BIRMINGHAM: My
IRISH Ancestry
This is an abbreviated version of the story of my Birmingham
ancestors from Ireland and their first generation immigrants. For the complete
story go to my book of the same title published in 2021.
My Birmingham family was traced back to the 1730s in Dublin
where my 4th great grandparents, Laurence and Mary Birmingham
lived. Laurence and Mary Birmingham had three sons, John, and twins Laurence
and Burke, all baptized at Saint Catherine’s Roman Catholic Church on Meath
Street in Dublin. John Birmingham is my 3rd great
grandfather. He was born about 1760. Around 1780 John and Susannah Cruise,
of English descent, would marry at Saint Michan’s Roman Catholic Church on
North Anne Street in Dublin. They had at least five children between 1781 and
1795; Francis, John, William, Anne and Marie. All were baptized at Saint
Michan’s. Their third-born son, William Birmingham, is my 2nd
great-grandfather. William was baptized on May 7, 1787.
William Birmingham and his siblings would leave Dublin for
County Longford in the early 1800s. There, he and Elizabeth Ferrall
would marry around 1805. Elizabeth was baptized on August 24, 1787 in Granard,
County Longford. She was the daughter of Laurence Ferrall and Margaret Daly.
William and Elizabeth would give birth to eight children between 1805 and 1825.
Their third child, Daniel Birmingham, was my great-grandfather. He was
baptized at Parish Templemichael in Longford on July 3, 1809.
Daniel would immigrate to America in 1830. Two of Daniel’s
younger brothers, James and Patrick, would also immigrate to America. While
living in Baltimore in 1849 Daniel and Ellen Collins would marry. Ellen
was a recent Irish immigrant from County Tipperary. Ellen was the daughter of
Jno Collins and Margt Halperny. Daniel Birmingham and Ellen Collins would raise
their eight children in Maryland.
Their fifth-born child was Daniel Collins Birmingham.
Daniel would move from Cumberland, Maryland to Pittsburgh around 1893. In 1905
Daniel and Mary Rodgers, a first generation Irish immigrant, would marry. Their
only son, my father, Daniel James Birmingham, born on December 9, 1913
in Pittsburgh.
My second great grandparents, William Birmingham and
Elizabeth Ferrall, and their children would live in Townland Cloontirm, a rural
area just outside the city of Longford. The family would become tenant farmers, as was the fate of most
Irish Catholics in 18th and 19th century Ireland.
Three of their sons would leave their homeland and immigrate
to America. They would leave a country where the only opportunity for a
Catholic family would be to become a tenant farmer in rural Ireland, as their
father did…The majority of the Catholic population in 19th century
Ireland scraped a pitiful living from their plots of leased land, relying on the
potato for sustenance.
My great grandfather Daniel, and two of his brothers would
eventually leave Ireland and immigrate to America. Daniel would leave Ireland
in 1830 when he was 21 years-old. After arriving in New York on 31 May 1830
Daniel would travel to western Maryland where he worked as a Quarryman on the
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that was being built. His brother James, and his
wife Bridget, would leave Ireland around 1845, in the final year of the Great
Famine. After arriving in Quebec they would spend several years making the
nearly 800 mile journey through upper New York State and Vermont, giving birth
to two children along the way, before reaching their final destination of
Cumberland, in western Maryland around 1849. Their youngest brother Patrick
would immigrate through New York in 1851 and live in Jersey City, New Jersey.
There, he would marry and raise a family just across the river from New York
City. Two of their children were our first family members to attend college.
My Irish Roots – County Longford
My first Residence Record for the family of William and
Elizabeth was from the 1833 Tithe Applotment Book for County Longford. It
reads…William Bormingham, Farmer in
Townland Cloontirm; Civil Parish of Ballymacormick. The Birmingham family
occupied Parcel 8 in Townland Cloontirm.
Townland Cloontirm is considered Rural Longford. It is in the Civil Parish of Ballymacormick about
1½ miles southwest of the city of Longford. Cloontirm contains about 350 acres but
is only partially suitable for growing crops… The tenant farmers would till the
soil, grow and harvest the crops. The crops would be sold at a town market and used
to feed the family… In addition to
providing sustenance to the family and paying Church Tithes, the crops were
also used to pay the local Poor Union Tax, and the annual rent to the
landowner.
In 1833, the Birmingham family living in Townland Cloontirm
would have included William and Elizabeth and seven of their eight children,
ranging in age from 8 to 28. My great grandfather, Daniel, had emigrated a few
years earlier. It is very possible that William’s brother Franciscus and his
family, wife Marie Egan and their seven children, also lived on Parcel 8 at
this time. The parcel was a 13 acre tract.
About twenty years later, in 1855, Franciscus and Marie’s son
Francis Birmingham and his wife Marie Doyle, and their new-born daughter Anna
would live at Parcel 8. That same year, several of the children of William and
Elizabeth, and their families, lived on Parcel 5, a 45 acre tract that included
two houses and several barns. And William’s sister Marie, and her husband Peter
McGann and their children lived on Parcel 9, an 11 acre tract. Based on the
1901 and 1911 Ireland Census’ descendants of William and Elizabeth’s family
were still living in Townland Cloontirm. They were still tenant farmers.
Why would Daniel and his brothers make the dangerous 3,000
mile journey across the Atlantic to an unknown land?
Perhaps the most important factor weighing on the men and
women of Ireland was the unequal opportunities because of their religion. Catholics
were stripped of their rights to vote, to receive an education, to be employed
in a trade or in commerce, to serve as officers in British armed forces, to
purchase land, to defend themselves with weapons, to educate their child, to be
instructed by a local Catholic teacher, to be educated abroad. The list was
much, much longer.
Meanwhile, in America, the Erie Canal had now connected
Buffalo with New York City. On July 4, 1828, there was a groundbreaking near
Georgetown, Maryland for the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal. It would
operate along the Potomac River from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, D.C.
The canal's principal cargo would be coal from the Allegheny Mountains in
Pennsylvania.
The C&O Canal Company had placed advertisements for
workers in Ireland’s newspapers offering wages from $8 to 12 per month. There
was work on the canals being built, in coal mining, and soon the building of
railroads. There was a new generation of people needed in America. There were
opportunities for making a new life for all who would come.
IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA
Irish-Catholics were attracted to America in colonial times
and the early 1800s by the promise of employment, land ownership and greater
religious freedom. It was the Land of
Opportunity.
But, the decision to immigrate to America in the early-1800s
was not an easy one. Passage was expensive and difficult for those making the
3,000 mile voyage from Ireland. Crammed into the steerage compartment for over
six weeks these ships were a breeding ground for many diseases. For those
making the journey from Liverpool to New York, the average death rate on the
voyage was about 3%. It is likely that many others would die after landing from
debilitating malnutrition or contracted disease which did not kill them at sea.
Ireland’s 1845 Potato Blight launched a new wave of Irish
immigration to America. People primarily from the central and western provinces
of Ireland, including Longford, were most impacted when a fungus first
decimated the potato crop in 1845. The Great Famine would continue through
1849. Starvation and disease ravished much of the country. Peasants and tenant
farmers alike would die of starvation and disease over the next five years. A million
Irish were dead while half a million had arrived in America to start a new
life.
In the mid-1840s, when the Work Programs and Food Kitchens
failed, and the Workhouses were full, the British government and the wealthy
landlords evicted thousands of families from their leased property, then paid
the fare to transport the poorest of the Irish population westward to North
America.
Rather than using commercial passenger ships that went into
American ports, the British government arranged to transport the Irish peasants
on cargo ships that were built to carry lumber and farm animals… These “coffin
ships”, as they came to be known, carried emigrants under intolerable
conditions, crowded and disease-ridden with poor access to food and water.
Fever and disease was rampant on these ships.
The American ports, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New
Orleans and others would not allow these ships into port. Instead, these “coffin ships” went to British
controlled Quebec, Canada.
Three sons of William and Elizabeth would immigrate to
America. Daniel, James and Patrick. Each would marry an immigrant of Irish
decent and raise a family in America. This story is dedicated to their memory.
Daniel Birmingham left Ireland for America in 1830. A little
more than a decade later his younger brother James would also leave for America.
The families of Daniel and James would eventually both live in Cumberland,
Maryland, a terminus of the C&O Canal and the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O)
Railroad. Patrick Birmingham, the youngest brother of Daniel and James, left
Ireland around 1849 during the Great Famine. Patrick would reside in Jersey
City, New Jersey where he would work as a Laborer.
Anna Birmingham, the daughter of Daniel’s cousin Francis
Birmingham, would leave Longford when she was 5 years old, shortly after her mother died, and travel to
New York in 1860. I don't know who she travelled with or lived with in New York. Her great granddaughter has told me that she stayed with "family". It is possible that she stayed with her uncle, Patrick Birmingham and his family in Jersey City. In 1878 Anna Birmingham would marry Bartholomew
Coonan from Rockford County, New York. There, they would make their home and
raise a family of eight children.
It is likely that other cousins and nieces and nephews of
Daniel would also come to America, looking for a better life for themselves and
for their children.
It was a DNA Thru-line
Match between Anna’s great granddaughter Patricia Crescenzo and myself that
allowed us to confirm our Birmingham families living in early nineteenth
century Longford, Ireland.
Daniel Birmingham, my great-grandfather, was the third
child of William and Elizabeth. He was baptized on July 3, 1809 at Parish
Templemichael in Longford… Daniel would leave his home in Ireland for America
in April of 1830.
Daniel Birmingham and Ellen Collins were married in
Baltimore, Maryland on December 31, 1849, almost 20 years after Daniel arrived
in America… Daniel and Ellen Collins would raise eight children born between
1851 and 1872. They would spend most of the life together in Towsontown
Maryland. Around 1871 they would move to Cumberland, Maryland where Daniel’s
brother James and his family lived.
Daniel and Ellen’s fifth child, Daniel Collins Birmingham, is
my grandfather.
James Birmingham, the seventh child of William and
Elizabeth. James was baptized on July 17, 1822 at Parish Templemichael in
County Longford… The McGann family were descendants of William’s sister Marie
Birmingham and her husband Peter McGann.
James would immigrate to North America around 1845. It
appears that James and his wife Bridget Bradshaw of Cappawhite, County
Tipperary traveled first to Canada, then into America. Their first child,
daughter Mary Elizabeth, was born in New York State about 1847. Their second
child, James A, was born in Vermont in 1849. In 1851 James and Bridget and
their children would reside in Cumberland, Maryland. Their next seven children
would be baptized and confirmed at Saint Patrick’s Church in Cumberland.
Patrick Birmingham was the eighth and last child of William
and Elizabeth, baptized on October 25, 1825 at Parish Templemichael in
Longford. Patrick would immigrate to America in 1849, the last year of the
Great Famine. He would live in Jersey City, New Jersey. There Patrick would
marry Mary McDonell, also an Irish immigrant, around 1859. Patrick and Mary
would give birth to seven children between 1860 and 1874. Two of their first
generation American children would graduate from college.
Daniel Birmingham and Ellen Collins–Journey to America
My great grandfather’s travel to his new home in America
would take about two-months. He would have first traveled from the city of
Longford to an Irish port, likely Dublin. Dublin was the nearest port for
emigrants from the midlands. To reach Dublin, Daniel likely went by a canal
barge, towed by horses along the Royal Canal…
Once in Dublin Daniel would take a ferry boat across the
Irish Sea to Liverpool… The voyage to the United States on sailing ships
normally took about thirty-five days. Most emigrants travelled in the cheapest
class of accommodation, known as steerage...
As part of the emigrants fare for passage, they received food
from which they would prepare their meals during the 4-6 week journey.
At Liverpool each passenger receives weekly 5 lbs. of oatmeal, 2 1/2 lbs.
biscuit, 1 lb. flour, 2 lbs. rice, 1/2 lb. sugar, 1/2 lb. molasses, and 2
ounces of tea. He is obliged to cook it the best way he can in a cook shop 12
feet by 6!...
The road from Liverpool to New York, as they who have traveled it well know, is very long, crooked, rough,
and eminently disagreeable — Ralph
Waldo Emerson, aboard the packet ship to New York, 1833.
Daniel took this route across the Atlantic in 1830 aboard the
ship LIMA, along with 118 other passengers… Of the 119 passengers aboard the
ship LIMA, only twenty-six were age 25, or older. It was the next generation
looking for a new life in America.
A number of the passengers traveling on Daniel’s voyage were
families. Anne Clark, age 26, traveled with her six children, ages 3 months to
9 years… Her husband may have traveled earlier to earn enough money so the
family could then join him in America… Daniel’s ship, LIMA, departed Liverpool
on April 16th and would arrive in New York harbor on May 31, 1830… There
were no Visas or Passports required. So a person just walked off the boat and
into their future… From the time
Daniel left his home in Longford, to the time he would reach his destination,
Baltimore, Maryland, was about two months...
Daniel first worked as a Quarryman
in western Maryland, likely Washington County. During the decade of 1830s he
likely worked on the C&O Canal and the many locks that passed through Washington
County… Daniel declared his Intent to become a US Citizen at the Washington
County Courthouse in Hagerstown. This was the first step towards becoming a
naturalized US citizen… So Daniel likely spent at least ten years working as a
Quarryman in western Maryland, very likely on the C&O Canal. Sometime
between 1839 and 1844 Daniel would move to Baltimore.
It was in Baltimore that Daniel and Ellen Collins would meet.
Sixteen-year old Ellen Collins is believed to have arrived in New York on
November 6, 1848 aboard the Ship Columbus…
Her departure from County Tipperary, Ireland was during the fourth year of the
Great Famine.
Daniel Birmingham and Ellen Collins were married in
Baltimore, Maryland on December 31, 1849… The 1851 Baltimore City Directory lists
Daniel Birmingham as a Stone Cutter,
living on Falls Road. Nearly a decade
later, the 1858-59 City Directory listed Daniel’s occupation as a Stone Quarrier living at Greenmount near the Baltimore city limits.
From the 1860 Census Record we learned the first five
children of Daniel and Ellen were born in Baltimore County (Towsontown) William
(b. 1851), Mary Ellen (b. 1853), Margaret (b. 1855), Catherine (b. 1858), and
Daniel Collins (b. 1860)…
Quarrying in this area of Maryland was a prosperous business
in the mid-1800s...
The economy around Baltimore was shattered by the Civil War
and many immigrants like the Birmingham’s would need to move to find work after
the war…
Sometime after their sixth child, John Thomas, was born in
1866 the family would leave Baltimore and travel about 60 miles west to Rocky
Ridge, in Frederick County, Maryland. There, the Western Maryland Railway was
under construction…
When the Birmingham’s traveled westward, from Baltimore to
Rocky Ridge, the “Macadamized” road
surface was a relatively modern means of travel… Stagecoach travel was designed
with speed in mind and would average 60 to 70 miles in one day. So, the
journey from Baltimore to Rocky Ridge likely took just one day…
On April 28, 1869, Daniel and Ellen’s fourth daughter, their
seventh child, Sarah Jane Birmingham, was born in Rocky Ridge, Frederick
County, Maryland.
Sometime after the birth of Sarah Jane, either in late 1869
or early 1870, the family would again travel westward, this time to Somerset
County, Pennsylvania. To get to Somerset County the Birmingham’s would need to
pass through Cumberland, Maryland, where Daniel’s brother, James and his family
had been living for nearly 20 years…Daniel and his family would have stayed for
some time in Cumberland to visit with his brother, James and his family, before
continuing the journey north to Somerset County… Daniel’s family would return
to Cumberland to live a year or so later.
Around 1871 Daniel and Ellen and their seven children, ages 2
to 19, would leave Somerset County Pennsylvania for Cumberland, Maryland, 25
miles south. James Birmingham and his family had lived in Cumberland since 1851
and were now living on Wineow Street. Daniel and Ellen would take-up residence
at 24 Orchard Street, just around the corner from Wineow Street…
Daniel Birmingham died in Cumberland on March 11, 1872 at age
62. Father Ryan conducted a Requiem Mass at Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church for
Daniel on March 13, 1872... Daniel is buried at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery in
Cumberland in Plot A-111, Grave 2, alongside Mrs. James (Bridget) Birmingham in
Grave 1. Bridget Bradshaw Birmingham, the wife of James Birmingham, was buried
a month earlier on February 16, 1872. On April 1st that year, three
weeks after Daniel was buried his last son, James Edward Birmingham was born.
Ellen Collins Birmingham continued to live in Cumberland
along with her eight children, ages newborn to 21. The house at 24 Orchard
Street in Cumberland became the family homestead for another 40 years…
My great grandmother, Ellen Collins Birmingham died on
September 6, 1909, at the age of 78. The cause of her death was recorded as “general debility due to old age”. The
Death Certificate was signed by her son John. A handwritten note on the back of
the Death Certificate recorded Ellen’s death came at 11:40 at her residence, 24 Orchard. It also listed the names and
city of her five living children… including son Daniel, 49, in Pittsburgh…
A white stone marks
one of three BIRMINGHAM gravesites at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery in Cumberland,
Maryland.
James Birmingham and Bridget Bradshaw
Daniel’s younger brother, James Birmingham, was the seventh
child of William and Elizabeth. James left County Longford for North America during
the Great Famine. His wife Bridget Bradshaw may be the daughter of Michael
Bradshaw and Mary Ryan of Cappawhite in County Tipperary, Ireland.
I have no passenger list or immigration record that shows how
James Birmingham and Bridget Bradshaw arrived in America. We do know that James
and Bridget were married and had two children when they arrived in Cumberland
in 1850. Their first child, daughter Mary Ellen, was born in New York State
around 1847. And son James Jr. was born about 1849 in Vermont. Our records
clearly show the family lived in Cumberland, Maryland in 1851 when their third
child, Michael, was born on January 12, 1851, and baptized on February 2, 1851
at Saint Patrick’s Church. Six additional children were born to James and
Bridget, all baptized at Saint Patrick’s in Cumberland, Maryland...
The birth locations of their first three children is
instructive. They suggest that James and Bridget first immigrated to Quebec,
Canada, likely during the years of the Great Famine. From there, they traveled
south to the US, eventually getting to Cumberland, Maryland about 4 years later…
I believe James and Bridget traveled to Quebec around 1846, a
six week journey aboard a sailing ship. James was about 24 years old and
Bridget was 22. I suspect James’ planned destination was western Maryland where
his brother Daniel had lived since 1830. Daniel had worked the canals and
railroads in western Maryland and likely encouraged his brother to come there.
Western Maryland offered a good future for Irish immigrants at this time.
… Let’s follow a path from Quebec City, south through New
York State and Vermont, to New York City. From there we can get to Maryland.
There is a nearly 500 mile all-water route that
connects the St. Lawrence River with New York City. This was used by many 19th
century Irish immigrants coming to America. James and Bridget may have traveled
this traditional Native American route.
The Richelieu River branches off the St. Lawrence Seaway at Sorel-Tracy, just
west of Quebec City....
Such a route taken over a four year period would have allowed
James and Bridget time to work and earn money to sustain their needs for
housing and food, while saving money to complete their journey to a final
destination of Cumberland, Maryland. They would have had support from other
Irish immigrants living in the area. Having two children during this journey
would certainly have made the travel more difficult. That’s likely why it took
four or five years.
The final leg of this part of the journey was likely from
Great Falls, New York, down the Hudson River past Albany and to New York City…From
New York City there would have been Stage Coach Travel to Baltimore and then to
Cumberland…
James and Bridget and their two children likely arrived in
Cumberland, Maryland in late 1849 or 1850. On January 12, 1851 their third
child, Michael, was baptized at Saint Patrick’s Church in Cumberland, Maryland.
This was their first record of reaching America. A journey that likely started
4 to 5 years earlier.
The 1860 Census shows James and Bridget, both 32 years old,
along with six children ranging in age from 5 months to 13 years old, living in
the 6th District of Cumberland… The 1870 Census shows James and
Bridget still living in the 6th District of Cumberland, now with
eight children. James was working as a Laborer. The census records show son
James Jr. was also employed, and sons William, Edward and Robert were attending
school.
In 1871 the B&O Rail Rolling Mill, a large manufacturing
facility, was completed and began operation in Cumberland. The mill would
produce rails and other rolled products to support the eventual extension of
the B&O Railroad route from Cumberland to Pittsburgh. It would provide jobs
for many of the Birmingham family sons in Cumberland.
On February 16, 1872 Bridget Bradshaw Birmingham, the wife of
James, died at age 45. Her death was logged into the church record by Father
Brennen. She was buried the following day at Saint
Patrick’s Cemetery in Plot A-111, Grave 1. As noted earlier, her brother-in-law
Daniel Birmingham, died three weeks later and was buried in Plot A-111, Grave 2…
… James Birmingham, the
seventh child of William and Elizabeth Birmingham of Longford Ireland, would
die later that same year on December 24, 1878 at the age of 56. James is also
buried at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery.
After James’ death, his son James Birmingham Jr., a First
Generation American, would become the Head of Household for his siblings, as
well as his own family.
Patrick Birmingham and Mary McDonell
Patrick Birmingham was the youngest child of William and
Elizabeth of County Longford. Patrick was baptized at Parish Templemichael in
Longford on October 24, 1825. Patrick left Ireland in 1849 to immigrate to
America as the Great Famine was entering its fifth year. He travelled aboard
the ship St. George, arriving in New York on July 12, 1849. Patrick would make
his new home in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, just across the river
from lower Manhattan.
Patrick Birmingham and Mary McDonell, also an Irish
immigrant, would marry in New Jersey around 1859. Mary was born about 1825 in
Ireland. Patrick and Mary would give birth to seven children. Only four would
survive early childhood. Mary Jane, born April 19, 1860, John born in 1861, James
Francis, born July 28, 1867 and Margaret Anne Birmingham born on March 22,
1870. All were baptized at Saint Joseph Catholic Church on Pavonia Avenue.
Patrick worked for many years as a Laborer, a Painter and then
as a Night Watchman for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He supported Mary and their
four children… Later family addresses were 94 Waldo Avenue from 1892 through
1895, and 15 Henry Street from 1896 through 1903.
In 1897, Patrick Birmingham, the youngest brother of my great
grandfather Daniel, died in Jersey City on March 15. According to the Jersey
Journal newspaper Patrick Fell Dead on
the Street not far from his home at Tonnele and Newark Avenues. A Requiem
Mass at Saint Joseph’s Church was offered for
the happy repose of his soul on March 17, 1897.
... Mary McDonell Birmingham, age 67, and her four children,
and grandson James were living with her at 15 Henry Street. Daughter Mary Jane
was working as a Dressmaker, son John as a Gas fitter, son James as a Salesman
Patterns and daughter Margaret as a Teacher. Grandson James Francis (the son of
John) was attending school.
Mary McDonell Birmingham died in March 1907 at the age of 79.
Six months later, in December, her son John died at the age of 46. John and
Nellie’s 18-year old son, James Francis, would now live with his two aunts,
Mary Jane and Margaret.
Mary Jane Birmingham, the oldest daughter of Patrick
and Mary, attended school and completed the 8th grade. She would
work as a Dressmaker… She never married. Mary Jane and her sister Margaret Ann,
who also did not marry, would live together nearly all their lives. Both were
involved in a number of activities centered around the church and schools where
Margaret taught. Mary Jane Birmingham died in January of 1942 at the age of 82…
John Birmingham was the oldest son of Patrick and
Mary. John worked many years as a Plumber and later as a Steamfitter. Around
1888 he and Ellen (Nellie) Coyne would marry. John and Nellie gave birth to two
children, James Francis, born April 2, 1889, and John, born in 1891... Two
years later John’s young wife Nellie died on April 14, 1894. A Requiem Mass for
Nellie Coyne Birmingham was held at Saint Joseph Church…
By 1890 the two younger children of Patrick and Mary, James
and Margaret, were attending college. James attended Saint Peter’s College in
Jersey City and Margaret attended Columbia University in New York.
James Birmingham received his Bachelor of Arts degree
in 1890. At his Commencement, attended by all college faculty, James presented
an address on “Socialism”, a subject he
handled in an able and comprehensive manner. He defined the meaning of
socialism and inquired into the means by which its followers hope to remove
those evils against which it is directed.
It was in the mid-1880s, before starting college that James
Birmingham first became involved with Butterick
Publishing Company…At the time of James’ death in 1925 he had been
connected with the Butterick Publishing for nearly forty years. He had risen to
Vice-President and General Manager.
James Birmingham and Catherine Irene Nash married in 1893.
They would have seven children between 1895 and 1909. After James death,
Catherine and most of their seven children would move to the Santa Clara area
in California.
Margaret Ann
Birmingham was the youngest child of Patrick and Mary, born in 1870.
Margaret attended elementary school at Saint Joseph Parochial School… At her
commencement exercise on June 28, 1888 Margaret
was awarded a Silver Medal for proficiency in Christian Doctrine. In 1892
Margaret graduated from Columbia University where she majored in Art and Education...
In September, 1929, Miss Margaret Birmingham
was appointed Supervisor of Art training in the Jersey City Public Schools.
In addition to teaching, Margaret advocated the promotion of art work exhibits
to stimulate the interest of teachers, as well as that of the pupils and the
community. Outside the schools she was involved with a number of other
religious and community organizations to promote art. She lectured on Christian
art, stressing in particular Raphael, Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Margaret gave an Illustrated Lecture on
Catholic Art at a meeting of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin at Saint
Joseph’s Church. Margaret Birmingham was
described as an accomplished painter…
Margaret died suddenly on August 31, 1945 in her home. She
was 75 year old.
When one thinks about what might have been for the children
of Patrick and Mary had they stayed in Longford, rather than immigrating to
America, there is an astonishing contrast. To have elementary schools in one’s
neighborhood where even the poorest kids on the block can get a basic
education. The opportunity to attend high school whether it be at a parochial
school or the public school. The opportunity to attend Saint Peter’s College as
James did and pursue his interest in business. And to freely express his ideas
on sensitive issues such as “Socialism”, without retribution. And for Margaret,
a Catholic woman, to attend Columbia University, to be able to express her
ideas on Religion and Social issues through her Art. None of these
opportunities for growth and free expression would have been possible in the
Ireland that their parents, Patrick Birmingham and Mary McDonell, had left…
Extracted from book published by LULU.com
My
IRISH Ancestry
A
Family Remembrance
By
Daniel Patrick Birmingham------
January 25, 2021
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