A family history has been written

From TCExtra.com

Winsted Journal
Winsted Author Mary Brady Explores Roots
By DAVID FINE Staff Reporter
02/09

WINSTED � Mary Brady can trace her family tree back to the earliest days of American colonization, and its branches bear more than a few notable names.

Her book, "Connecticut Roots," was published this past December in limited release. The product of 16 years of toil, the thick, hardcover tome traces her genealogy back to the time before her ancestor, Gov.William Bradford of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, came over on the Mayflower in 1620.

Brady, 79, first became interested in her family history at a young age. Her father, William Henry Brace � himself adopted at the age of eight into the Baldwin family � died when she was 14.

"This book traces his birth line," she said. The Brace family name goes back eight generations, as does Loomis. "Really, those were the only two names I knew: Brace and Loomis."

Then the big names start popping up: Daniel Clark, the Connecticut colony�s first secretary of state (1658-1663). Thomas Willett, the first English mayor of New York City. Three governors � Webster, Bradford and Talcott. The Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of the city of Hartford.

The book also contains historical anecdotes, stories about the hardships people endured in those days. Cholera, typhus, war, famine.

"There are stories � not for all, but for many � there are stories about their lives," Brady said. "There are two who gave their lives in one of the Indian Wars, including Benjamin Newbury in 1709. There�s a lot in here about the city � about Winsted. There�s a lot about the hurricane of �38."

Brady, a retired teacher of mathematics at Northwestern Regional School, chaired the school�s math department and founded its swim team. For that, she was inducted into the Northwestern Athletics Hall of Fame in 1971. Brady said she still swims, but had no intention of participating in last weekend�s Penguin Plunge.

The book traces her family�s two main heritages: The English side traces her ancestors back to the journey of the Mayflower, while the Irish side has its roots in the potato famine in the middle of the 19 th Century.

"They came after the potato famine," Brady said.

The Murphys came first, settling in Canton and Burlington. They worked at the Collinsville Axe Co., and fought for the Union during the Civil War.

"The son, Martin Murphy, went into the service. He was captured after the Battle of Richmond, and died at Andersonville," she said, referring to the notorious Alabama prison where some 45,000 Union soldiers died from exposure and poor sanitary conditions.

In 1998, a Civil War memorial monument was erected in Burlington. Murphy�s name can be found thereon, marked with a star symbol signifying he was killed in action.

"Then there was the Hannon family," she said.

The Hannons were a prominent family in the early days of Winchester. Laurence Hannon, who owned the ice house on Highland Lake that now serves as a garage for Stew Jones� Jaguar restoration business, was the first of Brady�s Irish ancestors to buy property in America. He married Ann Murphy in 1859 at St. Patrick�s Church in Collinsville.

"They, I think, had known each other from Ireland. Both were from Ennis. The families had known each other for a long time," Brady said.

The Grady family came from Boston, then moved to Pittsfield, Mass., and then to Winsted.

"And that�s where I come from," she said.

"This project brought back a lot of memories. It gave me the opportunity to meet many cousins and relatives I hadn�t seen in years � including one cousin I hadn�t seen since we were both teenagers."

But the two now remain in touch.

"She came and bought seven books!" Brady said.

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