Our direct Irish immigrant ancestors were John and Abigail (Quill) Lehane (Lyhane/Lyons) who arrived in America in the early 1850’s. John and Abby lived in Seymour, Indiana where John worked on the railroad. Their son, Daniel, was born in Indiana in 1852. Daniel married Margaret Ring 24 February 1876 in Indianapolis. To see the line of descent from Abigail, click here.

John and Abigail Lehane died in 1898 and 1897, respectively, and are buried in St. Ambrose Cemetery in Seymour, Indiana.

Margaret Ring and her two sisters, Mary and Hannah, emigrated from Ireland in 1872/73. They were from the town of Macroom in County Cork. Mary, who never married, worked doing housework but managed to save enough money to buy property in Indianapolis. Hannah married widower David Gleason when she was about 39 years old. To see the line of descent from Margaret, click here.

My mother, Frances Margaret Read, remembered hearing her grandmother, Margaret, speaking Irish with her sisters Hannah and Mary when she was little. In the 1920 U.S. Census, Frances, then 4 years old, is listed as living with her parents, William R. Read and Agnes Teresa Lyons, in the home of her grandmother Margaret in Indianapolis. Agnes was the daughter of Margaret and Daniel Lyons, one of nine children.

Margaret died at the age of 76 years in 1931 in Columbus, Ohio, at the home of her daughter, Abigail Dumm. Her sister, Hannah, died in 1923 at the age of 69 in Indianapolis and Mary died at age 82 in 1928.