Bridget Teresa Walsh / Thomas Francis Barry

[shelagh]

Bridget Teresa Walsh / Thomas Francis Barry. My great granparents met and married in Worcester at St Paul's, though both were born in Ireland and immigrated in the 1870s. Her mother was Mary Hogan Walsh Shannon and had another daughter Kate Shannon. I don't know if either one (mother or half-sister) ever resided in the states. I believe they were from County Clare. He is supposed to have come from County Cork, and worked in a brewery in Worcester. They had 15 kids as I have heard the story told, but eight survived to adulthood: Marion, Ella, Evelyn (Darrell), Frank, Rita (Estabrook, elementary school principle), Arthur (the infamous jewel thief), Lucy (Manning, my grandmother), and William (Billy, seaman) None of the men ever married. I know I have relatives galore either in or with ties to Worcester. My hope is that someoned knows something about the origns of either one or both of my GGPs and is willing to share it.

[merski]

I just finished reading "The Gentleman was a Thief" about Arthur Barry....I had to purchase a copy because it didn't appear to be available through inter-library loan.  I bet an obituary of Bridget or Thomas might give some relatives.  Also the obit of Arthur Barry himself as the obit would have listed living relatives.  Good luck!  Where do you live?

[shelagh]

HI. As one of his great nieces and nephews (there are a bunch of us), I also purchased and read the book. Its a pretty romantic account of Uncle Art's exploits, but a perusal of the newspapers is much more revealing. He was no angel, and while I'm sure he mellowed with age and incarceration, he ran with a rough bunch and more than one incident he was invoved in resulted in someone being killed. That being said, I spent a lot of time around him as a kid, and he was my favorite of the elderly relatives; kind, funny, patient, and he could pull a quarter out of your ear! He also could tie the bow on a crinoline dress beautifully, and my sister and I would always ask him to tie our bows before church (in case you're a youngster, I'll tell you that in the late 50s and early 60s, little girls wore dresses with big puffed-out skirts with layered petticoats under them that buttoned down the back and had a big ribbon bow at the back waist, like "Lucy" in the Peanuts cartoons).
On the subject of obituaries, I don't have copies of them, nor have I ever seen them, and I'm not aware of any of my sibs or cousins having them either. The Worcester Telegram doesn't appear to have online archives prior to the merger (198?) and I can't get to Massachusetts to get a library card, which is needed to use theirewspaper archives . I've emailed the Worcester library numerous times about accessing  their databases, and they don't answer.
Anyway, I'm east of the Missippi and north of the Mason-Dixon line. Are you a relative?
Since my first post,  I found a long-lost copy of a few notes made by my grandmother that say that Bridget Walsh  hada sister Mary who married William Abraham (I think I found them in the 1900 census) and that Thomas Barry had brothers Michael and Patrick and a sister Margaret. So....lots more to look at.

[merski]

No, I'm not related just interested in Worcester Irish genealogy.

[shelagh]

It's pretty fascinating stuff! I would also say that Uncle Art's sisters (he had 5- they were my GM and my great aunts) didn't find his activities very amusing. They did their best to hide their relationship to Art, and did not talk about his history, and to this day, one of my aunts is afraid her "reputation" will be ruined if the family tie is exposed...seriously. She's well into her eighties. One sister, Evelyn Barry Bjorkman, was married to a prominent lawyer, another (Rita Barry Estabrook) was an elementary school teacher, then principal. Two others were married to nice gents, a city fireman and a leather manufacturer, but one (Ella Barry Galvin) gave birth to two sons who tried to repeat Art's achievements a decade later, and although not as successful, they also did time. BTW, Art's older brother Big Frank (actually Michael) did 20 years at Weathersfield State Prison in Connecticut for blowing the safe at a department store in Derby, Ct around 1919. Art was probably in on it, as they were sharing digs in Bridgeport at the time, but he was never charged. They had a younger brother Billy who was always around, and was staying with Art at Lake Ronkonkoma when he was busted, but they must have protected him, because he was never arrested. He joined the Navy around 1920, then was a merchant sailor for much of his life. I'm happy to say the larceny gene seems to have been confined to that generation.
There is a 1956 Life Magazine article about Art on Google Books, if you want to read it. It's reproduced in its entirety.
Have you any suggestions for getting hold of Worcester obits from the 30s and 40s?

[merski]

Give me the dates of death and I'll look them up the next time I'm in worcester unless someone from this board who lives in worcester wants to do it.  Do you have an email address?  I can look on genealogybank online and send you a few files...