It is great honor to be asked to research into the mysteries of a dear friend's family tree. Mary is one of my dear friends, made even more so by this process of turning over a few stones for her and seeing where the roots of her ancestry take us. What was really fun, which makes sense because Mary is really fun, is that her tree was supposed to be obvious. Irish-Philadelphia. English or something from New England. But surprises lurk in every foundation. The American Line Roster marking the day Peter J. O'Brien arrived to Philadelphia from Ireland in 1865. We may never know each of our ancestor's stories. Unless they do something remarkable to the world around them and are blessed (or cursed) enough to be noticed (or caught), most of what they have done day to day fades into the fabric of time. A lifetime of moments, summed up by a few census records and some religious documents. If they somehow become prominent, or notorious, there maybe more data to describe their life. B