My great-grandmother was a Sullivan

Jane Rose Sullivan Walsh

My great-grandmother was a Sullivan who married a Walsh. They married into the McCarthy family as well. My grandmother was Walsh who married a Reilly. I also have Sullivan 2nd & 3rd cousins In San Francisco.

There are a lot of other Sullivans we think we're related to. There's a Sullivan family in San Geronimo Valley, they even look like us. But without family records it would be very hard to prove much of anything in Ireland before the 1860s as most church records were destroyed.

Marin wasn't particularly Irish. It was an admixture. It did however, have large immigrant groups from the Azores, Ireland, Italy, etc. I remember my grandmother pointing out the Italian Swiss colony. Some moved to Asti.

Our family had a summer home in West Marin that became their full time home. I think many San Franciscan families did that. It was not a wealthy enclave. Not like today.

Also, when there was no cure for TB, and other infectious diseases, it was thought that moving to the country would improve one's chances of surviving. It has a long tradition dating back to the mission days at San Rafael when acolytes were shipped to San Rafael to heal, but few Natives survived European diseases.

During the '06 quake, and fire, most people had no place to live, so many moved to Marin. There were a lot of Irish in San Francisco. My grandfather was responsible for, and patrolled a tent city on one of the hills. Maybe Lone Mountain.

Then, during the Depression, more people moved to Marin from San Francisco as it was easier to survive in Marin. My grandfather commuted by train and ferry to San Francisco.

My grandmother's garden on Coomb anOr in Forest Knolls fed more than one family and she had eight kids. The place looked just like her father's farm in Bantry, hence the name.

One St. Patrick's Day I was teaching kids poetry in Alexander Valley and there was a little party and one of the room mothers and I got to talking, comparing Irish last names.

Imagine this conversation:

My family are Sullivans and Walshes.

Yeah? Funny. So are mine.

Mine are from Bantry.

You're kidding. So are mine.

Get out! Our family had a ranch in Nevada.

So did we. Really.

Are you kidding? Omigawd, were you related to Wild Bill Walsh?

Yeah, he was my grandfather.

No way. He was my great uncle, my grandmother's brother. That makes us, let's see, 2nd cousins. We're related. We're actually related! (More screams, etc). It happened, it really happened like that.

And here I had been teaching her young daughter, Samantha Estomba poetry—not knowing we were 2nd cousins once removed. We were related. I must admit we had hit it off like a house afire.