Barnes and Henchey family history from 1860 to 1960
Arthur Barnes was born in Georgia in about 1916 to 1919. His father seems to have left the family when he was young so his mother and maternal grandparents raised him. I have done a lot of work to find the names of his parents and grandparents and might have a good prospect. By 1935, we find him in Perth Amboy of New Jersey. He graduated from a local high school and was now working in a fertilizer plant. In 1945, he joined the Army Corps of Engineers and went out to Honolulu Hawaii. We pick up his trail again in 1948 in Springfield Massachusetts working first as maintenance at a bank but then a permanent career as a metal worker.
John Dacey and Isabella Mcmaron were recent immigrants from England to Connecticut when their daughter Isabella was born in 1903. They stayed in Connecticut for a few decades. Isabella met her future husband Andrew Peters in Connecticut but they soon moved to Springfield Massachusetts. Andrew’s parents are not well known since it seems he was orphaned at three years old. Edwin and Maria Peters his paternal grandparents raised him on a farm in Tolland Connecticut although they were both in their 70s already. Andrew and Isabella would have a daughter Eleanor Peters that would marry Arthur Barnes I in 1948.
Dennis Henchey and Catherine Lyons immigrated from Ireland in about 1854. The Irish left Ireland for many destinations and for many reasons. There were certainly a series of famines in the western farmlands of Ireland during the 1800s, but the Irish were on the move before any famine hit and after they ended. Overpopulation was a grave problem on the island. The potato blight was serious but was only one cause amidst many. The Henchey couple settled in Northampton and had 8 children there. Their son Michael married Mary Jane O’Connell from County Kerry of Ireland in 1887. County Kerry was the source of most Irish that left the island. It is on the far southwestern coast and most inhabitants did not speak English. About 25% of all Irish left the country in the 1800s, but the percentage was far greater in the western counties. The Henchey clan moved to Westfield in about 1900 and their son Thomas married Julia Svenson in 1919.
Julia was the daughter of Adolfus Svensson and Kerstin Olsson who had immigrated from Sweden in 1881. The Svenson family lived in Canton, Connecticut. Kerstin lived to about 90 years old and stayed in Canton all that time. Julia’s son Thomas married Geraldine Burke. The Burke family like the Henchey family was an early arrival from Ireland – coming over in about 1830. Michael Burke and Mary Cotter lived in many towns around Springfield. Their son Florence was a soldier in 37th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. He was killed in the trenches during the initial attack against Petersburg Virginia in 1864. He is buried in Saint Benedict’s Cemetery in Springfield. His widow Ellen Daley continued to live in West Springfield with her four children. One of them Jeremiah Burke married Mary Begley who parents had immigrated from Ireland. In turn, their son Harry Burke married Grace Murphy who parents had also immigrated from Ireland.