J.J. Keenan & Mary Leary

James J. Keenan
Born: March 21, 1865, Helena, St. Lawrence, New York
Died: September 28, 1955, North Lawrence, St. Lawrence, New York
Relation to Author: Great Grandfather

Mary Leary Keenan
Born: March 1, 1870, New York
Died: December 16, 1951, North Lawrence, St. Lawrence, New York
Relation to Author: Great Grandmother

The above pictures feature my great grandparents, James Keenan and Mary Leary. The pictures don't have years on them, so I don't know when they were taken. But clearly it was early, as they are both young - and handsome. Since the pictures came as a pair, I guess they were taken sometime close (maybe within a couple years) to their wedding, which Census records tell us was in 1894, when James was 29 and Mary was 24.

James Keenan was born as the Civil War was ending (spring of 1865). He spent his life as a dairy farmer and lived to be 90 years old. His wife, Mary Leary, was born five years later in 1870 and lived to be 81. James and Mary lived together in Lawrence, St. Lawrence County, New York. 

Mary and James were both of Irish descent. Both of Mary's parents were born in Ireland. James' father was born in New York (his grandparents were from Ireland) and his mother was born in County Cork, Ireland.

They both lived long lives and therefore saw a lot of American history. Living between 1870 and 1950, they witnessed the Gilded Age with its second wave of industrialization and machine politics, progressivism, rise of labor unions, women's suffrage (19th Amendment), transcontinental railroad and westward expansion, peak years of immigration, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.