Maurice Francis Donovan was born in Tallow, Waterford, Ireland in either 1871 (by his death certificate) or 1869 (as family tradition holds). He and his young wife Catherine immigrated to America aboard the first HMS Britannic of the White Star Line in 1887. He would become a bartender, mill worker and a fireman on the Priscilla of the Fall River Line (a job he probably got from his brother-in-law, Michael Ronan). He was the father of eight children: Michael (died in infancy), Mary, James Lester, John, Maurice Francis (called "Frank"), Thomas, Joseph and Helen.
His Irish heritage is a bit of a secret; he was buried with a box that no one knew the contents of, and once, when his youngest child, Helen, asked about the Irish people in their family, he supposedly responded, "We're not Irish anymore, we're American."
His Irish heritage is a bit of a secret; he was buried with a box that no one knew the contents of, and once, when his youngest child, Helen, asked about the Irish people in their family, he supposedly responded, "We're not Irish anymore, we're American."
Maurice Francis Donovan was born in Tallow, Waterford, Ireland in either 1871 (by his death certificate) or 1869 (as family tradition holds). He and his young wife Catherine immigrated to America aboard the first HMS Britannic of the White Star Line in 1887. He would become a bartender, mill worker and a fireman on the Priscilla of the Fall River Line (a job he probably got from his brother-in-law, Michael Ronan). He was the father of eight children: Michael (died in infancy), Mary, James Lester, John, Maurice Francis (called "Frank"), Thomas, Joseph and Helen.
His Irish heritage is a bit of a secret; he was buried with a box that no one knew the contents of, and once, when his youngest child, Helen, asked about the Irish people in their family, he supposedly responded, "We're not Irish anymore, we're American."
His Irish heritage is a bit of a secret; he was buried with a box that no one knew the contents of, and once, when his youngest child, Helen, asked about the Irish people in their family, he supposedly responded, "We're not Irish anymore, we're American."
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