Early in the fall of 1943, Herman Corcoran went to pick up his date for the afternoon. The young woman, whose family farmed in a small community near the beach on Prince Edward Island, emerged from the family home to ask if she could have the teacher tag along.

In rural Prince Edward Island at that time the schools were maintained and funded by each small community. Each family was responsible for some part of the maintenance and service of the school. The teachers were given room and board in the school district as part of their compensation. Nomads for the school year, they would move from family to family in the district, sleeping in guest rooms or sharing beds, depending on the sponsor’s circumstances. The teachers were spinsters sent out of their homes to help support their families at home still recovering from the Depression in a wartime economy. Herman was not looking forward to sharing his picnic lunch with a spinster schoolteacher.

Herman, a good-natured farm boy and a strategic thinker (there was no good to come from saying no to the teacher) agreed to have the extra company and his date disappeared back into her house to get the teacher. She re-emerged towing along the most beautiful creature Herman had ever seen in his life. Gerarda Shea was no spinster schoolteacher. The afternoon went well although Herman’s date was not happy with the attention he gave to Gerarda. Gerarda remembers that Herman had something wrong with one of his eyes as it continually winked in her direction for the afternoon. Herman and Gerarda were married in June the next year after Gerarda completed her teaching obligations.

The couple moved in with Herman’s parents at the farm homestead in Puisville, P.E.I. to begin their family. Between 1945 and 1965, Herman and Gerarda made their contribution to the baby boom with their twelve daughters and three sons. The children grew up and many scattered to pursue careers and families of their own. This website is a tribute to their accomplishments and a connection to all of the wonderfully talented people in the Corcoran family.