Kiss Me, I'm Irish!

The saying is that we all want to be Irish. Sadly that wasn't the sentiment when the Irish began arriving in full force during the Famine Years. There was a great deal of discrimination towards the Irish who were considered by many to be lazy drunks. What our early ancestors must have suffered under this unwarranted stereotype!

I'm proud of my Irish heritage and wish I could tell them that. John Greenlees and his wife Elizabeth Johnston came from Fermanagh Ireland to the wilds of Upper Canada (present day Ontario) with three children - George about 5 years old, Thomas about 3 years old and my 2nd great grandmother Jane who was under 2 years old. The year was some time between Jane's birth in 1819 and the birth of their next child in Upper Canada in 1821. What a perilous journey that must have been!

Joseph McGinnis and his wife Frances (Fanny) Downey from Co. Down made the journey from famine stricken Ireland with their year old daughter Bridget (Delia) in 1846. Joseph and Fanny were barely 20 years old.

It must have been a nightmare voyage and I am sure that like most of the Irish who left Ireland during the Famine Years, they and their loved ones suffered greatly at home. Joseph and Fanny arrived in Ontario and settled near family who had arrived much earlier. They were my 2nd great grandparents. They were very poor Catholics and the land they settled on was more swamp than anything else.

So - I have three Irish great-great grandparents (Joseph, Fanny and Jane) and two Irish Great great great grandparents (John & Elizabeth). Out of that mix I get four Irish surnames: Greenlees, Johnstone, McGinnis & Downey.

My husband has many Irish surnames: Jackson & Moynahan from Tipperary, Hogan & Hayden (county not known), Kennedy & Maloney from Kerry, Massey from Wicklow, Montgomery & Graham & Johnson from Fermanagh. I don't know if hubs' Johnson and my Johnson are related. That would be fun to find out!



I hope this Irish blessing worked for all of our Irish ancestors! "May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you're dead."