Now that I’m buckling down and finally watching the tutorial videos Ancestry.com provides, I’ve learned the fancy genealogical terms “brick wall” and “breakthrough.”

And so, with a bit of a blush and definite tongue-in-cheek, I must proclaim: We’ve scaled the brick wall and experienced a breakthrough!

Let’s go back a week, when the luck of the Irish arrived via an email.

It was Adrian (who, it turns out, is my third cousin), who had wandered across this blog post from 2021 about the Kelly homestead in what is now Northern Ireland.

Long story short, Adrian’s great-grandfather Denis Kelly was the brother of my great-grandmother Maggie Kelly Regan.

‘Twas an early birthday present, I wrote back. The swift reply?

We agreed to swap information about those who came before us.

Last night, the breakthrough involved the parents of Denis and Maggie. Their names: William John Kelly and Martha Boyle. I knew their names, but not much more.

Patiently (sort of) scrolling through church wedding registries, this one seemed like it might be a fit:

The registry was from the parish of Dunean in the Catholic diocese of Down and Conner. Still a fit.

I won’t wish my eye strain on you, so here’s what’s at the end of the rainbow (and near the bottom of the page):

On the far left is the date: May 25. Coincidentally, that’s today. So last night, it hit me like a small miracle. Or a sweet blessing, at least.

There’s his name: William Kelly. And hers: Martha Boyle.

At the top of the page, the year: 1852.

Here’s a recent photo Adrian sent of the Kelly homestead. William and Martha brought up their family among its beauty:

For years, Farmer Gary has wished out loud that he’d asked his grandparents more about how they did things on the farm. Whenever he talks with his remaining aunt and uncle who grew up here on the farm, he asks things like, “Did you make your own soap?”

Speaking with my brothers and cousins, we also wish we’d asked more questions.

Apparently, Mom felt the same way when she wrote this in 1971:

The Arrangement

I should have asked my grandparents what it was like –
to leave a land and not go back again. Losing children
early, they clustered those that lived around them –
an arrangement – and only death intruded when he must.

The wives minded. These Irishmen who stop to see their
mothers first and then go home, leave something there
that never comes to their own rooms. Their hearts, like
flowers, bloomed and withered on her table.

We talk, my sister and I, about it all: harshly, kindly,
always longingly, straining to break the straps that keep
us down, aching to be as free as fish in water, dreaming
of it since childhood – we, who are afraid to swim.

~ Joan Vayo ~ 1971

The grandparents Mom wrote about were Maggie Kelly and Joe Regan. They left Ireland in 1888 and made a new life in New Haven, Connecticut, right up the hill from the Quinnipiac River. Their first son and daughter died in childhood. The other nine grew up, most living within walking distance of their first home.

And for the Kelly side of our family, it all started on that Tuesday in May, 1852. Happy Anniversary to William and Martha!

But now, on to that next brick wall …

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“The Arrangement” © 1971 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

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