Irish Homework

School's back in session and Lisa has assigned us to outline our plans for researching our Irish heritage. I have many Irish ancestors but I must admit that I know very little about most of them.

• David & Leatis Carlisle are thought to be Irish, however some records indicate that they may have actually been from Scotland. David was born about 1702 and Leatis about 1705. The first record I've found for them is the birth of daughter, Elizabeth, 22 October 1730 in Concord, Middlesex, MA. For this assignment I will endeavor to learn more about Irish history at the beginning of the 18th century and see what ship passenger records are available.
• In with the family letters that I copied in Michigan earlier this year, there were also some genealogical papers that have given me more information on the ancestry of my great-grandmother, Rose Graham. In a piece written by a cousin, Rose was described as "dirty, shanty, Irish." This led me to believe that her parents must have been migrants. I now know that this assumption was false. Jared and Sarah (Jackson) Graham immigrated sometime before 1795. Rose's mother was Elizabeth Doughty, born 1826 in Virginia. For this assignment I will: 1.) Transcribe the family notes contained in the file, 2.) Verify the Graham genealogy that I have found online, 3.) Try to determine the parents of Elizabeth Doughty and take the line further back, and 4.) Learn more about Irish history from the mid to late 18th century.
• Michael & Mary Kelly most likely left Ireland at the time of the potato famine. They settled an hour north of where I now live. I need to find out where they are buried and try to find records that may tell me what Mary's maiden name was. I believe that they emigrated to Canada and then on to the United States. As their names are quite common, I will try to see how much solid information I can find about them from records in Jefferson County, NY. I will then see if I can find any records for them in Ontario, Canada. Hopefully I will someday be able to track them back to Ireland but I am doubtful. So for now I will read up on general Irish history from the early 19th century through the potato famine.

I will assign myself reading for the first semester. Google books has several older titles that will be a good starting point. I will see what our local library system has so I can have an actual book on hand during my wait time at work. Transcribing what I have and digging deeper will probably be second semester assignments.



This was written for the 8th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, to be hosted by Lisa at Small-leaved Shamrock.

Tipperary Hill

Like most cities, Syracuse, NY had many ethnic neighborhoods. Over time most of these neighborhoods have lost their ethnic identity but the Irish flag still flies in the neighborhood of Tipperary Hill. I grew up not far from Tipperary Hill and it's famous traffic light.
I don't know of any other traffic light where the green light is at the top and the red at the bottom. The story of the light has been passed down through the generations and is generally known by anyone from Syracuse.

Back in the mid 1920's, when the city first began installing electric traffic lights, a light was placed at the corner of Tompkins St and Milton Ave. It had the accepted light arrangement of red at the top, yellow in the center and green at the bottom. Some of the local youths associated the color red with the British and were unwilling to have the red over the Irish green. They'd knock out the red lights with stones and the city would come and replace them. As soon as the light was repaired they'd vandalize it again and the city would have to repair it again. Eventually the city gave up and changed the light so that the green was on the top.

The light has remained this way ever since. In the late 1990's the
Tipperary Hill Memorial Park was created at one corner.
Cead Mile Failte - 100,000 Welcomes!

Bricks were sold and inscribed with the donors names.
If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see many non Irish names.
On Tipperary Hill everyone is Irish!

The Stone Throwers monument was erected depicting a family in the 1930's,
where the father is telling the story of the light to his children.
Was he one of the stone throwers?

From the back of the monument you can see they are facing the light.

And if you look closely at this picture you can see
that the son has a slingshot in his back pocket.

This was written for the 1st edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, Irish Stories. All of the pictures were taken on Nov. 13, 2007.