My great Grandfather Eamonn O'Ragailligh (Edmund O'Reilly), was broken out of jail and put on a boat with my great grandmother and their 5 youngest kids, shortly before Easter 1916 by his two oldest sons- ages 14 and 16. He had stabbed a garda trying to arrest him for singing a forbidden song. The 16 year old died in the Easter Rebellion. The 14 year old eventually emigrated to Australia. My grandfather was born on the boat, two days out of New York, and corresponded with, but never met his older brother in Australia.
On my dad's side, my grandmother, another Irish immigrant, was famed for her cooking, and worked in some famous summer homes- she did all the dinner parties for Robert Montgomery when he was a movie star, along with other wealthy patrons. Her funeral was well attended by both the local farmers and her very wealthy employers....