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Welcome to Gordon's Cottage Website! These pages are a resource for the descendents of Bartholomew and Mary (McTigue) Ward. Feel free to browse. Comments and corrections welcome.
Papa Bart was born in 1880 (or possibly 1879) in Kilcashel, Moore Parish, County Roscommon, in Ireland, not far from Ballinasloe. Mary was born in 1887 in Lower Annagh, Drumreilly Parish, County Leitrim, not far from Dowra. Though they grew up within 60 miles of each other, they met in Waterbury, Connecticut as spectators at a fire. They married and had ten children between 1907 and 1933, eventually settling in the Dorchester section of Boston. Mary died of pneumonia in 1941, 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 prodigious 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. Please sign in over at the Guestbook and leave 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.
