We're pretty certain the (unlabeled) tintype above is Nora Norris and her husband Tom O'Neil.

I’ll try to keep this concise.

1896 – My great-grandmother Hanora “Nora” Norris O’Neil died at age 40 and was buried in St, Jerome cemetery in Holyoke Mass. Over the next 40 years, most of her family is buried next to her in four graves. Six people – Nora, husband Tom O’Neil, daughters Julia and Hanora O’Neil, sons Tom Jr. and Nicholas O’Neil.

1980s – My dad, Mike Kearney Jr., is visited several times by the ghost of Nora Norris, his grandmother whom he never met. She says only “Help, Find me, Michael.” Her visits light a fire under him, and he starts his genealogy search for her burial place.

1985 – Dad writes to the St. Jerome Cemetery in Holyoke looking for Nora, and gets an erroneous reply “from the old priest” (Dad’s term) saying “We can’t find her here.” He continues extensive searching at other locations in the US and Ireland, even hiring a professional genealogist in Ireland.

1991 – Dad writes a letter to me, describing his “visits” from the ghost of Nora Norris. I join the genealogy search. I’m not much of a believer in ghosts, but his letter is quite convincing. The pertinent two pages of it are attached below.

1995 – I contact the St. Jerome cemetery by mail and in turn receive a computer printout from them, showing which plots Nora Norris O’Neil, her husband Tom O’Neil, and four of their children are buried in. I thought “We found her!” and it was case closed. Dad was not convinced. But we didn’t have time/resources to travel to Holyoke to see for ourselves.

Jan 2024 – Dad is long gone. A nearby-Holyoke cousin of a cousin visits St. Jerome cemetery several times looking for Nora’s gravesite, with no success. Then, after walking the cemetery with the groundskeepers to the location in their records, they discover that Nora and her family are buried in unmarked graves. Nothing but turf. From their records, they know where they are, but there are no headstones for any of them. This is later confirmed by several direct phone calls to cemetery management, who are confident that their records have the right location in the cemetery for Nora and her family.

So, more than simply “Find me” we think Nora was trying to say “Make me findable.” (with a headstone.)

Dec 2024 – It took all of 2024, but I finally got the VA to provide a headstone for Nora’s son Nicholas O’Neil who served in WWI. That had to happen first, because of VA rules for providing headstones. So now at least one of the six people in the family plot has a headstone.

That brings you up to date. Without a headstone, Nora is still not findable on the cemetery grounds by researchers and family. But descendants are few, and the family's resources are limited. So we’re asking for help in buying Nora and her family a headstone. Considering cemetery size restrictions, the best option is a (narrow) upright headstone saying “O’Neil” and three flat markers with five names total. That totals about $11,300, so with GoFundMe fees, $11,600 is the fundraiser goal. There are cheaper options that are about half of the goal, that we’ll use if we don’t raise the total. Anything is better than nothing for Nora and her family. The headstone will include this: “Found, not forgotten.” Maybe that will put Nora to rest.

Read dad’s letter below (with a few paragraphs of family stuff removed.) If you’re captivated by Nora’s story, Nora and our family will greatly appreciate any donation you offer to help buy her headstone, to help make her findable.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Mike Kearney III

P.S. Sorry for the inconsistent sizes of the letter. GoFundMe limitations. Hope zoom works.