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The American connection
Feb. 11th, 2009 10:20 amSo my dad is prone to telling tall stories and so, when he told me that our Irish side (his paternal grandmother line) was full of rogues and had links to America and Australia, I was all: Shyeah.
Many days of research later and several Euros poorer, I have to conclude the man is kind of right. Damn.
My great-grandmother Mary Lowry was born in Kilkenny in 1880, to Michael Lowry (farmer) and Mary Merrins (random surname I cannot trace any further). Michael's parents were also farmers and before that, the Lowrys owned a lot of land... and subsequently were cheated out of it by the Government. Awesome. Michael was one of twelve children. His brother, Richard, was just amazing. He studied in Ireland and France, then moved to America, teaching in Philadelphia and Washington before moving to Louisiana, knocking up a local bird (Corinne Keller) and producing lots of little Lowrys, who rose to become respected figures throughout New Orleans and the surrounding area, as well as world war veterans for America and who also leave further Lowrys in their wake. The great part about tracing American family is that there are so many news sources on them online, some not all that happy (two young ones are featured on Mydeathspace. Um). Although the link to Louisiana is not through direct ancestry, it's still pretty rad and heartening to see how Richard overcame his lot in life to really make something of himself.
Which brings us to the Australian Lowrys. They're much harder to trace, though I do know that they settled in Victoria. Whether they emigrated by choice... the internet cannot decide. The search goes on!
Many days of research later and several Euros poorer, I have to conclude the man is kind of right. Damn.
My great-grandmother Mary Lowry was born in Kilkenny in 1880, to Michael Lowry (farmer) and Mary Merrins (random surname I cannot trace any further). Michael's parents were also farmers and before that, the Lowrys owned a lot of land... and subsequently were cheated out of it by the Government. Awesome. Michael was one of twelve children. His brother, Richard, was just amazing. He studied in Ireland and France, then moved to America, teaching in Philadelphia and Washington before moving to Louisiana, knocking up a local bird (Corinne Keller) and producing lots of little Lowrys, who rose to become respected figures throughout New Orleans and the surrounding area, as well as world war veterans for America and who also leave further Lowrys in their wake. The great part about tracing American family is that there are so many news sources on them online, some not all that happy (two young ones are featured on Mydeathspace. Um). Although the link to Louisiana is not through direct ancestry, it's still pretty rad and heartening to see how Richard overcame his lot in life to really make something of himself.
Which brings us to the Australian Lowrys. They're much harder to trace, though I do know that they settled in Victoria. Whether they emigrated by choice... the internet cannot decide. The search goes on!
