In search of family
My name is Michael P. O’Handley and I am the eldest son of the late Hugh O’Handley Sr. of Amenia, N.Y., USA, who was born and raised in Sydney Mines N.S., Cape Breton, Canada.
Like many of the O’Handleys living in the United States and Cape Breton, I grew up thinking my ancestors were Irish because of the O in my last name. However, we’ve never been able to trace our ancestors beyond the latter half of the 19th century and then there is no information.
Recently, I became aware of an old article in The Oban Times entitled The O’Henley Family, written on July 22, 1933. When written, the article claimed the O’Henleys had been settled in South Uist for at least 350 years prior to that.
Upon first reading of this article, I felt that it would be impossible to link any O’Handleys from my family to anyone mentioned in that article.
However, I then noticed this line, “1932-Alexander O’Handley, LLD, Barrister-at-law, Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, admitted as practising barrister of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 1932.” This was my father’s uncle Alex who I’d met a couple of times when I was a boy and who my grandmother in Sydney Mines had always spoken about with pride. My grandfather’s name on my father’s side was Angus O’Handley.
I’m getting old, and I’m not much of a historian and am not quite sure where to start digging into my family history, so I figured I’d start with The Oban Times article which mentioned that in 1933 there were still four O’Henley families living on South Uist.
I was wondering if your readers could put me in touch with any O’Henleys still residing in the vicinity. Perhaps one of them will have some family history that will coincide with that of our O’Handleys of Cape Breton.
Can you help?
Michael P. O’Handley, 23021 76th Ave. W.
Edmonds, WA, USA 98026.
Email: hausdok@msn.com