Mick McGilligan's Blog

Some of you may have heard that we went to Ireland in August. We had a great time around the Dublin area. We decided to rent a car and go looking for our roots in Fintina County Tyrone. We had some intell from Mom, Pat & Maura about a store named PJ Loans that was owned by relatives that they had stopped by 20 years ago. We drove for 3 plus hours and after some searching found the store. Sure enough it was owned by the Loan family. We met Kieran (lavender shirt)at the store who is the son of Patrick that mom met years ago. He introduced us to his brother Matt (not shown). They admitted a lack of family history knowledge. Kieran brought us up to the family land in the hills to meet cousin Matt(blue polo). Not to be confused with brother Matt. We enjoyed meeting him for an hour or so. Then they said we had to meet cousin Susan Loan Dorrian and her husband Geoff (above). We drove back into town to Susan's house. She welcomed us with open arms.

After a some refreshments she pulled out a long scroll. It was the line of Matthew Loan (about eight generations ago). She showed us were she and her two cousins fit in (visually on the right end) and then headed left coming down a few generations were a Loan married a McMahon. She proceeded down the page to Joseph McMahon married to Ella Curtin had four boys, Joseph, George, Raymond and Paul. Liza and I were in shock and Susan was very excited. Then she showed us a photo album of pictures mailed to her years ago by Mary Curtin. They included a photo of Joseph & Ella and one that read Raymond McMahon and his girlfriend Marianne.

Needless to say we were on a high when we left. I plan on keeping in touch with them and see if we can get them to visit the states

Take care all,

Marty