". . . I . . . received the first direct information on my Fathers family and it adds some information I had never known, for example that he had two sisters in addition to his brother.
"His father was Michael (middle name unknown) Reagan, born in County Cork Ireland. He had two sisters Margaret & Mary. Mary was born in the US. Margaret married an Olson Baldwin. Michael lived in Bennett Iowa & had four children: Katherine, a beautiful girl who died at age 17 of T.B., William, who died in the mid-20s, John Edward (my father, died May 21, 1941), and a daughter, who died as a young child.
"I was correct about Michael & his wife dying when my father was about 3 yrs. of age. His sister Margaret moved to Fulton Ill. (lived for a time in Prophetstown) and she raised my father.
"Michaels sister Mary had two children Margaret & Bill Chapman. When Mary died, the same Aunt Margaret raised her two children also. Mary's daughter Margaret is the source of this information but this is all the information she had. . . ."
Reagan's paternal grandfather, Michael Reagan, was born in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary--not Cork. The Governor's opinion was later corrected, and when he visited Ballyporeen as president in early June of 1984, he said to the press gathered there: "[T]hanks to . . . the efforts of good people who have dug into the history of a poor immigrant family, I know at last whence I came. And this has given my soul a new contentment."
with--Brief note by his secretary, stating that a copy of the letter is to be sent to each of the two recipients, Lord and Cooper, and giving the postal address of each. Written on verso of partly-printed message form. 1 page, oblong 12mo, pale pink paper. Np, circa 7 June 1967.