Sunday Search: A Sea Of Irishmen

While research on my dad’s side of the family has been a project shared by many family members (both close and distant relatives) over the year, my mom’s side of the family has always been a more difficult endeavor. Where I have been able to build upon the foundation built by others on my dad’s side, the land had yet to be graded on my mom’s side until a few years ago when a few of us decided to break ground. It has been a bit of a slog at times but there is a lot of information now contained in our tree, a lot of family stories that have been confirmed, and a lot of documents that have been consolidated.

However, when following the paternal line on my mom’s side, there is quite the thick fog when delving into the 19^th century. While I have been able to have a relatively complete record of my great great grandfather’s life, his father remains a mystery. Unfortunately, trying to find a specific William McKenna among the waves of Irishmen during the Potato Famine is a task that is difficult to say the least. And while the name isn’t as common in Pennsylvania in the second half of the 19^th century as one would think it is still nearly impossible to verify the scarce documents that I do come across.

The other consideration is the simple fact that with limited job opportunities and significant backlash against the influx of Irish immigrants during that time, there are countless countrymen that remain without official records (an informational famine)… even the census has its limitations. In fact, much of the information I have been able to find about this particular generation comes from his children and what they later reported to the census taker and wrote on various documents. In the end, we have what we are left with is a name, approximate year of birth (1840), country of origin, and approximate immigration between 1845 and 1865 (port unknown).

That leaves a rather large pool of potential candidates when trying to sift through immigration, census, limited death records, and family trees. I have a mountain of names and documents that all seem to fit in one way or another but, when I try to put the pieces together, the shape is all wrong. While this is by no means an impossible endeavor, it is one that will take a considerable amount of time, more information, and a few lucky breaks in order for us to find this generation during my lifetime. And, unfortunately, I know I am not the only one who faces this challenge.

Bubble Bubble Toil And Trouble

Over the weekend my wife and I had a particularly rough time on the road as no matter which route we took there were a plethora of potholes that seemed to jump out and attack our tires. It even got to the point that I scrolled through the data on my dashboard (it really isn’t as fancy as it sounds) and would constantly monitor the tire pressure after each thump and jump of the suspension. Given my constant glances, I think if the township, county, and state really wanted to do something about distracted driving they should put more of an effort into filling all of the asphalt craters scattered about the paved terrain.

Last night, on my way home from work and knowing that it was a fend for yourself night for dinner I stopped at the Wawa on my way home which is conveniently located about a mile after I get off the highway. After grabbing a quick sandwich (no hoagie this time) I stepped out back into the strangely barren parking lot, put my food in the passenger seat, and walked to the side of the building to light a cigarette. As I was standing there reading through the impatient list of emails streaming to my phone I glanced just beyond the iPhone screen and saw Lincoln staring back at me.

Not one to pass up any kind of luck at this point, I bent over, pinched the penny between my fingers and on my way back up turned my head to the right for some reason. That is when I saw it, a bubble in the sidewall of my right front tire slightly larger than a golf ball. I guess finding a lucky penny isn’t always about making good things happen, sometimes the luck is in preventing bad things from happening. If it hadn’t been for that penny I would have never seen the bubble and I would have probably not noticed the defect until my commute either to or from work later in the week when the sidewall finally gave way.

So now I find myself in the waiting room of the car dealer instead of at my desk getting work done. Thankfully I do believe in one form of extended warranty when purchasing a new car… tire and rim protection. While it is, without question, an inconvenience it could have been a lot worse and I could be out a lot of money. Sometimes the luck isn’t about making good things happen, sometimes luck is what you need to prevent the bad things from being nothing more than an inconvenience.