My g-g-grandmother was Sarah LARKIN, b. 1843 or so, from Co. Roscommon. Her father was Patrick and her mother was Nancy (maiden unknown), according to her death certificate. Her family owned/rented a farm and had neighbors named O'Brien.

Sarah married a George McArthur approx 1863 and emigrated to the US (Michigan). Husband was ambushed and killed by Indians there and she supposedly went back to Ireland with her daughter, Mary Jane McArthur. The two of them then show up in the 1880 census living in Lowell, MA. We're not sure why they ended up there. (The priest officiating at Mary Jane's wedding in 1889 was a William O'Brien, and we thought there might be a connection to the neighbors in Roscommon, but I have since found out he was born in Ballina, Tipperary.) Sarah died in Lowell in 1889.

The source of the info re birthplace, marriage, travel, etc., was my great-aunt, who was born in 1898 (and died still sharp as a tack in 1993!) and remembered hearing stories from her mother, the above-mentioned Mary Jane. So a lot of "maybe" to this tale.

Anyway, if any of this rings a bell, I'd love to hear more. I'm a little curious about the spouse George McArthur, as that sounds like a Northern Irish name to me, almost Scotch-Irish, and I don't know if such a name would be found in Roscommon. But that's a different thread through the labyrinth...!

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Regards,

Patricia Hill