Finding relatives (Watters and Casey)

[irish4899]

I am looking for any relatives who might still be in Co. Clare. My great-grandfather was John Thomas Watters, and his father was Patrick Watters, possibly from Armagh. John T.'s siblings were Kathleen, Joseph, Peter, Mary Watters Kelly and Edward.

On the Casey side, my great grandmother was Marguerit Casey, and her siblings, or cousins were Michael, Paddy, Brian and Martin. They lived in Ennis, Co. Clare. Michael owned a tobacco shop in Ennis, Paddy owned a sweet shop in Ennis, on O'Connell St. Brian sold insurance in Ruan, Co. Clare, and Martin owned a print shop at Monument House, Ennis

Please respond if you think you know of someone who would be from these families. And thanks in advance for any information that will lead me closer...


Eileen Watters

[madhatter]

Hi there,

The Caseys still run that print shop at Monument House, behind O'Connell Monument in the Square, so you can pop in and visit them. I am assuming they are the same Casey's!

[irish4899]

Thank you so much for that news! I will be in Ennis sometime around March 7th, and will visit, but may try to contact them by email first. Do you happen to know the name of the print shop?

Thanks,

Eileen

[Paddy Casey]

See

Casey M F Paper Mchts, Stnrs & Prntrs
Monument House O'Connell sq Ennis Clare
(065)6828083

and for other living Caseys in Ennis http://www.eircomphonebook.ie/search/ennis/casey.html

Paddy

[irish4899]

Paddy,

Thank you so very much! I look forward to making a connection before I arrive in early March. By the way, are you perhaps related to the Patrick Casey whose daughter, Marguret, emigrated to Ohio and married John T. Watters?

Eileen

[mcreed]

Eileen,
there's a photo of the shop on the library website at http://foto.clarelibrary.ie/fotoweb/Gri ... iveId=5000

Click on the small image on that page to get a bigger photograph.

Mike

[Paddy Casey]

Paddy,

........are you perhaps related to the Patrick Casey whose daughter, Marguret, emigrated to Ohio and married John T. Watters?

Eileen

Eileen,

I don't know of any of my Caseys who emigrated to Ohio.

"My" Caseys were from the village of Myrhee (synonyms Mheree OR Moyrhee OR Moyree OR Myree OR Mayrhie OR Mayrhee) in the townland of Shanballysallagh in the parish of Tubber (see http://www.clareroots.org/john%20casey- ... /index.htm ) and from Carrownacloghy (syn. Carhunaclohe, Carhunacloghy), a townland south of and very near to Tubber. However, for various reason I am sure we are related fairly closely to other Casey families in and around Ruan (which is only 1hr 50mins from Ruan on foot) but I don't yet have the documentation. In a telcon a few years ago Brian Casey (R.I.P.), solicitor of Ennis, confirmed to me that the Casey lawyers in Bindon Street in Ennis were closely related to the Ruan Caseys.

The tithe records, Griffith's valuation rolls, and 1901/1911 census tables contain numerous Caseys in and around Ruan but I haven't yet got round to joining up the dots.

Paddy

[irish4899]

All of this information has been very helpful, and I can't tell you all how much it means to me to be so much closer to my roots. I don't care if it is raining buckets the whole time I am in Ireland, I will enjoy every minute of it. I hope to find the cemetery in Ruan where, I'm told, some of the Caseys to whom I am related are buried.

I only wish I could be of as much help to others as you have been to me!

Eileen

[Paddy Casey]

I don't care if it is raining buckets the whole time I am in Ireland, I will enjoy every minute of it.

Come dressed for cemeteries. Ruan is cared-for but other cemeteries in rural Clare may be in the middle of fields with muddy paths to them and some are overgrown with tall wet grass. There are brambles everywhere. Bring thornproof clothing. Buy Wellington boots (gumboots) on arrival and discard on departure (they are heavy and will cost you excess baggage).

Don't worry too much about appearance. People dress neatly in Ennis but it is a rural county town so they are quite used to seeing people in the streets and cafés in clodhopper-look.

On arrival pick up a gravestone-cleaning brush at Brohans' hardware shop (Parnell St., Ennis). Required for removing moss, lichen, etc.

I hope to find the cemetery in Ruan where, I'm told, some of the Caseys to whom I am related are buried.

See http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... veyard.htm for Casey headstones in Ruan.

Before departure make sure you have

• a GPS logger to geo-mark sites of graves, family homes, etc.
  a set of Discovery maps of Clare (indispensable)
  a hi-resolution digital camera (5 megapix plus) for photographing documents of genealogical relevance at the Library
  an Olympus digital micro-voice-recorder (tiny and very portable) for high-quality recordings of any chats with relatives you locate.

Also before departure search and browse the Clare Library site at http://www.clarelibrary.ie for every last drop of information you can find on your family. That will allow you to optimally target your searches and excursions in the limited time available to you for plodding the Sod (or "time on site", as they say nowadays in corporate suit-speak) and will save you valuable in-country time transcribing info that is already online and accessible back home.

I only wish I could be of as much help to others as you have been to me!

I'm confident you will be.

Paddy






Eileen[/quote]