Ireland Is In My Blood

It's not too late for you to search for your Irish ancestors for free today. Ancestry.com is offering Open access to the Irish Heritage Collection from March 13 to March 17, 2014

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I self identify as Irish. If someone asks me what country my ancestors came from I don't say England, France, Belgium, Germany or any of the many Countries my ancestors came from. The first Country that comes out of my mouth is Ireland. Now to be sure I do have many Irish ancestors but the reality is much of my DNA is not Irish. Yet Ireland is the place that speaks to me. If I had to move across the ocean I would feel most comfortable heading for Ireland yet I have never been there. I love Irish music. I am interested in Irish history. I have spent way more hours searching my Irish ancestors than any of my other lines. And for some strange reason I trust anyone with an Irish accent.

I think perhaps that Irish DNA has a homing signal encoded in it. Its in my blood as they say. 

Zombie Graveyard Found In Ireland

Archaeologists have unearthed a 'zombie' graveyard in Co Roscommon dating from the 8th Century.

The gruesome discovery was made by a team from the Institute of Technology Sligo, which discovered that skeletons were interred with large rocks placed in their mouths to prevent them rising from the dead at a historic site overlooking Lough Key, Co Roscommon.

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Happy St Pats To All My Irish Ancestors

In honor of St Patricks day I thought I would talk about all my Irish ancestors. I have many Irish ancestors. So many in fact that if asked about my ethnic background I always say Irish first. Truth be told I probably have more English DNA than any thing else but it is my Irish heritage that speaks to me. I think that's perhaps the reason for my love of Irish music. So in honor of all my Irish ancestors who came to North America in search of a better life.............

* William Massey from Delgany, Wicklow Ireland arrived Quebec before 1843. 3rd g grandpa.

* William Montgomery (4th g grpa) from Co Fermanagh left Ireland during War of 1812 with his parents Thomas Montgomery and Mary Johnson (5th g grandparents). They were captured by British off coast of Newfoundland and held prisoners until 1816 then sent to Quebec. Later Thomas and Mary left for Oneida Co. New York but William remained in Quebec and married Jane Graham from Ireland.

* Jane Graham 4th g grandma.

* Cornelius Kennedy born Killarney and his wife Elizabeth Clifford (4th greats) born Co. Derry came to Ontario circa 1847 during Irish Famine. Their daughter Catherine Kennedy (3rd great) also born Ireland.

* Mary Jackson nee McKanor (4th g gramma) and son William Jackson (3rd g grandpa) from Tipperary sailed on Sir Robert Peel to New York in Oct. 1857. Came on to Ontario a few years later.

* James Hogan and wife Ann Hayden came to Ontario from Ireland ca 1843 4th g grandparents.

* James Holden, wife Frances Hamilton (4th g grandparents), son Sinclair Holden (3rd g grandpa) came from Co. Tyrone, Ireland between 1822 and 1826 to Whitby Ontario.

Townland of Minmore, County Wicklow Ireland. 1839

I have added a list of tenants renting land from Earl Fitzwilliam in the townland of Minmore, County Wicklow Ireland in 1839. Anne Burgess has been transcribing the 1839 Fitzwilliam rentals records, and putting them into a spreadsheet for each townland, hoping in that way to construct a sort of census substitute for 1839 in southwest Wicklow.

Townland of Minmore

I also have the following Townlands done.

People from the Fitzwilliam Estate in Wicklow that went to Ontario Canada.
Aghold Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Ardoyne Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Ballykelly Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Boley Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolattin Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolboy Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolboy Lower Townland, County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolkenna Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolroe Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Cronelea Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Cronyhorn Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Kilcavan Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Kilquiggin and Quigginroe Townlands County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Knockatomcoyle Townland, County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Larragh Townland, County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Minmore Townland, County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Monaghullen Townland, County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Park, Coolruss and Drummin Townlands County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Raheengraney Townland, County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.

You can see them at Ireland Genealogy

The Search For My Irish Roots, Part 3

Then I got lucky

Meanwhile back in Canada I had searched for many years with out finding that magic little record that would tell me what Irish County my William Massey was from. Then one day in a most unexpected place, I found it. In a Cemetery record of all places. I had seen my William's tombstone many times and had searched for an obit to no avail, but then at the Archives of Ontario I found the interment records of the cemetery on microfilm and there it was. Wicklow Ireland. The strangest part was that my William was not even originally buried in that cemetery. His body had been moved after the original cemetery he was buried in was closed. So it was just blind luck that someone had recorded his place of birth.

Now you would think I would be happy with this new found info, lots of people never find this much, and I was happy, for about 10 minutes. Then like most genealogists I started thinking about what I still did not know. Where in County Wicklow was he from? Did they mean the town of Wicklow? How will I know where to start looking? So it was at this point that my one name study of Irish Masseys started to pay off. For one of those little pockets of Masseys was located in County Wicklow. In a little place called Delgany Parish.

Now I know what you are thinking, that it is hardly proof that my William Massey was from Delgany. And you are right, it was totally circumstantial. But I just had a feeling that I was on the right track. So I made a big leap of faith and started to concentrate my efforts on Delgany.
So I started to learn everything I could on Delgany. What records were available, the history of the parish, the geography. I read everything. I even spent hours looking at the place on Google Earth. It was during this search to learn everything I could about Delgany that I came across a lady by the name of Jenny Self. Jenny was an Australian living in England, who had done some research on her own lines in Delgany. Now Jenny and I are not related so she had no Massey info, but I found her work so interesting that I dropped her a quick email just to thank her for taking the time to put all her hard work online. Well to make a long story short this led to a correspondence and Jenny offered to do some looking in the Delgany Parish records on her next trip to Ireland.

I was very excited at the prospect of Jenny taking a look in the Parish Records as these records are only available in Ireland. But you can imagine how happy I was when a few months later Jenny sent me all the Massey Births, Marriages, Deaths and Burials for over 200 years. It was a fantastic windfall and I am still grateful for the hours of work that she put in to help someone who was basically a stranger. But to my disappointment William was not there. Of course at this point some people would have moved on but I still felt that Delgany was the place. And I would soon find more evidence to keep me looking in Delgany.

Sometimes you don’t find the next clue, it finds you.

To be continued.......

The Search For My Irish Roots, Part 2

We're Irish???

Now don't get me wrong, there is no anti-Irish sentiment in my family that I am aware of but some how this little tidbit of information had gotten lost or perhaps hidden somewhere along the way. My grandfather had told me we were English. There was no talk of Ireland in the family stories, no Irish names, no tombstones in the local cemetery with the words, Native Of County Blah Blah Ireland, Nothing. Thus began my quest for my new found Irish roots.

Now what???

I quickly learned that to do any meaningful genealogy in Ireland you need to have some idea of what County your Irish ancestors came from. Without this you are just flailing around in the dark.

The 1861 census had told me my GGG Grandfather William Massey was a native of Ireland. Where in Ireland I had no idea. So I did what any new genealogist would do, I started flailing around. However in my case my flailing around would one day pay off. It would just take about 30 years.

Fortunately for me Massey is not a common name in Ireland (this makes hunting a little easer) so I began to collect even the smallest mention of the Massey name anywhere in Ireland. Sort of like a one name study of Irish Masseys. At the same time I continued to research my Masseys in North America in the more conventional organized way, working on my direct lines. It was these 2 styles of research that would one day give me some of the answers I was looking for.
My somewhat haphazard one name study of Irish Massey’s soon began to paint an interesting picture. It told me that almost all the Masseys in Ireland are descended from a few men, most likely just 3 of 4 who came to Ireland in the 1600s. It also told me that the descendants of these men tended to stay in the same locations as their original immigrant ancestor. This has the effect of producing little pockets of Masseys located at a few different places in Ireland. This info was interesting but of course it did not tell me what little pocket of Masseys I belonged to.

Then I got lucky......

The Search For My Irish Roots, Part 1

The Beginning

My personal search for my Irish ancestors has taken over 30 years of digging, scrounging, reading, learning, traveling, and taking wild leaps of faith. I have talked to dozens or relatives, hundreds of people, and traveled from one coast to the other. I have spent hundreds of hours in little dark rooms with my head buried in microfilm machines. I have seen more libraries than I can remember, and have looked through (and yes in some cases read) so many books that I could not begin to count them. I have spent hundreds of hours online and hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars in my never-ending quest. And best of all, I even managed to find a wife along the way. But that is another story.

My search started as a young boy listening to stories about the family told by my grandparents. They were not stories of brave deeds or fantastic exploits. They were just what I call the stories of life. I will not bore you with the details of my family stories, suffice it to say that if you changed the names and dates they could be any family's stories.

Now the stories told by my grandparents may not have been worthy of a Hollywood Blockbuster but as a child I was hooked. I could not get enough. I always wanted more. So being the strange kid that I was, I set off for the local museum.

I was fortunate as a budding genealogist that my family had lived in the same small town of St Marys Ontario, since about 1859. This made the search a little easer for a beginner as the museum had lots of newspapers and cemetery records to keep me happy, at least for a while. It was at the local Museum that I received my first of what would be many genealogical surprises. There in the 1861 census was my GGG Grandfather William Massey, a native of Ireland. Ireland? My family was Irish?

To be continued.........

More Wicklow Ireland Data

I have added more to the Tenants renting land from Earl Fitzwilliam in County Wicklow Ireland in 1839. Anne Burgess has been transcribing the 1839 Fitzwilliam rentals records, and putting them into a spreadsheet for each townland, hoping in that way to construct a sort of census substatute for 1839 in southwest Wicklow. This is a great genealogy database.

The database now has the following Townlands.
Aghold Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Ardoyne Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolattin Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Coolboy Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Cronyhorn Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.
Kilcavan Townland County Wicklow in 1839. A census substitute.

You can see all the Fitzwilliam records at my
Ireland Genealogy Pages

Ships Passenger Lists Ireland to New York 1819-1829

27 Ships Passenger Lists Sailing from Ireland to New York between 1819 and 1829 have been added to the current ships passenger lists online at Olive Tree Genealogy.

These are partial lists gathered from the names of individuals admitted to the New York Almshouse before 1830. The New York Almshouse records give details of the ship name, port of departure and place of origin of each individual (as well as the standard date of admission, age and so on)

This is part of an ongoing project to extract the names of passengers on board ships sailing from Canada, Scotland,Ireland, England, Germany and France, to New York. See Ships to New York 1800-1824 and 1825-1849
or choose Ships From Ireland 1825-1830

The following ships lists were added today:

* Ship Otis from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Ontario from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Prince from Dublin Ireland
* Ship John & Adam from Cork Ireland
* Ship Schuykill from Cork Ireland
* Ship William from Cork Ireland
* Ship Laurel from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Lord Strangford from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Louisa from Belfast Ireland
* Ship Wilson from Cork Ireland
* Ship Ganges from Cork Ireland
* Ship Henry from Cork Ireland
* Ship Dianna from Cork Ireland
* Ship Liverpool from Cork Ireland
* Ship Union from Cork Ireland
* Ship Trio from Cork Ireland
* Ship Hope from Galway Ireland
* Ship Marcella from Galway Ireland
* Amanda from Galway Ireland
* Ship Jubilee from Galway Ireland
* Ship Newry from Newry Ireland
* Ship Mary from Dublin Ireland
* Ship New England from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Thomas from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Hibernia from Dublin Ireland
* Ship Dublin Packet from Cork Ireland
* Ship Othello from Dublin, Ireland

Genealogy Records online

Hi All

I have put a little bit of new data on AncestorsAtRest.com that may be of interest to some of you.

Ireland

I have put a list of Officers, Council and Members of the County Louth Ireland Archaeological Society 1913 ~ 1914. I think it has about 150 names.

Canada

Cumberland County, Nova Scotia Marriage Records 1896 ~ 1908

U.S.A

I have added a few more coffin plates to the index. They are all from the U.S.A. this week.

Hope this post helps.

Brian

Funeral Card Mary Schunk Wisconsin 1915

Funeral Memorial Death Card of Mary Schunk born in County Mayo Ireland died November 25, 1915 at Waunakee, Wisconsin