By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
In the middle of a pandemic, economic doldrums, and unprecedented political storms, my first grandson Walter Patrick Dahlberg made his debut into a world that sorely needs the joy and good cheer he brought with him. His birth day was a grand and great moment, and made me stop and contemplate the many other grands and greats within the interesting history of his brand new family.
Based on my research, he probably is the first Walter on my side of the family, but he most certainly is not the first Patrick. His uncle and grandfather share that name too, and—going back even just a few generations—so do about a dozen great grandfathers and at least a half dozen great uncles.
Why that name so often? His maternal-side family includes persons born in seven different counties in Ireland: Limerick, Kerry, Clare, Tipperary, Cork, Longford, and Wicklow. The family tree also includes common Gaelic Irish surnames such as O’Brien, Gleason, Sullivan, Leonard, McCarthy, Duffy, Doyle, Flaherty, Fitzgerald, Kennedy, Hogan, Lynch, Murphy, Killary, Halvey, Carroll, Barrett, Barron, and Cahill.
Many of Walter Patrick’s grand and great Irish ancestors were born in America. The others who were not came here for variety of reasons and at a number of different times. Some arrived in the mid-1800s, to avoid starving during the Great Hunger (aka the Potato Famine). Others came to join family members who emigrated first, got jobs, and sent their earnings home to bring the rest of the family across the Atlantic too.
These folks worked at a variety of occupations, but mainly as blue collar laborers. They were farmers, domestic servants, gardeners, butchers, lumber yard workers, police officers, railroad workers, and night watchmen. A couple of the greats and grands crossed the economic line from worker to owner, and ran successful businesses, selling groceries, insurance, real estate, boxes, limousine services, construction supplies, and many other things. One great aunt who never married—Mary “Mame” McCarthy—was a successful tailor in Northern Vermont, and her sister Annie O’Brien owned several millinery (hat making) shops.
One grand was a postmaster, another great was a city alderman. One grand was a newspaper columnist, and another great was good friends with and the trustee for baseball legend Babe Ruth. If you go back far enough, to the year 1014, one of Walter Patrick’s grand/greats was the High King of Ireland—Brian Boru from whom all O’Briens descend.
At least a half dozen of the twentieth century grand/greats were Catholic priests or nuns, including three siblings from the same Duffy family. Perhaps on the contrasting side of that morality spectrum, two greats were convicted bootleggers during prohibition, reportedly selling confections out their front door and homemade hooch out the back.
Walter Patrick arrived here during the terrible 2020-21 pandemic, as a descendant of those who survived the last awful pandemic in 1918 and many tuberculosis and other outbreaks. Notwithstanding this hardy nature, his grands and greats also have died in both mundane and unusual ways.
How unusual? One disappeared and we simply don’t know how he passed on. Another was shot and died as a hero in the waning days of World War I. One was killed—and almost cut in half—after falling under a moving train while working for a railroad. Another was found frozen solid in his unheated lakeside cabin in the middle of a New England winter.
Many of these ancestors are buried within a few acres of each other in a great and grand old family cemetery on a hill overlooking Burlington, Vermont. The burial ground is a quaint, spooky, and classic graveyard. Its narrow dirt roads mark crooked paths between ghostly stone gates, mossy obelisks, decaying headstones, and decrepit markers of various shapes and sizes, many of them taller than me and some even bearing my exact name.
This color and character just scratches the surface, including only some facts from Walter’s maternal grandfather’s side of the family. His maternal grandmother’s side includes French, Canadian, German, and Russian bloodlines. A diligent genealogist traced one of those family names (Comeau) all the way back to 1470 and Charles De Valois—also known as Charles VIII—the king of France from 1483 to 1498. No doubt many more great and grand ancestral gems can be found within the newborn’s paternal (Dahlberg) lineage.
‘tis a grand and great heritage—a good background and starting point for a brand new life. And Walter Patrick’s recent arrival, of course, makes it even grander and greater. Welcome Wally!
*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His book Monastery Mornings (found here), about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, will be published by Paraclete Press (more information here) in August 2021.
