About Thomas McIntyre and Ellen Walsh

About Thomas McIntyre and Ellen Walsh

Thomas Joseph McIntyre was born on April 14, 1878 in the townland of Lislea, County Sligo, Ireland. He was the oldest of six children born to Lawrence McIntyre (1854-1931) and Mary Ginty (1850-1930). Ellen Walsh was born in Knockahoney, a townland very close to Lislea, on October 12, 1881. She was the youngest of nine children born to Jack Walsh (c1830-b1901) and Bridget Cawley (c1840-a1911). It is not clear if Thomas and Ellen knew each other in Ireland, though it is very possible since they lived only a few miles from each other. Thomas immigrated to the US on April 14, 1904 arriving at Ellis Island on the Steamship Majestic on April 21, 1904. Ellen immigrated around 1905. They were married on September 4, 1910 at Nativity of Our Lord Church in Chicago, Illinois. Thomas and Ellen were naturalized on October 7, 1910. They raised five children, Mary Cecelia (1911-1994), Lawrence Francis (1913-1995) see also McIntyre/Sullivan Genealogy, Blanche Catherine (1914-1978), Helen Patricia (1916-1982) and Thomas Joseph (1919-2009) on the west side of Chicago. Thomas Sr. was a streetcar motorman on the Chicago Surface Line, now the Chicago Transit Authority, for most of his life. Ellen was a homemaker. Thomas died on Christmas Eve 1939 at the age of 61. Ellen died less than two years later on November 28, 1941. Her family said she died of a broken heart but her death certificate said it was kidney failure aggravated by influenza.

What this Blog Includes

You will find pictures, comments, documents, and stories about Thomas J. McIntyre and Ellen A. Walsh of Ireland and their children born in Chicago, Illinois. Where we have information about Thomas and Ellen's parents, that information is also included. Additional information about the McIntyre/Walsh family is available on my website at http://McIntyreGenealogy.com Please add your comments and stories of the McIntyre/Walsh Family here too!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

McIntyre Farm in Lislea

The McIntyres come from the townland of Lislea, in the civil parish of Kilmacteige, barony of Leyny, Poor Law Union of Tobercurry, County Sligo, Ireland. Townlands are the smallest of the governmental administrative land districts and their names are frequently taken from physical characteristics of the area such as ruins of churches and forts or clan and family surnames.  Lislea means Grey Fort.  In Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837, the whole parish of Kilmacteige had only 7,654 inhabitants.  It states the parish "comprises 10,550 statute acres; about half of the parish is arable and pasture; the reminder is mountain land, with some bog."  Lislea is listed in the Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns of Ireland, 1851, as being 367 statute acres in size, or approximately one-twenty-eighth the size of the whole civil parish of Kilmacteige.  Griffith's Valuation of Ireland published County Sligo's information in 1843 listing both Patrick and Michael McEntire as living on "Aclare Road to Tobercurry, Lislea."  This map is reproduced from the Griffith's map with the location of the McIntyre farm highlighted in yellow.
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Friday, February 19, 2010

McIntyre Passport, 1923

Thomas and Ellen McIntyre with their five children and his sister Mary McIntyre Egan sailed from New York aboard the ship Caronia on June 30, 1923 to visit parents, Lawrence and Mary McIntyre, in County Sligo. On July 7, 1923 they arrived in Ireland and went through the immigration office there. After spending two months in Lislea, they left from Cobh, County Cork, Ireland on September 2, 1923 and arrived at Ellis Island, NY on September 8, 1923.  The trans-Atlantic voyage took six days.
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McIntyre-Walsh Wedding Photo,1910

Thomas and Ellen were married on September 4, 1910 at the Nativity of Our Lord Church in Chicago. Witnesses were Laurence McIntyre, Thomas' brother, and Mary Walsh, a possible relative of Ellen's.

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

McIntyre (Haran) Family Farm Photo, c1940s

This photo was in the collection of Thomas J. McIntyre, CM. It shows a new farm house being completed on the McIntyre Family farm in Lislea, County Sligo. Tom didn't know when the photo was taken, but it is estimate that it was in the 1940s. The outbuildings and the "barn" are from an earlier time.  When Lawrence McIntyre (1954-1931) died, the farm was taken over by his daughter Bridget McIntyre Haran and eventually her daughter Tessie Haran Cafferty.  When I visited the farm for the first time in 1984, Tessie Haran Cafferty was still living there.  Her husband had died several years earlier.  She was not farming the land, but rented it to a neighbor farmer.  When I returned to Lislea in 1998, she had already sold the farm and was living with her niece Breda O'Connor in Cheekpoint, about 5 miles outside of Waterford, Ireland.  Tessie died in 2004.
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Ellen and Thomas McIntyre Cedar Lake, Indiana, c1937


The McIntyres enjoyed vacations at Cedar Lake, Indiana. This photo was taken c1937.
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