Hi, Otto.
Is St. Patrick's day really an Irish thing?
) I heard somewhere along the line we Americans made it up. Either way, I'm happy. We get a free ice cream cone at every Stewart's shop if we wear something green into the store.
I joined the Emerald Isle web site for a month. I believe it has already helped because I got information that I didn't get from
http://www.lds.org.
I believe I found Mary Jane Beattie's parents - John Beattie and Mary Jane Hanna.
It is more likely that James Hillis and Agnes Drummond are Alexander's parents. The name Agnes has gone through at least two generations of our family. I wish I could find a way to verify it. Although my grandmother had Dineley family in Dublin, she did not name any of her children with their first names. She tended to use their names for middle names. I could be a tradition to give name that way, though.
There is a story in our family that her father was not happy with her and disowned her for marrying someone from Belfast. I do not know if it is true or not. Her parents were divorced. She did visit her brothers and sisters later on.
Before his stroke about 12 years ago my father kept mentioning something about "Gavin", but I'm wondering if it's really Cavan. He thought Gavin was a last name in our family. My uncle keeps mentioning Sligo, but I could never find anything that made any sense in Sligo.
Would it be possible to convert the newspaper article into a .pdf file and send it directly to my email address at
haleasdollclothes@yahoo.com? If you don't have a converter you can get a free converter/printer; Google Primo PDF.
Do you visit PRONI? I will be happy to pay you to try to find Alexander's exact birth date, his mother's name, and if he has any brothers or sisters. There is a story in the family that he said he would take care of two spinster sisters. I'm wondering if he really said he would marry Mary Jane Beattie because her father was in jail.
I would give anything to visit both Ireland and Northern Ireland, but I get seizures that are set off by vibrations and other triggers. Can't get off a plane or boat when I would need to. I would either be very ill or dead by the time I got there.
If I said this before, just ignore it. My brother lived in Thetford, England for a few years. He bought a used Mercedes Benz delivery truck, renovated it into a recreational vehicle, and took my parents around the entire outside of Northern Ireland and Ireland for a couple of weeks.
He said it was very strange and exciting to step off the ferry. He got goosebumps because a lot of people looked like they could be our relatives. I thought that was interesting.
He also got goosebumps visiting the docks at the Belfast shipyard. Two or three of Alexander's sons worked on the Titanic doing fancy molding there, too. I was able to Google Earth the docks and the street where my grandfather grew up. Unfortunately, the home where he grew up was torn down and rebuilt, so I didn't see anything really exciting. I believe it's Hornby Street.
And, my brother got goosebumps visiting the grave of Alexander Hillis. There was a headstone of a woman next to him. It may have been his daughter, Agnes or Annie. She died of arthritis very early. I'll have to look in my files again.
Kathy (Hillis) Dickinson