October 24: Family stories

I talked to my aunt, who had dabbled in family history, about Edward's brother Richard. She wasn't sure, but said her father had talked about the "Kansas City relatives" and that one of them was a horse thief and was hanged out west.

Maybe?

Then my uncle told me that his dad always claimed that the first generation American brothers split up as young adults--one became a bricklayer in St. Louis (which checks out, that’s how he met Jenny), and the other went back to Ireland.

Back to Ireland?

Was that even a thing?

Horse thief or did he go back to his father’s land? Or did he drown or die in a house fire in the shantytown where they all lived?

Dead ends disturb me.


Picture: My grandfather Richard (names...) in his navy blues, with his father, who was Jenny's and Edward's son.