My Family Background

John Cameron O’Brien

Professor Lynn Raymond

UWRT 1104-002

March 29, 2019

 A family's history is what shapes them into the people that they are today. There are so

many stories, adventures, and reasons for doing things that cannot be answered through a

families history, but there is so much more that can be found through deep research of a person's

roots. With modern technology, it is almost impossible to find nothing out about your family.

The mass amount of information that is stored in the internet has made this age the easiest to

research lots of information in a short amount of time. Today’s generation has the accessibility

that previous generations did not have and it can lead to an individual finding so much out about

their roots.

Like most families, I grew up being told the stories by my parents of where my family is

from and the few stories that they knew about my family history. It was now time to take matters

into my own hands and dive into some research to determine the real truth of where I was from. I

gathered information from an interview with my uncle, and through ancestry.com. Then, I

needed to research some of the stories that were still able to be found that nobody knew about or

the stories of how my family came into this country and why we decided to leave our homeland

to come to the United States. These findings propelled me to more research which caused me to

find an overwhelming amount of information that I sifted through to find the most important

details.

Through Ancestry.com, I was able to dig into the immigration process that my family

partook in. While it is hard to put a definite finger on why and when they came here, a good

estimate can be made of the reasoning and time frame due to birth and death certificates as well

as what was occuring at that time period in the country that they immigrated from. I was able to

discover that my great-great-grandparents were the people in my family that immigrated to this

country. James O’Brien, Elizabeth Burke, Thomas Joseph Duffy, and Anna Higgins all
immigrated from Ireland to the United States in some point of their lives. I also found that Emily

Mary Evans immigrated to the United States from England. In both of these cases, it is likely that

they came into the country through Ellis Island before settling somewhere in the northeast of the

country. Lastly, I found that John D. Cameron and Catherine Beaton lived in Nova Scotia and

their child, my great-grandmother, immigrated to the United States during her lifetime.

In an attempt to find out when, why, and how my ancestors immigrated to the United

States, I started rummaging through immigration and travel records from the 1870’s to the

1960’s because that is the time frame that they were alive and could have immigrated to the

United States. I was not very lucky in finding any of my ancestors in these immigration and

travel records, but I was able to come to the inference that my ancestors from England and

Ireland more than likely came here by passenger boat. I was able to come to this conclusion

because almost all of the immigration and travel records were from passenger boats. This lead

me to believe that passenger boats were the most common form of immigration during that time

period so it would be very likely that my ancestors came to this country by way of passenger

boat. In an attempt to find out why they left their homeland to come to the United States, I first

thought of the potato famine but quickly found that the potato famine occured from 1844-1849

which was before the time of my great-great-grandparents. I then did some research to find out

what events would have caused emigration in the time period that my ancestors lived there. I

found that the potato famine had a lasting effect on Irish citizens, causing them to leave the

country. This could have been the reason that my ancestors decided to leave Ireland to come to

the United States. Another reason that my ancestors could have left to come to the United States

was due to politics in Ireland during that time. There was a change in the way that politics were
being handled in the early 20th century. A disagreement between my ancestors and the new way

of politics could have been the driving force to my ancestors leaving Ireland.

Since my ancestors predominantly came from Ireland, I thought it would only be correct

for me to perform some research on the history and culture of Ireland. I was quick to find the

meanings of the colors on the flag because they have significant meaning to the Irish culture. The

orange represents the Irish Protestants, the green represents the Irish Catholics, and the white

represents peace and hope between the two of them. This is an important part of Ireland’s history

because there was a war between the two branches of christianity in the early 20th century. In my

research, I also found that there are two national anthems. They are ‘The Soldier’s Song’ and

‘Ireland’s Call’. ‘Ireland’s Call’ is used in the place of a national anthem when the North Irish

Football Union players play. This is because most of these members are a certain type of unionist

from Northern Ireland, who deem ‘The Soldier’s Song’ as inappropriate because it is the national

anthem of the Republic of Ireland. Through my research, I found that my one ancestor was born

in the county of Tipperary which is located in the southern part of Ireland. Tipperary is sometime

referred to as the “Premier County” and is the 6th largest county by area and 12th largest county

by population.

In an attempt to receive more information about my family’s history, I turned to an

interview with my father and Uncle Dave. Through this interview, I was able to find out some

information about one of my 8th great uncle’s as well as a possible interest of my great

grandfather. This was very helpful because they contained stories that I was unable to find with

my internet search and my uncle has done his own research into our ancestors so he had lots of

information to pass on to me.

 In my interview with my uncle and father, my uncle started informing me about my

great-great-uncle, Donald Cameron, who was in the military and served in WWII. He later sent

me some information on him so that I could perform my own research to learn more about him.

He was a member of the Canadian Air Force and enlisted in 1940, right before WWII. I’m not

sure of the exact specifications of any missions he was sent on or any awards or medals that he

was awarded, but I do know that he was killed on a mission in August of 1943. His plane was

shot down over Normandy about a year before the invasion of D-Day and was classified as the

wireless op and gunner for the mission. He was buried in a graveyard in France shortly after he

was killed.

My uncle and father also had lots of information to give to me about my great-

grandfather, Charles Pfriemer. They informed me that he was a part of a company that made the

hammers for piano’s. The company is was one of three companies that made hammers for

piano’s. The company was originally owned by Charles Pfriemer’s father, so it was a family

business. The hammers are made of wood and felt and the company that he was a part of actually

made the felt for one of the other two companies. I started to question whether my great-

grandfather has an interest in music due to his involvement with the making of piano hammers. I

know that there are a decent amount of people in my family that have an interest in music and

playing instruments and I wonder if that has to due with the fact that our ancestors had such an

involvement in the making of music instruments.

Throughout the completion of my research of my family history, I was able to learn about

my ancestors, learn where they came from, learn more about the country they came from, and

family interests. This has caused me to feel like I am closer to my ancestors than I thought I ever

would be. I can relate to things about my ancestors and feel connected to them. I learned lots of
information about Ireland that I never thought of researching before. This research of my family

history has been a success because of the amount of information that I was able to get out of it

and the way that I feel more connected to my family.

 Works Cited

-"Family Tree." Ancestry. Accessed March 17, 2019. https://www.ancestry.com/family-

tree/tree/77657022/family?cfpid=34370274292.

Veterans Affairs Canada. "Canadian Virtual War Memorial." Donald Alexander Joseph Cameron

- The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada. February 21, 2019. Accessed

March 17, 2019. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-

memorial/detail/2846180.

-"What's the Symbolism of the Irish Flag?" Infoplease. Accessed March 17, 2019.

https://www.infoplease.com/whats-symbolism-irish-flag.

-"County Tipperary." Wikipedia. March 12, 2019. Accessed March 17, 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Tipperary.