Library Forum

Dear Stuart I have distant cousins named Austin in west Clare, where Austin is a very unusual name, so your message caught my eye. A search for John Austins of County Clare at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#c=1408347;p=collectionDetails;t=searchable suggests that these are you...

Dear Stuart You have found out an awful lot in the four days since your first post! I'm curious to know who did the research which you quoted in your second post. I thought at first that I was reading a report from the Clare Heritage Centre in Corofin, but the `somewhere in the house' reference sugg...

I believe that you can order the certs using the form on the website at http://www.groireland.ie/ but I get them by visiting the office in the Irish Life Centre in Abbey Street in Dublin. There is a local office in Sandfield in Ennis where people in Clare get them. As far as I remember, the charge i...

Don't waste your time making any more phone calls until Wednesday.

Everything in Ireland will be closed on Tuesday, March 17, because it is St Patrick's Day!

I have a transcript of a letter written in September 1892 by Rev. Hugh Brady Huleatt (1822-1898) which appears to refer to the above incident: on declaration of war in 1854 ... I applied for and obtained a Military Chaplaincy. I was sent in the Steam Transport `Prince' to the seat of war on the Heig...

Yes, Paddy, the dates make it fairly obvious that your last two references are to the uncle, who, by his two wives, Ellen Pennefather and Eliza Brew, was (according to the 1892 letter) father of twenty-one children, only fourteen of whom reached maturity. The vicissitudes of the family continued bey...

Augusta was Maria Augusta Persse. See Blood pedigree at http://bloodfamilytree.com/blood_cranagher.php If the date of birth there is correct, she married very young; the indexes at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#c=1408347;p=collectionDetails;t=searchable reveal that she marrie...

I should probably have posted the full story of the Doonbeg air crash here as well as sending photocopies to Paddy C. He summarised the story as follows in an e-mail to me: The account of the survival of Sgt. Masterson was particularly moving. Imagine it ! The guy crawls out of the sea, exhausted an...

Clare Past Forum regulars might also like to watch the Muintir Na Mara episode from 10/5/09, in which regular forum contributor moc66 makes an appearance!

The forthcoming issue of Irish Roots magazine will have a short article on this topic by Steven Smyrl. I compiled some notes on my own experience with this website and sent them to Steven when he was writing his article. Paddy Casey has encouraged me to post my critique here as it is "laced with Cl...

Typically this means that one surname was her maiden name and the other her married name. I can never remember which was which, or whether 'alias' can be interpreted in two different ways. The word frequently appears on old tombstone inscriptions in Clare. The (unambiguous) French 'née' (meaning 'bo...

At the request of those who do not read Irish, here is a translation of the above programme description: In this programme, Pádraig rows around the Loop Head Peninsula on the Coast of Clare. On his trip, he meets Brendan Garvey, who worked in lighthouses. He tells us of the sort of life he had worki...

Could you be looking at an adult baptism? A married woman converting from another religion? Someone gave me a photocopy of the list of freeholders many years ago. I think the original of this one is in the National Library of Ireland. A google search will direct you to various online extracts, e.g. ...

There are interviews with several Clare people in `The IRA in the Twilight Years' by Uinseann Mac Eoin, which covers the period that you are interested in.

Further thoughts: I have always concluded when I found a birth indexed under `male' or `female' that the unfortunate newborn infant probably died before its parents agreed on a name. A recent example has persuaded me to change my view. Sadly the great indexing work of Naoise Cleary and his followers...