Hi Mary,
I can’t thank you and the other contributors of this post enough. Michael and Ellen Roche are my great-great grandparents and I’ve been searching for more information about them for over 30 years, including two trips to Ireland.
I am the great-granddaughter of their youngest born, John (b.1878) and finding information about this family has been very, very difficult. I don’t know what happened, but “Jack” as he was known, didnt like to talk about Ireland. Family lore states that he emigrated to America when he was 15, although I’ve never been able to confirm that with documents. Of the documents I have, that 100% belong to him, I have multiple birth dates and years, no specific location besides Cork, as well as wrong surname spellings, etc. Its as if he didn’t really know the information himself. Combine that with the ubiquity of our surname and it’s been like searching for a needle in a haystack. This thread is beyond thrilling to me!
While I know virtually nothing about his Irish family, I can tell you that Jack said he entered the US via New York, though I have no supporting docs. Jack won a job on the Railroad through a boxing match and spent several years crisscrossing the country, building the railroad. He made a life in International Falls, Minnesota, where the railroad enters Canada. The literal “end of the line.” He met a woman from Fermoy that he hadn't known in Ireland, and they married and had five kids.
There’s so much more to tell. Now that I have the information you provided, along with the links, dates, etc. I will be researching like mad!
Thank you!
Kate
