Nora, the Stonemason’s Daughter

I was reminded by Ancestry of a life event in my family – my grandmother’s death on the 23rd of March so it was time that she featured in my blog!

I never knew my maternal grandmother Nora who I was named after. I had one formal photo of her with my grandfather and she looked very serious. It was probably a standard pose in the 1920s, unsmiling, so my impression was that she was a strong but pragmatic woman.

Nora and Bill Johnson, 1920s-1930s

In recent weeks I was given access to old family photos of my maternal side and I was surprised to see my grandmother in photos, smiling and enjoying family time with her sisters, aunt and their children.

I had researched her as part of my family research and she had an interesting story but photos are treasures that enable you to see the real person.

Nora Gleeson Johnson on right wearing glasses holding her son

Nora the Explorer

Nora Gleeson was born on 31st October 1890 the eldest child of Thomas Gleeson and his wife Margaret Kennedy, in Killenaule, County Tipperary. Her father was a stonemason and her mother was a dressmaker. By the time she was 23 she and a friend Joanna set sail on the Cedric from Queenstown (now Cobh) in Cork. They arrived in New York’s Ellis Island on the 22nd of February 1914.

One notable aspect of Irish emigration was the number of single women that emigrated from Ireland without family, often alone. The majority went to work as ‘domestics’ and became part of the ‘Irish Bridget‘ brigade.

Nora should have shown up in the 1915 New York State Census but the next mention of her was in the 1920 US Federal Census. Nora was living in the household of Mrs FR Lefferts, a widow, and another servant Margaret O’Reilly, at 1 Doden Lane, Flushing, New York.

Mrs Lefferts was the widow of Frederick R Lefferts who came from an illustrious family. As we’ve just come through the Film Awards season I was interested to see that Frederick R Lefferts was the treasurer of The Celluloid Company where his father Marshal C Lefferts was president, and who himself was a person of note. He and a colleague had obtained the patent for what we now know as film reel, developing methods of printing celluloid under heat and pressure and printing and decorating the surface of celulloid.

When Mrs Lefferts died a collection of household items such as silverware and china from the family were gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – more than likely items polished by my Grandmother!

According to the book by Margaret Lynch-Brennan – The Irish Bridget, Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930 Irish girls had an advantage of speaking English but domestic service was all they were equipped for even if they had not worked at that in Ireland. This book gave me a great insight to what my Grandmother’s work life was like.

I wonder what she did on her day off. Did she explore the city, go to the beach? I found a photo of two women one of whom may be my grandmother, at the beach.

Emigrating was not always seen as a permanent solution for employment or opportunities. Nora’s father Tom had emigrated years before and had returned home earning himself the nickname ‘The Yank’!

In 1921 Nora’s sister Maggie (aged 23) followed in her footsteps and set off for New York in February arriving on the 19th onboard the Celtic. She gave Nora’s address of 1 Doden Lane, Flushing, Long Island as the address she was going to. According to family lore, Maggie got homesick and she and Nora returned home. We don’t know when but in 1923 Nora married a local farmer, Bill Johnson.

Nora and Bill settled down just outside the town of Killenaule, on his family farm, close to all her family.

Nora the wife and mother

It must have been a big change for Nora, to live in a small farmhouse after living in New York. I’m sure she came home with ideas of what her house should be and shortly after, Bill built a new family home closer to the lane. It was an unusual layout, not a standard Irish farmhouse.

Nora and Bill had 5 children – my mother being the only girl, born in 1929. In the collection of photos there were a number of ones of my mother with friends but there was one special one, where she was with her mother, brother and friends. Its great to have one of my grandmother in her later years and I can see my mother in her later years looking so like her mother. The photo is especially poignant as it is marked with 2 ‘x’s. It was common practice, when someone died, to have memorial cards printed and a photo sent to the printer. This photo has marked my grandmother in the photo. On the reverse it gives my grandmother – Mrs Bill Johnson, date of death 23 March 1953 – with a note to return the photo to the address given.

My mother died in 1990 and she told us her mother died young at 63 and it was sudden. My grandfather died in his 80s in 1969. These photos were in a biscuit tin kept by my uncle in the original family home, and we were going through them after he died, the last of the family.

The family home and farm have now been sold but we still have our memories and photos.

Maybe its time we put a story to our photos and scan them. Sadly most of the photos in the biscuit tin had no names or dates on them.

Tip: check with your cousins who might have copies of the same photos and know who are in the photos. I got great help solving the mysteries from my cousins. Sometimes the only way to date a photo is by checking who was in it. I guessed that the group photo was taken around 1928, as the youngest child, my uncle Liam, was a toddler, and no further children were shown. That’s often the best you can do!

Noreen