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Web
Log
March 17, 2005
Shake hands with your Uncle Pat me boy and this is your sister Kate.
And this is the girl you used to
swing down on the garden gate.
Shake hands with all of your
neighbors and kiss the colleens all.
You're as welcome as the
flowers in May in dear old Donegal.
Happy Saint
Patrick's Day!!
It's been a year of transitions as well of wonderful new
discoveries, and rediscoveries for our Cassidys.
The Passings
We have honored the lives of Donald, Eileen and Ita with the
drafting of a memory book about the Francis and Julia Cassidy
family. We've passed the draft around a little and made some
corrections. There is a lot more work to do to make make it a
complete story. T'would be nice to get more stories about
Marion and John B. and some more tributes to Ita and Uncle Don.
All efforts are welcome.
The Visitors
In June family historian and Clogher native John Cassidy and his
delightful wife Aine, visited us along with beautiful daughter Clare
and brilliant sons Shane and Pat. It was such a treat to spend
time with these fun loving cousins whom we had not even heard of
until about ten years ago. It was one of those wonderful
experiences that was made possible only through our common interest
in Cassidy history. The family enjoyed the
Maine seashore, toured Boston and New York and visited Phil
(Horner) Cassidy and family in New Jersey during their time in the
States. As soon as they left, we started missing them.
Cassidy Photos
page 7.
Lost and Found
Our cousin Angela Cassidy of River Edge
, New Jersey discovered our web site. She passed along some
historical info and is going to send some pictures. She also
connected us to Big Frank the Second, (Frank Cassidy of
Yorktown Heights, New York, who grew up in the West Bronx) Frank wrote
us a nice e-mail. Big Frank is even bigger than his
namesake and is just as musical. He and his wife and daughter
are in a pipe band. I sent him a picture that I took of him in
1955, the last time I saw him. We're waiting to hear from his
brother John, who is learning to use the computer. It was
great to hear from them.
The Willie Gallagher Discoveries
A lady from Scotland name Betty Gallagher signed the guestbook and
asked if anyone knew her father, Willie Gallagher. Since I had
never heard of him I e-mailed her asking for details. As it
turns out he was raised by my grandmother in Leghowney and his
boyhood picture was in my basement. It was by a great coincidence
that I discovered the picture around the same time she sent the
e-mail. It was an even greater coincidence that Chris rescued the
picture (in a bagful of my grandmother's memorabilia) from
the renovators during his visit a few years ago. When I sent
the photo to Betty she shared it with her brothers and sisters and
they were all ecstatic because they had no other pictures of their
father as a young boy. It was John (Horner) Cassidy of
Leghowney who told her about the web site. Betty has sent
pictures of grandmother, the farm, Paddy and Willie as well as
of her family. Eventually we'll get them on the web site.
Cassidy Photos
page 7.
The Old Bond in the Old Trunk
Recently, our cousin Marion opened her father's old trunk (the one
he brought to America in 1912) and she found a bond issued in 1920
by the newly created Republic of Ireland. As your know from
your Irish history, the Republic was not recognized at that time as
the war of independence was still being fought. The bond was
purchased by my father, a truer Irish patriot than we had realized,
to support the Irish independence cause. The interest
rate was 5% but from a debate held in the Daile during the 1930's it
appears that when the new government became official it decided that
the bond buyers never expected to be repaid. So, the bond is
worthless.... but priceless.
Marie's Birthday
Party
A few months ago,
friends and family toasted Marie Cassidy Costello's birthday at a
huge brunch at the Quincy Marriot Hotel. Her children and
grandchildren presented her with a scrap book of tributes from
family and friends-- poetry, prose and pictures. There
were a few words from grateful husband Paul and a musical highlight
from talented grand daughter Joan Shea, who sang "Fly Me to the
Moon....... in other words, I love you". Everyone agreed.
Thank You, Chris
All of the above stories would not be here if it wasn't for all of
Chris's work in gathering the family history information and setting
up this web site. It was really a very time consuming project.
We appreciate it and thank him very much. Now that his time is
consumed by other interests, including his career, he has turned the
web site keys over to me. My first goal is to update the site with
pictures and stories received over the past couple of years.
After that it will be a matter of updating things as we get them.
I hope that this will encourage all of you to send in memories
and pictures of our relatives so that we can share all of this good
family stuff with each other.
Have a great St. Patrick's Day.
Don
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