Several Irish families had dreams of leaving Ireland behind and moving across the Atlantic Ocean. Many of them, mostly single Irish women, would move to the United States, find work as a servant for the rich and middle citizens, and send money back to the family so another member could find work in the new land. These people work very hard for little pay, for the English and Welsh families.(1) Two of these Irish immigrants were Esther and Micah Colbert, daughter and son of Margaret (Twomey) and Thomas Colbert.

Both Esther and Micah grew up in a household family that suffered during the 1846 - 1847 blight. Both children were under 3 years old when the potato came into effect. Esther was two years old and Micah was a couple of months before the summer of 1846, when the crops suffered dramatically. The fungal disease effected the crops and food shortages were found over all of Ireland. For several years, Thomas often traveled afar into Scotland and into England looking for work to support his family. Margaret was left alone with the children to look after the farm that they were renting from his brother. Thomas would leave the farm after the harvest in late August and would not return unto February when he would start planting his potato crops. For several years the children had dreams of leaving the farm and starting their lives over in America.

Esther Colbert O'Hara was as hard worker who left the family farm at a young age and did not marry until she was in her mid 20's (1870). Esther left Ireland to find work in Canada and then moved to Boston to work as a servant. For years she saved money and mailed it back to her brother who moved the England to find work.

While Micah was traveling to the States, Esther met her husband Tim O'Hara, a Dockworker, and they quickly got married. Unfortunately, Ester's employer found out about the marriage and fired her soon after and was kicked of the house.

Soon after her dismissal, Tim and Esther found a tenement apartment house to live and Esther found a job as a sweat shop worker. The work was hard and paid poorly. Esther would take home scraps of material and sew cloths together for the two of them.

Ester Gave birth to four children, two girls and two boys. A year after they were married, Esther and Tim had their first child. Unfortunately, the baby girl, Mary, died during childbirth when the umbilical cord was found strangling her and she took her first and only breath when the cord was. Both Esther and Tim were beside themselves as Micah left in 1871, at the age of 25, traveled to Western Pennsylvania and look for work as a coal miner.

A year after the death of their baby girl, Ester and Tim had a baby boy named Timothy Paul. The boy grew with his parents and two younger siblings a baby girl named Mary Anna, named after Esters Aunt Ann and Grandmother Mary. The last child was named Micah Paul.

Micah Colbert was also a hard working person who left for England at the age of 23 and found work in Liverpool for a few weeks until Esther sent him money to finally afford the trip to America. Micah was one of the fortunate immigrants to be able to quickly retrieve funds for the journey to America. He boarded a ship to New York and then made his way to Boston to stay with Esther and her husband Tim. After Micah had worked on the docks with Tim for about a year, and Esther had lost a baby girl during the birthing process, Micah decided it was time to move to Western Pennsylvania where he worked as a coal minor for very little wages.

In 1872, Micah met his wife who was a sister of one of his co-workers. Maureen Barrett lived with her brother until Micah proposed to her. In 1873, Maureen had her first child, Peter. In 1875, she had her second child, a girl named Lea. Her third and last child, Liam, was born on June 1st 1877, three weeks before Micah was killed while revolting in Schuylkill, Pa, on June 21, 1877. (2)