Page 19 - Always Virginia

Always Virginia 7

O’Loinsigh, comes—coincidentally or not—from the word “loin-
seach” meaning “sailor” or “mariner.” Years later, because of this
family tragedy, her youngest son, Bartholomew III (1887-1954),
would constantly warn his own five children about the dangers of
living along the flooding river at Kampsville, saying: “Drowning
runs in our family.”
His daughter Virginia Day Fritscher wrote: “Back in Ireland,
the Day family knew the Lynch family. My grandmother Mary
Lynch was a twin with black hair and blue eyes. Her twin had red
hair and blue eyes and stayed in Ireland when Mary was sent to
meet my grandfather, Bartholomew, who was twenty years older.
Her father died and she never saw her family again. My daddy
[Bartholomew III] had reddish hair that somehow turned brown
when his prospective wife, who became my mother, said she could
not marry anyone with red hair. So in the summer of 1910, he went
west for about three months, thinking about marriage while visit-
ing his brother Tom in Portland, Oregon, and when he returned
his hair was brown.”
As to Virginia’s interest in multiple births in the Day family,
her son George Robert, married to Sharon Lee O’Farrell, had “Irish
Triplets” when their twin daughters, Dianna and Laura were born
in 1964, a quick ten months after their first son, Scott, was born
in 1963. Judge John W. Day on May 5, 1993, answered Virginia’s
letter about her upcoming June trip to Ireland: “Nice to hear from
you. Regarding your question, the only Days I know of [in Ireland]
lived near Fethard about twenty-five years ago and were located
by our cousin Loretta Corbett Booth of St. Louis....[She said] the
head of the family was Tom Day and he had triplet daughters who
were about age nine then. Tom Day is probably dead as he was in
his fifties or so when they were born, according to Loretta. I doubt
there were any other triplets in the area and you ought to be able
to find them.” On August 22, 1993, he wrote: “Dear Virginia, We
hope you enjoyed your trip to Ireland and arrived home safely.
Enclosed is a copy of the Day Family history I promised to send.”