My Callaghan g-grandparents left Sligo Ireland around 1865 and eventuality
settled in South Dakota.
Two of my g-grandfathers brothers also settled in this town in South Dakota.
I assume they went there for free land that the US government was giving to
encourage settlement in this part of the country.
My grandfather died before I was born and my father died when I was six yrs
of age. My dad had no brothers and therefore I grew up without knowing
anything about my Callaghan heritage. When I was around 30yrs of age I received a
copy of a book on the Callaghan genealogy written by a descendant of one of my
g-grandfathers brothers. The book provided lots of details and mentioned that
we came from County Sligo. I read and studied the book many times. When I
was approx 47-48 I decided I was going to Ireland and find the Callaghan's.
My wife and I went to Ireland and eventually found the village where my
family came from. I knew it was Sligo but did not know where in Sligo. We found
the village and stayed there for about 3 days. We found a few Callaghan women
but they had no interest in genealogy. I kept working on finding the
Callaghan's. My wife and I kept going back to that village for the next 10yrs. We
also found my wife's family in Galway. We have made lot's of great friends in
Ireland
I eventually found some male Callaghan's from that village but there were no
records and could not determine if we came from the same family.I suspected
that we did but it was just wishful thinking on my part. Approx 3 or 4 yrs ago
I had my DNA tested hoping to find a Callaghan match, did not find any
matches. Last year I went back to Ireland and convinced one of those male
Callaghan's to have his DNA tested. He took the test (simple cheek swab) and we
matched.
I was pretty certain we would match because of similarity of names in his
family and mine but would not have known for sure without the DNA. We can't tell
how his g-grandfather was related to my g-grandfather but we do know there
was a connection
I am telling this story hoping to convince more Callaghan's to have their DNA
tested
Jim Callahan
Kansas City
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