The Jimmy Jacks
JimmyJack and Ann Mc Fadden Ferry
had a family of twelve children on a small farm of land outside
the village of Falcarragh, County Donegal, Ireland, in the townland
called Forth.
Pictured here outside their farmhouse,
are JimmyJack and Ann. The picture was been taken in the early
nineteen-twenties. He would have been in his eighties, as he
was 96 years old at his death in 1938. Ann died in 1925, she
was in her 50's. She was remembered as a tall woman, but in
this picture she is standing on the stoop at the front door
of the house, and JimmyJack is standing a few inches lower.They
may have been the same height. Ann's daughter, my Aunt Annie,
inherited that shock of hair. I inherited JimmyJack's style
in dress.
I was told by Uncle Hughie that
the house that they had was fixed up in 1912, when the McGinleys,
whose home shared the west wall, moved down the road to a new
house, and the McGinley's house was taken down. The west gable
of the our house was finished, the exterior was plastered, windows
and roof replaced and maybe the little vestibule was added to
the front. In this picture of JimmyJack and Ann, it is possible
to see the just the front edge of the vestibule behind his right
leg.
Of Ann Mc Fadden, I know that her
father was Owen Mc Fadden, of Upper Dunmore. Her mother had
been a McGinley from Drumnatinney. So when Ann married, she
ended up back in the neighborhood where her mother had been
raised. McGinley's still live adjacent to the farm. There is
the possibility, I haven't researched it, that JimmyJack and
Ann lived on a farm that had been in her McGinley family. Ann
was of a large family, one of her brothers was named Dan. Dan
had a son, Dan Beag McFadden who lives (2003) in Upper Dunmore,
a couple miles south of Falcarragh. He is the one who told us
that his grandmother (Ann McFadden's mother) had been a McGinley
from Drumnatinney.
) Eddie
Sweeney of Ballyness (RIP) remembering JimmyJack, told me that
beards were an unusual sight in his boyhood, only older men
were allowed to grow them, and only a few of those did. Eddie
told me that he in his boyhood, he would visit our house, and
he had an uncertain memory of JimmyJack referring to his father
as 'Jacks'.
Contrary to this memory, a second
cousin, Rose McFadden Clavelli, who has done extensive research
on family in Falcarragh and Gortahork, tells me there are records
in the church at Gortahork with entry that this man, JimmyJack
Ferry was born in 1849 and his father was Seamus Ferry). We
know that he died in the early winter of 1938
Uncle Hughie told me that during
difficult times, his father worked for three pence a day, breaking
stones, making the wall that to this day encircles Ballyconnell
Estate, the seat, those times of the Landlord Sir John Olphert.
My Dad's very first memory is a memory of his father. JimmyJack
was taking a load of potatoes to Jack Baird, in payment for
Baird sheparding the family's flock of sheep in their winter
graze on the south flank of Muckish. Because the horse was unable
to get up the steep grade near Muckish Gap, JimmyJack took half
the spuds and my father from the cart, and set them down beside
the road. Dad remembers crying, and being afraid that he and
the spuds were being permanently abandoned. Not much later that
day he got an even greater fright, when with the last half of
the load through the Gap, dad saw the legless Jack Baird swinging
his torso forward down the lane by walking on his arms. I asked
my day how old was he was when this took place. He remembered
holding on to his father with his arms around JimmyJack's leg
- that's how tall he was the day he saw the legless shepard.
Ann (Nancy) Duffy Gallagher had
been sent as a teenager to the farm to look after JimmyJack
and Hughie when Aunt Bridget married Joe Clarke and moved away
to Dublin. It was in the summer of 1930 or 1931. Ann then lived
on the farm for many of the years between then and 1938 when
her grandfather died. Ann Duffy remembers JimmyJack as an old
crank, and Hughie as well. She said that, as old as JimmyJack
was, he was able to walk up to Falcarragh to get his old age
pension, and always brought back a wee bottle of whiskey for
himself. She had to cook and clean for him and Hughie (this
would have been in the mid-1930's til 1938. She used to beg
her mother, Sarah, not to send her back to the farm and her
two old cranky relatives).
Sent out the the Lagan
We know that the family was poor,
as they indentured their older children during the last years
of the 19th, first years of the 20th century. Hughie told me
that when he was twelve years of age, JimmyJack brought him
up to Falcarragh on a Fair Day, and got 5 pounds (then about
$25 USD) for hiring Hughie out to a farmer in the Lagan Valley,
thirty miles to the east. Hughie didn't get home to see his
mother or family for 6 months. He did get to see his sister,
Grace, as she had been indentured to the same Lagan farm. Those
older than Hughie were 'sent out to the Lagan'. My father Joe
was never indentured, the younger of the family were not. I'm
not sure about Uncle Dan, whether he was or not. Thought I don't
have this by report, Mary and Jack already in America or in
British Army would likely have been sending money home, making
unnecessary for JimmyJack and Ann to sell the younger children
into indentured service.
Naming
The family name is Ferry. It is
a common surname in Donegal, especially the place in Donegal
where my father, Joe Ferry was born. My father's brother's and
sisters were Ferry's but uniquely identified as one of the JimmyJacks.
So my dad was known locally as Joe JimmyJack, and my uncle Dan,
as Danny JimmyJack.
Besides identifying what family
they were from, it is also a way of naming ancestors. Their
father was James Ferry, his father was Jack Ferry. When I lived
the season with Uncle Hughie, I was known not as Joe Joe JimmyJack.
I was 'one of the JimmyJack's, Joe's son', or 'he's Hughie JimmyJack's
nephew' - "JimmyJack" acted like a surname.
Anneeree, my sister, remembers
stories that Uncle Dan, Aunt Grace, and our father told that
differ a little from each other. Anneeree says, "One story
that Uncle Dan and Aunt Grace agreed on, and Annie and Dad disagreed
with, was the grandfather's name. The former pronounced it Jock
(Jacques?) and thought some French got through to the Forth.
There was a lively discussion around the Chester Ave. table
on that one among the four of them. Dan and Grace were more
convincing to me. The Elders seemed to know more."
So the name JimmyJack names their
lineage, the descendants of an uncertainly remembered someone,
a clan.
In our family we are named after
the paternal line, but it is not uncommon for families to be
called after the matriline.I think it may be a matter which
side, mother's or fathers, lived before you in your home. Iin
a way, you get named after the ancestors that worked the land
that bred you. My Uncle Hughie had a friend, and neighbor, named
Johnny Belle. Actually that was short for Johnny Belle Owen
Coyle. His legal name was John McGinley, but he grew up with
his grandmother, Belle Owen Coyle, the daughter of Owen Coyle.
Her daughter had married one of the McGinley's, Johnny was offspring,
but ended up spending his life with his grandmother, on the
Coyle farm. So he got that name - Johnny Belle Owen Coyle. The
little cottage in which he lived is still at the corner of the
lane as you go round the corner past the little bridge over
Falcarragh Creek and up into Drumnatinney.
Another note about names: around
Donegal, and maybe farther afield, it had been traditional to
name the first son after the paternal grandfather, next son
for the maternal grandfather, and daughters for the grandmothers.
(By tradition, I should have been named John, for John Hughes
- my mother dodged tradition) .JimmyJack's first son was Jack,
my dad's oldest brother, named as tradition would have it. Their
last daughter was named Ann. It is odd that there were no Owen's
among my father's brothers, since that was the name of the maternal
grandfather. In the next generation, after the one pictured
above, there are a lot of "James's" - Seamus Clarke;
my brother, Jim Ferry; Jimmy Duffy (Sarah's son); Jim Buchholz
(Mary's son); Jimmy Ferry (Pata's son). And also there are a
lot of "Ann's": Ann Ferry (daughter of Pata); Ann
Ferry my sister; Ann O'Donnell, Ann (Nancy) Duffy Gallagher.
*The
Children of JimmyJack Ferry and Ann McFadden Ferry*
*The Forth*
|
