'Sons of Stamford' – A Memoir (Moriarty Family)

Update: You can also read the memoir online on YouPublish.com:

This link will take you to Patrick Moriarty's profile and short bio.  Click on Publications above the bio text and the next page will have a link to the memoir, "Sons of Stamford."

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We just received a copy of the recent English honors thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with honors by Patrick Moriarty, grandson of the late Deputy Chief John F. Moriarty.

It is called "Sons of Stamford" and covers four generations of Moriartys, beginning with Patrick's immigrant great-grandfather, but largely centering on Chief Moriarty.  The family history is imaginatively written and set against the background of a meticulously researched history of Stamford.

Download Sons of Stamford (PDF)

Patrick Moriarty writes:

The memoir I have written draws upon my own experiences, family interviews I conducted, and some historical research. Whenever I can be, I am absolutely precise about the facts of my grandfather‟s life.  At some other points, when memory and family interviews could not serve me well enough, I took the liberty of imagining things as they likely were.  At these moments, the memoir almost certainly veers from historical fact, but I contend, nonetheless, that it remains closely bound to the truth. From these separate parts I have constructed a single whole. I t has been by far the largest and most challenging writing project that I have ever worked on.

So, in a way, the following piece is a capstone to an eight year journey begun in my first year of high school, the consummation of my development as a writer throughout my past eight years of schooling.  But this piece reaches farther within me than that classification alone would indicate.  If this memoir succeeds, it will be because it expresses something much older and more fundamental within me than even my identity as a writer.  It will be because the story it tells is the one I could not possibly ignore, the story that—if I ever were to put a story down in words—had to be written first.  And, thus, it was written.

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You may also view a print copy at the Marcus Research Library at society headquarters.

We wish Patrick Moriarty well in his futute endeavors.