Connecticut

[ryeleemac]

My name is Jim Reilly and I'm from Milford, Connecticut, located abot 60 miles northeast of New York City. My maternal Great-grandparents were Michael Breslin, born in 1894 in Ranny, Lettermacaward and Madge Melly born in 1891 in Lettermacaward. Michael was a farmer's son who apparently was sent to America in 1915 because the British Army was scouring the Irish countryside in Donegal looking for potential recruits to fight in WWI. It was his mother who forced this move. He eventually settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut USA where he found employment as a polisher in the Remington Arms Company (the world's largest factory at that time), which supplied the British, Russian, and French armies with much of its war materiel, including bayonets and bullets.

Madge lived in Ranny and was employed as a knitter according to the 1911 Irish Census. In that year she emigrated to America, went through Ellis Island, and found employment as a chambermaid for a wealthy family named Fox in New York City. She remained there until 1919 but returned to Ranny for about a year. In 1920 she sailed back to the United States to live there permanantly and met up with Michael Breslin in NYC at a dance/social, many of which were held regularly for Irish immigrants from various counties. This was a Donegal Night. Michael and Madge were quickly engaged and married on August 29, 1920 in New York City but settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They had five children. Remington Arms factory eventually became General Electric Company in 1920, and Michael worked there for over 40 years.