McIntyre Ancestral Farm, 2011

In August 2011 I visited Ireland and had the opportunity to again stop at the McIntyre ancestral farm.  The farm house had been vacant for over 15 years and my understanding is the land was sold to a nearby neighbor.  The following is a short video of the house and land on the McIntyre/Haran/Cafferty farm.


The occupiers of the land and eventually the owners of the land spanned four generations that I am aware of:

Michael McIntyre (wife Mary) listed in Griffith's Valuation, 1858
son
Lawrence McIntyre (wife Mary Ginty)
daughter
Bridget McIntyre (husband Patrick Haran)
daughter
Tessie Haran (husband Dominic Cafferty), sold the land c1990s

Note, the house in the video was built in the 1930s.  It is believed to be on the site of the older home.

Why Did Thomas McIntyre not stay in Ireland in 1923?

In 1923, Thomas and Ellen (Walsh) McIntyre and their five children traveled to Ireland to visit Thomas' parents, Lawrence and Mary (Ginty) McIntyre, on their farm in Lislea, County Sligo.  Elsewhere in this blog is information about that trip including the passport from the travels.

My Dad, Larry McIntyre, over the years told the family he really believed they might stay in Ireland when they went there in 1923. He said he thought the farm was wonderful and remembered being in the field behind the house and suddenly being confronted with a bull which chased him until he jumped over the fence to safety.  He thought it was great fun.  His brother, Fr. Tom, told me that the family never intended to move to Ireland but was only visiting.  At the time of the visit Dad was about 10 and Tom was 4.  My Dad also said his sister Mary hated the farm and definitely didn't want to live there.  She was 12 at the time.

On our trip to Ireland in 2011, I had the opportunity to meet a second cousin Patrick O'Hara.  Pat is the great-grandson of John and Bridget (Cawley) Walsh.  John and Bridget are also my great-grandparents.  Pat's grandmother Bridget (Walsh) O'Hara, sister of Ellen (Walsh) McIntyre, told his family the story about what Thomas said when his father asked him if he wanted the farm. Pat has graciously shared the story with me and allowed it to be video taped.

Note: Pat refers to Thomas McIntyre's wife as Bridget, but her name really is Ellen.  Filmed on the Walsh Family farm, July 26, 2011, in Knockahoney, County Sligo.

Mary Cecelia McIntyre, 1911

The first child of Thomas and Ellen (Walsh) McIntyre was born on June 23, 1911 in Chicago, Illinois.  The birth certificate notes that the parents were living at 2541 W. Monroe, Chicago at the time of Mary's birth.  The father, Thomas, was working as a motorman for the Street Railway Company.  It also provides the place of birth of the two parents and confirms family history.

By the time Mary was born, her father was already 32 years old and her Mom was 28.  The birth certificate, which was not uncommon for the time, does not include a first name.  However, Mary's baptismal record has been located and it states Mary was born on June 23, 1911 and baptized on July 16, 1911.  The sponsors were Thomas' siblings, Mary McIntyre and Laurence McIntyre.  Mary Cecelia was baptized at St. Malachy's Church in Chicago.

Although Mary lived in California, she was in Arlington Heights for Thanksgiving when she died on November 18, 1994.  Her body was cremated and as of 2009, her ashes had not been buried.

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Blanche Catherine McIntyre, 1914

Blanche Catherine McIntyre, third child of Thomas and Ellen, was born April 9, 1914 in Chicago.   Her parents were living at 2541 W. Monroe at the time of her birth.  Like her sister Mary, Blanche's birth certificate does not include her first name.  I have been unable to locate Blanche's baptismal record.  Blanche died in California on November 15, 1978.

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Thomas McIntyre's Baptismal Entry, 1878

In the Baptismal records of Tourlestrane Church, dedicated to St. Attracta, in the civil parish of Kilmacteige, Co. Sligo, it shows Thomas being baptized on April 14, 1878. The year is in the upper left hand corner and not very visible on this photocopy. His parents, Lawrence McIntyre and Mary Ginty, are listed and it notes he lives in the townland of Lislea. Two sponsors are recorded, James McIntyre and Mary McIntyre. Although I have no knowledge of siblings of Lawrence, his father, it is very possible that James is his brother. Mary could be either James' wife or the sister of Lawrence.

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.

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.

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.