Conroy

Martin Conroy, son of Patrick Conroy and Marg Huppe, was born in Tuam, Ireland in 1846. He came to America via the New Orleans port. I could not find the exact date of his immigration, though I speculate it was during the late 1860's, for he had his first child in St. Louis is 1877. My uncle thinks when he came through the port, he traveled up the Mississippi River. In his book The Saint Louis Irish, William Barnaby explains why some of the potato famine refugees sought after the Midwest:
"Those...who were resourceful enough to reach St. Louis usually came through New Orleans and up the river by steamboat. They accepted the help of relatives or of the benevolent societies while they found work loading or unloading steamboats at the levee, laying tracks for the railroad to the west...Others settled on farms...where their relatives who had already established themselves in those communities welcomed them" (xi).
They also might have settled in St. Louis because "The Catholic Irish enjoyed a status of equality in early St. Louis denied them in the East" (xi). From what we learned about the ill treatment of Irish in New York, it makes sense that many Irish immigrants would choose another entrance route.

Once he reached St. Louis, he married Bridget Haley (who's parents also immigrated in 1849 from Ireland) and they had six children. Their middle son, Michael (aka M.J.), is my great-grandfather. My uncle and grandmother were able to provide much more information once I got to Michael- both fact and "gossip". Michael married Mary McCarthy and had five children, but remarried Mary Allen Bedford when McCarthy died in 1917. Joseph Conroy, son of M.J. and Mary, was my grandfather. Like I mentioned, I never got to know my grandfather due to his early death. However, the stories I have now heard about him have ensured me that if I know my own dad, then I know my grandfather.

Irish Traditions?

I have scoured every inch of my family looking for special Irish recipes, traditions, or keepsakes that relate to Ireland. However, the remaining Conroy men swear there were no special foods or celebrations that had an Irish ring to them. My dad says, "Your grandfather was a quiet man. However, only once a year did he get quite vocal about his Irish heritage. And that was only on St. Patty's Day, after he'd had a couple of Budweisers in him. "
My family still celebrates St. Patrick's Day with corned beef and cabbage, red potatoes, and green milk (although I'm not too sure how authentic green milk is).