Hal O'Brien

Jarda:

There's an outfit called Footnote.com that's allowing free access to the set of 1930 census records for the month of August. I've taken advantage of that, and have been able to find a pair of relevant pages, and upload them to my Flickr account:

John O'Brien: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3815112430/

Pius MacIsaac: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3814331517/

On the "John O'Brien" page, there's an entry for 9 Elmore St, Boston. Your mom is on line 43, as "J. Myrtle." But the interesting thing, to me, is that John O'Brien, our great-grandfather, is listed as Head of Household, with his son Harold (Harry) and his family under the same roof. They rent the house, for $35/month. John and our great-grandmother Agnes say they were 19 and 14 respectively when they got married. Both John and Agnes say they were born in Canada, and John says his father (our great-great-grandfather, unamed) was born in Northern Ireland. John and Agnes came to the US in 1885, but were not naturalized, and so were not US citizens. John's occupation is "Gateman" for the "Elevated," which matches up with the uniform in his picture. (Picture is here if you've forgotten: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3214630974/ )

Pius MacIsaac, our great-grandfather, and Teressa MacIsaac, our great-aunt is on the other page. Teressa is the sister of Marjorie, Harry O'Brien's wife, and our grandmother. Just like John the elder, I have a picture of Pius from you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/3788508223/in/set-72157594358566771/

They lived at 2554 Washington St in Boston, just a few blocks from the other household. Pius is listed as a 59-year-old widower, and Teressa is just 14. An entry says Pius entered the country (presumably with our great-grandmother, Janet Ellen Enman MacIsaac) in 1892, and was never naturalized, thus, never a citizen. It says his occupation was being a teamster for an ice cream wagon. (!)

I hope this sheds a bit of light on our common family from that time.

-- Hal

*^*^*

UPDATED TO ADD: Another interesting thing I've realized as a part of this is, I'm genuinely surprised how little time both sides of my family have been in the US. All four of my great-grandparents on my father's side immigrated in from Canada. At least 3 out of 4 on my mother's side came from the UK, and 2 went back. That's 7 out of 8. It's only my grandparents' generation that's native born to the US. I was just reading about the naming of this among folks of Japanese heritage -- one could say I'm a Canadian-British analogue to the Yonsei.