BROWNSVILLE — A stained glass window in a Brooklyn Catholic church has given one family a chance to reconnect with its roots, and for distant cousins who didn’t know about each other’s existence to meet and establish ties.
The window, located in Our Lady of the Presentation Church in Brownsville, depicts the Nativity and was dedicated circa 1910 by the children of Julia and Patrick O’Flaherty, who wanted to pay tribute to their late parents by having the names of their mother and father included in the stained glass at the bottom of the window.
The inscription reads, “Pray for Patrick and Julia O’Flaherty.”
Our Lady of the Presentation was where the O’Flahertys — who emigrated from their native Ireland in 1862 and settled in Brownsville — attended Mass every Sunday with their eight children, walking to church from their Rockaway Avenue house.
Patrick died in 1882. His wife outlived him by 27 years, passing away in 1909.
Fast forward to 2002. Jean Becker, the O’Flahertys’ great-granddaughter, who had grown up in Valley Stream, N.Y., learned about the window while listening to her mother and aunts talk about family history, at the same time that she was actively conducting a genealogy study of her maternal relatives.
Excited by the discovery of the window, Becker, who now lives in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, came to Brooklyn to get a first-hand look.
“It was kind of overwhelming,” she admitted, “because finally, after all these years of researching, I was standing in front of the window that is part of my family history. So many family occasions happened in the church — baptisms, marriages, communions.”
Becker, who is Catholic, looked at the window, which had been dedicated because of the deep faith that the O’Flahertys had, and felt closer to her faith, too.
“I feel like finding that window was no accident. It was meant to be,” she said.
Becker posted information and pictures of the window as well as family photos that she came across in her research on Ancestry.com.
Fast forward again to 2024. Karen Fitzpatrick, who lives in Manhattan, was researching the history of her father’s side of the family with help from her twin brother Jeff’s wife Kathy.
“It’s been fun. We get goosebumps when we find something interesting from the past,” Kathy Fitzpatrick said. “We both love history and puzzles, and we feel like this is what motivated us to continue our search. So this led us to this church in Brooklyn with the stained glass window.”
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Thanks to the treasure trove of notes and pictures Becker had posted on Ancestry.com, Karen and Kathy were able to put together a family tree and discovered that Julia and Patrick O’Flaherty were Karen and Jeff’s great-great grandparents and that Becker is their cousin. It turns out that Becker’s grandmother and the Fitzpatrick’s great-grandmother were sisters.
Karen and Kathy reached out to Becker to request a meeting, but Becker was having hip replacement surgery at the time and had put her genealogy study on hold, so she did not see their email.
However, after recovering, she resumed her interest in her family’s history and came across the email in January. The cousins, who had heretofore been total strangers, met at Our Lady of the Presentation in April marveling at the window and how it had brought them together.
“It’s a great feeling to be in touch with your roots and to discover a family that you never knew you had,” Karen said, adding that seeing the window of the Nativity also brought her closer to her Catholic faith.
Kathy relished in the whole experience, particularly the visit to Brownsville.
“It was an emotional day,” she said. “I just think, to see where my husband’s family walked, where they lived, where they worshiped, was a great experience.
“It’s like the past calling us to come together.”