Jennifer Graham contacted IrelandXO early December 2023, she was researching her maternal grandfathers family in Carrowmacbryan, a townland in Easky West in the civil parish of Easky.
Local Volunteer Tom Kelly stepped in and starting researching her Taylor connection and extended families of the region which included some Duffy and Kilcullen connections.
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They arranged to meet at Sligo Hotel and as Jennifer said Tom arrived "with files on each family and wrote a lovely story for us on the facts he found". In additon to this he had found a living 4th cousin and it turned out both Tom and Jennifer were in fact related although distantly through marriage!!
Tom kindly arranged for Jennifer to visit with Mary (Taylor) Morrissey and her husband Richard and over tea and biscuits were able to get to the full history of the area and the Taylors connection. At this stage, Jennifer and Tom had located the precise Taylor farm Jennifer's ancestors lived on.
Tom arranged a visit to the farm in Carrownmacbryan, the neighbours were Dempseys who have been neighbors for hundreds of years. Most of the families living on the road are the descendants of those who lived there in the 1800's.
Jennifer finally got to walk around the old Taylor farm, the land of her ancestors. She was the first of her family to visit Ireland since they left in 1870 for Philadelophia. The land still owned by the Taylors was rented out to another family for grazing.
Jennifer said
It was such an honor to be there and to see just how rugged a life they had to have had so close to the ocean and their very fine home.
There is much left to uncover for my family and Tom has said he would be happy to help! We are so pleased and know the rest of the work I've been doing since 1994 has now been made that much easier with someone "on the ground" to help.
Thank you for everything!!!
Jennifer (Jenny) Graham and the entire Graham, Fisher, Taylor, and Boylan family from the US.
