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The Why And How Of This SiteFirst A Little About Myself.I was born and raised in upstate New York as I said on the homepage. This area had a big influx of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including my family on my mother’s side. I grew up listening to stories my mother told of her grandmother Delia O’Donnell, my great grandmother. About how she came here from Ireland by herself on a steam ship when she was only 16 years old. She met up with her sister that was already here in Syracuse, New York. She left a lot of brothers and sisters back in Ireland. I know I must still have relatives back there, I just haven’t found them yet.
Back when I was young I just took these stories for granted. It was years later when I became interested in tracing my family tree that these stories really sunk in. I used what my mother told me plus some other findings in obituaries, census records, marriage records and passenger lists and found out that Delia O’Donnell (maiden name Kerrigan) came here in 1896 from Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland. Since then I found quite a bit of information about my other Irish ancestors. I’ve been working on the family genealogy in my spare time for about twenty years now. My father’s side of the family is mostly English, but since this is an Irish website, we just won’t go there now, will we.
I’m the oldest of four brothers and a sister. We all take pride in our Irish heritage. We love the way our family history ties in with world events. My mother made sure I a kept the Irish side of the family close to heart by giving birth to me on Saint Patrick’s Day. I think that kind of negates my English side. (Just kidding Dad.) I’ll just say my birth happened sometime back in the 1950’s and leave it at that.
I've been very happily married for over 30 years. (Sorry ladies) I have two adult children, a son and a daughter. It doesn't get any better than this. No grandchildren yet, but no rush, I'm not that old. Am I?
Why I'm Building This SiteWhat brought me to start this website, like I said on my homepage, is corned beef. I always thought this was as Irish as you could get. I found out wrong by talking to a few recent Irish immigrants who never heard of corned beef until they came to the U.S. The Saint Patrick’s Day parade was also a tradition started in this country. Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland has always been a solemn holy day, until just recently there were no parades there. So this got me thinking what are the actual Irish traditions. I want to sort out what is Irish and what is Irish-American.
Using the skills I learned while tracing the family tree I’m digging in libraries and old archives to find these old and new traditions and customs. I will post my findings on this site. This is my new passion. This is my idea of fun. Although it does cut into my other passions like genealogy, gardening, photography, astronomy, fishing and travel. This is just the short list. Many of these passions I can do at the same time.
Sharing My PassionLike I said above this is my idea of fun, and if you can believe it, I’m getting paid to do it. I make money with Google Adsense and affiliate links on my site. This website is made possible because I found Site Build It! (SBI). It helps me put up this site without having to worrying about the technical stuff. Pretty much all I do is write content for my pages and load it into the system. Then I go back to research and write another page and load this to the system. The cycle continues and this website grows. This is how I share my passion about Irish traditions. Making a little extra cash to do it is icing on the cake. I like cake!
If you have something you are passionate about like a hobby, gardening, sports, travel, collecting and anything you can image you can do this too.
If you are stay at home mom , this is perfect for you.
The following video was made by a work at home mom. She is very happy with what SBI has done for her.
If you are a student , this is perfect for you. This next fun video was made by a student that loves to use SBI.
If you would like to share your passion and make a little extra cash, although a full time income is possible, take a look at SBI. If not please just enjoy this website. No pressure here. Slainte,
Top of About Myself page.
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