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I'm Kevin Walsh (the kid in the box in a 1969 picture with my sister Katie and my father, Jim). I'm one of Henry Kelly's 70+ great-grandchildren! My dad's mom, Laura, used to stay with us during summers and at Christmas and I loved listening to her stories of her wonderful family, the Kellys. She deeply loved her parents, Henry and Mollie, and would entertain my sisters and me with stories of their home in Ottawa, Illinois and later of their move to Detroit. She was very proud of her Irish heritage and her strong relationship to her many brothers and sisters.
I never met one of her siblings until meeting her brother Jerry in 1995, five years after Laura died.
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But because of Laura's stories, her siblings were very present in my life as well as my dad's. We enjoyed looking up articles on her brother Harry when he was governor of Michigan. We took pages of notes from visits with Jerry and we always enjoyed visiting the family plot in Southfield. My dad died in 1997 and is buried there as is Harry and his wife Anne, Henry and Mollie, Laura, my grandfather Leon Walsh, Larry's wife Olga and Harry's son Roger.
Special Thanks for Inspiration
I had the privilege to meet Anne Kelly at their family cottage near Gaylord, Michigan. There I also met Joanne Hagopian, Harry and Anne's eldest , who has shared with me an interest in the geneology of this interesting family. Joanne and I have been exchanging material over the years as she compiles information for a geneology course. After I made a road-trip to Ottawa I copied off many of those documents and sent them along to her.
But the idea for a Kelly website came from Harry's granddaughters, Laura and Elizabeth Kelly who prepared a wonderful site devoted to Harry's branch of the Kelly family tree. Joanne sent me the web address and through it I got to meet Laura, her husband Warren, Elizabeth, Andrea, David and their father Larry who was also a fountain of great stories. Please take a look at it at http://www.kellycabin.com/horicon.html. It's a wonderful site, full of great stories, photos and hard work.
On November 15, 2004 Jerry Kelly passed away at the age of 93, the last living child of Henry and Mollie. Jerry, like so many of the other Kellys I've met, was a natural storyteller and loved to laugh. Just the previous May, my wife Patrice and I had flown down to see Jerry for the weekend. Sitting in his usual booth for breakfast after Sunday mass Jerry told many new stories of my grandma, his parents, his many careers and his wide range of friends.
Jerry's Funeral, November 2004
At Jerry's funeral in Palm Beach Gardens I was able to meet many Kelly cousins for the first time who were kind enough to furnish me with many photos, stories, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Jerry's son, Bill, was a great support sharing many great photos and stories of his father. There was great interest in all of the old documents I brought along, but there was especially an interest in getting this big family a little closer together.
Future Plans
So here it is, a work in progress. I'd love for it to be an interactive site that will allow Kellys to meet one another to plan the future as well as admire the past. I'd like to have a page for every one of Henry and Mollie's descendants, if you are interested in supplying me the information (and pictures would be great!).
I'm launching it very near Laura's 100th birthday, February 23, 2005. It's easy to do all of this collecting because it feels like I've got Jerry, Laura and my father helping every step of the way.
--Kevin Walsh, February 10, 2005
Feel free to contact Kevin Walsh at kwteacher@yahoo.com
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