Forth, Falcarragh, County Donegal, Ireland. birthplace of Joe Ferry, as well as all his sisters and brothers.

On Christmas Eve, 1905, in a farmhouse outside the village of Falcarragh, my father was born. His parents were JimmyJack Ferry and Ann McFadden. He died eighty-one years later, in Wildwood, New Jersey, on July 21, 1987. He was the fifth son, and the ninth child of his parents.

Mary d approx 1942
Kathleen -died in infancy
Jack d-1939
Jimmy d-1961
Sarah d-1977
Hughie 1897 - 1971
Grace d- 1982
Dan 1902- 1987
(Joe in this order)
Bridget 1907- 1960
Pata 1908 -
Annie 1910- 1979

Early Years

Farm and schooling - not enough trousers for all the boys in the family- playing hooky and ordering the suit with pants.

Babysitting his newborn sister Annie, called "Baaby", Joe (about 5 years old) rocked the cradle so hard that Annie rolled out and into the fireplace. Joe ran out to the garden and told his mother that Baaby had climbed out of the cradle and ran into the fire! His story didn't hold water, but Baaby was not burned up, and so the lickin' that he got was accepted as well-deserved.

Uncle Dan and the Our Father. "Our Father, who are in heaven, came galloping down the lane. Then the king did come with his fife and his drum, and galloped him back again." "Master Ferry, who taught you that?, "My brother, Danny." So Dan got the whipping from Schoolmaster McAllister.

Scotland

Getting run down by Rolls Royce - 1925 danger of amputation. Uncle Jack's intervention - "You'll not cut his leg off.". The kind old nurse, a vet of WWI that saw him through the delerium and infection. Recovery at home.

To America

August 1929 - sponsor older brother Jimmy. He and Annie (Baaby) out together on steamship, S.S. Transylvania, from Moville (Londonderry) to NYC. Arrived August 11, 1929. Then train to Philadelphia.

The Transylvania was an Anchor Line ship built in 1925, so fairly new when JF and his sister crossed. The ship was eventually turned into a troop carrier for WWII. It was torpedoed and sunk off of Inishtrahull in 1940. So, it lies at the bottom of the sea not much further than 50 miles from Falcarragh

"Declaration of Intent" to become citizen is dated 21 Oct 1931. Residence at that time was 2439 South 16th Street, Philadelphia

Atlantic Refining

The Depression - giving up half his salary for the men with kids (one of the two ten dollar gold pieces that was his pay. The repayment 30 years later, when at church w Jimmy in St Finian's, someone stuffing a 5 pound note through the pew into his back pocket.

Marriage

Family

Kids are born. Birds, dogs and seagulls. Cancer of 1957 - then trip home after 29 years.

Grandchildren

Retirement

The Long Ending

1979 - Doubling over with pain. Dr Kinsey at Lankenau "Renal Cell Carcinoma, metastatic involvement of the ribs - 6 months maybe". Not to be. But operations and radiation, and chemotherapies. Years later - Prostatic cancer - more treatments, catheters, then the diminution - no longer walks on the beach, or time with the neighbor kids on the porch rocker, more bed, and then the nurses, hospice, morphine, the loss of weight, of consciousness, pain, pain.

Burial at Saint Mary's Cemetary - as close as he could get to Ireland - just a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, in sandy ground, beneath a peach tree.