When Joseph was 12 we went to Ellis Island with my mother to see the plaque that she had paid for to commemorate her mother's arrival in the United States.
Leocadie and Maria Gregoire, sound very French, but they too were Irish. Their mother, Katherine Farrel was the oldest of 10 children and raised on a farm north of Dublin. She came first to New York in the 1880's to work as a maid. While in NY she met a French banker, fell in love and moved back to Cailais to live with his family. Unfortunately, her husband died of tb and the French family wanted nothing to do with the poor Irish girl. They offered to keep the children, but not her. She took the girls back to Ireland, and returned to NY to work to get enough money to send for her children. My grandmother, Leocadie and her sister, Marie, came by themselves through Ellis Island. My grandmother told me the story when I was in high school - she was scared but wanted so much to be reunited with her mother.
My grandmother married my grandfather, Esmonde O'Brien and they did quite well. My mother and her siblings grew up in Scarsdale, and all had college educations - the American dream.
