Solved . . . or at Least Partially Solved

Many thanks to another double cousin for a partial solution to the lady in my last post, "Oh, Those Beautiful Eyes".  Cousin June has temporary custody of the original photo, and so I asked her to look at it for me to see if she could read anything more than I could from my digital copy.  Yippee!  My reasoning was correct . . .  it says, the sister of great Grandma Mac.  Of course it doesn't give her name, but this means that the entire family must not have emigrated from Ireland.   June also saw a very faint date which looked like 1781, but would more likely have been 1881 or 1891 from my research into the photographer.

Many years ago my mother wrote to her cousin on behalf of my brother (the original family historian) and asked about family information.  A couple of years ago we reconnected, and when we went to visit her she generously allowed us to scan every photo and document,  as well as scribbled notes she had saved concerning the family.  One of those notes listed the names of great Grandma Mac's  (Bridget O'Callahan) sisters.  Sadly, she passed away before we could ask who gave her that information, but it had to be from the McDonnell side of the family, and the most likely person claims it wasn't her.  So we have this completely unsourced lead . . .  but leads are always welcome.  I have not yet found another family member who knew this information so that makes it especially precious to me.

Click to enlarge and read more details than those listed below.

 

Edited transcription:

Great Grandma Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell had 3 sisters and 3 brothers

1.) Abigail - Pat Kennedy

Mary  m.William Green

Bridget

Simon

Patrick

Joseph

Abigail

Margaret 

James

Catherine m. Oscar Smedly

2.) Catherine O'Callahan - Pat Curtin

Catherine

Patrick

Nell

Albie

John m. Mary Gary

Simon

3.) Mary O'Callahan - Michael Reagan

Mollie m. Thomas McCarty

Albie m. Thomas Ayan

Bridget m. John Donovan

4.) John O'Callahan - Winnie Maloney

Winnie m. Frank McDonnell

Mary m.

Simon

5.) Dennis O'Callahan ?

6.)  John Daniel O'Callahan ?

The only issue is that it looks like all of these individuals lived in the U.S. based upon the listing of subsequent generations - except for the two possible brothers at the end.  That, of course, makes me wonder if the sister in the photo passed away since she was still in Ireland in the late 1800's. She obviously kept in touch with Bridget for a long time given the date of the photo and the fact that Bridget immigrated to the U.S around 1854.

From the 1925 Iowa census (a genealogist's dream census), I find that great Grandma Mac (Bridget O'Callahan McDonnell) lists her parents names as Simon O'Callaghan and Mary Galvan.  Now I need to find an Irish record with these names in combination.  The information I have says that Bridget lived in Cobh/Queenstown. So far, I have not found any records of her family or her immigration to the U.S.

Genealogy is an endless series of mysteries and oh, how I love the chase!

Well, if that photo is Bridget McDonnell's sister, could this unidentified tintype/ambrotype (I don't know the difference) photo, found in the same album, be her father, Simon O'Callahan?  His clothing with the wide labels, vest, and turned down collar along with his lack of facial hair and the photograph medium seem to tell me this is mid 19th century.  However, this is completely am impression on my part so if anyone who reads this has some expertise in this matter, please share.

But also . . . he has those eyes!

Where Do I Go From Here?

Abbey House B&B across from Jerpoint Abbey taken last summer

And now for a brief continuation of yesterday's frustration. . .

This morning I re-found the Ask about Ireland website with their searchable Griffith's Valuation.  I found it from a link at the Cork Ireland GenWeb site that led to a link, that in turn led to a link, and so on. But as soon as I saw the website I had a "aha" moment.  I'm sure that I must have bookmarked it either on my laptop or my desktop, and either in Internet Explorer or Firefox, but regardless, it isn't on the combination I have in front of me now.  One issue is that from their main webpage, I cannot figure out how to navigate to the Griffith's Valuation so if I revisited earlier I might not have realized the Griffith's information was there.  My fantasy dream hope is to find the four brothers living in close proximity on Griffith's since they were adults at the time, and Owen did not immigrate until approximately 1852. It might just catch them before their immigration. Of course, Owen might be still living with his mother.  

Did you feel my heart stop?

Informational note: I am searching the Ask Ireland Griffith's records intermittently while writing this post.  I tried and re-tried using the various brother's first names paired with McDonnell, dutifully checking the similar names box, but, after several attempts, I noticed that  the variation McDonald never showed up in the results.  So with a loud sigh and no expectation of success I entered McDonald for the surname, left the first name blank, and for the barony, I selected Barrett's since I had a vague recollection of a notation to that effect on family information given to me by my double cousin Mary.  Why not?  What was one more dead end?  When the results came up, I gasped.

Except for two, all of the results were in Grenagh - the location listed in Owen William's (my g-g-grandfather) obituary.  The name Denis is shouting at me because, Owen William also had a son named Denis, and I wondered who his name came from.  Could it be Owen had a brother Denis?  Grenagh is the parish name and as such, is a much larger property than just the town of Grenagh - which I presumed earlier to be the Irish home of Owen William.

I needed to see the original.  Wow, there is a lot to sort out to be able to decide if this is in fact my g-g-g grandfather's family - my family and the family of my cousins known and unknown.

  Below I have listed the record information for two of the individuals - Owen and Julia.  Julia would have been a widow at this point.  As you can see, the townland is Rathduff rather than Grenagh.  Now I have some new search parameters for the Irish Family History Foundation.  I wonder if it will make a difference in the birth record results.  I wish I had a large paper map of Griffith's to spread in front of me to find the locations referenced on the records to see if they are anywhere near each other.  I have tried it using the pop up map that is linked to the records but by the time I zoom in enough to see the numbers of the parcels, I lose track of where I am.  The information on the website did say that the order of the list does not necessarily indicate proximity or adjoining properties. In looking at the original page above, it appears as though Julia sublet a few acres to two other individuals - interesting.

Please notice that the year of these records is 1851.

Yes, I noticed that the eldest son, Michael, is missing. I tried to do a search for him using both McDonnell and McDonald but there were too many results in the county of Cork - none in the Barony of Barretts.  Could Michael have already immigrated?  Bartholomew would also have been young - could he be the one doing the farming for Julia?

This has been a satisfying morning.  I found (or re-found if you are being picky) a new resource, I corroborated the Grenagh information, and while I have not broken down any brick walls, I feel as though I have chipped a peephole in this one.  This is the best information I have to date, and after all my blog is not wikipedia, it is a chronicle of my family history adventure.

To go back to my opening statement . . . Where do I go from here? Suggestions are always appreciated.

I need another cup of coffee. . . . and to savor the moment.

Thursday's Leftovers

Most nights at my house we have leftovers from the evening meal. These leftovers are occasionally packed  for my lunch at school the next day.  It's very handy that my classroom has a refrigerator, six stoves, a dishwasher and at least enough dishes, glasses and mugs for 60 people. When my granddaughter lived with us we never knew how many of her friends would just hang around and stay for dinner.  Her father was working nights and so he would also come home from work and search the refrigerator looking for the dinner leftovers to reheat.  Occasionally, we planned a extra amount with the intent to have it for two nights - like chili.  I can't even imagine trying to make just exactly the right amount. And every now and then, if the stars were in alignment as I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, I would open the refrigerator and notice that we still had leftovers from the previous few nights.  All together this amounted to a considerable pile of food. Hmmmm. . . Well, if I warmed it all up, I would have an easy dinner, I would exercise my frugality gene, and clean the refrigerator all at the same time.

So today's blog post is like my leftovers. A few little bits that I forgot to mention in a previous post, or a thought that  floated through my brain but didn't relate to what I was writing at the time.  I refer you here to my previously admitted disorganized tendencies.  I have started several posts and left them in the title and first sentence stage thinking that I would get back to them, but they are still sitting in my que waiting for my return.  I haven't lost the idea, just the enthusiasm to write about them for the moment.  So today is about tidbits put together to make a proper post.

First, I have to admit that I check my stats.  Silly isn't it?  Did I have two page views or five? Where in the world did they originate?  Really - Latvia and Slovenia??  It blows my mind that anyone finds me. After all, I rather enjoy my anonymity. It's seems easier to write that way, and it certainly means there is no pressure to post on any type of regular schedule.  This brings me to my dilemma.  I like the feeling of my blog the way it is.   It's comfortable and reasonably private.  But . . . I loved when a Guilfoil cousin found me and told me about a whole other connection that was previously unknown.  I would love to hear from someone in my mother's graduating class, but I know that probably won't happen if I stay in my secluded little corner of the internet.  Many of the blogs I've read push increasing your followers, joining social networks, and spreading a wide net to make a lot of connections. I find this uncomfortable.  Facebook gives me the creeps. Yet . . . I get a thrill when someone comments on one of my posts.  I get a kick out of reading my mini-stats.  How can I stay the same yet make some connections?  Where is that blissful middle?  I don't want to ruin what I find so fulfilling.

The Dunbrody Famine Ship I visited in Ireland

 My last blog post was about my search for my gr.gr.grandfather, Owen William McDonnell's roots in Ireland.  As I read the post again, I realized that I made it sound like this was just one visit to the Irish History Foundation's website.  Not true, that post was a distillation of a multitude of visits and searches for information in Ireland. The Cork Ireland GenWeb site gives the traditional naming patterns for Irish families and so the possibility of Julia Cunningham as the mother of Owen McDonnell  is one that needs much more research.  I wish I really understood Excel since I think a grid of information my help me sort out the dates, names and parishes.  I was reading the blog On a flesh and bone foundation  and she echoed my thoughts on the Irish History Foundation -  expensive and difficult to narrow down the results. While she gave multiple other ideas for Irish internet research, the links are most helpful for ancestors who are more recent immigrants.  My family all came over during the mid 19th century or earlier with many of them from the Counties Cork and Kerry.  There aren't as many options for this information.  I am listening if you have suggestions, because I keep telling myself that I need to go back to Ireland.


Do you like my new colorful blog?  I love it.  The quilt was made by my gr. grandmother Anna Mae Allen Moldt Shelko.  It was a bit of a wrestle trying to get it on the scanner and trying to scan a place that showed the most pattern.  Then I took it into my photo software and softened the edges.  I could mess with stuff like this forever.  It takes forever because I don't know what I am doing.

Well these aren't many leftovers, but I need to finish this and go to work.  I am a slow blogger, and I "wordsmith" posts to death.  Strange that I still find so many mistakes after I post them.  Originally, this was titled Monday's leftovers, then Tues. and . . . well you get the idea.

On the Trail of Owen McDonnell . . . a.k.a. Anatomy of a Search

My g-g-grandfather's name was Owen McDonnell, Owen  William McDonnell to be exact.  And that is important because in our family there are plenty of Owen McDonnell's.  He was the father of Mary McDonnell Kennelly ,my gr.grandmother, who lived at 2338 W. Washington Blvd. The photo at left is titled "The Three Owens".  It is Owen William, his son, Owen Jerome, and his grandson, Owen James.

May 16, 1921 - Clinton Advertiser

 According to his obituary he was born in Grenagh, Ireland in 1837 and immigrated when he was 18 years of age.  The problem is that his headstone has 1833 chiseled into it.  Which to believe??  Family lore says that he was born a "stone's throw" from Blarney Castle. Hmmmmmm. . . . . . Grenagh is close but not that close to Blarney Castle.  Census records give a mixture of years for his immigration as census records often do.















When did he immigrate to the U.S.?  The Federal census images below show an immigration year of 1852 in 1910 & 1920, but 1849 in the earlier 1900 census.

1900 Federal Census

1910 Federal Census

1920 Federal Census

My dream is to find a record of Owen William's family in Ireland.  I want to know when he came to the United States and on what ship.  I want to know if he came alone or with his three brothers who also lived in Iowa - John, Michael, and Bartholomew. I want, I want, I want. . . . . . . .I know, I know, family historians are never satisfied.

Recently this digital chase has become an obsession.  Some of my answers and more of my questions have come from my research at the Irish Family History Foundation. They only have an index so the information you can access is minimal and to see the full record costs 5 euros (that is $6.97 including a .23 foreign transaction fee for those readers in the U.S.). This means I REALLY need to narrow down the many pages of result to find MY family. The search options at the Irish Family History Foundation are: county, surname, first name, year (with a range), and if you are looking for births there is a place for mother's name and parish.  All of this sounds wonderful, however most of this is information is what I am hoping to find in the record!!  But, move over Sherlock, I'll give it a go.

The 1860 Federal Census for Elk River, Iowa shows Michael, age 34 (b.1826), his wife Ellen, along with John, age 30 (b. 1826) and Bartholomew, age 26 (b. 1834) residing together.  If I presume (I know that isn't a good thing to do, but I have to start somewhere!) that the birth date for my Owen is 1837, then he would be 23 in 1860.  I have not yet found a census record that I am certain is him.  I will use this birth order as a guide in my record checking.

1860 Federal Census for Elk River, Iowa

At the Irish Family History Foundation website, the first thing I do is login and go to the search box.  I select the Birth and Baptism record, check the box for county Cork and enter the date range typing Owen"s first and last name.  Hmmm. . . four hits - not too bad but still expensive.  Then I try Bartholomew since I am hoping that this is a less common name than Michael or John (Warning! Don't use the Irish Sean as it won't work).  I still put in a date range because it seems that exact dates weren't of great importance to my ancestors.  I used 3 years.  Two hits, but the date is 1831.  I put in the father's name of  John as the family claims it is.  One hit.  This is great.  Now, let's see if we can identify the parish.  Grenagh is listed in Owen's obituary so let's start there. I choose the Advanced option but  no luck.  There are 90+ parishes and so I begin to try and locate the parish that the one Bartholomew is registered in.  An eternity later - it shows up as Mourne Abbey rather than Grenagh.  I wonder how far apart these are?  Is this a "stone's throw" from Blarney Castle?

View Larger Map

When I check on Google Maps it shows the distance from Mourne Abbey (B) and Grenagh (A) as 8 km. which is very doable.  If I search for Owen in Mourne Abbey will I find him also?  I need to confirm that it is my family.  Did you hear me scream??  There is an Owen born in Mourne Abbey with a father named John between  1829-1839.  But I need to confirm the birth date so I keep changing the birth date with no range and discover that this Owen (I am not yet ready to claim him as mine) was born in 1830.  I feel deflated.  This is so far outside my presumed range that it cannot be correct.  I decide to take a chance that the birth record for Bartholomew will help, so I buy this one record.  

 

So his mother's name was Jula . . . back to the Advanced Search, and I put in Jula for the record for Owen.  Yes!! This is the same family, but is is my family. Both Michael and my Owen William named daughters Julia so this could be confirmation of a family member named Julia - perhaps a mother?   I wish I could see the original records to tell if the dates could be wrong. Now I check to see if this John and Julia had a Michael and John.  Nope!

This is where it gets messy.  What about John and Michael, the two eldest sons? I cannot find records for any parish with a John McDonnell father and a Julia mother for a John and Michael McDonnell. I can find all kinds of variations of this information by mixing and matching, but nothing really lines up.  Did they move?  Family information claims that the father, Sean (John) McDonnell came from County Tipperary.  One interesting bit of information is that in researching the name Julia Cunningham, I found a Julia Cunningham born to a Bartholomew Cunningham . . . . . ahhhhhh!, so plausible, but . . . the search continues.

Two Weeks in Ireland . . . . and It Rained Every Day

Last summer, a friend and I took a two week vacation to Ireland. I have shared some of my experiences before from this trip here and here and here. Today I want to share more of my photos. It was difficult to choose and so in only a vague order . . . . from Inishmore, Aran Islands, past the Cliffs of Mohr, around the Ring of Kerry, exploring the Dingle Peninsula along Slea Head Drive, to Kinsale and the Dunbrody Famine Ship. We stopped at backyard ring forts and those perched on edges of  cliffs. We traveled through farm roads and small towns past castle ruins,famine cottages, and quaint pubs as the GPS steered us to our destination. Our nights were at friendly and picturesque B&B's. We climbed over rock fields just to see the Black Fort and explored cemeteries around ruins of abbeys, castles, and manor houses. As we dressed each day, the only question was what we should wear under our rain coat. My friend was a fabulous navigator and always reminde me to "stay to the left" . . . and for the most part I did.   I have worked and worked to insert a slideshow in my blog and this is it. I think it might be too small to see - we'll find out.  I first tried to do a collage, but it was really teeny photos so I switched tactics.  Hopefully, I will get better.  I also choose photos without either of us, save one, in them.  That also, determined which photos I chose.  I did insert LOTS of tombstones, but I took lots of photos of them.  What can I say, I have the soul of a graveyard rabbit.

Note:  The slideshow worked but I don't know why it made the photos such low quality.  Was there a choice somewhere?

Tombstone Tuesday from Ireland

 Well, if it is Tombstone Tuesday, I have to share more of my cemetery photos from Ireland. Aw, shucks . . .

The Celtic cross was every where!
The variations were beautiful.  This was in the cemetery at Kilmurvey, Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland.  Whew!  That should be a complete description.  The inscription is in Gaelic, but I have a lovely individual who has offered to translate it for me so I will include an edit later with that information.

This was one of the most elaborate at the cemetery around the Muckross Friary in the Killarney National Park.  The ruins of the Friary were a spectacular backdrop to the still used cemetery.



















Both of these were at the Rock of Cashel.  It is interesting that there are still about 30 people who have the right to be buried here.

                                     The IHS symbol in the center of the one on the left almost appears to be a dollar sign.  I like all of the shamrocks twining up and down.

I could post many more, but I think I might run the risk of boring even the graveyard rabbits.

A Sad Sad Cemetery

Well, I just cant' wait. I have to post some of my photos from Ireland. I'll get to my fourth and last family history trip later. (I knew I couldn't stay organized)

While my traveling companions joked about my pre-occupation with cemeteries, the truth is that I only visited two that weren't attached to ruins/abbeys/castles that we were already visiting. One was on Inishmore, and I walked from our B&B, the Kilmurvey House, down the road one morning as they finished getting packed. The other was down a side road in Dunquoin (Dún Chaoin) just before we got to the Blasket Island Visitor Centre ( Blascaod Centre) and museum at the tip of the Dingle peninsula. How did I know about this, you ask? Rick Steves, of course - the travel guru of "off the beaten path" experiences. There was a small sign that told us to turn right for the Old Burial Ground. I instantly directed our driver to turn. I did not take time to vote on this! Not far down the road we found this sad, sad, cemetery. It appeared as though I was the only one that found this Rick Steves suggestion appealing.

Notice the warning about the grounds being uneven. That warning is an understatement.

This is the "well worn" path up through the cemetery.

The familiar Celtic cross dominated every cemetery I saw.
Close-up of the hand carved Gaelic inscription. I wish I knew his name - or hers? I wonder what else it says? Many Blascot Island residents were supposedly buried here. Could this be a fisherman from the Blascots?

Remember the warning on the entrance sign? This is the reason why. This was the center Celtic cross headstone on a small hill in the center of the graveyard. It rose above the rest. Look closely at the GIGANTIC hole at the base and the fact that it appears as thought it had been moved. Eerie for sure. I could find no identifiable markings on either side of the grave, but it had a plaque on a base near it - all in Gaelic. As I looked through my photos, I must not have taken a photo of the plaque. As I walked back down the hill to catch up with my friends, I noticed many more of these holes in the hill some even larger. If you fell into one of these you would feel like Alice in Wonderland.









Detail of the fish relief at the top.


The back side of the monument at the base.


Angel or resurrection in the wall beside the grave.


This was by far the most beautiful grave in the cemetery. It was finely carved and had images on both sides. It is the resting place of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, a fisherman, author and famous resident of Great Blascot Island.

We discovered this connection when we went a bit farther down the road to the visitor centre, and there was a poster about his life hanging on the wall. Were there others at the cemetery that we missed? I'll never know. Cemeteries often fall into disrepair, but how could this happen to an Irish hero?
If you are ever on the Slea Head drive around the Dingle peninsula, look for the small sign pointing you to the Old Dunquin Burial Ground and lay a flower on Tomas' grave, but look out for the giant holes in the ground!

Slip Sliding Away. . . .

Time that slippery rascal . . . keeps racing past me. Where is the pause button for my life? I have planned and missed several intended blog posts. I didn't post for Father's Day, many Tombstone Tuesdays, the next installment in my novice family research trips, an update on the outcome of my Challenge #23, and many others that pop into my brain just as I am trying to turn it off for the night and sleep. I need to make better use of the "save as draft" feature and write during the short snippets of time I can get on the computer. I do have a laptop I could use, but it doesn't have my photos - something else I need to do. The photo below is the cemetery in Kilmurvey, Inishmore, Aran Islands, Ireland. I don't know of all that is necessary, but I wanted to be sure and give complete information! The gate stays locked and you enter by way of the short steps and the hole in the wall. My B&B, the Kilmurvey House, a historic home, is at the top. It rained almost continually during our one short day and overnight there, but we didn't let it stop us. However, the downside is that my photos are all gloomy looking, but our raincoats acted as sort of a color code so we can tell who is who in our photos from a distance. Every local resident kept telling us how the weather had been unusually bright and sunny the previous weeks, and that the island was in the middle of a drought. Water was being shipped in the next day.

Ireland was fabulous, but the only headstones I was able to photograph belonged to the family of someone else. It became a joke with my traveling companions that I wanted to stop at all the cemeteries. Conveniently, for me, many of the ruins/castles/abbeys had cemeteries surrounding them, and I always found myself wandering around reading and photographing ones I found interesting. A future post will feature some of those I found.

Then a day and a half after I returned from Ireland, my youngest son and daughter-in-law arrived for a visit from Seattle. I am enjoying their visit, and we are following the Tour de France daily. I told them they need an spreadsheet to keep track of their scheduled visits with friends and family. They agreed.