<HOME

We have some interesting ancestors. Some were good and some were not so good. Like it or not, we inherited their genes. Some of us resemble them, some of us act like them and when you look at your children you are sometimes seeing one of them and not even knowing it. I have lots of records- some dating back to 1642 when the first of our ancestors came to Long Island. Dad and I have done research in Ireland and some of the churches here in New York. I know lots of stories about many of them - some of the stories were passed down by my grandparents, parents and aunts and uncles. It would be a shame to lose this information so I am making this site available. I will be posting pictures of your ancestors and telling stories about them. If you have any questions, please let me know. Some day you will be glad you have all this information. It is amazing to me that we can put everything on a website like this.

---Mom

The First Section is Focused on...James William McGunnigle

Digging Up The Past
Newspaper articles about Michael Condon

Michael Condon
His story as told by Susan McGunnigle Condon

View His Birth Certificate

View His Marriage Certificate

View His Death Certificate


"Little Feet"
The poem "Little Feet" was written by Frederick Blankmeyer who lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I believe Frederick was my Grandmother's (Lillian Blankmeyer's) Uncle. I think her father's name was Joseph. The story that I have heard about Frederick is that he and his brother, Joseph, were printers in Brooklyn in the 1800's. Frederick and his wife had several children (the number I heard was 17). Several groups of the children died from smallpox. Thus, he wrote this very touching poem about "Little Feet". I believe he had four or five surviving children.

His brother Joseph who was married to my great grandmother Louise Verity died when he was 32 years old of what was called "tuberculosis of the hip". It was thought later on that he died of bone cancer. He was a writer also and when he became sick he left his wife and five children and went to live in a cottage on the back of the property so that his children would not have to watch him die. After his death, my great grandmother had to farm out her children to relatives because she had no income to support them. My grandmother did, however, stay with her. Her sister, Jane (Aunt Jen) was sent to live with some cousins - the Strongs (James Strong wrote "Strong's Concordance to the Bible.") Frederick Blankmeyer also wrote a poem about the Bible which I have and will try to find and send to the website. Some of you older children might remember Aunt Jen Blankmeyer - she lived with Aunt Pearl when she was older and died when she was in her nineties. She always promised Dad that she would give him James Strong's original Bible but another relative got it instead when she died.

Click here to read "Little Feet"

Aunts at the beach: Aunt Margaret(McGunnigle), Aunt Emily(McGunnigle), Aunt Alice (McGunnigle) Aunt Pearl(Dussault) and my mother, Gertie (Dussault) the two kids are Aunt Pearl's- George and Pat. All of the aunts knew each other before my parents married because they all worked together in the telephone company in Hempstead.