John Raftery and Mary Grealy
Husband: John Raftery
Birth: 16 Apr 1812, Co Galway, Ireland
Father: Thomas Raftery Mother: Catherine McHugh
Death: 23 Apr 1895, Ballinahatna, Castleblakeney, Co Galway, Ireland
Birth: 16 Apr 1812, Co Galway, Ireland
Father: Thomas Raftery Mother: Catherine McHugh
Death: 23 Apr 1895, Ballinahatna, Castleblakeney, Co Galway, Ireland
Spouse: Mary Grealy
Birth: abt 1820, Co. Galway, Ireland
Father: John Grealy (?) Mother: Mary Ford (?)
Death: 18 August 1901, Ballinahatna, Castleblakeney, Co Galway, Ireland
Marriage: abt 1847, Ahascragh, Co Galway, Ireland
Children: Bridget (1848-1926)
Mary Ann (1849-1920)
Julia (1850-1907)
Catherine (1856-?)
Thomas (1858-1913)
Stephen (1859-1919)
Ellen (1865-1910)
Raftery is a surname originating in Ireland, predominantly in the County Mayo, County Galway and County Roscommon area. The original Gaelic form of Raftery was O Raithbheartaigh, which was modified to O Raifeartaigh. The surname is derived from the words rath bheartach meaning prosperity wielder. The most famous member of the family may be Blind Anthony Raftery, 18th Century Irish poet and harper.
Grealy is a Mayo variant of O'Raghailleach or O’Reilly. This pre-10th century Gaelic patronymic is of unknown origin.
Unfortunately, very little is known about John Raftery. According to his death record, John Raftery was born about 1813. There was a John Raftery baptized in Tuam Parish on April 20, 1812, whose parents were Thomas Raftery and Catherine McHugh. This is probably our John, but that is yet to be confirmed. His grandparents Laurence Raftery and Elenor Gilmore are buried in the family plot in the Caltra Cemetery, as is his great grandfather Michael Raftery, but whether his father was Thomas or Patrick (who paid for the tombstone of his parents) or another brother is unknown.
We do know from Griffith’s Valuation that John Raftery was a farmer in Ballinahatna, Killasolan Parish, Galway, who rented 31 acres from James Galbraith. Galbraith had over 4600 acres of land that had belonged to the O’Fahys before the Williamite settlements of the early 18th Century. John’s acreage was in sections 8 and 14, and he and his family lived in house B in section 14. (A Michael Geraghty lived in house A.) Later, the Rafterys were able to buy the land and it—and the previously thatch-roofed building in which his children and grandchildren were born—are still in the family. The house is now a storage shed.
Birth: abt 1820, Co. Galway, Ireland
Father: John Grealy (?) Mother: Mary Ford (?)
Death: 18 August 1901, Ballinahatna, Castleblakeney, Co Galway, Ireland
Marriage: abt 1847, Ahascragh, Co Galway, Ireland
Children: Bridget (1848-1926)
Mary Ann (1849-1920)
Julia (1850-1907)
Catherine (1856-?)
Thomas (1858-1913)
Stephen (1859-1919)
Ellen (1865-1910)
Raftery is a surname originating in Ireland, predominantly in the County Mayo, County Galway and County Roscommon area. The original Gaelic form of Raftery was O Raithbheartaigh, which was modified to O Raifeartaigh. The surname is derived from the words rath bheartach meaning prosperity wielder. The most famous member of the family may be Blind Anthony Raftery, 18th Century Irish poet and harper.
Grealy is a Mayo variant of O'Raghailleach or O’Reilly. This pre-10th century Gaelic patronymic is of unknown origin.
Unfortunately, very little is known about John Raftery. According to his death record, John Raftery was born about 1813. There was a John Raftery baptized in Tuam Parish on April 20, 1812, whose parents were Thomas Raftery and Catherine McHugh. This is probably our John, but that is yet to be confirmed. His grandparents Laurence Raftery and Elenor Gilmore are buried in the family plot in the Caltra Cemetery, as is his great grandfather Michael Raftery, but whether his father was Thomas or Patrick (who paid for the tombstone of his parents) or another brother is unknown.
We do know from Griffith’s Valuation that John Raftery was a farmer in Ballinahatna, Killasolan Parish, Galway, who rented 31 acres from James Galbraith. Galbraith had over 4600 acres of land that had belonged to the O’Fahys before the Williamite settlements of the early 18th Century. John’s acreage was in sections 8 and 14, and he and his family lived in house B in section 14. (A Michael Geraghty lived in house A.) Later, the Rafterys were able to buy the land and it—and the previously thatch-roofed building in which his children and grandchildren were born—are still in the family. The house is now a storage shed.
Ballinahatna was part of the 28,000-acre Clonbrock estate. It was the third largest estate in Galway and contained 581 small holdings, of which Ballinahatna was one. Their landlord was Robert Dillon, the 3rd Lord Clonbrock. In a treatise by John O’Sullivan entitled Landlord-Tenant Relations on the Clonbrock Estate in Galway (1997), O’Sullivan states
The convenient view once held that landlords charged excessively high rents and did not invest money in their estates does not apply to Lord Clonbrock. In the period 1849-80 his rents increased by just eighteen per cent while almost eleven per cent of rental income was spent on improvements to his estate. When tenants whose rental was low were in difficulties in times of temporary economic crises, he responded positively to their problems.
In fact, during the Famine Lord Clonbrock had all the game on his estates hunted and used the meat to feed his tenants. Lord Clonbrock was 38 years old when the Famine began and had been in possession of the land for 19 years, so he was not inexperienced. In fact, his lands fared better than most because he had been anticipating problems for years and taken steps to put his holding in a stable position. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, the land was becoming overpopulated and many small farmers had been having trouble making rent. Unlike other nobles who evicted tenants wholesale, Clonbrock judiciously forgave debts and/or gave money to the farmers in the most difficult circumstances to facilitate their moving to another farm or even to emigrate to America or Canada. He also allocated money for improvements to the land that improved arability and allow for slightly more diverse crops.
The manor house was near the town of Ahascragh, where Caltra Church and Cemetery are.
The convenient view once held that landlords charged excessively high rents and did not invest money in their estates does not apply to Lord Clonbrock. In the period 1849-80 his rents increased by just eighteen per cent while almost eleven per cent of rental income was spent on improvements to his estate. When tenants whose rental was low were in difficulties in times of temporary economic crises, he responded positively to their problems.
In fact, during the Famine Lord Clonbrock had all the game on his estates hunted and used the meat to feed his tenants. Lord Clonbrock was 38 years old when the Famine began and had been in possession of the land for 19 years, so he was not inexperienced. In fact, his lands fared better than most because he had been anticipating problems for years and taken steps to put his holding in a stable position. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, the land was becoming overpopulated and many small farmers had been having trouble making rent. Unlike other nobles who evicted tenants wholesale, Clonbrock judiciously forgave debts and/or gave money to the farmers in the most difficult circumstances to facilitate their moving to another farm or even to emigrate to America or Canada. He also allocated money for improvements to the land that improved arability and allow for slightly more diverse crops.
The manor house was near the town of Ahascragh, where Caltra Church and Cemetery are.
The following is part of the entry for the house in Mark Bence Jones’ A Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988), written before it was accidentally burned by fire in the 1994:
7 bay entrance-front with 3 bay pedimented breakfront; doorway with blocked
engaged Tuscan columns and entablature. A single-story Doric portico by John Hampton was added ca 1824; while in 1855 3rd Baron added a single-story 2 bay bow-ended wing to the right of the entrance front, which is balanced by a single-story wing on the left-hand side, thought the two do not match. Good interior plasterwork of the 1780s, in the manner of Michael Stapleton. Classical medallions and husk ornament also on the walls of the staircase hall, at the inner end of which stood a splendid organ in a mahogany case surmounted by a baron’s coronet.... Stone staircase with balustrade of brass uprights. Large drawing room with coved ceiling and modillion cornice in 1855 wing opening with double doors into a smaller drawing room in the main block, to form what is in effect one long room; which, a few years ago, still had a delightful early-Victorian character; with a grey watered silk wallpaper and curtains of cream and faded pink as a background to the glitter of 2 crystal chandeliers and of the many gilt frames of the pictures and of the mirror over the fine statuary marble chimneypiece. When the room was being fitted up, 3rd Baron’s son, who at the time was a young diplomat in Vienna, wrote home to give instructions on how the floor was to be laid, so that it might be suitable for dancing the latest waltzes.
Robert Dillon died in 1893 and was succeeded by his son Luke.
7 bay entrance-front with 3 bay pedimented breakfront; doorway with blocked
engaged Tuscan columns and entablature. A single-story Doric portico by John Hampton was added ca 1824; while in 1855 3rd Baron added a single-story 2 bay bow-ended wing to the right of the entrance front, which is balanced by a single-story wing on the left-hand side, thought the two do not match. Good interior plasterwork of the 1780s, in the manner of Michael Stapleton. Classical medallions and husk ornament also on the walls of the staircase hall, at the inner end of which stood a splendid organ in a mahogany case surmounted by a baron’s coronet.... Stone staircase with balustrade of brass uprights. Large drawing room with coved ceiling and modillion cornice in 1855 wing opening with double doors into a smaller drawing room in the main block, to form what is in effect one long room; which, a few years ago, still had a delightful early-Victorian character; with a grey watered silk wallpaper and curtains of cream and faded pink as a background to the glitter of 2 crystal chandeliers and of the many gilt frames of the pictures and of the mirror over the fine statuary marble chimneypiece. When the room was being fitted up, 3rd Baron’s son, who at the time was a young diplomat in Vienna, wrote home to give instructions on how the floor was to be laid, so that it might be suitable for dancing the latest waltzes.
Robert Dillon died in 1893 and was succeeded by his son Luke.
As with John Raftery, there is little that can be confirmed about Mary Grealy, though one photo does survive. There is a likely death record that shows Mary Raftery’s death date as August 18, 1901. There is a birth record for Mary Grealy on September 25, 1819, in Tuam Parish. But that record cannot be confirmed as being of our Mary Grealy. That Mary’s parents were John Grealy and Mary Ford.
Based on the births of their children, John and Mary married sometime during the Great Famine between 1845 and 1847. They had seven children, all of whom lived to adulthood. The Rafterys were incredibly lucky to live where they did when the Blight struck.
The first child, a daughter they named Bridget, was born in 1848. The next five came in quick succession every year and a half or so. Finally, their youngest, Ellen, was born six years after her brother Stephen. It is possible there were children in between who did not survive, but no records of them exist. Ellen must have been a surprise to her 45-year-old mother.
Life in Ballinahatna settled into a fairly steady rhythm again after the Famine. Things were quiet and life followed the agricultural cycle as it had for centuries. According to Lewis’ A Topological Dictionary of Ireland (1837),
Agriculture as a system is in a backward state, except in the neighbourhood of Ballinasloe, Tuam, Hollymount, and Gort, where the rotation and green crop systems have been introduced. The barony of Kiltartan has also made rapid strides in this respect since 1833, at which time the first clover and vetches were sown; they are generally cut and carried away as green fodder. The deepest and best soils in the county are around Ballymoe and Tyaquin. In most of the eastern portion of the county, the iron plough and light angular harrow are generally used; but the land is never ploughed sufficiently deep, the antiquated system of merely turning up the old soil being adhered to: in most parts grain of every kind is sown too late, hence it sustains great injury in wet seasons.
Hay is rarely cut till the month of September, and even then very injudiciously managed; the greater quantity of hay is produced on low meadows, here called Callows, where it is put up in large cocks in the field and suffered to remain until November; hence it is always much injured with rain and liable to be washed away by the autumnal floods. Although the iron plough is very general, the old wooden plough is retained in many places. Threshing and winnowing machines are sometimes seen, but only with the gentry. One-horse carts with spoke wheels are so general that the old solid wooden-wheeled car is now seldom seen, and the slide car never. Wagons of a very superior construction, drawn by two horses abreast, are frequent in the neighbourhood of Galway.
In fact, famine had been a part of the cycle throughout the 1700s when wet winters, drought, early frosts, floods, and a different potato blight destroyed crops. Government relief was common and the export of food was often curtailed. After the 1840s, the blight returned in the late 1850s and again in the early 1880s, though to a far less devastating effect.
On Mar 19, 1869, just four years after the birth of their youngest daughter, the Rafterys became grandparents for the first time when their eldest daughter Bridget gave birth to Mary Gormally. Over the next 37 years, there would be forty-one grandchildren (21 grandsons and 20 granddaughters): 10 Gormallys, 5 Sweeneys, 6 Fords and 1 Forde, 11 Rafterys, 7 Silks, and a Ryan.
Neighboring estates saw tremendous changes in the 1880s. Brought on by what would be known as the Long Depression which affected rent yields and landlord-tenant relations across all of Europe from the 1870s to the 1890s, Cogadh na Talún (the Land War) was a period of agrarian unrest in rural Ireland between 1879 and 1882. Later outbreaks periodically reignited until as late as 1923. The agitation attempted to secure fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure for tenant farmers through a series on Land Acts and ultimately peasant proprietorship of the land they worked.
The Clonbrock estate was only marginally affected because of the good tenant-landlord relationships established by Robert Dillon since the Famine. These continued and were reinforced by rent reductions during the Land War period. From 1886 to 1887, a Plan of Campaign was adopted on other estates but only a small portion of the Clonbrock estate. The Plan was devised by members of the Irish National League and was outlined in an article headed Plan of Campaign by Timothy Harrington, published on 23 October 1886 in the League's newspaper, the United Irishman. The purpose of the Plan was to secure a reduction of rent where tenants considered themselves overburdened in consequence of a poor harvest: if a landlord refused to accept a reduced rent, the tenants were to pay no rent at all. The rents were then collected by campaigners who banked them in the name of a National League committee of trustees and were to be used to assist evicted tenants who had risked eviction in the hope of rapid fair-rent reinstatement. A Land Commission had been established under the Land Law Act 1881 to review and reduce rents where they were clearly unpayable, securing an average reduction of 25%. The Campaign sought to further reduce the amounts by concerted action, and ideally by negotiation.
Robert Dillon died in 1893, to be succeeded by his son, Luke. Unlike most of his fellow landlords, who as a result of sweeping socio-economic and political changes from the early 1880s had come to accept that the sale of their estates was inevitable, Luke Dillon refused to sell any part of their property. Indeed, the new Lord Clonbrock was reluctant to sell under the terms of the 1903 Land Act—the most advanced social legislation in Ireland. This Act set the conditions for the break-up of large estates by government-sponsored purchase and offered the generous incentive of a 12 per cent cash bonus to vendors.
In a famous letter to the Morning Post in 1903, Clonbrock argued that he had a sentimental attachment to his estate that he was not prepared to relinquish. Let me quote briefly from this letter:
At the end of the scale, we may suppose a landowner, who is wearied out by the uncertainty and trouble to which he is exposed, who has no particular sentiment for his property, perhaps from having purchased it not so long ago, while freedom of contract still existed in Ireland, or perhaps from never having resided on it. At the other end we may take a man who has had but little trouble from the land courts, who has constantly resided on his property, and whose life is therefore identified with it; who is attached to his tenants, as much by strong personal and hereditary ties, and who has always entertained the most friendly relations with them. It is obvious that such a man would require a far higher inducement to sell than the former.
It was, however, this very reluctance to sell that eventually strained the relationship of the 4th baron with his tenants. If he had been reluctant to sell under the 1903 Land Act, they had been just as reluctant to purchase during the 1880s and 1890s simply because the early land acts had provided few incentives for them to do so. However, when the 1903 Land Act guaranteed that purchase annuities repayable to the government would be less than annual rents payable to the landlord, his tenants called upon Lord Clonbrock to sell. When he refused the United Irish League began a concerted campaign of agitation on the estate. From 1903 to 1907, the estate was subjected to extreme agitation. Demands for rent reductions were accompanied by frequent cattle drives as smallholders and the landless demanded the break up of large grazing farms on the estate. By 1907, rental income on the estate had fallen by around 15 per cent as a result of strikes and fair rent fixing, while arrears had risen at an unprecedented rate from £4,362 in 1902 (twice the level they had been even in 1882) to £6, 370 in 1907.
By 1909, Lord Clonbrock had no alternative but to sell. By 1914, he had sold the majority of his tenanted lands for which he received £250,000, in today’s terms roughly £15 million. It seems that it was during this time that John’s son Stephen bought the property. Stephen’s great-grandchildren still own and live on the property today.
The Long Depression did not seem to affect the Rafterys as it did others. During this time, significant immigration from all over Europe to America occurred but all but one of the Raftery children stayed in Galway. Most married and settled down in Ballinahatna or Mount Bellew, a neighboring estate owned by another branch of the Dillons. But the youngest child, Ellen, did emigrate and went into domestic service ion San Francisco in 1885. Many of the next generation emigrated to Boston. It is unknown what drew Ellen so much further away.
One minor personal fact is known about John: he had dogs. Over the years from 1866 to 1894, he took out licenses for 17 dogs. Several were terriers, a couple were collies, and one was a sheepdog. In late 1879, he was fined one shilling because he allowed his black-and-tan female terrier to go unleashed and unmuzzled in the Ahascragh common land, causing some damage. His last dog, licensed in 1894, was a male red terrier.
On April 23, 1895, John Raftery died. He was 83 years old. Six years later, on August 18, 1901, Mary followed. She was 81. Neither of them lived to see the Lands Acts of 1903 and 1909 that allowed ownership of the land they worked into the hands of their children and grandchildren. They were most likely buried in the Caltra Graveyard.
Based on the births of their children, John and Mary married sometime during the Great Famine between 1845 and 1847. They had seven children, all of whom lived to adulthood. The Rafterys were incredibly lucky to live where they did when the Blight struck.
The first child, a daughter they named Bridget, was born in 1848. The next five came in quick succession every year and a half or so. Finally, their youngest, Ellen, was born six years after her brother Stephen. It is possible there were children in between who did not survive, but no records of them exist. Ellen must have been a surprise to her 45-year-old mother.
Life in Ballinahatna settled into a fairly steady rhythm again after the Famine. Things were quiet and life followed the agricultural cycle as it had for centuries. According to Lewis’ A Topological Dictionary of Ireland (1837),
Agriculture as a system is in a backward state, except in the neighbourhood of Ballinasloe, Tuam, Hollymount, and Gort, where the rotation and green crop systems have been introduced. The barony of Kiltartan has also made rapid strides in this respect since 1833, at which time the first clover and vetches were sown; they are generally cut and carried away as green fodder. The deepest and best soils in the county are around Ballymoe and Tyaquin. In most of the eastern portion of the county, the iron plough and light angular harrow are generally used; but the land is never ploughed sufficiently deep, the antiquated system of merely turning up the old soil being adhered to: in most parts grain of every kind is sown too late, hence it sustains great injury in wet seasons.
Hay is rarely cut till the month of September, and even then very injudiciously managed; the greater quantity of hay is produced on low meadows, here called Callows, where it is put up in large cocks in the field and suffered to remain until November; hence it is always much injured with rain and liable to be washed away by the autumnal floods. Although the iron plough is very general, the old wooden plough is retained in many places. Threshing and winnowing machines are sometimes seen, but only with the gentry. One-horse carts with spoke wheels are so general that the old solid wooden-wheeled car is now seldom seen, and the slide car never. Wagons of a very superior construction, drawn by two horses abreast, are frequent in the neighbourhood of Galway.
In fact, famine had been a part of the cycle throughout the 1700s when wet winters, drought, early frosts, floods, and a different potato blight destroyed crops. Government relief was common and the export of food was often curtailed. After the 1840s, the blight returned in the late 1850s and again in the early 1880s, though to a far less devastating effect.
On Mar 19, 1869, just four years after the birth of their youngest daughter, the Rafterys became grandparents for the first time when their eldest daughter Bridget gave birth to Mary Gormally. Over the next 37 years, there would be forty-one grandchildren (21 grandsons and 20 granddaughters): 10 Gormallys, 5 Sweeneys, 6 Fords and 1 Forde, 11 Rafterys, 7 Silks, and a Ryan.
Neighboring estates saw tremendous changes in the 1880s. Brought on by what would be known as the Long Depression which affected rent yields and landlord-tenant relations across all of Europe from the 1870s to the 1890s, Cogadh na Talún (the Land War) was a period of agrarian unrest in rural Ireland between 1879 and 1882. Later outbreaks periodically reignited until as late as 1923. The agitation attempted to secure fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure for tenant farmers through a series on Land Acts and ultimately peasant proprietorship of the land they worked.
The Clonbrock estate was only marginally affected because of the good tenant-landlord relationships established by Robert Dillon since the Famine. These continued and were reinforced by rent reductions during the Land War period. From 1886 to 1887, a Plan of Campaign was adopted on other estates but only a small portion of the Clonbrock estate. The Plan was devised by members of the Irish National League and was outlined in an article headed Plan of Campaign by Timothy Harrington, published on 23 October 1886 in the League's newspaper, the United Irishman. The purpose of the Plan was to secure a reduction of rent where tenants considered themselves overburdened in consequence of a poor harvest: if a landlord refused to accept a reduced rent, the tenants were to pay no rent at all. The rents were then collected by campaigners who banked them in the name of a National League committee of trustees and were to be used to assist evicted tenants who had risked eviction in the hope of rapid fair-rent reinstatement. A Land Commission had been established under the Land Law Act 1881 to review and reduce rents where they were clearly unpayable, securing an average reduction of 25%. The Campaign sought to further reduce the amounts by concerted action, and ideally by negotiation.
Robert Dillon died in 1893, to be succeeded by his son, Luke. Unlike most of his fellow landlords, who as a result of sweeping socio-economic and political changes from the early 1880s had come to accept that the sale of their estates was inevitable, Luke Dillon refused to sell any part of their property. Indeed, the new Lord Clonbrock was reluctant to sell under the terms of the 1903 Land Act—the most advanced social legislation in Ireland. This Act set the conditions for the break-up of large estates by government-sponsored purchase and offered the generous incentive of a 12 per cent cash bonus to vendors.
In a famous letter to the Morning Post in 1903, Clonbrock argued that he had a sentimental attachment to his estate that he was not prepared to relinquish. Let me quote briefly from this letter:
At the end of the scale, we may suppose a landowner, who is wearied out by the uncertainty and trouble to which he is exposed, who has no particular sentiment for his property, perhaps from having purchased it not so long ago, while freedom of contract still existed in Ireland, or perhaps from never having resided on it. At the other end we may take a man who has had but little trouble from the land courts, who has constantly resided on his property, and whose life is therefore identified with it; who is attached to his tenants, as much by strong personal and hereditary ties, and who has always entertained the most friendly relations with them. It is obvious that such a man would require a far higher inducement to sell than the former.
It was, however, this very reluctance to sell that eventually strained the relationship of the 4th baron with his tenants. If he had been reluctant to sell under the 1903 Land Act, they had been just as reluctant to purchase during the 1880s and 1890s simply because the early land acts had provided few incentives for them to do so. However, when the 1903 Land Act guaranteed that purchase annuities repayable to the government would be less than annual rents payable to the landlord, his tenants called upon Lord Clonbrock to sell. When he refused the United Irish League began a concerted campaign of agitation on the estate. From 1903 to 1907, the estate was subjected to extreme agitation. Demands for rent reductions were accompanied by frequent cattle drives as smallholders and the landless demanded the break up of large grazing farms on the estate. By 1907, rental income on the estate had fallen by around 15 per cent as a result of strikes and fair rent fixing, while arrears had risen at an unprecedented rate from £4,362 in 1902 (twice the level they had been even in 1882) to £6, 370 in 1907.
By 1909, Lord Clonbrock had no alternative but to sell. By 1914, he had sold the majority of his tenanted lands for which he received £250,000, in today’s terms roughly £15 million. It seems that it was during this time that John’s son Stephen bought the property. Stephen’s great-grandchildren still own and live on the property today.
The Long Depression did not seem to affect the Rafterys as it did others. During this time, significant immigration from all over Europe to America occurred but all but one of the Raftery children stayed in Galway. Most married and settled down in Ballinahatna or Mount Bellew, a neighboring estate owned by another branch of the Dillons. But the youngest child, Ellen, did emigrate and went into domestic service ion San Francisco in 1885. Many of the next generation emigrated to Boston. It is unknown what drew Ellen so much further away.
One minor personal fact is known about John: he had dogs. Over the years from 1866 to 1894, he took out licenses for 17 dogs. Several were terriers, a couple were collies, and one was a sheepdog. In late 1879, he was fined one shilling because he allowed his black-and-tan female terrier to go unleashed and unmuzzled in the Ahascragh common land, causing some damage. His last dog, licensed in 1894, was a male red terrier.
On April 23, 1895, John Raftery died. He was 83 years old. Six years later, on August 18, 1901, Mary followed. She was 81. Neither of them lived to see the Lands Acts of 1903 and 1909 that allowed ownership of the land they worked into the hands of their children and grandchildren. They were most likely buried in the Caltra Graveyard.
Nothing is known about the personal lives of John Raftery and Mary Grealy, and no existing picture of John has been found. Even their tombstone in the Caltra Cemetery no longer survives. But these two ancestors of ours lived through one of the worst economic and ecological disasters in the history of the world and raised a healthy family that was able to not only continue the family line but to prosper. Their seven children gave rise to many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including two nuns and a priest—badges of high honor among Irish Catholics. John and Mary are well worthy of being remembered.