Learn About the Freedom Fighter March 12 at the Seymour Library
When Mike McBride, of Rochester, began studying his family’s ancestry, he never could have imagined the special “ancestral pot of gold” he was going to discover. A DNA sample from his Aunt Lily, a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph, provided a crucial family link to human rights crusader John Joseph “Exile” McBride.
Exile McBride was internationally famous in his day. According to The Ottawa Citizen Newspaper, “His love for his mother country and his desire for her freedom from English rule led McBride to become one of the most ardent advocates of freedom for Ireland” (2/10/1911). However, none of the present-day McBrides had ever heard of him. Mike spent a great deal of time during the pandemic and in the years since researching his long-lost great-uncle. He has turned up a slew of old newspaper articles from both sides of the Atlantic, now numbering over 2,000. It has been a years-long journey filled with ups and downs, resulting in many great discoveries and mysteries yet to be solved…