The Shamrock and the Eagle

An essay written by Marjorie McCormick at the age of 16.  I will put the copies in the photo album they were a bit hard to read so I retyped her essay. Will be back with some more photos!

McCormick, an Irish name was derived from "McCormac" meaning "Son of a King". The spelling of the name was changed for reasons unknown to the present generation.

My Paternal great-grandparents, John and Sarah McCormick were both born in Ireland in the 1860's. They came to America in 1880 as a result of economic depression and religious persecution. When England Suspended and then repealed the "Corn Laws" which hindered the free importation of grain, hundreds died and migrated. From that time on people have been leaving Ireland for other lands until it is said today that there are four times as many Irish people in America as in Ireland itself! Catholics were barred from voting or holding office and even from educating children in their own faith. Catholic Church services were forbidden under penalty of death. At the end of the eighteenth century, Ireland was bribed into giving up its separate Parliament by the Act of Union with Great Britain, but from then on it had representation in both the British House of Lords and House of Commons. In 1829 the last of the important laws against Catholics excluding them from Parliament -was repealed.

John and Sarah McCormick had five children -------Ann, James, Mary and Patrick, my grandfather. They remained in the City when they arrived in America because working opportunities were more plentiful for the immigrant, who would work for less money than the American worker. They lived in Brooklyn for the rest of their lives.

My maternal great grandparents, Josephine and Daniel were born and raised in New York State. My great-grandfather Daniel, was born in 1862 and my great-grandmother Josephine was born in 1870. They had five children: Catherine, Lillian, Josephine, William and Florence.

My other set of maternal great-grandparents, William and Eva Hugh, were also born and raised in New York. They had five children: Eva, William, Harriett, Abigail, Jessie and Charles, my grandfather.

On my father's side again: my great-grandparents were John and Catherine Sheehan. My great-grandfather was born in 1870 and my great-grandmother, Catherine, was born in 1876. They also were of Irish descent but were born and raised in New York. They had five children: John, William, Robert, Anna and Mary, my grandmother.

My paternal grandparents, Mary and Patrick McCormick, lived most of their lives in New York State, although my grandfather was born in Ireland. Patrick was born in 1888 and Mary Sheehan in 1894. Patrick was a blacksmith like his father and grandfather before him. As a young boy Patrick worked in a glass factory but later decided to follow in his father's footsteps and he became a blacksmith. These people were loving folks and enjoyed being with their friends and relatives. They had five children: Patrick Jr, James, John, Helen and Alfred, my father. Grandpa busied himself in his spare time with ways of entertaining and enjoying his children.

My maternal grandparents, Charles and Catharine Hough, were both born in New York State and lived here their entire lives. Charles was born in 1876 and Catharine Cashman was born in 1897. Following the custom of the time, Charles left school when he was eleven years old to work as an errand boy. He educated himself by reading as much as possible. Eventually he became the head of a shoe-manufacturing business. My grandparents were married about a year after Catharine graduated from St Joseph's Commercial High School. She had gone to work as a stenographer, for my grandfather, and that is how they met. They had four children: Lyle, Florence, Joeclyn and Josephine, my mother.

My parents, Alfred and Josephine, were born in Brooklyn and New Jersey, respectively. Dad was born in 1915 and Mother in 1916. Dad live a typical Brooklyn boy's life. He worked hard, even as a small boy, to earn his pocket money, carting coal in the Winter and helping to sell Christmas trees. In the Summer he and his family would spend their vacation at their cottage on Mill Island in Brooklyn. As the age of seventeen he quit school to become a messenger boy in a printing shop. Then he got a job as a printer for the Standard Oil Company in New York City. (can't read what is here) twenty-years there, he is the chief pressman and is next in line for the foremanship of his entire department. Like my father, Mom also had a rough childhood because she was a "tomboy". Not until she entered high school did she pay attention to feminine "do's" and "dont's".

When she graduated from high school she entered St. Catherine's School of Nursing. After three long, hard years, she obtained her R.N. degree and started working in Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. My parents were married in 1939 and my mother gave up her nursing career temporarily. I was born in 1940, my brother Robert in 1941, my brother John in 1945. In 1942, when I was nearly two years old, we moved from Brooklyn, to Queens Village, Long Island.

Many times I almost caused my mother to have a heart attack! I had an unreasonable desire to wander and explore new places and things; quite often my wanderings led me to the neighborhood pet shop or just across the street to join my friends at play. After I graduate from high school (in one more year) I hope to go to the New York Foundling Hospital to study practical child-nursing for one year. In time I hope to be married and apply my knowledge of child-care to my own children.

I am proud of my Irish heritage, because the Irish are noted for their strong sense of right and wrong, their keen sense of humor and their deep religious spirit. I will try to keep up these qualities to the best of my ability.

Margorie McCormick

November 28, 1956