Friday Fotos (April 26, 2013)

Margaret (Collins) Hayes

Margaret (Collins) Hayes is my wife's great grandmother and my sons' great great grandmother. She was born in Ireland in February 1859 and she died in New York (the precise location and date presently unknown to me).  

Margaret Collins married Thomas Hayes in Ireland (date and location currently unknown).  She and Thomas emigrated from Ireland and arrived in the United States with three daughters in 1889 (according to the 1900 Census).  The family lived in Queens, New York.  Margaret and Thomas eventually had six children -- all girls: Mary (b. 1884); Nellie (b. 1886); Hannah (b. 1889); Margaret (b. 1891); Nora C. Hayes O'Kane (my wife's grandmother, 1893 - 1981); and Katharine (b. 1896).

Almost nothing is known at present about Margaret's husband Thomas, except that he died while all of his daughters were still young girls.  Margaret was left alone to raise their daughters, and, as reported by my wife's aunt, Margaret did so by keeping babies from the New York Foundling Home.  The babies were kept in the Hayes home for two years each and Margaret is reported to have kept 29 babies over the years as she struggled to keep her own family together.  Margaret had many and repeated offers from various social agencies to take some of her six girls, but she steadfastly refused to give up any of her children.  She raised them all to young adulthood.  As my wife's aunt says, "She is a woman to be admired."  She is indeed!  

What little I know of Margaret Collins makes me want to know more.  She is on a list of people about whom I need to do more research.  She clearly was a particularly strong and resilient woman. In the future, I hope to learn more about Margaret and her life -- and to report on any discoveries here at The Prism.

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Photograph of Margaret (Collins) Hayes courtesy of my wife's aunt, Grace (O'Kane) Herbert.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Both my family and my wife's family have Irish roots, but my wife's are broader and deeper.  So far as I know, my Irish ancestors come exclusively through my great grandmother, Margaret "Maggie" (Conner) Tew.  Her mother and father came to America about 1851 and both of them were from Roscommon County, Ireland.  My wife's family on both her father's and her mother's side go back to Ireland.  My wife's O'Kane ancestors come from County Derry/Londonderry and the area around Dungiven.  The principal Irish surnames in the tree of our sons thus include:  Conner, Kelley, O'Kane, Jeffs, Hayes and Collins.

In 2009 my wife and I spent three weeks in Ireland and did a complete circumnavigation of the island.  Here are several photographs taken during that wonderful trip.  Based on our experience, the Irish people are truly among the friendliest in the world and Ireland is amongst the most beautiful countries!

These prehistoric mound monuments at New Grange in the Boyne Valley
were built around 3200 BC -- making them older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids

One of the Skellig islands off Valentia, County Kerry.
The white is not snow -- it is tens of thousands of  seabirds

The harvesting of peat in the Whitlow Mountains

Coffee house on Valentia Island

Fuchsia lined walk overlooking a valley in County Kerry

Mizen Head, the most southwesterly point of Ireland

Kinvara, Ireland across Galway Bay from the City of Galway

A "beehive house" -- some of the oldest structures in Ireland (2000 BC)

Rainbow over Dublin on our last day in Ireland!

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All photographs by the author (June - July, 2009).  All rights reserved.  No reproduction or use of these photographs is allowed without the permission of the photographer/author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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Military Monday -- The O'Kane Brothers in Uniform

(Lto R)  Edward O'Kane, Nora (Hayes) O'Kane, Daniel J. O'Kane, Jr.

This is a photograph taken circa 1942 at the O'Kane family home -- 43 Baker Hill Rd., Great Neck, New York.  It is a picture of my wife's paternal grandmother, Nora C. (Hayes) O'Kane, standing quite proudly between her uniformed sons on the front porch of their home.  Nora was undoubtedly proud of her sons, but like many mothers of young men during World War II, she also surely harbored some hidden fears about what might happen to her children.

Nora (1893 - 1981) has her son Edward (1921 - 2002) to her right in his Navy uniform.  To her left is the oldest of her six children, Daniel J. O'Kane, Jr. (1919 - 2007) in his Army uniform.  Dan is my wife's father. Thankfully, both men survived the war.  Ed graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Dan graduated from Cornell University.

(L to R)  Thomas O'Kane and Edward O'Kane, brothers.

A third O'Kane brother is pictured here on a different day at the same location.  Ed O'Kane is now in his Navy "whites" with his younger brother, Thomas O'Kane (1922 - 2008) beside him in his Army Air Forces uniform.  Tom served from 1942 until his discharge in 1946.  He was a graduate of New York University.  The fourth O'Kane brother, Raymond O'Kane, was born in 1925.  I do not know if he served in the military during WWII; but in any event, I do not have a photo of him in uniform.  Three of Nora (Hayes) O'Kane's four sons definitely served during World War II.
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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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Immortality -- Nora C. (Hayes) O'Kane

"Immortality Lies in Being Remembered by Family and Friends."

                                                                                                                                                                -- John D. Tew

Nora C. (Hayes) O'Kane

My wife's maternal grandmother, Nora C. Hayes (known as "Nonie"), was born in Astoria, New York on September 1, 1893.  She died on March 10, 1981 (thirty-two years ago today) at age 87.

Nora was one of the six children (all girls) of Thomas Hayes and his wife, Margaret Collins.  Both her parents and her two oldest sisters were born in Ireland.  Nora was the fifth of the six daughters.  Nora's father Thomas died young and before Nora was seven years old.  She and her sisters were raised by their mother Margaret, who never remarried. 

Nora married Daniel J. O'Kane in about 1918.  They lived for a time in Jackson Heights, New York before moving with their young family to Baker Hill Road in Great Neck, New York.  Dan and Nora had six children:  four boys and two girls.

Nora (Hayes) O'Kane with 11 of her grandchildren

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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