On January 1, 1892, 17-year-old Annie Moore from Cork, Ireland became the first immigrant to ever arrive at Ellis Island, so both Annie and Ellis Island celebrated their 125th anniversary on January 1, 2017. Now is an especially relevant time to reflect on the Annie Moores in our own family trees – those pioneers who made a leap that so drastically altered the trajectories of their descendants’ lives for the better.
This week, check out an article on diaspora tourism that explores what it means to "return to a place you’ve never been" as well as an article about the search for missing WWII airmen in India.
Lots of inspiration this week! Start with a look at a memorial which had as its genesis this thought: "The character of a nation as a people of great deeds is one, it appears to me, that should never be lost sight of." Explore the story of Lucy Lee Shirley, a woman who transcended the shadows of slavery and domestic abuse and who, among other things, was able to educate herself and her family and leave her children more than $23,000 in today’s money; check out the update on the DNA of long-lived Italians which was previously reported as stolen, and more.
In this week's Roundup, read about a woman who, inspired by a memoir of her grandfather found after his death, delved deeply into the world of her great-grandfather, a prominent portrait painter in Warsaw in the early-to-mid-20th century. Also this week: old documents which had lain in a bottle for more than 60 years tell about life, death, and love as seen through the eyes of a young girl called Hanna, a Who Do You Think You Are? retrospective, Melissa McCarthy, Irish Civil Registration records, and more . . .
I recently took a peek into the family tree of Tim Kaine in a piece that combined a big-picture perspective with a mini-saga of the Kaine branch. During the course of my research, though, I came across other random tidbits of interest, so thought I’d share them clustered by branch of the family tree.
No sooner had Hillary Clinton announced Tim Kaine as her running mate than articles on his roots began to appear – mostly about his inherent Irishness. But what else was there to learn?
When it was announced that Hillary Rodham Clinton would be inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame in 2015 for her work on the Irish peace process, it was inevitable that I would explore the branches of her family tree, but it wasn’t the first time. Having delved into her roots in years past, I was familiar with the basics, but when I took a deeper dive into the Welsh portion of her heritage, I discovered that it’s rather surprising that Hillary Rodham Clinton exists at all.
Easily one of the most popular and reliable box office performers today, actress, comedian, producer, and now fashion designer Melissa McCarthy has a lot to be proud of. Following a string of hits, she’s now part of the long-anticipated Ghostbusters dream team of Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Kristen Wiig. While they’re all ghostbusting, I thought I’d do a little ghost-searching – that is, for the ancestors who populate McCarthy’s family tree – and here’s what I learned.
This week's Roundup explores the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall, Ireland, a project which was one of the largest single investments in a decade in Ireland’s Midlands region and has become the main job provider for the village, as well as the largest employer for miles around.
This week's Roundup serves up a look at VP Biden's tri-generational trip to Ireland, a dramatic chapter from the 1830's that continues to send ripples into the present, the demise of cursive, and more.
