Briefly, my understanding of Janes' coming to America, the McBrides, send home for someone.  They offered to provide an education for that person.  Jane was NOT suppose to go, it was another sister, Nora possibly. ( I met her family when I visited Ireland in 1979). At the last minute the first sister changed her mind and Jane, who was living in Ballyhanuis eagerly took her place. The family lore  does not include that she travelled with people she knew. I thought she went directly to the Bronx to the McBrides, but some family research I've undertaken with NYC records indicate she may have briefly lived in the Lower East Side. I am hoping to uncover more on that and on the McBrides, who did relatively well, at one point   running a coal yard, as I get more into the NYC Family History Center in Manhattan.

She didn't regret having left home despite the fact that McBrides  did not provide the nursing training Jane believed they had promised.

Jane married John O'Connor, born in Longford, about 1906. [Must be later than this as she arrived single in NY in 1908. Also first child that we know of, Jim, was born in 1919] He worked in a neighhorhood A&P supermarket till his death in @ 1941 from a heart ailment.

She raised five sons, one with health problems ( My Uncle Joe), in a tough neighborhood, during the depression... but from all the stories about her, it's clear she had an amazing sense of humor and great compassion.

She was also  insistent that her sometimes unruly gang of boys get themselves an education. And it seems to spite themselves four of her boys actually did that, of which she was enormously proud.

I was extremely surprised to learn that Grandma Jane's father was a policeman, as she did everything in her power to ensure that her sons DID NOT become the then Irish American cliché of joining the police or fire department.  This is with the exception of Joe, who had disabilities the majority of his life due to a childhood illness -- however even he finished High School.  

Of all the brothers, Uncle Jim was possibly the only one who could have fitted the American sterotype of the Irish "Quiet Man". Classic examples, in his 60's when he took up running, he trained for and ran the NY Marathon, I believe he was briefly interviewed on TV, completed the race, came home had dinner with his family and never mentioned a word to them about being in the marathon. When he got married, he neglected to tell Grandma what church he was getting married in, the brides name and other minor details, and so the list goes on. He and Aunt Madeline had five children.

Growing up, John, was the Uncle we (Bill's kids) probably knew best. Our house was sort of his "home base" where he would stopover when traveling to Rome or spend his summer holiday. In addition to being close as children to my father, he and my mother  became great friends over the years, sharing a love of teaching and letter writing. During his years in Rome, Uncle John wrote her fabulously funny letters full of comical observations of life amongst those wacky Italians. While he used the "time on his hands" being alone in Italy to rack up those extra degrees, as Dad would rib him, he also made friends with some Vatican insiders who gave him what he called, the "not for tourist" tours of the great landmarks and artworks of Vatican City. He was a fountain of knowledge  about the the  art and  politics of the Sistine Chapel and other  Vatican going ons, all told through the lens of that "O'Connor" sense of humor. As educated and world traveled as he was, it was fascinating as a teenager to try to explain to him the more nuanced aspects of American 1970's  Pop Culture.

I understand my father planned to take the NYC fire department exam but only learned via Jim's daughter, my cousin Janet recently, that the only reason Dad did not, is that Grandma literally crawled into the room to shut off his alarm so he missed the test! So with the help of the GI bill it was college and law school for him.