Thank you so much for all this information. It helps a lot.
My grandfather, Walter, died when I was about five, so I do not remember much about him. I know he and my grandmother married, emigrated to the US, and returned to Ireland for a short time. It is at that time my oldest aunt, Anne was born.
After returning to the states my grandfather worked on the docks until he became a police officer in Fall River, MA. At that time Fall River was the cotton textile capital of the US and second only to Manchester, England. Ironically, I became a police officer and rose through the ranks to become a Police Chief. I hope I made my grandfather proud.
He and my grandmother Mary Roche Smith had eleven children, but three died very young. Mary was a Catholic commoner who, according to my father, used to watch Walter ride in fox hunts. When he converted, supposedly his father disowned him for a while.
A late cousin compiled quite a bit of information on the family and traced our routes back to Cromwell. Supposedly, one of our ancestors arrived in Ireland with Cromwell.
With the family Bible, I located much paperwork and one was a story about life at Dananstown House. I guess Humphrey purchased the property around the mid to late 1850s and eleven children were born there. The story tells of how the children could not go to the local schools or leave the property because they were Protestant and were bullied by the many Catholic children who lived in the area. They were tutored at home.
Should you find anything about the Smith Family Burial Vault, I would appreciate the information.
Thanks again,
Jim