Exchange Street, Geneva, NY |
In this Facebook age, we forget how easy it was to drift apart and lose touch, but that's what happened in my Dad's family.... that is, until I met Carol through DNA testing (you can read about that story here)... and the rest, as they say, is history.
I just returned from our first family gathering, reuniting descendants of the five sons of John J. and Julia Mary (Flynn) Hill. I've written about this family before (see "Trust but Verify" and "Crossing the Pond"), and this trip was my chance (and my Dad's) to finally meet this branch of our family. I loved seeing all those intense blue eyes -- it was a tangible reminder of our shared DNA. [Overheard at the reunion: The Hills have eyes...]
Jack with Grandma Julia, mid-1940s |
Jack told about how her five adult sons would sit in the living room drinking their whiskey; when offered a shot, Julia would grimace and protest, refusing to take more than a sip. When the men left the room and she thought no one was watching, she would drink it straight down, pretty as you please.
Whenever anyone was sick, she would insist they take the "cure" -- whiskey, water, and a spoon of sugar. It got so that sometimes the kids would go into the kitchen and cough hopefully at her.
On St. Patrick's Day, she would bake a cake, and when it came out of the oven, she would spread out newspapers and throw the cake against the door. It would break into pieces and everyone had to eat a piece of the broken cake for good luck.
Jack told about the divisions between the Irish and the Italian kids. The Italians had to go through the Irish neighborhood to get to school. Jack, a slight boy, used to sit outside as bait, taunting the Italian kids. When they started to come at him, his bigger cousins would jump out from the bushes. If the noise got too loud, their grandmother would come out of the house with a broom to shoo everyone back to their side of the tracks.
Now here's when you know that there is the hand of fate in family history: my new cousin Carol arrived a few days before the reunion and went to visit St. Patrick's cemetery, where our great-grandparents are buried -- only to find that she had no clue where to look for them in the enormous expanse of gravestones. Ready to give up, she ran into a gentleman walking nearby, who asked her who she was looking for. She told him.... and Jack led her straight to the family plot. Of course the random person she happened to meet would be the only person in Geneva who could help her!
image courtesy of thegraphicsfairy.com |
Thank you, Kathleen, for keeping our family history "alive". I do hop we are all able to make that Ireland trip next year.
ReplyDeleteYes, so do I -- imagine the party that would be!
Deletethank you Kathleen for the story, I wish I was there with you when Jack was telling you the stories Louise
ReplyDeleteYes, I was lucky to have pen and paper at the moment.... I wish we lived closer because I suspect that most of Jack's stories don't come out on demand, but rather as the circumstances bring them to mind!
DeleteKathleen. What Skinner line are you looking for?
ReplyDeleteOur Skinners were in Ulster Co. NY (later Orange and Sullivan Counties) in the 1760s. I am especially interested in the family of Abner Skinner, who was a Revolutionary war soldier from Mamakating Twp.
DeleteDick was president or Orange County Geneology Society for 2 years. His line came from Orange and Sullivan Counties. I'll ask him about Abner.
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