The Reid story

I would go to Ireland to recruit camp counselors for Pine Tree Camp in Boca Raton, Florida. My husband Bob and two children, Johnny Hanley, 26, and daughter Katie Doolittle, 30, came on this trip since they worked at camp and knew many of the Irish counselors who lived around Dublin.

I made them promise me one day to go to Donegal to look for my family, the Reids. I had done genealogical research and read Griffith's Valuation, and I had a vague idea that they lived in Churchtown or Churchill, Co. Donegal, but I wasn't sure where.

As we were driving on the country roads near Glebe Hill, I told my husband Bob to turn down the next road. Well, we turned, but it wasn’t a road and ended smack in the driveway in front of a house. My family said, “Another one of Sue’s follies “ but just then a man came out and asked if he could help us.

Bob said, “My wife is looking for her family's land. So sorry we bothered you.” The man, George Russell, then asked, “The Reids' land?” I said yes, and he said, “Well, you happen to be on it!!!
We couldn’t believe it! What a great surprise. He then invited us in for tea and to meet his wife, Fanny.

They told us the history of the Reids, and we kept in contact through letters and cards. When I returned another year, we visited, and she gave me plants and flowers that grew on the Reids' land. The picture is of that land with the same flowers and plants I framed when I got home.

When the Reids arrived in America, their name was printed as Reed. We also found the church in Rathmelton, Co. Donegal, where John Reid and Mary McGraner were married, and the pastor let us in to look around the church and take pictures.

The Reeds settled in Fairhill, PA, around 1864, just north of Wilmington, DE, where I grew up. In Wilmington, the Reeds had a plot of land enclosed in a small stone wall in Mt. Salem's cemetery. The Reids from Ireland are buried there, and my parents too, and it is where I plan to have my ashes buried as well. And everyone knows to wear Kelly Green to my funeral.🍀☘️

Since Morgan O Sullivan, “Vice Chair” of Irish America 250, introduced me to the storytelling project, I just wanted to mention how I met him. I was recruiting camp counselors at the University of Cork, and he and another student, Noel, came to me for an interview. Noel was very outgoing, but Morgan was very shy and barely spoke. However, I took a chance and hired them both. Morgan met a wonderful girl at camp, Jenny, who later became his wife. The camp was on Lynn University’s campus in Boca Raton, FL, and after a few years as a camp administrator, Morgan got a job at Lynn University in the finance dept and is still there. They now have three children, Caitlin, Sean, and Molly, who I consider my family as well.

I plan to return to Donegal in two years for my 85th birthday.
Sue McGowan Reed Merrill 🍀