In July, 2011, I traveled to Ireland in search of my ancestral farms. I had been to the McIntyre ancestral farm in the mid-1980s and again in 1998. This time, I had the opportunity to meet Patrick O'Hara, a second cousin. His grandmother, Bridget Walsh, and my grandmother, Ellen Walsh, were sisters.

Bridget married Austin O'Hara in 1900 and Ellen is found staying with her sister just prior to Bridget giving birth to her first child, John, in 1901. Ellen then traveled to the US in the early 1900s and Bridget stayed in Ireland to raise her family.

In 1923, Thomas J. McIntyre with his wife, Ellen (Walsh) along with their five children, Mary, Lawrence, Blanche, Pat (Ellen/Helen) and Thomas Jr., traveled to Ireland under the belief that they would be inheriting the family farm. Thomas was the oldest son of Lawrence and Mary (Ginty) McIntyre and for the oldest son to inherit the farm was a normal transition as parents aged.

Patrick O'Hara shares the story of what happened and why the McIntyres and I are now in America.