Library Forum

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...

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!

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

It never ceases to amaze me how widely it is reported that Shackleton the explorer was born in Kilkee, Co. Clare; it is now well-known that he was from Kilkea, Co. Kildare. There is even a `Shackleton Terrace, Kilkee' named after him, some of the locals having fallen for the incorrect version of the...

Once you get used to the standard Irish naming patterns (e.g. first two girls after their grandmothers, third girl after her mother; first two boys after their grandfathers; third boy after his father), the repetition of names actually makes things easier, not harder!

Michael O'Brien of Creegh South married Bridget Markham shortly before the start of civil registration in 1864. Bridget appears as a widow in the 1901 census living with three sons in Creegh South; see http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/1901census/creegh_ded_creegh_south82_11.htm Bri...

The plot thickens: The often notoriously unreliable Clare Champion on 23 Jan 2009 published a report by Peter O'Connell entitled `President Obama's link with Killaloe' which states: `Joseph Kearney ... married Sarah Healy ... in Killaloe in 1761. The wedding ceremony was held in an establishment bel...

I had a quick look at http://pilot.familysearch.org but cannot find a match for the marriage - there is an entry for Catherine Spellissy in Ennis in the second quarter of 1927, but no matching entry for John McPolin. There are only 10 entries for McPolin in Leitrim, Ireland, all of which appear to b...