Daniel Joseph McCarthy and Catherine Theresa O'Connor
My grandfather, Daniel Joseph McCarthy, was born October 3, 1883 at Barnagowlane, County Cork, Ireland. Barnagowlane is located a few miles past Abbetsrowry near Skibbereen on a mountain overlooking Roaring Water Bay. In Gaelic the name means �top of the river forks�. Indeed, the river and ocean can be seen far below Barnagowlane.
The day Pa left home in 1905 he planted a blackthorn bush in front of his home by the side of the road which was still growing there in 1985.
He traveled by train to Cobh Harbor where he sailed away from his boyhood home to begin life in America. He entered the United States through Ellis Island in New York City. His name may be inscribed upon the American Immigrant Wall of Honor (# panel 539); however, there is another Daniel Joseph McCarthy who also passed through Ellis Island about the same time. Although he had relatives in New York he migrated to Brighton, Massachusetts to be near his uncles, Timothy and Richard Leonard. (I think they may have been cousins or his mother�s uncles.) He, also, had McCarthy relatives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
He married in Newton Center, Massachusetts on 21 April 1914 to Catherine Theresa O'Connor, another young emigrant from County Cork. They lived and raised their family in Brighton, Newton and Newton Center where he worked for the city's street department. The home I remember is the one they built at 32 Chesley Road in Newton Center. Their descendants are now dispersed throughout the US.
It is ironic that Daniel fled the violence of his homeland to watch his sons and daughter fight in World War II for their new homeland. But, freedom is never free and peace is achieved through sacrifice.
My father is the third or fourth child of Katie and Dan. He's a twin and I don't know who arrived first. My father, Timothy Andrew McCarthy, and his twin brother, Edward Patrick McCarthy, were born 19 April 1923 and were absolutely identical. After a lengthy illness Edward died 8 December1927 at the tender age of four years. Daddy grew to adulthood to serve in WWII as a Merchant Marine and in the US Coast Guard. Some ships upon which he served were sunk by enemy action in the Mediteranean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Despite serious injuries he survived to return home at war's end. He married 24 August 1944 in Manhattan, New York to Audrey Louise Wulf. Their marriage was not an enduring one but lasted long enough to produce children.
At the very young age of 34 my father was killed. He was missing for almost two weeks before his body was found in the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois on 11 June 1957. No investigation was undertaken and no one ever brought to justice. His children have always known those responsible. Too young to seek justice for him then, we now leave justice to God confident that our father is safe with Him.
We now leave our own footprints upon this earth for others to follow, yet, we can not know where we are going if we don't know from whence we came. My grandparents and parents are now dead but their love of family, home and Ireland will always touch my heart. That is why I want my own family to know the heritage from whence we spring and our place in a very long line of footprints which have danced upon this earth.
