How Gerry (Geraldine) Conway Morenski found some cousins (e-mail dated 10 December 2004)
I have visited Mocollop a few times, and got nowhere in finding what happened to the rest of the "Conways". In April of 2000, I was in the middle of teaching an Internet class, and a bit bored, so I did a quick search for "Conway" and up popped some messages on genealogy.com I noticed one that read "Conway of Waterford" The message had been written 9 months earlier, but one click and I found a cousin! Her grandfather was James Conway who was a brother to my grandfather, Denis Conway. Cousin Mary and I live about 20 miles from one another! Of course, we met immediately, and shared the information each of us had gathered. The one question that we had was: what happened to David's wife (our g-grandmother) Johanna? Mary told me that in her family the story was that when g-grandfather David died in Ireland, 'the boys' (our grandfathers) wrote to their Mom and told her to come to the U.S. All she needed to bring was the clock. We think the clock was a valued gift to David and Johanna from the Drew family, as David's gravestone states his length of service to the family. Mary and I spend time searching records here. It was very frustrating, but it nagged at both of us. What had happened to Johanna? We both had this feeling that Johanna wanted to be found. I decided to spend some time at the Lynn Public Library in Lynn, Massachusetts where I had been raised. My father's parents had met and married there. Using Mary's information and the date of death on David's grave in Mocollop, I did some basic math and began to look for information between 1894-1910. Finally, I was able to find Johanna's obituary (Dec. 1904). All of the information fit our puzzle. Mary and I then searched for her burial place. This was not fun. However, the obituary stated that she was buried in Danvers, MA. Mary's family is in the same cemetery. In Mary's case there are Conways married to Cahills, who we believe come from Cappoquin and Ballyduff. We decided that Johanna must have been buried in one of the graves, and it was just not recorded at the cemetery - not an unusual happening. I returned to Mocollop with my daughter just after 9/11. We spent time with Jimmy Whalen (the farmer that rents the former schoolhouse) At that time I contracted with a stonemason to clean up the Conway stone, and I scooped a little dirt to smuggle home. In 2003 Cousin Mary and I bought a stone for our G-Grandmother, Johanna, and picked a day to dedicate it. The cemetery superintendent had no problem with our just placing it in the vicinity of where we thought she may have been buried. Mary and I both thought that she deserved a marker. After all, this 60ish lady had left her home in Ireland and traveled to the U.S. It must have been terrifying. THE WEEK BEFORE our proposed dedication, I got an email with the subject line: "I think I'm a cousin." It turns out that she is the g-great granddaughter of David Conway, the oldest son of the David & Johanna Conway and a brother to our grandfathers. Once Robin heard our story, she agreed that Johanna must have been buried in her oldest son's plot. (He bought a large plot in the 1870s - and that is on record.) So, on a sunny day in September of 2003, the three of us met at St. Mary's cemetery in Danvers, Massachusetts, and spinkled some dirt from Mocollop, drank a little Mead, and said some prayers over our Johanna. Then Robin presented Mary and I each with a small photo - of Johanna! The photo had been tucked behind a photo of Robins g-great grandfather, David - Johanna's oldest son. Maybe our piece of the Mocollop story will be a help to someone...Mary and I are convinced that some of the Cahills of Cappoquin came to Massachusetts, in particular: Salem, Danvers, and Lynn. The Conways (David, Mary, James & Dennis) came later (1860-1894). They probably settled in this area because of their relationship with the Cahills