We Are Horan: A Man of Courage is Also Full of Faith. (Cicero)

The church is clearly part of our lives and especially during John Horan’s transition to a new land, the church was the one true anchor in a man’s life. We recently took a day trip to Fall River to see if we could find out a bit more of where the family may have circulated. Here’s a little bit about their church and some final resting places we documented:

The photos below are St. Mary’s Cathedral (left) and St. Patrick’s Church (right). St Mary’s Cathedral predecessor was St. John the Baptist, a small wooden chapel erected in 1836. After 1850, construction began on St. Mary’s on St. John’s original site. The cemetery from St John's on Brightman Street has been located and identified as the final resting place of John and Catherine Horan and two sons. It is a small, predominantly Irish cemetery with limited record availability kept by St. Patrick’s Cemetery. I have spoken to the office and submitted a formal request for files. I will post the file information when I receive it. We are also scheduling a trip to visit the St. John's gravesite as well. Access to St John’s Cemetery is restricted so we will plan accordingly in the next week and hope for the best.

This is St Patrick’s Church which we attempted to visit last weekend. We found the cemetery but had trouble locating the church. We discovered why after we returned home. St. Patrick’s was merged with two other churches churches in 2002 and the trio are united under the name Good Shepherd Parish.

We have many family members in St. Patrick’s cemetery. The cemetery is located at 2233 Robeson St. The Dorans and Horans and more extended family surnames from the tree rest here. We took some time to document the locations of some. We arrived too close to closing to search for more family but will likely return soon. As a side note, it was a touching moment for us and our children to see the final resting places of our ancestors for the very first time. Gone but not forgotten....