Here is my father, John J. Boyle,
on Easter Sunday 2001,
then aged 92,
holding the "Boyle Cane"

His immigrant ancestor, John Boyle,
the first Boyle to live in North America,
brought this very cane with him
when in the early 1830s he emigrated from Ireland to Canada
and in 1854, upon his death in Ontario,
he bequeathed it to Patrick Boyle,
the oldest of his four sons,
who in turn, upon his sudden death, in 1888
left it to Peter B. Boyle,
the oldest of Patrick's six sons.

Peter B. Boyle emigrated to the United States
and, when he died in Michigan in 1914,
he left the cane to William P. Boyle.
the oldest of his seven sons,

William P. Boyle had no sons, only daughters;
so before he died in 1948 in Illinois,
he gave the cane to his younger brother, Thomas F. Boyle.

Thomas F. Boyle also had no sons, only daughters;
so before he died in 1956 in Michigan he gave the cane
to John E. Boyle, Jr.,
the only son of his younger, but by then deceased brother John E. Boyle.

In December 2000
John E. Boyle, Jr., gave the cane to my father,
John J. Boyle,
who, at 91 years,
was at the time the oldest member of this Boyle family
that there has ever been

.

 

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John Joseph Boyle in July 1928
at the farm of his aunt Margaret Boyle Brady
in Latimer, Kingston Township, Frontenac County, Ontario
.

Helen and John Boyle amateur acting
with Virginia Siuda Khym in background
.

Thanksgiving Day in 1947
Helen Khym Boyle, with her four children
l to r, Terrence Boyle, Daniel Boyle, John Boyle & James Boyle
.

James M. Boyle in 1963
with heis aunt and godmother
Mary Alice Boyle Kramer
.