fist, saying, "Come on old man, give us yer best."

The story goes that a bolt of lightning hit the boat and broke her in two, throwing the four men in the water. They were in the harbour and survived.

Mom referred to her grandfather as a man of great faith. Could the experience in the boat have had anything to do with it? When he retired from fishing, he attended Mass every day and drove to Church in his horse and carriage.

Edward lived to be eighty-six years old. He prayed to die saying, "I've been in this world long enough now, God. Take me home."

The morning he died, in December 1939, my mother was up and ready for school. However her father sent her to the Madden's house across the cove to phone for the priest to come to her dying grandfather. In her rush to get there, Mom fell as she crossed the river on that frosty morning and her hands stuck to the ice; she tore the skin from her hands when she jumped up. Mrs. Madden bandaged Mom's hands before she went home. Her grandfather was dead before the priest arrived. 

Today I live in Prince Edward Island where potatoes are vital to the economy and potato blight could be devastating. Home gardeners grow tomatoes which can have the same blight, the spores of which can be carried on the breeze to the potato fields. 



Last summer, our local garden center carried blight resistant tomato plants, so as to protect the local potato fields. Every time I picked the tomatoes, I thought of those Irish ancestors, lost in time, but not forgotten.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day."Top o' da marnin' ta ya," she said in the Irish Newfoundland accent of the southern shore.





16 comments:

DJan said...

What an interesting story! Did you see the movie "Brooklyn" about a Irish girl? I loved it. Thanks for the great post, Marie. I sure enjoyed learning about your grandfather. :-)

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Family history may be fragmentary, but how wonderful that at least some stories and recollections are remembered and passed down!

Anonymous said...

Lovely reminiscence. The potato blight affected many of our ancestors. Some of my Dad's people migrated from Newfoundland at the end of the eighteenth century and settled in what became Mexico Maine. Irish married into our family later, but I have no direct Irish ancestors. All Scots-English-Dutch and German here. Happy Saint Patrick's Day and remember he was English.

Marie Smith said...

I am going to watch that movie ths weekend. Thanks for the tip.

Marie Smith said...

So true. It is important to write what we know.

Marie Smith said...

Interesting that some of your ancestors were in Newfoundland originally.

It is true that the Mayflower stopped in Newfoundland during that famous voyage.

Angela said...

Indeed a very interesting history. I truly enjoyed reading it. I love stories like this Marie. I sometimes find myself tempted to get one of these DNA test done to find out more about my ancestors. I hear the ancestry.com is a good one also 23andme. It sure makes me curious since I am originally from another country where we did not kept records all that well. I married my American husband and came here when I was 21 years old. Wishing you a Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Marie Smith said...

I think I will have the DNA testing done. It might give me the general areas of Ireland and Scotland where my ancestors came from.

You have such great things to explore from your birthplace. Fascinating. Get as much as you can. You carry the history, culture and traditions as part of who you are and it is closer in time for you. I think that is great! We each have such great stories to tell. It all goes to make us who we are.

Ginnie said...

Happy St. Patty's day Marie. You certainly had a colorful background. It always amazes me when I hear of people having 10 children but that was the way back then.

Anvilcloud said...

I have Irish ancestors on two branches of the family. I think they are both a generation or so further back than yours. But you gave great anecdotes about your great gf, and I have nine.

Marie Smith said...

Hope you had a great day too, Ginnie.

Marie Smith said...

Hope you had a great Paddy's Day.

Barbara said...

Interesting. I don't have any Irish ancestors that I know of but isn't their story so interesting. Love history.

Marie Smith said...

All of our immigrant ancestors have such incredible stories to tell.

Ginnie Hart said...

What a story, Marie, told with love and pride. You're a bit closer to it than I am but I have a feeling I have some Irish roots, too? I have a feeling the 'e' was dropped from my surname 'Hart' somewhere along the way. So when I first visited Ireland years ago (1998?), I made sure I visited the city of Harte. I have no clue if any of my relatives ever lived there, but I imagined it, like in a fairy tale. Who knows! At least YOU know a LOT of your story...much more than I do! May God have mercy on the crops of PEI.

Marie Smith said...

It would be wonderful if you found a connection to Irish ancestors. Sometimes our histories are lost in time.

I was lucky that Mom was such a story teller.