Irish roots

On my mother's side of the family, I have a great deal of Irish background. My maternal grandmother had three Irish grandparents and my maternal grandfather had Irish ancestors who came to the US fairly early, sometime in the 18th century as I recall. This photo on the left is of one of my Irish great-great grandparents, Annia Noria Gately, who married a Yankee Protestant named William Rogers Williams. She and her entire family emigrated to the US in 1865 from County Roscommon, Ireland. I do not know off hand if they were Gaelic speakers or knew any of the traditional songs or "tunes" that are played in "seisiúns", gatherings of musicians in homes or local pubs. I have been fascinated by my Irish ancestors but also frustrated by the lack of information about them beyond just a few details that I know from my grandparents, who died over 20 years ago now. They never seemed that eager to talk about their Irish roots as it was. I guess my great-great grandmother pictured here was not a nice person at all, from what I heard about her. This photo rather fascinates me because, beyond the fact that, in 19th century photography, people had to stand very still and rarely, if ever, smiled, there is a hard look about her face that suggests a lot to me, pride in having married someone who could raise her stature from "shanty Irish to lace curtain Irish" as well as a look of a woman who no doubt had a hard life back on the "Auld Sod", as they say. I've wondered for years why my Irish ancestors emigrated. Great-great grandmother Gately came over with her entire family, so she did not exactly come alone. I've wondered what ever happened to her parents and siblings, and why an illiterate peasant girl married up, class-wise, while her husband married down, so to speak. I have my theories as to why they married, and whether or not they are correct, I do know that Great-great grandfather Williams, the Yankee Protestant that she married, worked in a paper mill in Holyoke, MA, where they lived.

Their son, my Great-grandfather, John Henry Williams, also worked in a paper mill in Holyoke. Evidently, Holyoke was once a major manufacturing center for paper making that employed a lot of Irish people, which may explain how at least Annia Noria Gately ended up there. I do not know precisely where her family entered the US. I once heard that they came via Portsmouth, NH, but that did not seem to be a major immigration port like New York or Baltimore or Philadelphia. I wish I could find a ship's manifest or something that would list this family as passengers. They supposedly came over just months after the conclusion of the Civil War, around October 1865, give or take. I do not know how to find their immigration records or anything, although I am sure that they are available on Ancestry.com. I can't afford a subscription at this time but I can get it at the library where I work, but I don't want to be doing personal genealogy on work time, so I guess I should go to the local library in the evenings to do my searching on their computers or something. I need to do a lot more research into finding out about my Irish ancestry that so fascinates me. I have names and dates and such but would like to have more details to flesh out the picture of who these people were and why they might have come over to this country. I had a very good book on how to find your Irish ancestors, but since moving, I do not know where it is or whether I got rid of it in the move. It may still be in a box somewhere, and if not, I must have decided that it was no longer needed, but I'd be very surprised if I gave up something like that. No doubt it will turn up and if not, I can always replace it if it's still in print.