The following very interesting correspondence we recently received from Patrick Edward Mears (USA & Germany)
Patrick has visited the Millstreet area on more than one occasion having done some very professional and superbly detailed and comprehensive research.
“Dear Friends in Millstreet and the Surrounding Areas,
My name is Patrick Edward Mears and I am a retired lawyer from the USA who is now living in Germany. One set of my Irish Great-Grandparents, Philip John Cronin (1819-1883) and Mary Ann O’Leary (1825-1881), hailed from the Millstreet/Cullen area and emigrated to the United States of America in 1850, with their first-born son, Cornelius, in tow. They disembarked from their ship in the South Street Docks in Lower Manhattan and then made their way up the Hudson River to Albany, New York, where Mary Ann gave birth to her second child, Judith, in 1851. From there, they likely traveled on the Erie Canal to its terminus in Buffalo, New York, and from there probably took a Great Lakes Steamer to Detroit, Michigan. From Detroit, they made their way to Lapeer County, Michigan, where they purchased a farm in Oregon Township circa 1858. Nine other children were born to this couple, one of whom was my Grandmother, Mary Cronin Mears (1856-1924).
Mary O’Leary Cronin’s parents were Cornelius O’Leary (ca. 1800-1881) and Mary Williams (or Hyde) O’Leary (1800-1887). This couple and their children resided in what has been identified here in an earlier article as the “McSweeney House,” in Knocknakilla Townland, which house Sean Radley, my wife and I visited a few years ago on a trip to Millstreet. This couple, my great-great grandparents, likely began their exodus from Ireland when they emigrated to the United States and eventually settled in St. Lawrence River Valley, where they acquired farms near the towns of Brasher Falls and Potsdam in St. Lawrence County, New York State. After their arrival there around 1851, and after their deaths in the 1880s, their remains were buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Brasher Falls. Of their 13 children all but the eldest son, also named Cornelius O’Leary, emigrated to the United States of America. Presumably Cornelius Junior remained on all or a portion of the farmland owned by his parents prior to their emigration. [read more …] “The Splendid Research of Patrick Edward Mears of USA & Germany Shared”
