William W Poole

William Poole, my grandfather, was born in Drumnabehy townland, Rearymore civil parish, Queens County, probably in early January, 1862 or possibly late in 1861, What we know for sure is that he was baptized in the Catholic church in Rosenallis on January 6, 1862. He was the fifth (and last) child of John Poole and Mary Dunne.

Drumnabehy is a townland in Rearymore civil parish, close to it's southern border with Rosenallis civil parish and is, in fact, part of the Rosenallis Roman catholic parish. Here on IrelandXO, I've associated William with both parishes for that reason. It's quite a small townland, with only sixteen houses shown in Griffith's Valuation in 1850 and only a few remaining today. John Poole leased 52 acres from Sir Capel Molyneux, a Baronet and the absentee landord over many thousands of acres in Ireland. The family was, however, better off than many. Their farm was fairly large and John leased two small houses on it to other folks, while retaining the greatest portion of the land for his own farming.

Today, the original house in which William and his siblings were born is no longer standing, having been replaced by a more modern home. I visited in 2019 and was only able to see some of the stones from the old house, now serving as part of a wall. The land is still occupied by a Poole, but not a direct relation. There are a surprising number of Pooles in Rosenallis and the surrounding area and while some of us may be connected in the distant past, it would take a lot of research to find out for sure.

No doubt, as the youngest son, William felt a need to find some other way to live than remaining on the farm. He learned to work as a carpenter and followed that trade when he first came to the United States in 1889. That's the year he reported on the 1900 and 1910 US censuses - I have not been able to find any record of his immigration so far.

We first find him in the United States in the 1892 New York State Census, living in a room in a tenement in Brooklyn. Immediately before his entry, possibly living in adjacent rooms, is the Head family, which includes a 16-year old granddaughter, Mary. William and Mary marry in 1896 and their first child, also William, is born in 1898. Over the next two decades, thirteen more children are born. As the size of the family increased, new living quarters had to be found every few years and the family gradually moved eastward, into the less populated areas of Brooklyn.

William died on February 23, 1918 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn. The youngest child at that time was only four and his wife Mary continued as the head of the family until her death in 1944. William's children were: William, Mary, John, Agnes, Charles (my own father), Joseph, James, Thomas Arthur(died as an infant), Monica, Catherine, Theresa, Loretta, Margaret and Thomas John. Two of the boys became priests and there of the girls were nuns in the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The profile picture shows all the children in the back yard of the family home they eventually acquired in Richmond Hill, Queens. It was taken around 1930.