Welcome to Gordon's Cottage Website! These pages are a resource for the descendents of Bartholemew and Mary (McTeigh) Ward. Feel free to browse. Comments and corrections welcome.
Papa Bart was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland in 1885 (another version of the story is that he grew up in Rosscommon, which was a little more upscale...). Mary was born in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, around 1888. Though they grew up not far from each other, they met in the U.S. in Waterbury, Connecticut as spectators at a fire (at least that's how one account goes). They married, moved to the Dorchester section of Boston and had ten children between 1906 and 1933. Mary died of pneumonia in 1940, and Bart died in 1965.
Their ten children produced over forty grandchildren, and many of these cousins grew up close to each other in Dorchester and the nearby suburbs. The cousins have since had their own children, and now we are seeing the births of the fifth generation, the great-great grandchildren of Bart and Mary.
John Gordon Ward, Bart and Mary's seventh child, was born in 1918. Though a bachelor all his life, Gordon was a focal point of the family, in part because he had a cottage on the beach in White Horse Beach, MA. He really enjoyed having his extended family over for a day on the beach and his hearty meals. Beyond his culinary talents, he was an avid photographer who always had his Nikon at the ready. Perhaps because of this, he seemed to be in touch with everyone in the family, and could report on us all. No small feat, given that the family numbers well over a hundred! (The rest of us struggle just to keep the names straight!)
It is my hope that you enjoy the site and contribute to it. Here you will find the somewhat accurate Family Tree, a calendar showing which cousin has the cottage on a given week, e-mail addresses for the kinfolk, and a few pictures from the beach. Please e-mail the site manager, Steve Ward, with your e-mail address, so that your cousins may get in touch with you. I believe, as Gordon did, that family connections are important; I hope this site can be a forum that helps us understand where we come from.
--Steve Ward
P.S. I'm particularly looking for any good stories you can dig up! And I would especially love to hear from distant cousins from Ballinasloe. S.