Grandmother Leane died as a result of giving birth to my Mother March of 1871 in Tralee, Ireland. Dennis was a steward for an English family and after Joanna's death, he remarried (Source: Interview, John G. Bucknum.).

      I don't know much about the Leane family but they were related to the O' Sullivans, who were quite prominent people up state. I believe my mother's mother was an O' Sullivan. The part of Ireland where they lived, Tralee, was full of O' Sullivans. Indeed I never knew one of the Lakes was Lake Leane. I guess you know it's pronounced Láne like Sean. I don't believe my mother knew one of the Lakes had their name. She told me there was a hill in their back yard and from the top of it the Lakes of Kilarney were visible and very beautiful. She and her sisters did not like their stepmother (Source: Letter: Florence Fayden to Delia Palmatier, January 5, 1978.).

      A point of great interest is the migration pattern. Their uncle John Sullivan was well established by the time his nieces and nephews, except for Thomas, came over. Hannah and James must have emigrated to England between their marriage in 1882 and the birth of their first child in 1885. Katie had told her son John that she didn’t get along with her step-mother and when she was 8 she emigrated to England and lived with her sister Hannah O'Sullivan's family. There is a time problem with this as she would have been 8 in 1879 and they hadn't married by that time. In 1883 Maggie was the first to emigrate to North America, and the following year moved to Binghamton. Considering those three events, it would appear that the family disruption must have occurred around that time, with Katie moving with Hannah and James to England and Maggie moving to Canada. It is really amazing to me that it was the younger of the sisters who set the tone for immigration to America and then worked for a year to save the money to send for her sister, 8 years her senior, to come over and from what your Mom had said during that visit, Mary was still living in Ireland at the time, which is further confirmed by the diary entry of her ‘crossing the channel to Liverpool’. Then it appears that it took 3 years for Mary to save up the money for Patsy to emigrate, which would indicate that he came over about 1887. The construction of the NYC subway system was a constant thing from about 1870 until it officially opened in 1904. Unfortunately, I have heard very little to give a time line as to when Patsy died or how long he worked on the tunnel or how long he was ill or if it was an immediate death. My only understanding is that it was due to lung complications. Then in 1889 Hannah, James and Katie came over to Canada, with Katie immigrating to Binghamton in 1892 and the O'Sullivans the year after (Source: Interview, Richard J. Bucknum.).

      In the 1970s the Leane Homestead was located by one of the clan on a trip to Tralee. Unfortunately, the proprietor would not grant permission for a closer picture (Source: Photo, undated.).

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^{© Richard J. Bucknum}
March 5, 2007, Clackamas, OR