Last year, my son made an amazing discovery! After tracking the geneaology of every ancestor in our family tree, he learned the story of the our first Irish ancestors who emigrated to the United States when they were young. Patrick Grace, most probably from County Kilkenny, was born in 1841. It seems that after he worked for a time at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, he made his way to the northeast, eventually settling in the Blackstone Valley where textile manufacturing work was plentiful. He worked in a felt mill in that area, but after he married Ann McNally, the couple relocated to Lawrence, Massachusetts for a time, following mill work there. Later, they moved back to the Blackstone, Massachusetts and that is where they settled for the rest of their lives. James notes that the death certificates indicate that many family members succumbed at an early age, due to medical problems brought on by adverse working conditions in the mills. The worst problems were caused by exposure to the toxic fumes of rubber mills but with their poor ventilation, airborne cotton linters and other occupational hazards, textile mills offered both a hot and a dangerous line of work.

James Gorham (my son) stands at the McNally family gravestone in Blackstone, MA. The monument to his great-great grandparents, Patrick and Ann (McNally) Grace, who are buried in the same cemetery, is among the missing, a situation he would like to rectify.

The plot thickens! Last year, James showed my husband and I the McNally family gravestone. He was able to determine that Patrick and Ann Grace (my great grandparents) were communicants of St. Paul’s Church in Blackstone and they are both listed as being buried in the church cemetery. After wearing his shoe leather thin, walking and scanning all of the gravestones, James was unable to find a headstone for the Graces. After further inquiry, he contacted the church and learned that many of its records were lost when the church burnt to the ground in the (1920s). During World War II, the cemetery was untended and the grave markers in the oldest section were lost. That is where it is assumed my ancestors are buried.

James would love to be able to purchase a stone on behalf of the folks who sought a better life here in America. Donations from family members or any other willing party will be gratefully accepted. At the moment, he has raised $250 dollars, a sum that falls far short of the amount needed to buy any kind of grave marker. We hope that by this coming Spring, he will have donations sufficient enough to purchase a monument. It would be very pleasing to honor these poor immigrants who lived and died while building the America we know today. I am telling you this story, in the hope that you might encourage James by sending a small amount, even one dollar. Your support would be greatly appreciated and very meaningful. Please contact me for further details. Thanks so much.

Patricia (Grace) Cummings
pat@quiltersmuse.com

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