Hometown Tales #373 The Lost Fitzpatricks

Hometown Tales 373.

Perfect legends, stories, folklore, music, history, whatever makes your town unique.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody.

If you are listening to this as soon as this show is released,

you're most likely listening to it on St. Patrick's Day.

This is Gene from Hometown Tales.

A very special show tonight that was sort of quickly thrown together, I know, over the last several years.

The shows have been, you know, less frequent, and of course, during the global pandemic of the last year,

we've tried to get a couple out, and we're going to continue to do that.

And for the second time in our history, I believe this is a solo show for me,

as Brian was not able to make it.

Probably because of me, actually, because it was a bit short notice,

because I really wanted to get this show out for St. Patrick's Day,

because this one's sort of special to me.

So I am going to be joined by a guest, which will be great.

And that's sort of the purpose of the show.

For many of you who have listened to our show in the past,

you've heard us talk, both Minogue and I, about our family history, about our genealogy,

all that kind of stuff.

But Minogue...

He has an amazing story about, I think, it was his dad when he went to Ireland.

Somebody pulled out the old family tree, all that kind of stuff.

Well, that kind of stuff has just made me envious.

Because as somewhat of a history hobbyist, and certainly interested in my own family history,

we, as Fitzpatricks, in case you don't know, my last name is Fitzpatrick,

have not been able to do a very good job tracing the Fitzpatrick lineage back.

You've probably heard me talk about my dad, or maybe even my uncle.

I had an uncle who just recently, this past year, died at, I think he was 97.

Amazing life, amazing story.

Was in World War II.

I'm sure you've heard me talk about it.

Flew over the U.S. and the United States, all that kind of stuff.

Well, he was very into sort of the family history, and he had kept some good records,

and I certainly chatted with him about a lot of that stuff.

But even since his passing, I've been even a little more interested,

because I knew here was the patriarch, the last patriarch of the family.

My father passed away, I believe, about, I don't know, probably, I guess, four years ago or somewhere around there.

So, when Uncle Gerard passed away, it was sort of the last of the patriarchs,

and I've been trying to take a lot of the info that he had given me about sort of the family history,

and, you know, piece it all together, but the reality is, my, what would have been my grandfather,

my dad's dad, passed away when my dad was very, very young.

So, the story that we always kind of heard is that the Fitzpatrick side of the family,

they had not really, you know, kept in touch with.

And when we look at our history, we can't really get back very far.

He has a little recollection of some cousins and his aunts and uncles, but not a lot,

because after.

After his father passed away, they didn't really necessarily keep that close with that side of the family

for whatever reasons and whatever sort of theories we might have had.

So, for all this time, really getting past my great-grandfather was almost impossible.

So, all of a sudden, I did, you know, the whole thing where I signed up with one of the sites,

I signed up on MyHeritage and all that, and the site, you know, does a good job, these pay sites,

so they don't give you all the info right away.

So, you know, you enter in.

You get some stuff, and every couple days, all of a sudden, hey, a new record, a new link has been found.

Well, all of a sudden, I uncovered something new, and I found a whole lineage.

And we're going to get into it right now, because I uncovered a second cousin that I never knew I had.

And he's joining us on Hometown Tales right now.

So, from Austin, Texas, I uncovered what would technically be a second cousin.

And he's here now, so we get to talk.

It's only the second time we've ever spoken, we've never met, anything like that.

But what happened is I'm on this site, this little heritage site, and all of a sudden, I get this alert,

and I find out that one of my dad's uncles, there's a son, which would have been my dad's cousin.

All of a sudden, I find this.

It's John Jerome Fitzpatrick.

Next thing you know, some other woman in Greece has got this other link,

and then all of a sudden, there's children of John Jerome.

I find these three children.

I look up some of the children.

Two of the children have tons of public records all over,

and then the third one is just mentioned in the other children.

But sure enough, the third one, who has no public records, I go to LinkedIn,

and I search Greg Fitzpatrick, Texas,

and up comes a picture of what looks like my dad when he was in his 40s.

And then, boom, I sent this guy out of the blue an email,

and Greg's here with us on Hometown Tales tonight.

Greg, thanks for letting me stalk you down, and thanks for coming on the show.

Absolutely.

And what the hell were you thinking when you got a LinkedIn message from a stranger citing your parents' names?

Yes.

Well, I think I told you in the message, it's not every day you get a message of any kind,

email or LinkedIn otherwise, with your parents' names in the subject line.

So that was a little odd.

But it did help that you had the same last name,

and it also helped that I could totally see the resemblance the minute I saw your profile pic.

So I was like, okay, it could be a scam.

So I'm going to go – I'm going to tread lightly.

I'm going to see what's going on here.

But you had two things going for you right off the bat,

which was the resemblance and the name.

And strangely enough, you mentioned the woman that you went through to find us.

I had been contacted by her about six months back.

I'm starting to think maybe this is a pandemic activity.

Folks are just like rooting around in the genealogical records trying to find each other.

But she had reached out to me, and I really thought she was a scam.

Because I was like, she didn't share a last name.

There's no family resemblance.

It's just sort of out of the blue.

She's in Cyprus, and it's just like the further you get out of the States,

the more you're kind of like, what's going on here?

But she turned out to be totally real and totally fine, was researching my mother's side.

And then you come along, and I'm like, okay, well, I've been through this before,

so I'm pretty sure it's okay.

Let's just make sure.

That's so crazy.

Yeah.

I think what's sort of strange, and I've talked about this on the show,

and I talked a little bit in the intro.

So my grandfather died very, very young.

Sort of.

Sort of actually eerie, because my dad, youngest of three boys,

myself, youngest of three boys, you, youngest of three boys,

my dad's dad died when he was about four years old,

and your dad, John Jerome, also passed away when you were, like, what, three, four?

Three.

Actually, I was on the cusp of four.

Okay.

And even when I look up the dates on my dad's, I think his recollection says more three,

but I think my dad was probably.

Probably four or five, but I know when we first talked about it, you're like,

I just got chills, and I'm like, I actually got chills, too,

because I didn't even realize it, but I think what's crazy is,

so because my grandfather died so young, they never, that side of the family,

you know, like, my dad didn't really have a lot of touch with the Fitzpatricks,

because they kind of had drifted, so I knew about your grandfather

and some of those other siblings, but that's when I got the alert

that your grandfather had your dad.

John Jerome, and that was, I think, courtesy of the woman in Cyprus

who somehow figured it out through your mom's side,

but I think what's just crazy is that there really, nobody, I don't think, knew this,

and then even on your end, you don't remember a lot.

Obviously, your dad, you lost young, but your grandfather,

who would have been this Thomas, was also, you never knew as well, right?

Right, right, and actually, you know, now that you say that,

I've always wondered why we don't know more about my dad's side of the family,

but as you kind of talk through your dad's situation,

it makes complete sense that your dad wouldn't have an access point

to my side of the family, because of his dad dying so young, just like me.

So, like, I didn't have any avenue to that.

My dad didn't have any brothers or sisters.

He was an only child, so really, there was no avenue

to get up the family tree and over to your side

through any kind of oral history or any kind of,

you know, conversations.

It was just like, okay, well, I know my grandfather had brothers and sisters,

and I know there's a ton of them on the East Coast,

and that's pretty much it.

That's so funny.

And that's what I think is a little interesting, though,

because even your dad, although he would have been my dad's cousin,

he would have been about 10, at least 10 years younger.

So, again, when he was born, that was long after my grandfather was gone.

My dad, again, didn't really have contact with your grandfather or whatever,

but what I think is also, I guess, a little perplexing,

although knowing they would have been on the East Coast,

is your dad really didn't seem to have contact

with even any of the other cousins,

which all would have been from the Bronx.

That's the crazy thing about the Fitzpatricks,

is they were all pretty much Bronx,

and it seems that your dad moved to Arizona.

Is that where it was?

He moved to Arizona, yep, when he was an adult.

So he spent his entire life in the Bronx, as far as I know,

up until, well, not even his entire life.

I think he spent a little bit of time in California before he met my mom,

but his growing up years were definitely in the Bronx.

Yeah.

And actually, even since we spoke the first time,

I did a little bit more because you gave me some,

I think it was a marriage certificate or something like that,

so that actually enabled me to find out a little bit more about Clarence,

who would have been your grandfather's brother.

So, Clarence,

Clarence did have children,

and we've got kind of names of these children,

and I think they might have had children, too,

but believe it or not,

even though your grandfather had a lot of siblings,

my grandfather including,

my grandfather died young.

I'm pretty sure Dorothy, who was another one,

never had children, never married.

There was another one, Agnes, who was much older,

and I don't know if they had children,

and then Clarence had children.

That's our remaining link,

so that would have been your great uncle,

and that's who we still don't know about,

but Clarence,

our mutual great grandfather

would have been Patrick Fitzpatrick,

and this is what I feel is pretty reliable

because my uncle had looked at that,

and I actually did find a census from 1900 to 1910

with him and all the kids,

the Thomas, the Dorothy, all them,

but what I've done even since I last spoke to you

is I tried to look back even further on Patrick Fitzpatrick,

which is tough.

What I did find is they said this could be a match.

It matched his birth date.

It matched his name and where he went,

but the Patrick Fitzpatrick from an 1870 census in New York,

he was listed in a house, if this was him,

he was listed in a house with like 100 other people,

not necessarily Fitzpatrick's,

so my suspicion is what we always,

you know,

the Irish came over around that time was the big,

the famine and everybody came to,

and I had always heard from my dad

that Fitzpatrick's were from lower Manhattan

but moved up to the Bronx,

so I'm still going with the theory

that this is the old Gangs of New York

five points tenement days

that our great grandfather is probably from.

I mean, it sort of makes sense.

I just, it's just a theory,

but just trying back to,

turn it back to hometown tales, you know?

I mean, I really want to watch Gangs of New York again

and now start picturing my great grandfather in the mix,

you know?

I don't think he necessarily would have been the main guy.

I forget the guy's name, but, you know,

he might have been a bit of a brawler.

Who knows?

Yeah.

But I also thought it was interesting,

just even hearing you say that,

even before we got to this point with Patrick Fitzpatrick,

you mentioned several kind of branches,

of us have three boys.

Yes, yeah.

And we always thought that was weird growing up.

Not weird, but it was just like, you know,

everybody would kind of give my mom just this look like,

oh, so sorry you had to deal with three boys.

Yeah.

And it's not something that I've come across too much,

you know, where it's only three boys.

And I just thought that was interesting.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, what are the odds of that?

Well, your dad has...

Patrick Fitzpatrick would be...

Your dad has another cousin.

Which was my other uncle who had three boys and a girl.

And so they're still around.

They're, one of them's East Coast, I think the younger,

but then the rest of them are sort of spread out.

So yeah, there's just a lot of boys, I guess, all around.

But you also did something kind of cool,

because so your dad, who I'm calling,

you probably call us the lost Fitzpatricks,

but I'm calling you guys the lost Fitzpatricks.

That's...

Your dad also, your mom was Irish as well, right?

His mom was Irish, yes.

Oh, his mom.

So my grandmother.

But your mother was not Irish?

My mom...

No, my mom, actually her, my grandmother on my mother's side

came over to the U.S. on her own from England.

And so she actually was on, we have the Ellis Island...

Wow.

Entry for her and everything.

It's really cool.

She came over, I think, at the age of 13 on her own.

So she's pretty strongly English.

And then we have the Irish side through my dad.

Got it.

And then my dad's mom actually came directly from Ireland.

So I do have the grandmother connection straight to Ireland.

I understand from you, especially now that we've talked,

our Fitzpatrick line goes a lot deeper than that in the States.

But yeah.

Yeah.

So, and then you, didn't you,

also you ended up getting your grandmother's,

was it a birth certificate or,

because you were, what were you trying to do?

You were trying to get like dual Irish citizenship

or something like that.

Yeah.

So about 20 years ago,

tells you how long this has been.

You had your struggle trying to figure out the family tree.

I've had my own struggles.

About 20 years ago, my brother, my brother realized,

one of my older brothers realized

that we could claim Irish citizenship through our,

through our grandmother.

Because all you have to,

you have to have a grandparent who was born in Ireland.

And I later found out they can't have renounced their Irish

citizenship in some way.

So that's a little asterisk there.

I had a moment of, of, of panic in the last year or two,

where I was like, wait, did she ever renounce it?

I don't know.

But anyway, 20 years ago, we figured out we could do this.

We kind of know the documents we need to get,

but because all of my grandparents are gone,

my parents are gone.

You can imagine the structure.

Yeah.

You're able to try to find documents when you just kind of

have incomplete information, you know?

So I, over the last, I don't know,

I'd say maybe 15 years or so off and on would just get another

hankering to like, well, maybe I should really do that.

I should submit for that.

Just could never find it.

Well, the one thing that I was missing,

which relates to you and this Fitzpatrick conversation,

the one thing I was missing was that marriage certificate

between my grandfather and my grandmother.

I just could never find it.

I have documents.

I have documents that have his name as Thomas James

and then other documents that say James Thomas.

And then as you found out, his name actually on documentation,

even on the marriage certificate is Thomas A.

I guess.

Yeah.

It took.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's just a sign of those times,

but it was a long, long journey.

And I just, ironically enough,

I just this year finally got the citizenship to go through.

Wow.

So that just adds on to this whole coincidental,

timing of, of connecting with you today.

And what a great.

My girlfriend actually said, she, she actually looked at me.

She's like, is this because you applied for your Irish citizenship?

I was like, no, they're not connected.

Hey man, this makes for the best St. Patrick's day episode ever of our show,

at least because this will be released tomorrow.

I know.

It's great.

But now growing up, you lost your dad so young, no stepdad, mom,

never anybody else or anything like that.

And your mom, you were kind of young when your mom passed away too, right?

Um, yeah, I was, uh, 22 when she passed away.

Um, yeah, relatively young.

I didn't think it was young at the time.

I thought I was a full grown adult, but I've learned otherwise.

Yeah.

But, but you, um, guys were at least had, um,

a good amount of family on her side.

Um, that was, which we've always known her side.

Yeah.

Which is nice.

Cause I couldn't imagine that's tough, you know,

losing parents young and stuff like that.

It's nice to have.

Oh, for sure.

Well, yeah.

And you know,

the thing that I,

that I think we missed the most is just this having these family

connections, having that kind of like, um, those stories,

like I said before that you can kind of pass down from,

especially grandparents, uh, have a lot of the stories and they,

they usually pass that along.

We didn't really have those.

We had, we had my grandma on both sides,

but my grandmother on my dad's side died when I was probably about

seven before I knew the right questions to ask.

Yeah.

And, uh, my grandmother, my mom's side definitely told us lots of

stories, but you know,

you just kind of miss some of those connections to the larger

picture, um, which is what makes this so much fun to actually

connect with people who are, who are out there, but you didn't

know we're out there, you know, then you see like physical

resemblances, you see like characteristics and traits.

I showed my niece your picture that I grabbed.

I was showing everybody from LinkedIn and, and she's like,

my God, it's like pop-pop when he was younger, you know,

it's like the same smiles.

And she's like, that's the same smile my brother has.

Cause she's my niece.

So we got a bright future.

Brian Fitzpatrick that has that same smile and had it from like a

baby.

My wife always used to say, Oh, she's got the, he's got the

Fitzpatrick smile from when he was a little kid.

Um, so on my end, actually, um, I really didn't have on both sides,

the grandparents.

So my grandmother on the Fitzpatrick side, she also died when I was

probably three or four.

Um, and then my grandfather on my mom's side, he died around the

same age.

I had my grandmother until early high school on my mom's side.

So I also didn't know really grandparents, which is always

fascinating to me.

So my wife, um, had a great relationship with her grandfather.

Uh, he actually just passed away recently, last couple of weeks.

Um, they were, they're not Irish, but it's just so crazy to see.

Like, I'm like, I would tell her, I'm like, I'm just so fast.

I think it's awesome.

But I'm like, you're just, you're just so blessed to have had that.

Because I'm like, I couldn't even imagine what that's like to my kids

know their great grandparents because of her grandfather.

And she had this close relationship.

Um, and then, um, ironically he was born on St. Patrick's day.

So tomorrow will also be a celebration of his birthday, even though he's

not Irish.

So of course everything just continually connecting.

Do you, um, are you, you know, a fan of, you know, history?

Are you interested?

I mean, being here, you went,

you went for the dual citizenship and may get it, um, Irish history.

Do you keep up on that?

Okay.

Absolutely.

I mean, I, I love history of all, of all types.

So it just depends the mood I'm in at the time that I'm talking, what kind of

history I'm particularly focused on.

I went through a world war two phase just a couple of months ago.

Um, so I learned a lot more about that, but it just depends.

But yeah, I'm, you know, every once in a while I dip into the Irish history.

I kind of know enough to be pretty good at pub trivia, you know?

Yeah.

Well, that, that to me is sort of the next step for me is I'm just like, I

mean, every day I'm like, okay, why can't I get past, you know, great

grandfather, Patrick Fitzpatrick, uh, again, my uncle, um, had a Michael

Fitzpatrick as his father, but that's it.

You know, there's nothing else.

Uh, it probably is accurate only because I would say for the most part, most

of my uncle's data has been accurate.

Um, you know, maybe misspelling or something.

Like that, but generally has been accurate.

But again, it's that whole, you know, if you really think about, you know, all the

Irish coming over again to that lower Manhattan and the tenements and like, you

know, the bottom, you know, near the bottom of the barrel in society at that

point, um, it's just, it's just so wild, um, and sort of fascinating.

And then at the end of the day, they ended up dominating New York city, which

is kind of even crazy as well.

Um, so the, the Irish history.

Is, is crazy, but it's so funny.

Cause when you try and learn about, you know, Fitzpatrick and all that, and I

sign up for all these, you know, the Fitzpatrick clans and all that.

And I'm like, you are, this is so, this group is so beyond me.

Cause they're like, you know, Fitzpatrick's of 1200 in Ireland that I'm

like, I can't even get to the civil war, you know, like, and these people

are talking about, you know, castles and things like that.

Um, this whole thing has set me off on a, on a, on a bit of a search, a lot

of online searches last several days.

And I came across one of those, probably the one you're talking about, which

is like the Fitzpatrick clan and they have all these documents that they talk

about that they've pulled together that they, they don't put on their site.

You have to like, especially request access to it or something like that.

I'm just like, I can't even imagine what's in there.

And I can't also imagine like actually finding my true people that I came from.

And it's just such a web, a web, the, uh, yeah, it's pretty amazing.

I mean, what, um, I, I think it was the case, at least with our

mutual great grandfather, um, Was he actually, I think would have been, I

guess, a stableman at the, uh, union railway in New York, because again, that,

uh, I think it was that old census that listed now, of course, the stableman,

it, it had its roots from truly a horse stableman, but once the railway,

he essentially was a driver.

So he essentially drove some sort of a train car.

Um, I mean, I'd like that.

I think that somewhere there's gotta be employment records or something that

could be the next step, but you know, like once you get into like microfiche in a

library, like I'm out, you know, just my skillset, my skillset can't get me there.

Um, at all.

So when, uh, didn't you say you have a memoir on your side somewhere?

Yeah.

So my, yeah, my dad, um, was a pretty, you know, uh,

he wrote a lot and he, even towards his later years, I remember he had,

he had finished this book very typically, a very good sort of Irish Catholic.

He's got this novel that he self-published called, uh, you know, what is,

what is a heaven for?

And it was about, you know, uh, I, I probably was an Irish priest.

I actually think it was somewhat biographical of when he married my mom.

Um, you know, the, I guess the church that they were at,

and, um, I, I actually do, um, while, you know,

it might be like a little extra religion, I mean, it's not a religious book,

but it's, it's just very, there's just a lot of religiousness talking about it.

But I think what I definitely find it neat is it was very like, uh, uh,

I don't know, I guess what the word would be is almost like, you know,

questioning of faith.

And I guess it was about this priest who was, you know, brought to this church,

didn't know, you know, I don't even think he spoke the language of where the church,

he was, and he just was questioning, what am I doing this for?

What, you know, like questioning, do I believe this?

Like, what am I putting myself through?

Which that kind of stuff I do like.

Um, so I think it was actually autobiographical of a church that they kind of went to when

my mom and dad first got married.

But after that, he's like, oh, you know, what do I do next?

And I'm like, well, dude, like, right.

I'd like, you know, he was such a quiet guy.

He didn't have, he didn't say a lot.

He didn't brag a lot.

And I'm like, well, why don't you write your stories?

You know?

And so I guess he was, I kind of knew he was, but you know, he wasn't sharing.

He wasn't saying he was still working on them.

And then after he passed and I knew, you know, they'd kind of be somewhere when I finally

got his computer and was just trying to grab files.

Sure enough, I uncover them.

And I mean, you know, pages of maybe he, he, he definitely wrote and then thought about

editing later, you know, but it was fine.

It was super descriptive, you know, it was, it was nicely written, but it clearly, you

know, definitely could be cut down a little.

But, you know, six months after he passed away, I, I find them and I just start reading

this stuff and I'm, I'm enthralled.

Like, it's just, I mean, it's talking about all of that growing up in the Bronx, you know,

again, there's not much about the history before that, but, you know, there's these

illusions that, you know, these guys that they grew up in the Bronx, but they hated

the Yankees, which, you know, doesn't, that doesn't seem to make sense.

Right.

Because that was when the Yankees were like winning their first championships, but that

was because of the family was from.

Lower Manhattan.

So they were New York baseball giants, like tried and true.

And, you know, the giants left, they waited until the Mets came and then they became Mets

fans, you know?

So, um, those memoirs are really interesting.

I was going back on them after our conversation, just trying to match up, you know, he mentioned

the Fitzpatrick, he, he mentioned the Fitzpatrick cousins, but he was referring to his, well,

no, I guess I'm not, I'm not really sure.

He mentioned the.

You know, his, my grandfather's siblings or your, your grandfather, uh, but there was

one missing.

So, you know, there's another one that, that I'm thinking either passed away young or something

like that.

But yeah, I mean, these records are, are kind of tough.

I could certainly send you the memoir.

I mean, the rest of it, you might be like, you know, what the heck's going on, but, um,

definitely interesting history.

I mean.

Yeah, no, you should definitely check it out, especially cause if you got that world war

two phase, uh, my uncle.

Yeah.

I mentioned.

I mentioned passed away this year.

He, you know, was, uh, you know, on a plane during world war two, they crashed, the cloud

crashed in the Pacific, you know, he flew over the USS Indianapolis, which delivering

the atomic bomb.

And, you know, so there's the stories, um, which I had always heard from my uncle, but

now hearing them from my dad's side who were, they were literally just getting letters.

So here, my uncle is crashed in the Pacific and they don't even know, you know, until

a letter comes two months later that, oh yeah, we crashed.

And the pilot died, but I survived, you know, I mean, it's just crazy to think of that time.

You know, it's really fascinating now when I, when I wonder why I want to write down

stories, I think of those things and I'm like, that's why, that's why those stories are important.

That's why it's, you know, it might seem boring to us to write down our own story, but there's

going to be somebody who's going to be interested in it later on.

And it's going to give them some kind of slice of what it was like.

And I, I mean, I can't wait to read those memoirs, just even get a sense of what it

might've been like for my dad.

Growing up in the Bronx.

Cause like I said, I don't have any of those stories, so, um, it's, those, those things

are important.

Yeah, it's true.

And, and it was so weird because you think of the Bronx, you know, this being close,

but I think they were, you know, they're probably like 20, you know, 30 blocks away.

And it was probably, I mean, that was probably like, it might as well been four hours away.

That was probably so far for them because my dad always mentioned, um, that, you know,

they never really left that little block.

Um, and while interesting that, you know, thinking that the roots of the family, very

Irish from lower Manhattan, where it was just, again, almost tenement like where everyone

lived together, the Bronx life was very much not that when you read these memoirs, pretty

much.

And he always said it, you know, a credit, I think to my dad, which I don't think you

get in that generation.

He was always the first to say when, when talking about the kids, he was like, well,

we didn't have kids.

We didn't.

So, you know, his, his neighbor was Jewish and then there was another neighbor that was

black.

And then there was another neighbor that was Italian and then they were Irish and they,

and never did, was there any question?

They were just kids.

And he always just said that.

And he was like, it's kind of crazy because you would have thought, you know, this like

conservative Irish Catholic growing up and you know, he probably, they probably were

living in, I mean, they were living in these apartments.

That's probably more diverse than you and I ever really experienced.

Yeah.

I mean, our world now is certainly a more diverse world, but you know, at the end of

the day, no, I mean, my town is pretty much all the same where I live now, you know, there's

not a lot of diversity, so it's really fascinating the stories of just those.

Yeah.

And I realized the other day, yeah, when I was looking at the, uh, when I was looking

at that marriage certificate and then I looked at my dad's birth certificate, I noticed,

I think I mentioned this to you, my, my grandfather lived in one place when he was married and

then by the time my dad was born, he just literally lived like three blocks up the

street.

It wasn't even that far.

It was, it was like all in the South Bronx, relative to South Bronx and you know, all

in the same area, like you said, uh, about your dad, you know, staying in that block.

It's like, I can totally see how you basically spend your entire life in one three or four

block radius and yeah, but even so you still have all this diversity of people that you're

coming across.

That you're living with and you're going to school with and uh, that's the fascinating

part.

Yeah.

Now, um, you're, uh, we allowed to talk about your town now.

It's pretty fascinating town that you live in.

Sure.

Yeah.

Austin, Texas.

How long have you been in Austin?

Uh, I moved here in 2010.

I was, um, I was actually out on the East coast.

I was in DC for grad school and uh, pace of life was a little faster than I wanted to

be.

I moved to Arizona and I didn't want to go, uh, stick around on these cause I did consider

going to New York for, for a hot minute and then I decided, well, nah, I can, I can live

an easier life and in Austin.

Um, but what really did is I was one of those who, uh, came for South by and never left.

So, um, we're, we're a special breed, uh, that is known around Austin.

Yeah.

But I like to think after 10 years I've earned my keep.

Uh, yeah.

You're like a local.

It's a great time.

Yeah.

You're a local now.

So what is, so I was there two years ago for the South by and, uh, you know, too bad

we didn't connect then because I mean, what is the best barbecue place?

You know, like things we gotta know and I've, I probably would have given you the real answer

and not the one we give the tourists so we can keep it on rafts, right?

We can't really say, um, how is Austin holding up?

You got two years in a row where arguably your biggest attraction, um, doesn't happen.

The kind of thing.

Yeah.

What's the biggest thing that could like, I'm sure kill a town and city.

How are things going?

Oh man, it's, uh, it's rough.

Um, there's definitely venues that have shut down after being around for much longer than

I've been alive.

Um, there's a couple of others that are holding on real tight and with a lot of community

support.

So that's great to see.

Um, but then there's, you know, all the ones in between, um, that are just trying to make

it until things pass.

And, uh, you know, I was just talking to some friends.

I was just talking with some friends today about do we feel comfortable going

to a show? That's they're trying to put on, on the, you know, this weekend,

that's, you know, you get a table together and you have a max of eight people

at the table and, you know,

they're doing it all very safe and everything. And that's great.

You want to support the venues. And there's a little part of me that's just

like, man, it's just not what I, what I love about going to a show, you know?

And so I love going to a show because you get to, you get to interact,

you get to be up and on your feet and, you know,

dancing if you want to dance and just feeling the vibe and, you know,

we're not in those times and that's what's making people hesitant.

And in addition to the safety issues, but yeah, the, the city's struggling.

There's, there's, there's going to be a while to come back from it, I think.

But the nice thing is you get a sense that the spirit of,

of Austin is still there. Folks really folks come here for a reason.

Lately it's been a lot of tech reasons and a lot of business reasons,

but even when, when they come for those reasons,

a lot,

a lot of times they stay for the Austin vibe and the music and the,

and the hometown feel of it. And there's a special,

special vibe to it that brought me here that I know brings tons of other

people. And I think that's something that'll stick it out. It's just,

you know, we might lose some, some treasured places and venues along the way,

which is unfortunate.

Yeah. I mean, if you think about, you know, just during South by right,

you're getting essentially a company to, to buy out your bar, right.

For a month to do a takeover.

And you think about how much you're probably making on that, um,

from that event, you know, and, and again, that the event just kills,

I guess be starting up this week, but it's pretty much all virtual.

Is there any, anything live happening for South by this year at all?

You know, right before I got on with you,

I was listening to one of the local radio stations and, um,

they were doing, uh,

kind of a fundraiser week of shows, uh,

this week where they've sold some,

you know, limited tickets to live performances. Um, and I,

I have to think I haven't heard them say it,

but I have to think that's because of South by cause everybody's in that

mode. Everybody's kind of on that timeline. I mean, a year ago,

it was unthinkable. I have a lot of friends who work for South by,

I used to do a volunteer work for South by it was unthinkable that they

would cancel it because it is such a huge part of the economy. Like,

like you were saying, and it's a huge part of the culture. And, you know,

that's one of the great things about Austin is there's always, uh,

festivals that come through and different events to come through that not

only create a sense of community within Austin, but they,

they bring outsiders to that community and that kind of mix it up. You know,

you get to have a lot of that excitement of people coming in. And, um,

you know,

I think folks are trying to do what they can this week to try to get,

keep that going and do it the best they can under the circumstances. Um,

so I've seen a couple of shows crop up. Um,

I think they're going to try to keep doing that, but, um, we'll see,

we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it'll,

it won't be too long before things,

but now that we've had a couple of these conversations about family history.

So what's going to be next for you in the pursuit of family exploration,

because, you know, like me, you know, you get this sort of zeal now of like,

okay, it's like, it's, it's, it's like addiction, right? Cause it just,

like I said, these, these sites and I started using my heritage and I think I

was joking with you that there's no way they're going to like tell you all the

connections right away because then you're done.

You don't need to pay for the site anymore.

So like literally every couple of days we've discovered a new connection,

you know, we've discovered a new record and like every day I got to go log back

on and then I just go through this terrible rabbit hole again,

but I'm not sure where I go from here. Um,

I reached out to your friend in Cyprus to try and find you originally and never

heard back. Um, you know, there's a couple other people I was debating,

hitting up there, but, uh, yeah, like where do you go from here for research?

Well, you know,

I think you just opened a new door that I hadn't gotten to yet. Um,

because like I told you that my focus had been pretty selfishly on,

on finding the paperwork I needed to get my Irish citizenship.

Now that's out of the way. Um,

but you've opened up a new door that's fascinating to me. Um,

because like I said, I don't have stories from my dad's side.

I don't have any kind of the,

the history about that part of the family and just seeing the resemblance that

you and I have and your family and my family have, you know,

at first,

and things that we like to do and, you know,

personalities from what we can tell so far, that's,

that's been fascinating to me. Um, and so knowing more about that side,

um, you know, like I said, I know quite a bit about my mom's side,

but filling in a lot of those gaps, I can totally see how it's an addiction.

Um, even, you know, my heritage won't even show me the full, uh, timeline,

uh, the full family tree that you filled out.

It'll only let me see my little snippet because I don't play. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. So, I mean,

I think there might be a budget limit for right now, but at some point,

you know, I was going to invite you, but I didn't want to, yeah. Like, cause I mean,

it is crazy. Like to pay monthly is crazy.

I don't know how long it's going to last for me, but, um, you know,

cause I was like, Oh, should I, but I'm like, well, no,

that's just cause it just adds this pressure that you're going to feel like,

Oh my God, I got to check this out. So no. Um,

so now what's the result on the citizenship though from Ireland?

You're waiting to hear, or did you get it?

So that's a story to itself. Um, I,

I submitted it two years ago. I think it was, uh,

all the paperwork finally got it together, threw it out there, took, you know,

a lot of, a lot of hoops you got to jump through, right.

200 euros you got to pay or whatever. Um,

and then right about the time that they kind of said the timeline for getting a

response, that's when the pandemic hit. And then I said, okay,

we're probably delayed because of that. Well, then finally last fall,

they said, yep, you've been approved your paperwork's in the mail.

I was through the moon. I was just like over the moon, whatever that phrase is.

I was just, uh, super excited. And I was checking the mail every day.

Finally packet shows up. It's supposed to have my certificate, my, uh,

all of the documentation that I had sent them initially returned to me. Um,

and I was supposed to be able to use the certificate to then get my Irish

passport. Well, the package arrives, my friends throw me a little,

you know, congratulations type of thing envelope. And I've got all, yeah,

exactly. You've got the Irish flag up and everything.

I've got all of the documents that I sent them.

I've got a passport application and I've got no certificate to say that I

actually am Irish. I don't know what happened. I'm like,

I've been waiting 20 years for this thing.

And they forgot to put the certificate in the envelope.

So I get ahold of the consulate here in Austin. She kind of expedites it.

Wonderful help, helpful person that's expedites it to somebody in Ireland.

They say, okay, we'll send it right out to you. So sorry for that.

I watch it go through the mail.

I track it and I think they sent it to my old address because it bounced back

to Ireland and I still don't have my certificate.

So I'm still waiting to technically be able to get the Irish passport.

Not that I could do much with it right now anyway, but, uh,

it'll be a lot of fun once I can get that because just having that flexibility,

just being able to kind of,

you know, I don't know. It's just, it's just fun.

Yeah. Cause like, it's not like you have anything specific you want to do with

it. You just want to have it just in case. Right.

Because are you going to move to Ireland?

I mean, I was joking with my friends. I was joking with my friends.

I was going to move to Ireland, you know,

and probably open a pub or something,

but how many Americans have probably tried to do that? And they're like,

um, Oh great. Here comes another one.

You know, I'm going to, um, I don't know that this would be help.

Cause I wonder, I mean, I guess if you're going through the consulate, um,

I guess it's fine.

I actually, a couple of years ago through work was approached by,

um, like the consulate's office in New York city that was inviting me to dinner

and it was really weird. But when I figured it out, yeah, I mean,

it was actually kind of cool. So I ended up going to, uh, the counselor's,

you know, home that was over to the East river and all that.

And it's actually kind of genius if you think about it.

So there was a tech company,

an Irish company that's actually pretty, I kind of big out there now it's called

news whip.

They're Irish owned and genius sort of marketing ploy in order to promote

business. You know, the consulate wants to promote Irish business.

So they chose to be the host for this business.

And then what happened is the business, you know,

I guess identified some marketing profession. I mean,

it's a genius marketing idea.

They identified marketing professionals that like we're in the trades and cause a lot of times,

I'll write articles in, in like, you know, marketing magazines for, uh, you know,

for work or whatever. And I, so like, I have a little,

not a little bit of clout in that space.

So I guess they looked up people, Irish surnames,

and then just reached out to them to have a dinner to discuss because their whole thing was to almost

like get an influencer for this business, which was actually kind of genius.

Cause when I went there, I'm like, how did this,

and they were like pretty frank and honest about it.

So they invited a,

a bunch of, you know, people with, you know,

I guess some Irish connection over to the counselor's house,

had dinner, you know,

he's got like the living apartments that are back.

Clearly he has this beautiful,

almost museum like dining room,

living room that's for the entertaining.

And then if you peek down the hall,

you see like that's where they really live,

you know?

And then we had this dinner,

um, you know,

and just talked about the company and sort of marketing.

It was like kind of cool,

but I mean,

I could look up his contact info and say,

Hey,

I got a cousin that's trying to get,

cause they were so friendly.

I mean,

and then they sent us,

you know,

all home with a bottle Irish whiskey.

I mean,

it was just such a thing to do.

So I can,

I can,

I can send you the memoirs and I can send you this guy's contact and you can

see what happens from there.

Who knows what might happen?

We might,

yeah,

I would love that.

And we might have to turn this into a regular conversation if we're both going

down the wormhole of,

uh,

yeah.

I mean,

Hey,

I'll add you that.

My heritage,

but you know,

you gotta,

I forget what it was a month.

You know,

I don't know if you like do it and then you stop if it loses the data or

whatever.

I mean,

I don't know.

It's kind of funny.

Cause I think my heritage probably out of all of them,

I don't know.

I mean,

I don't know if they all have the same reach or how it all works.

Cause it seems like a lot of them connect to each other.

Um,

so,

you know,

but there's,

there's my,

my next step is now I'm debating the DNA test,

you know,

I don't know if I can offer that.

Ah,

right.

But then there's the big brother side of it.

That's like,

okay,

you know,

like,

yeah,

sure.

The company has it for now,

but you know,

when things really go to hell in the country,

who owns that data,

you know?

So I don't know.

Right.

But,

um,

that they claim that that can help because through the DNA,

they can match you up.

You know,

I don't know if it depends on the user database of the,

my heritage folks,

but,

um,

yeah.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

That's where it's at.

So what,

uh,

exciting to see.

I mean,

I think,

you know,

just knowing exactly where we came from in Ireland,

even cause there's so many Fitzpatrick's,

I mean,

there's so many different areas,

you,

you know,

it just,

I remember once,

uh,

I remember once saying,

uh,

when I was probably in my teens,

maybe even younger,

I saw a game show and I saw that their,

their trip,

their prize was a trip to Ireland.

And they were going to stay at Fitzpatrick castle.

Yeah.

And I was like,

Oh,

we have a castle,

huh?

I got to go knock on the door and see what kind of room I can get.

Hey,

you know,

keep tracing those,

uh,

birth certificates back.

Could you imagine,

but yeah,

there's so many Fitzpatrick's and so many time periods and probably wasn't even a real

castle,

but yeah,

it's just a Fitzpatrick hotels.

Well,

you know,

if you do make it up on the east coast,

like I said,

I'm sure I'm hoping they're all listening,

but there's definitely a pretty large contingent of,

uh,

my Fitzpatrick cousins,

um,

that are kind of out there that,

you know,

you could,

I'm sure we'd love to meet you and,

you know,

take you for a pint somewhere.

I'm sure.

But,

uh,

yeah,

but it's mostly traded in that area.

We don't,

uh,

you know,

I,

I think the reach with as many Fitzpatrick's as there were,

they're surprisingly,

um,

even though we talked about,

there's a lot with three boys,

there's also a lot,

like I think,

uh,

us families that had three boys,

you know,

made up for the many,

many others that it was all girls or,

you know,

there was a lot of kids that didn't have kids.

I mean,

you,

you and your brothers,

none of you guys have kids,

right?

So,

and then your dad,

right.

Only child.

So if you think about what a male line that was,

it can quickly stop.

So,

you know,

you gotta,

I know,

right.

Gotta go with the,

the ones that,

uh,

keep the ones that have,

I have two boys and my,

both of my brothers have one of my brothers has two boys and another one has another boy,

but you know,

who knows?

We'll see.

Um,

yeah.

Anything else?

Uh,

what's your coolest,

uh,

tale in,

uh,

Austin?

Anything strange?

There's a lot of strange stories,

you know,

we,

we know this show.

Yeah.

We cover a lot of like hauntings and,

you know,

we've definitely talked about,

uh,

one of my,

yeah,

I will say,

I mean,

if you ever,

if you ever want to talk about Austin,

uh,

ghost stories,

I can scrounge a few up that I've heard about nothing that I've experienced

personally,

but there's a bar,

uh,

called the tavern.

And it used to be in my,

in my old neighborhood,

easy,

easy walk for me to go to.

So I was,

I spent quite a bit of time there,

but there were stories.

It used to be,

I mean,

a typical thing,

you know,

it used to be a general store.

And I think before it was a general store,

it was a brothel.

And so there were all kinds of stories about,

uh,

a woman or,

or a young,

a young woman that would,

uh,

make appearances or mess with the staff after hours in terms of throwing

things around or things like that.

So,

you know,

there are those stories for sure.

Um,

kind of stuff right up our alley on this show,

you know,

if you ever need an Austin correspondent,

let me know.

I'll go root out those stories.

Sounds good.

Um,

all right,

well,

I guess we can wrap up our little St.

Patrick's day edition of hometown tales.

Very unique,

very personal,

hopefully enjoyable to everybody.

I know,

uh,

we're not doing as many shows over the last couple of years,

but this one,

uh,

hopefully unique.

And,

uh,

yeah,

Greg,

I'm sure we're going to just stay in touch here and hopefully we keep

finding,

um,

new info about this,

this,

the long loss Fitzpatrick's as well.

Say it's been awesome.

I really appreciate you.

I appreciate you reaching out,

Jean.

It's been a,

it's been fun and hope we continue to make some new discoveries.