Happy Birthday to all the "October Birthdays".

Wendy, Steve, Ann...and of course, the next generation of nephews and nieces.

As Mom also was an "October Birthday", you may want to look at her old scrapbook on this site:

Mom's Scrapbook

So What's Next?

We like human interest stories...what's going on with others in the family.   If you have anything, please send our way.

I remember Dad saying, "You're the last of the Smiths..."   Well, that is simply not true, we are finding Smiths in Ireland, Scotland, Canada and Australia.  Tim has been in contact with them, and maybe we'll learn what happened with "our Smyth family" over these past 150 years.

There are also things around the Ryan family that we want to uncover.   We still need to identify where the Hill and McDonald families lived in Ireland.  Although we believe its around Newport, we don't have any specific proof...but much indirect proof suggests they lived alongside the Ryans in Ireland.

Oh yes...we still intend to connect with other families.   The picture on your right is a first cousin of our grandfather, Frank Ryan.  But that's a story for another tme.

School Days

For those of you "old enough" to remember, this is the school that some of us spent the first few years attending before it was demolished and replaced by a new school building.

This reminds me of a story Tim wrote awhile back:

I remember the day Terry and I were supposed to visit first grade.

I recall being afraid of going to school. At that time kindergarten did not exist, and it was customary for all 5 year old kids in town to visit first grade for a day so they could see what school was like.

Let me explain my fear. One day Dad drove the family to the old grade school, which was shaped like a bell. Mom left the car to deliver vaccination and birth records for Terry and me. With Mom out of the car, Dad told us Mom was in the Grade School. I asked Dad what happened there and he said kids went there to become adults. My fertile imagination brewed. I imagined being strapped to a marble slab - ala, Frankenstein's monster - continuously zapped with electricity.

So one day Terry and I were supposed to visit school, I pretended to be sick. I thought I had outsmarted Mom and Dad and laughed at Terry's gullibility. Imagine my surprise I was when Terry came home school.  Worse yet, seeing all the neat things he had done in class upset me.   He colored pictures, cut out snowflakes and did other art projects.