William Matthew Poole

William Matthew Poole is my paternal grandfather - my father's father.

He was born in Jan 1862 in Drumnabehy townland, part of Rosenallis Parish, Queens (present-day Laois) County, Ireland and baptized in the Rosenallis Catholic church on January 12, 1862. His parents were John Poole and Mary Dunne.

Drumnabehy was a small townland with less than a dozen holdings located a few miles outside of the village of Rosenallis. William's father farmed a piece of land there, which I was able to visit in 2019. We were welcomed by John Joseph Poole, who lived there with his wife. John-Joe is not directly related to my family but comes from the Pooles who lived in Capard townland, a few miles away. There are actually quite a lot of Pooles in the parish and it's possible we'll eventually find some connection.

With two older brothers, William probably needed to find a living for himself away from home. This may be how he learned carpentry, the trade he followed when he eventually arrived in the US.

We don't know much about William's early life. But in 1889, when he was 27 years old, he arrived in the US. In the 1892 census, he lists his occupation as a carpenter. He is living in a tenement in Brooklyn, which is not yet a part of New York City, at 73 Schenectady Avenue. Listed immediately before his name on the page, possibly in the next apartment, we find the Head family. The father is another tradesman, a painter, and there are two daughters. Oddly they are both called Minnie - a common nickname for Mary.

In 1894, at age 32, William becomes a US citizen. Two years later, he marries Mary Head. Although it's hard to be certain, I believe that the Mary he married was the younger of the two girls.

The couple's first child, a son, was born in 1897. Following Irish tradition for first sons, he was named William. Other children followed on almost a yearly basis until the fourteenth child, Thomas, was born in 1914. Father William was 52 a the time. Over all this time, as more children were born, the couple changed their address repeatedly, no doubt needing more space.

William died on February 23, 1918 in Brooklyn. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn.