Sacred Places

Four marriages. Four DNA connections. One parish name on every record. This comprehensive guide traces the Hamill families through parish churches, cemetery evidence, and the 1861 Griffith's Valuation—from the townlands of Dian, Drumaconvern, and Edengilrevy to descendants scattered across two continents.

Where the Hamalls most likely married—and where a poet found his voice. Built in 1820, deconsecrated in 1974, now a literary shrine to Patrick Kavanagh. The graveyard holds 44 documented Hamill burials, including one predating Henry and Mary's 1841 wedding.

Chicago's mother church, rebuilt after the Great Fire. Where Owen Hamall married Catherine Griffith in 1879 and baptized their firstborn Thomas Henry.

Chicago's second-oldest church, built by Irish Famine immigrants. Three Hamall children baptized here—including the record that solved a seven-year mystery.

Stood for eight decades before falling to urban renewal in 1968. Where Elizabeth "Lizzie" Hamall was baptized—one of Owen's "lost children."

Eugene Hamall was baptized in the basement while the church was still under construction. He lived only ten months—the last of Owen's lost children.

Where Thomas Kenny married Mary O'Connor in 1894—and where godparent traditions prepared families for life's uncertainties. Lost to the Kennedy Expressway.

After their 1902 marriage, Thomas and Ellen Kenny moved to Humboldt Park and baptized two daughters here—including Margaret, who would marry Thomas Eugene Hamall.

Montreal's mother church—the largest in North America when the Hamall family arrived as Famine refugees. Where they buried a child and father, witnessed a widow's remarriage, and baptized the half-brother whose identity remained a mystery for 170 years.

Heart and soul of Montreal's Irish immigrant community for 115 years. Where Mary Ann Hamall—Owen's younger sister—married William Byron in 1879. The marriage record names her parents as "deceased Henry Hammell" and "Mary McMahon."

The "Sailors' Church"—where miniature ships hang from the ceiling as votive offerings from grateful immigrants. Young Thomas Kenny remembered stopping here during his family's journey from Prince Edward Island to Chicago, seeing ships floating in candlelit air like prayers made visible.

Where the half-brother mystery was solved. William Thornton's 1881 marriage record named his mother as "défunte Mary McMahon"—proving he and Owen Hamall shared the same mother. Twelve words in French solved a 170-year-old mystery.

October 1798: A voyageur brought three children from the pays d'en haut for baptism. Their mother was identified as "Josephte Sauvagesse de la nation des Sauteux"—the first documented reference to her Indigenous identity.

January 1801: Father Leclerc recorded her full Ojibwe name—"Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe de la Nation Sauteuse sur le lac Supérieur." Fewer than 0.1% of Indigenous ancestors have such thorough documentation.

June 1813: When she was buried, she had become simply "Marie Josette Sauvagesse de nation"—her Ojibwe name erased. The same woman, the same Church, two very different acts of record-keeping.

Children baptized at the urban cathedral, families buried at the rural parish. This piece explores why our ancestors traveled between Charlottetown and Covehead.

Risen from the ashes of WWII. A Christmas baptism in 1959, a newspaper-covered wedding in 1968, and the remarkable Bishop who survived the Battle of Manila.