My Family History

My family history is unique by the fact that despite being in the United States for four generations, almost all of our ancestry dates back to Ireland on both sides of my family. My family has always strongly identified as Midwestern Irish Catholics. This has been the case every since my great great grandfather immigrated to America in the late 1890s. His story of coming here has become a Connolly family legend. My grandpa has told me that while Ireland was under British colonial rule, my great great grandfather and his family were suffering from starvation. In order to feed his family, he shot a fox, which got him in trouble with the British soldiers that were occupying his town. In order to escape being jailed, he snuck onto a boat heading to America. This story says a lot about our family’s strength, which is also shown through the last name Connolly. The non anglicized version of Connolly is Ó Conghaile, which is old Gaelic meaning ‘as fierce as a wolf.’ Since coming to America, both sides of my family, the Brodericks and the Connollys, were farmers in Iowa and Nebraska, both of which were places where many Irish immigrants came to at the time. Today, my family’s Irish Catholic heritage is still shown thorough Irish prayers that are said at family’s and funerals and can be seen through Gaelic crosses all around our house. In addition, our family has a tradition of recycling many Irish family names and we always get together to make soda bread and corned beef for Saint Patrick’s Day every year.