Our Irish Ancestors

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of all things Irish, I decided to write up a little overview of my Irish ancestors on my maternal grandmother's side (Jacqueline Ann Mulry Lutz, see the last post for more about her). So if you're related to me through her side, these are your ancestors, too!

Mulry, Reardon, Dunn

The Mulry family originally came to Indianapolis in the 1860s. John Mulry was born in 1845 in Co. Galway, Ireland and his wife Mary Ellen Reardon was born in 1848 in Co. Limerick. They came over the same year and met and were married in Boston, Massachusetts. John ran a blacksmith shop with his brother Lawrence in Indianapolis, and they lived in the Fountain Square neighborhood. They were members of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Fountain Square, and most of them are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery on the near south side.



John & Mary Mulry's grave in Holy Cross Cemetery in Indianapolis - buried with their young daughter Mamie

St. Patrick's Church in Fountain Square, Indianapolis.
Courtesy of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis

 

John's parents were James Mulry and Mary Dunn. They were married in 1837 in Co. Galway. They lived in parish of Killian in the townland of Toomard.

Garrity, Walsh, O'Donnell, Hessian

This side of the family lived in and around Connersville, Indiana. My great-great grandmother, Katharine Garrity Fox, was my grandma Jackie's maternal grandmother. Katharine was the daughter of John Garrity and Anna Walsh and was born in Connersville in 1889.

John Garrity was born in 1857 in Indiana to Irish immigrants Patrick Garrity (Geraghty) and Hannah O'Donnell. Patrick was born in 1829 in Co. Mayo, and Hannah was born in 1832 in Co. Galway to Pat O'Donnell and Mary Hessian. Patrick and Hannah were married in 1849 in Co. Mayo, and their first child was born there in 1850. They then immigrated to Wayne Co., Indiana, during the Potato Famine, and had several more children in Indiana.

Anna Walsh was born in 1859 in England to Irish parents, Edward and Winifred Walsh. Edward died young, and Winifred and their three children, Anna, Mary, and John immigrated to Connersville, Fayette, Indiana in the early 1860s. They were members of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, and many of them are buried in the Connersville City Cemetery. Anna was left to care for many young children when her husband John died young in 1895. Anna passed away in 1905 in Connersville, and her younger children went to live with her sister Mary in Indianapolis. This is how Katharine Garrity Fox came to live in Indianapolis.

Katharine Garrity Fox

All of our Irish ancestors were Catholics, and so we owe their faith originally to St. Patrick! My great-great uncle, Larry Mulry, told the story:

“The best story of all that I ever heard of all of them was the one about Grandma wanting to make a priest out of my father Lawrence. As you can plainly see, it is a good thing that she did not succeed because none of us would be here now as he was the only one to have any children to carry on the name.”

 

So now you know we really have the luck of the Irish!

 

This photo was taken by Beautiful Ireland Photography specifically for my Mulry Family History book. This road is near Toomard, Killian, Co. Galway, where the Mulry family was from.

A keepsake of my great-grandfather's brother, Larry Mulry "Mike"
 

 

 

Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day, and to my family - keep your Irish pride alive!

 

Katie

 

This Day in my Family History: Grandma Jackie Mulry Lutz

This day in my family history is particularly special, as it is my grandma's birthday. She was born Jacqueline Ann Mulry on March 10, 1945, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to James and Mary Ann Fox Mulry. She was a very special lady, and tragically passed away in a car accident in 1993, when I was 7. But I still have many memories of her, and thought I'd share some fun memories of her on this post, as well as those of some of my other family members.

Me & Grandma

Remembering her as a young child, the first things that pop into my head are the funny memories. I remember her doing the splits in her kitchen, and wearing a funny hat in the convertible driving ahead of us. One thing I don't really remember, but have seen on video, is when I was a flower girl at my aunt's wedding, I think I was 4. I was up front pouting and throwing a silent temper tantrum, and she was sitting in the front row snapping at me to come sit next to her. Ha! Another time I was in the car with her, probably heading to the salon, and she was whipping around the corners a little fast and I told her, "Grandma, you have to be careful with me!"

Apparently she was a trickster, too. She and my uncle would pour cold water on each other in the shower. James, my uncle, would also put fake snakes in the bathtub to freak her out, because she hated snakes. One time when the family was camping at SNH Campground, which they did often, she and two of her friends stayed up half the night making the word "COLD" out of paper and taped it up on the camp shower house so that it read "COLD SHOWERS" because they were tired of taking cold showers there!

She loved animals, which is I think where all of us get it. She had always had cats, and loved her white cat named Zero. One time she was serving a big chicken dinner and Zero got up on the table and ran all the way across it, making a huge mess. I also remember her waking me up when I spent the night at their house to show me the raccoons on their porch.

Grandma loved her family, and she loved Jesus. I know we'll see her again some day. Happy birthday, Grandma!