MY ANCESTORS FROM IRELAND

 These are my great grand parents, Mary Kenney and Edward Burke.   They were both born in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Canada.    Edward was born in 1852 and Mary in 1860.   Edward's parents, Patrick Burke and Bridget Gallagher were born in Ireland and migrated to Canada sometime in the 1840's and they married in 1844 and were farmers.  They had 10 children.  Patrick's father, Michael Burke, born 1777 later followed his son from Ireland to Canada and died in 1852.   Mary's parents also migrated from Ireland and her father, John Kenney was a blacksmith.   

Edward and Mary married in 1878 and Edward had to get permission from her parents, since she was under 18 years of age.   Edward started out as a dairy farmer in Ontario, then migrated to Iowa, then to Nebraska, where they got into the meat backing business.   My grand father, J.R. Burke was born in Nebraska in 1894.  Sometime in the early 1900's Edward and family moved to Alberta, where they began working on the railroads.  My grand father, J.R. Burke married Agness Caldwell, whose family had migrated from Alabama, also to work on the railroads.   My dad, William Burke was born in Lacombe, Alberta in 1922.   Sometime around 1928 my dad's family moved to southern California, where J.R. and Agness got into the real estate business.

Of  the 10 children of Patrick and Bridget, only Edward migrated to the U.S. and back to Alberta, Canada where he and Mary died in the 1920's.   The other nine children remained in Ontario and some later moved to Saskatchewan.