Marybeth (Gallagher) Van Winkle

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I have been interested in family history since I was a small child. If it is noted how few generations are between my generation and those well over a century and a half, it is apparent that I come from a tradition of late marriages. Both of my parents actually knew the immigrant generations and in telling their stories, made me feel that they were alive and would be walking in the front door in just a few minutes.

I grew up in an old neighborhood in Scranton, named Pine Brook for the bubbling tributary to the Lackawanna River. The land had been a profitable farm but after her husband died, Mrs. Phelps, his wife, sold it to anyone who could afford the acreage. Cornelius Ruddy, my great-grandmother Sarah Ruddy McHale's brother, bought what became an entire city block. When Sarah rather hastily married Anthony McHale, another brother, James, divided his property, creating a long narrow lot for the house they built. The house was built in three stages as the McHale family grew. After my grandfather Lamond died in 1911, my grandmother, Mag, obtained employment as a chairwoman at ICS (International Correspondence Schools) my mother was barely three years old. Her four siblings were in school. Her aunts, Bridgie and Mary Ann were seamstresses, and mostly worked at home so they became the very indulgent babysitters. The other children came to McHales' after school as did my grandmother. Together with the McHale uncles, they all sat down at a huge wing table for dinner. The problem arose when my mother refused to go home, even though it was just across the street. The battles between a willful child and an exhausted grieving mother ended with my mother getting her way.

Next door was her second cousin and my godmother who was a month younger than she as well as Mary's older sisters. My godmother' s mother had died when she was two, and she and her sisters were raised by their unmarried aunts. From what I understand they (my mother and godmother) were holy terrors and Aunt Mary Ann had to take a hair brush to their behinds more than once.

To avoid separation, they both attended East Stroudsburg Normal School for teacher education. My mother taught eighth grade in the Scranton Public Schools until a year after she married my father. They had long delayed their marriage because they were the only ones working during the Great Depression and even after, the older generation needed their support. They finally married on June 23, 1948 much to the dismay of Bridgie and Mary Ann. As was then required, my mother took a leave of absence in 1949 for the birth of my brother, Ed. She anticipated returning to work in 1951but the school year and I arrived at the same time. Two years later, my brother Pat was born and so she resigned. She was also the guardian of her widowed brothers sons as well as caretaker for her aunts. There was a gang of kids in the neighborhood but I somehow learned to read early. I treasured the hours I spent behind a wing chair, next to a radiator reading anything and everything.

I attended parochial schools and graduated from Marywood University in 1973, I also taught in Scranton for my entire career.until I married my husband in 1975, I lived at home, among the artifacts of my family's history. Aunt Bridgie's foot powered sewing machine was in the kitchen. The wing table that fed two families every night in the first quarter of the 20th century remained in use until the house burned down in 2006. The hand carved dining room suite with the shamrock filigree now graces my dining room. The Victorian living room, now reupholstered is in my living room.

My mother was 95 when she took a weak spell in the house. She had a first alert system and we and emergency personnel were immediately notified. She had always said she would leave her house when she had to be carried out. After she received physical therapy, she moved in with me and my family. She told me many family stories which I had never heard but will help as I build my tree. We had been renting the house since her fall in 2004. The house was consumed by an electrical fire three months after her death. It was for the fanciful like myself the final chapter in the lives of all who had lived there.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Marybeth Gallagher at registration.

I have been transcribing records from Kilfian Parish, County Mayo, Ireland and Kilmoremoy (Ballina) Parish, also of County Mayo, Ireland. Neither site is complete do to the difficulty in reading the faded print and poor handwriting, but there is a considerable amount of information on both sites. The Kilfian records are available only from 1826 to a few random ones in 1840. The Kilmoremoy records are available from the 1820's to the 1860's.Both sites do contain names that people commonly search for in Mayo.

They can be accessed at http://www.kilfiancrosskin.com and http:www.irishhereandthere.com. They are works in progress.