To borrow a phrase from the people who inspired this work, "It all started . . .", huge credits go to Harold and Mary Lou (my Uncle Obie and Aunt Lou) O'Brien for inspiring me early in my teenage years to pursue this quest for family lineage and information. I have found their works to be the foundation for how this has all developed. Many other family members have since contributed, all along the branches of Montgomerys, McMenamins, Fitzgeralds, McCormicks, and other Lines. At current count, over 7,000 names are included in the database.
Primarily, the Montgomerys, McMenamins, Fitzgeralds, and McCormicks came from Ireland with a little Scotch and French along the way. Recently, our Montgomery connections have been established in Ireland, only to find they were "short-lived" there and had come from Scotland - the Scots-Irish - somewhat shortly before they left for America. Their trip to America came in 1718, arriving in Boston Harbor, went briefly up to Maine, back to Massachusetts, and then west over the next nearly 300 years, eventually spanning this great country.
Events in history, changes to societies and ways of life through the overview of timelines of this period reveal only glimpses into the detail of daily lives of our ancestors. With these events and changes in mind, we can imagine how peaceful or tumultuous those times were, how daily lives were lived, why they left home and family for promises, how so much was undertaken and given for us to live as we do today.
The music background for this page is
"The Hills of Ireland"
by Enya
Ireland is the "Homeland" of
William and Mary (Aiken) Montgomery,
the first in this Montgomery Family line
to arrive in the American Colonies, in 1718.
This branch of Montgomerys . . .
A Montgomery Family Genealogy
As recorded and developed by W.J. Montgomery
