Rev. Francis Xavier Flood, S.J.
Dedicated to the man that started this whole insane search for our ancestors, Uncle Frank!
In the mid 1960s Father Frank apparently developed the urge to discover his roots, and then spent the next 15 years doing on and off genealogy research. We are extremely lucky that he was a fastidious record keeper, and all that I have done is to build on his work.
When I first joined my father, Arthur, in the law practice one of my major assignments was to assist Uncle Frank in his research. Frank would get an idea, drop a note to my father, and the next thing I was busy writing letters to all the Floods in a copy of a phone book page from Frank, ordering birth/death certificates, or requesting information from the National Archives. At that time it was a truly difficult job, all manual, and many of the records we have today (census) were not available then.
The
true gems are Frank's notes. Interviews with family members,
complete handwritten transcriptions of all Flood marriage and baptism records in
Brooklyn and Legan, County Longford, Ireland, and many hand drawn family trees.
see Records
He visited Ireland in 1969 and developed "The Legan Connection", a relationship with the Floods of Legan that has endured to this day, and we are still trying to establish the family connection.
He was the beginning of another family tradition - attending Xavier, the Jesuit military High School at 30 West 16th Street, in Manhattan. He was the first, and 5 followed. (The Xavier Gang)
He was a legend among pre-med students at Lemoyne College in Syracuse, NY where "Father Blood" taught biology for many years.
And it goes without saying the hundreds of family and extended family that he married and/or baptized.