Helen Agnes Ryan Holland & her son Harold
Helen Agnes Ryan was born in 1907 to Anne Ryan, daughter of Pat Ryan and Mary Ryan. Pat was the son of William Ryan and Judy McGrath of Gallows Cove, Torbay. Mary was the daughter of John Ryan and Ellen Grace of Middle Cove. Helen is living in Victoria, B.C. and is 94 years of age.
Helen is the daughter of my grandfather's sister. Several years ago I was looking over the 1921 Torbay census and I saw it listed an Ellen Ryan, grand-daughter living with her grandparents, Pat & Mary Ryan. They were my great-grandparents. I asked several of my older relatives if they knew who Ellen's parents were. No one knew. I have searched for her since.
Last week I saw a message on a message board which simple said, "Me mutter is from Torbay." I wrote to the guy, of course, to ask who his mutter is? He said that her name was Helen Ryan and that she had been raised by her grandparents and didn't give their names. I wrote to the fellow from the message board, (Harold) and told him what I had thought ... that his mother was my grandfather's niece and I sent him the list of grandfather's siblings. He wrote back to say that I had misunderstood and that his mother was Helen not Ellen. I explained to him that most every Helen got changed to Ellen and every Ellen got changed to Nellie!!!! His mother is in a nursing home and he said he would see her over the weekend. Monday, he sent me a mail to say his mother was the Ellen I was looking for. She is the dau. of Anne, a sister to grandfather, Joe, and Anne had married and moved to Nova Scotia and Ellen stayed in Gallows Cove with her grandparents. About three years ago, I had tracked the descendants of Anne Ryan and Fred Peppard in Nova Scotia and New Jersey.
Harold has put together a listing of his siblings and their descendants, which are now entered into my tree. I am so excited to have found her. Harold said he and his mother had a great visit and that Helen loved speaking about Torbay.
My Aunt Rose was born in 1925 when Helen was still living in Gallows Cove. Aunt Rose and I are flying to Victoria, BC in March to meet Helen and all of her children. Aunt Rose's father died when she was three months old. Her father was Helen's Uncle Joe and she can tell Aunt Rose and me all about him. Helen can also tell us about the grandparents she was living with. They were my great-grandparents, Mary & Pat Ryan. Mary died in 1926 so Aunt Rose doesn't have any memory of her and Pat died in 1929.
A few years back I tracked down the grandchildren of Pat Ryan and Jane Gosse. Pat was another of my grandfather's brothers. I phoned Pat's grand-daughter, Kathy, yesterday to tell her about our trip to the west coast. She and her two brothers live in Seattle. She was so delighted to know they have all of these cousins. Her father was the only child of Pat & Jane's to have children. So Kathy and her brothers have never had any cousins. They will met us all in Victoria.
The very maddening thing is that in 1966 and 1967 I lived in Oak Harbour, Whidbey Island Wash. State, which looks straight across the sound at Victoria and is also not far from Seattle. My husband made two tours to Vietnam and I was in Oak Harbour alone with a small child. I sure could have used all of this family for company back then.
When I wrote to Harold to tell him about the Seattle cousins coming to visit, he replied that when he left that message on the message board, he had no idea that his mother was a missing relative!