Patrick Powers and Nancy Kiley

                           From Ireland to Iowa

  Patrick Powers and Nancy Kiley, my 3rd Great-Grandparents, were from County Cork,  Ireland. They married in Ireland about 1847 and had three children, a son and two daughters, born in Ireland from 1848 through 1850. Nancy Kiley evidently spent the first years of her married life in a pregnant state as she had the three children in a twenty-nine month period.

  In 1851, the Powers family immigrated to the United States first settling in New Jersey. Patrick Powers would work as a laborer in order to feed his growing family. Nancy Kiley would continue to do what she did best in that she bore four more children in New Jersey between the years 1851 and 1856. (This made seven children born in a period of seven years and six months)

  In 1856, the Powers family moved on to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where Patrick would continue to work as a laborer to support his family. While at Fond du Lac, Nancy would give birth to her final four childern. Nancy and Patrick would have ten children in an eleven year period.

  The Powers family made their final move around 1864, when they moved to Iowa. They would purchase a small farm near Fort Dodge Iowa and remain farmers for the rest of their lives.

  Nancy Kiley would die on 13 December 1876 and Patrick Powers would follow her in death on 19 August 1888. Nancy Kiley and Patrick Powers are buried in The Corpus Christi Cemetery of Fort Dodge Iowa.

                 Wording of Plaque placed in front of Farm

  The Kiley-Powers farm would remain in the family through three generations and was honored as a "Century Farm" for being in the same family for over 100 years. When the last "Powers" living on the family farm died without any heirs the farm was willed to the Iowa State University Agricultural Foundation. Unfortunately Iowa State University sold the property without informing the Foundation of their acquisition of the farm, and the proceeds from the sale were used for projects un-intended in the will. An agricultural scholarship in the name of Kiley-Powers is maintained to this day by the University

For Family Genealogy See:  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=m-leblanc&id=I16968

Michel Graton

  Michel Graton, my 3rd great-Grandfather, was born in the town of Saint-Eustache Quebec on 29 July 1800. Michel was the youngest of ten children born to Joseph Marie Graton and Marie Louise Plouf.

            Baptism record at Saint-Eustache Parish Church

  On 13 August 1822, a twenty-two year old Michel took for his bride a sixteen year old girl by the name of Louise Rollin. The couple were married in the town of Beauharnois Quebec and from this marriage would be born thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters.

              Marriage of Michel Graton and Louise Rollin

  The family would live and farm in the southwest part of Quebec, primarily in the Huntingdon Quebec area.

  In 1870, Michel's wife of forty-eight years passed away and was buried in Huntingdon Quebec. Michel would move to Prescott Ontario to live with one of his son's where he died at the age of eighty-eight on 5 April 1889. Michel was buried at the St Isadore Church in Prescott Ontario.

For family genealogy see:  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=m-leblanc&id=I611