This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Nolan, Hogan Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/wd3.2ACIB/974.2 Message Board Post: My great-grandmother was Margaret Mary Nolan.Her parents were William Nolan and Mary Drinan Nolan of Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny She was married to Patrick Hogan. They lived on Love Lane, Castlecomer, (which I visited twice) and came to the U.S. in about 1875-1880, (estimated), settling in Wilkes-Barre, PA, where there were anthracite coal mines. I assume Patrick Hogan was familiar with mining, since Castlecomer was the site of an anthracite mine, one of the few in Ireland. I was amazed to see it in 1960, but it was no longer active in 1985. (The town has a good web site, explaining the history of the mine.) Margaret Mary Nolan had gone to the U.S. previously at the age of 16, where she worked for a Quaker family in Philadelphia. She returned to Castlecomer, married Patrick Hogan, and gave birth to twins, Mary and Jerry, who died at about six months of age. She persuaded her husband to go to Wilkes-Barre, saying that the twins would have lived if they had been in America, and if he refused, she intended to go without him, according to what she told my grandmother. In the U.S. they had three more children:my grandmother Mary Margaret Hogan, and her younger brothers John and Michael. My great-grandmother wrote the family names in a Bible, which my grandmother showed me many times. Margaret Mary Nolan could read and write, having been educated by the nuns who ran a "pest house", or smallpox hospital, where her mother, Mary Drinan Nolan, worked as a nurse. Both mother and daughter were said to have natural immunity. Most of this was told to me by my grandmother who was a very accurate story-teller. I do know the location of their graves: St.Mary's cemetary in Hanover, Luzerne County, PA. Would like to find out what information you have about other Nolans from Castlecomer. Please write back if you find any documentation. I am just beginning to do research on the web and want to go farther back in time. Was thrilled to discover your inquiry and hope to hear from you. Mariana Welsh