The game is afoot to uncover my Irish and Canadian family’s unknown and lost 35 years of history on an island part of the Thousand Islands in Canada.

I’m digging up documents my ancestors left from their lives in Kingston and Wolfe Island, Ontario, Canada, before homesteading in rural Minnesota. Perseverance and Irish wit were certainly perfected en route to the United States. It’s a gift that’s certainly been passed to me and other family members.

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1950s in Murdock, Minnesota: Mary Jannet “Jennie” Foley Walsh with husband Martin J. Walsh Sr., Murdock, Minnesota, both are from Irish backgrounds. Their Irish families emigrated to New Brunswick and Ontario, Canada, before homesteading in rural Minnesota. Photo was taken in the 1950s by their son Martin J. Walsh Jr., an amateur photographer.

One of my Irish ancestors made his journey as a widower from Ireland before the Great Famine, 1845-1852, stopping off first with his oldest son in Canada for an extended stay of 35 years, long enough to get married a second time, work as a farmer, raise a generation of eight Canadian born children with his second wife. That’s exactly what my Great-Great-Grandfather Michael J. Walsh Sr. did (1812, Co Kilkenny, Ireland -1901, Murdock, Dublin Township, Swift County, Minnesota).

Obituaries and church documents

With a copy of my Great-Great-Grandfather Michael John Walsh Sr.’s obituary from the Murdock Voice, December 12, 1901, in Murdock, Minnesota,…