My family history consistently recounts that the "landlord" of my Conner / O'Connor 2x great grandfather, Michael O'Connor, sent Michael to England "to school" during the famine. Michael apparently shows up in the Birmingham, England census with some family members. Because he was a boilermaker in Boston in 1854, we think he is this "engineer": William CONNER Lodg(Head) M 30 M Farmers Labourer ----Ire Ann CONNER Wife M 34 F --- ----Ire John CONNER Lodg U 27 M Farmers Labourer ----Ire Michael CONNER Lodg U 18 M Engineer ----Ire Frank FAHERTY Lodg U 19 M Engineer ----Ire Address: 14 Court Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham Census Place: Birmingham Birmingham, Warwickshire There is another Michael "Connor" living with a Nery family in Birmingham at this time, about the same age. I don't know if Nery is a name in Abbeyleix. We don't know much about Michael's family in Ireland or siblings that might have come to America -- we know he married a relative of the Mulhall family -- his wife's family settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania early on, perhaps before 1840, and made and lost huge fortunes in the steel industry there (changed there name to Munhall.) That Munhall family also is from Abbeyleix, though supposedly Michael's wife came from another part of Ireland entirely. I am looking for other Abbeyleix families with similar stories of being "sent to school" or sent to England to work, etc. I would also like to connect with others of the O'Connor and Mulhall families from there. One of the Mulhall / Munhall sisters married a Dowling / Dooling; one married a Lawlor. The Dooling 's boy became a priest and was a supervisor over an orphanage in Chicago, where I believe his mother lived, also. Penny Ford 2x great granddaughter of Michael O'Connor of Fillmore County, Minnesota

Hi Penny, At 09:59 26.08.02 -0600, you wrote: >One of the Mulhall / Munhall sisters married a Dowling / Dooling; one >married a Lawlor. The Dooling 's boy became a priest and was a >supervisor over an orphanage in Chicago, where I believe his mother >lived, also. You might like to try the DOWLING list - subscribe the usual way at DOWLING-L-request@rootsweb.com, and also check the archives of the list just in case. There are a lot of American DOWLING reserchers on it and you may be lucky. :-) Regards Pam An Aussie transplanted to Rotorua, NZ. DOWLING-L admin.