In the fall of 1848, William Price, at the young age of eighteen, helped his sixteen year old wife, Catherine, aboard the vessel Janet in the port of Drogheda, Ireland. Surrounded by swarms of Irish, predominantly those in their early twenties, Catherine and William set sail. Upon arrival in New York City, William and Catherine Price traveled north to Greenbush, a small village across the Hudson from Albany. In 1853, the Price family purchased a framed home for approximately $900. At ages twenty-three and nineteen, William and Catherine had begun building a legacy in Greenbush, which would later become Rensselaer.

 I couldn't imagine a better way to begin this first post, than with an edited refresh of the first story I ever wrote. John Jacobs was born in Connecticut during British rule over the American colonies. After inheriting his family Tavern, John enlisted to serve the patriots as a naval soldier aboard the Continental Frigate, Confederacy, until he was captured by the British as a prisoner of war.

The Loftus family probably never planned to leave. They survived the Great Hunger, outliving the one million Irish who starved to death; and out-lasting the one million Irish who were forced to emigrate. For the Irish who stayed behind, like the Loftus family in the 19th century, the decimated landscape of the Emerald Isle garnered a renewed sense of determination for Irish independence: for freedom from British rule, whether it meant fight or flee. This story begins as the Great Famine ends.