Jane Gilgun's video: The Migration of the Gilguns of Minnkeragh Leitrim Ireland to Woburn Massachusetts USA 1884

The family of Bridget & Thomas Gilgunn migrated from Minnkeragh, Leitrim, Ireland, where Gilgunns lived for hundreds of years. They leased land from Baron Massey, an absentee landlord who lived in Dublin and who was one of the richest men in Ireland. This video tells their stories in an interview with Frank White, a North Leitrim historian, and through photographs and narratives. The family consisted of Bridget, 55, and Thomas, 55, and their ten children, ages 8 to 28. They moved to Woburn, Massachusetts, USA, in 1884. They had enough money to buy a dairy farm and start a milk company. The Gilgunns who were born in Ireland are buried in St. Charles’ Calvary Cemetery in Woburn, as are most of their children and grandchildren. The Gilgunns of Woburn are descended from two lines of Gilgunn, as Bridget was also a Gilgunn, whose birth place is not known . These two lines suggest that the Woburn Gilgunns are related to many of the Gilgunns who remain in Leitrim and surrounding counties. Many of the Gilgunns of Woburn were Hibernians who sent money to Ireland to support the revolution against England. Ireland became independent in 1922, the year Bridget and Thomas died.