Welcome to my website! This site contains some of the research I have performed on my Lavelle, O'Grady and Whalen relations. These pioneers settled in Montana after first living in the Pennsylvania or Michigan mining regions of this great nation.
I began this project prior to 1991, when my father, Daniel Lavelle, passed away on October 31. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to hear about my initial findings, which I'd planned on sharing over the upcoming holiday season. His death gave me new motivation and energized my research efforts. This research will, no doubt, continue until I die. There will always be so much more than I will have the time, or space, to upload here. No matter, I will continue honoring my father and those who came before him.
Perhaps you are visiting this site for the first time, interested in your own family genealogy and wondering 'where do I begin?'. The best place to start is with your elders: your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. Do this before it is too late. And, write it down! We think we'll remember--we don't--and later you'll be kicking yourself. Record your conversations, if possible. Contact these same family members and explain your interest. You may be rebuffed initially, Don't give up! Prior to my beginning this project, I had conversations with family members that left me with the impression our family was small. I would discover a layer of mystery, secrecy even, that resulted in an ignorance of my father's generation and the belief that with the exception of Michael Patrick Lavelle, no family member had migrated westward after arriving in America. Luckly, I didn't let this deter my research efforts. I struck 'gold', or should I say 'copper and silver'? Stick with it.
Again, these pages contain only a portion of information I've collected. I'll try to add new content when 'life' allows. So, please check out the website and come back periodically. Take a journey to yesteryear and discover the immigration trail of my immigrant ancestors. Who knows? You may find that you have a branch that belongs on one of these trees. If you do, I would like to hear from you! And, if you'd like help in researching your own family, I may be available to assist you.
Sl�n go f�ill.
Has there been a huge cover-up regarding the period in Irish history widely referred to as "The Famine"? You be the judge. Go to Irish Holocaust and read the convincing and powerful argument for tossing out the revisionist history we've been taught for so many generations.
My thanks to family members who provided documents, pictures, stories and support to my research. Thanks, too, to the new family members I've met along the way. A partial list to whom I owe thanks: Daniel J. Lavelle (deceased) and his wife and my mother, Ramona Burke Lavelle; Charles Lavelle (deceased) and his wife Marian; their cousins James Lavelle (deceased) and his wife Diane, Dorethy Lavelle Blum (deceased) and Patricia Lavelle Cook; cousin Thomas Whalen and his wife Jeanne; my cousin Bill McLaughlin, Sue Anderson, an O'Grady cousin living in Iowa; Renee Lavelle Tedrick, a recently discovered Lavelle cousin; and Michael O'Grady of Louisburgh, Mayo, Ireland. Thanks, also, to Marge Satterthwaite Hall, Tom Satterthwaite and Pat Whalen De La Ossa for their contributions. Thanks to Liam's Irish Traditional Music for the midi files played on some pages of this website. Thanks to Howard Oliver and the Deity Diva for some of the Celtic graphics sprinkled throughout.
April 18, 2007