Irish Discovery...

Slane Castle [Image Credit]

While researching my father, I found an article about my grandfather (whom I know little about). Due to their tenuous relationship, my father never spoke of him. He never spoke of his grandparents or how our family came to America as well.

I discovered (while writing this blog) my grandfather, George Keegan, was born in 1885 and was the youngest of five (5) brothers and had four (4) older sisters. His father, Thomas Keegan, was born in 1836 to my great great grandparents... James & Lucy.

James Keegan was born in Slane, County of Meath, Ireland on "Shrove Tuesday" in 1803 and left Ireland in 1826. While there is no clear reason why James left Ireland, I did read... "He also mentioned the visit of George IV to Slane Castle. He said that the failure of the crops in Ireland in 1821 was attributed to that visit, as not having brought a blessing, but a curse upon the land".

When James Keegan sailed to North America from Dublin in 1826, he and a small crew rowed ashore to L'Isle-Verte Canada on the south bank of the St. Lawrence river. They were greeted on the shore by a farmer named Thomas Healy. Healy, taken with James' wit and spirit, invited him to stay. They became fast friends.

Healy advised James "not to go into the cities, but rather go to some section of the country where he could take up a farm and build a house for himself."

James eventually made his way to Van Buren, Maine, and in 1827 bought a farm and built a house where he met Lucy and began our family. Together, they raised ten (10) children... five (5) boys and (5) girls.

My eternal thanks to Google's massive book scanning endeavor. Had they not scanned the Historical Archives from Maine, my discovery of our family's Irish heritage (while creating this blog) would not have happened.

Cheers, -GK3