Happy New Year! I hope 2018 is good to you and yours!
Thank you so much for all of this information! I wish I had as much to share with you. I don't think I'll ever forget seeing the 1901 Irish census with my grandfather's family because so many of the names were familiar, it was like looking at a list of my aunts and uncles.
I would love a copy of the article! My email is
Removed Let me know if you need my address. I do have a picture of my grandfather Hugh if you'd like it. It's the only one I've ever seen of him. I think it was taken in the early 1900's - like 1910-1920, but it's only a guess from the style of his collar.
Hugh and Rosa had a total of 12 kids. Samuel (Sept 23, 1908 Ireland-May 13, 1984 Rhode Island US), Henrietta (Jan 28, 1910 Comber Ireland - Nov 8, 1993 California US), Rosanna Evelyn (Feb 1, 1912 Vancouver BC - July 12, 1999 California US), Susannah (1914 Vancouver BC- Nov 6, 1927 Vancouver BC), David (Jan 12, 1916 Ballyskeah Ireland- June 7, 1985 Washington state US), Hugh (Jan 12, 1916 - Nov 28, 1916 Ballyskeagh Ireland), Hugh (Feb 21, 1918 Ballyskeagh Ireland - Sept 17, 2000 California US), Thomas William (Feb 21, 1918 Ballyskeagh Ireland - Aug 13, 1954 California US), Albert (July 27, 1919 Vancouver BC - Nov 28, 1946 Brittania Beach BC), Irene (June 22, 1922 Vancouver BC - August 24, 1997 California US), Lorna Agnes (Feb 16, 1925 Vancouver BC - Nov 4, 2002 California US), Joseph Azar (Sept 14, 1923 Vancouver BC - Dec 17, 2004 California US). Joe was my dad. He came about his not so Irish name from a man his dad worked with in Vancouver.
Have you come across the last name Fitzsimons in looking at the Neills? That was my grandmother's maiden name. She was born in West Derby, near Liverpool England, but her parents and other siblings I've found were born in Northern Ireland. Haven't a clue why they trekked over to England to have her. I ask because I found a tiny news article about David Rathmore Neill where he crashed a motorcycle and with him were the "Fitzsimons kids". That's all the article says about them. I think the article was from the 1920's. David was knocked unconscious, but taken home and recovered. I haven't found any kids from Rosa's siblings that would have fit the description of "the Fitzsimons kids".
Hugh (my grandfather) died in 1932 from a farming accident. They had a farm in central California (town named Reedly) and he was trying to get a bull to mate a cow and the bull gored him. His son Hugh and I think Hugh's twin Tommy were there and pulled him out of the pen and got him home. My aunt Renee (Irene) told me that she remembered hearing him groaning in pain for several days before (in her words) someone came and took him to the hospital, where he died. That left Rosa with a lot of kids to raise! Samuel and Etta (Henrietta) had already gone out on their own. Lynn (Rosanna Evelyn) dropped out of school to help Rosa. David was always a wanderer and not home much (my dad told me once that the kids would be walking to school and they would turn left, while David just kept walking straight and they wouldn't see him again for months). Hugh, Tommy and Albert helped out a lot, but Albert I think got into a lot of trouble. He did serve time in prison for theft and robbery in the 1940's before being killed in a mining accident in BC. Renee, Lorna and my dad were the youngest. Surprisingly few kids from all of those Neill's. I have two brothers (David and Michael) and a sister (Valerie) from my dad's first marriage. Renee had a son and daughter. Hugh had a son and daughter. Sam had one son. Lorna had one son.
My brother Dave and I are hoping to make a trip to Ireland next year. It's something I've always wanted to do and now finding all this family really makes me want to go.
Do you use Ancestry.com? If you do, my tree is called "Neill - Harding family tree". I'm slowly putting the documents I'm finding on individual records and linking to what others have put up. I found the image of James Neill's headstone that I've attached. It was taken in 2001 in Crossgar.
Take care!
Sally
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