The Hayes Family History Site

The following is part of an Genealogical Assessment provided by the nice people at Eneclann.  The purpose of the assessment is to help me evaluate whether it makes sense to move forward with a more in-depth investigation of my Roche (Roach) relatives of Dublin, Ireland..  The people there are very nice and curteous.  They did lose my initial request for the assessment which delayed the results by more than four weeks, but they did most certainly make the situation right with me in several ways.  Thank you Eneclann.  I do plan to use them for additional assessments and so far, would recommend them to others who need help researching in Ireland.

You can learn more about  Enclann’s Genealogy  Experts at:

http://www.eneclann.ie/Research/research_genealogy.html

The purpose of this initial assessment is to review the information you have given us on your Irish ancestors and, if possible, to develop a search strategy. As I am sure you will understand, we do not like to recommend commissioning research if we are not confident of finding more material about the family.

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When I first started doing my genealogy research, I learned that my great, great grandfather, Henry Lewis, married a woman named “Anna Roche”. In fact, my great aunt, Grace Lewis” gave me the first first insight into a family that I had only heard of by name.

“Anna Roche was born in Brooklyn, but her mother came from Dublin, Ireland, where she was educated to become a doctor at the University there. If it was not that she was your great, great grandmother, we would not be writing this today. Your grandfather (Thomas) was about 4 pounds when he was born and she kept them alive in a little cigar box in the back of one of those old-fashioned coal stove’s. She kept him for one year, until he was a very strong baby.

Your great great grandmother had other children besides Anna Roche. She had Rose, Anna and another daughter and a son. I do know the boy moved to Cleveland Ohio and had seven sons. Rose married a man named Booth and had no children. Rose moved to Port Chester after her husband died and lived with one of her sisters who married a man named Gackstetter. They had David, Walter, John, Harold and Mabel. They were the ones I visited for many years and enjoyed very much. At one time Mabel and I, and one of her brothers came to visit you at your home in Larchmont. That it that is what you remember. No one in the family kept up with them but myself and now I have not heard from them in years. The other sister, Anna, lived up in Port Chester too, and had six girls and one boy. Their name was Hickey, bur all are married with different names. At one time they had a family gathering and there were 15 members of the family. Many more did not come. I do not know anything more about them today.”

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We know that Anna Roach (b.abt 1838 in ireland) immigrated to and lived in New York City. She married Henry Lewis of Wales. Her mother lived with her for a while in the 1860′s, carefully caring for Thomas, Anna’s newborn 4 lbs. son and my great grandfather, by “putting him in a little cigar box on one of those old-fashioned shelves.”

I have been deeply curious about the Roach’s because of the mis-spelling of her last name on Anna’s grave. Initially, I though the grave was correct and that the Census record keepers were just sloppy. But as I collected various death records, I became convinced that “Roach” is the proper spelling of her last name.

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