Feature : Family Genealogy
Published 04 Jul 2006
In recent years my father has traced our family genealogy back several generations. He has uncovered some very interesting facts and stories, and even established contact with some distant relatives by publishing some of the following information here on the web.
Irish Ancestry (A'Hearn)
"Through difficulty I rise."
My earliest known paternal ancestors date back six generations to the early 19th century in Ireland. After a number of years of genealogical research, my father has been fortunate in uncovering a fair amount of information about our Irish roots (as well as some information about his maternal ancestors from Wales). A brief summary...
[1]. My great-great-great grandfather, Maurice Ahern was born in the late 1830s or early 1840s in Athea, County Limerick, Ireland. He married Joanna Connell. They had at least three sons and a daughter.
[2]. One of their sons, Jeremiah A'Hearn, was my great-great grandfather. He was born in 1868 and emigrated to the United States sometime in the 1880s. Jeremiah settled in Cortland, New York and eventually became a foreman at the Wickwire Brothers company there. He married Maria Kane (originally from County Roscommon, Ireland). They had five sons and one daughter (who died as an infant). Following Maria's somewhat untimely death, Jeremiah re-married. With his new wife, Marie Weissler from France, he had another daughter, Odile. Jeremiah, Maria, and Marie are all buried in an A'Hearn family plot St. Mary's Cemetery in Cortland.
[3]. The youngest of Jeremiah and Maria's five sons, Joseph Francis A'Hearn, was my greatgrandfather. Born in 1898, Joseph fought in World War I with the American Expeditionary Force in France. After the war, he married Viola Verrette (of French Canadian descent; her father was from Trois Rivieres, Quebec). Joseph and Viola settled in Syracuse, New York and had four sons. Joseph worked for many years at the New Process Gear company. Joseph and Viola are buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Minoa, NY.
[4]. The oldest of their four sons, Robert Joseph A'Hearn, was my grandfather. Robert was born in 1921 and married Anna Louise Daniels (Welsh descent) in 1941. They lived in Syracuse, NY and had one son, Francis (my father). Anna's mother was Frances Harris Daniels (my father's maternal grandmother). My father spent many hours with her while he was growing up, and she had an enormously positive influence on his life. Anna died in 1956 while Francis was still a young child. Anna is buried along with her father and mother in a small cemetery in Peckville, PA. Robert is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Minoa, NY.
[5]. My father, Francis William A'Hearn is Robert's and Anna's son. Born November 11, 1945, he married Sharon Marie Godleski in 1967 and spent 26 years in the Air Force, retiring at the rank of Colonel after having lived in places like Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Iceland. He earned a doctoral degree and is now engaged in his second career as a professor at National Defense University, living and working in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.
[6]. My older brother, Noel Todd A'Hearn was born in 1973 in Dayton, Ohio, graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1995, and married Christine Keenan in 1997. I am Francis' and Sharon's younger son, Scott Daniel A'Hearn. I was born in 1977 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland and graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1999. I married Stephanie Baerent in 2003.
[7]. Noel and his wife Christine have two children: Liam Joseph A'Hearn (born July 2, 2002) and Clare Helen A'Hearn (born May 29, 2004).
