Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 1/7/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – For years, John O’Connor worked in the history and genealogy room of the Springfield Museums, helping people who were tracing their family roots. Although retired, O’ Connor is still doing research into local history.
Living at Bluebird Estates, O’ Connor is now preparing presentations about local history to share with his neighbors. Currently he is working on assembling a presentation about the history of Mary Mother of Hope Church in Springfield. He noted his research showed that before the construction of the church Mass was said in a room over Miller’s Café.
On one occasion, “there was a beer blast the night before,’ O’Connor said with a smile, “that smell was not the odor of sanctity.”
He explained to Reminder Publishing that while he came to the job with little experience. he had worked in father’s business and also taught school. He had done some genealogy work for his own family, tracing one branch back to France in 1580.
He started collecting information and when retired he started the presentations at Bluebird Estates.
He recalled how he wrote a column for The Republican about genealogy and said he met with then Executive Editor Wayne Phaneuf and Joseph Carvahlo, then president of the Museums. “The next thing I knew I was working there,” he recounted.
He started the column in 2004 and continued until his retirement. His last column, named “Family Tree,” appeared in 2017.
O’Connor showed this reporter his work with his own family. In the pages of several large ring binders are photos and documents recounting the story of his family and ancestors.
Looking through the binders, O’Connor made both observations and cracked jokes. He noted that Congressman Richard Neal “was at one point my family’s paper boy.”
He recalled how he and an intern photographed many of the graves in Springfield cemeteries as part of his effort to gather information about the city and its inhabitants.
“Doing research tells you a lot of things,” he said.