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Dear Friends and Cousins,
I have been researching a very difficult paper trail (more brick wall than trail) back to my paternal great-grandfather, George Dillard Hays, who was born in Co. Cork, Ireland between 1857 & 1860, and migrated to New York via Queenstown, Ireland while in his mid-twenties. After coming to America, George Dillard Hays married Lelah Alice Mitchell of Illinois, daughter of James W. Mitchell. Both George Dillard Hays & Lelah Alice (Mitchell) Hays were born somewhere between 1857 & 1860. They had two (possibly three) children who all suddenly ended up in orphanages, but their son (my paternal grandfather) Edwin James Hays (1902-1980), was never adopted out. He was instead sent on an "orphan train" to a ranch in Texas where he and other orphan train riders provided free back-breaking labor for many years. The Texas labor ranch (that my grandfather spent most of his youth in) re-assigned the same birth date to every orphan under their conservatorship including that of my grandfather... (25 December). While still under age, Edwin escaped from the Texas labor ranch "orphanage" and ran away to Montana, where he later married his first of two wives, my grandmother Mae Birty Ruth. Somehow, either just before or just after going to Montana, Edwin's last name was apparently changed from Hays to Hayes. My grandfather, Edwin James Hayes, died in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona in 1980.
If you have access to any possible information regarding my great grandfather, George Dillard Hays and/or his Co. Cork, Ireland ancestors, or his wife Lelah Alice (Mitchell) Hays of Illinois, PLEASE let us know.
Thank you!
From the Irish/American Hayes Family Camp
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