Ireland Trip - Day 9

Day 9 was a Sunday and not too much was going on in town. I went out and took another walk around town and except for an occasional car I saw very few people out and about.

I came to Falarragh Cemetery and wandered around there for a while. There were quite a few McFadden's and Ferry's but I didn't see any Collum's. No telling yet if some might have been distant cousins.

 Because it was cold and rainy, after lunch I decided to get in the car and drive around the mountains and look around.  I drove over this bridge a few times before I realized the stone next to it with writing.

This is where family and friends would say goodbye as others walked over the mountains to emigrate to other locations. It's about 40 miles to the port of Londonderry and about a 12 hour walk. It's likely my great great grandparents and family took this path to come to the US about 1850.

It reads:

"Family and friends of the person leaving for foreign lands would come this far. Here was the separation. This is the Bridge of Tears".

I think it might be interesting to hike this route starting at the bridge and ending up at the Londonderry port, but that's an activity for another trip.

Ireland Trip - Day 8

The official research part of my trip was finished but I definitely wasn't ready to return home yet.

I returned to Dublin airport to pick up my rental car and drive to Falcarragh, County Donegal. It was about a 4 hour drive and as I got closer the roads got narrower. I later learned that the GPS directed me to the back roads rather than the main roads.

I stayed at the Loft B&B which is attached to the Loft Pub. It was a quiet street and the pub closes at 11 so it was a great place to stay.

 

I checked in then went out and walked around town. It was a small, quiet place, quite a change from Dublin.  

After a while, I returned to the pub, got some dinner and a Guinness or two. Everyone I met was very nice and when they inquired about my trip I said that I was doing family history research and mentioned the names I was looking for. Everyone replied, "yeah, there are a bunch of them around."

Unfortunately none of them said, "hey, you need to meet John down the road," then called, which would spur him to come on over to the Loft pub and he'd fill in all my Irish brick walls. So instead I had another Guinness then went back to my room to plan what I was going to do for the next few days.

Ireland Research Trip - Final Day in Dublin

This was our final day in Dublin. It was a free day to do whatever we wanted. So people went to the various repositories or did some sightseeing.

I began with the National Library of Ireland and finished up with the newspapers I had been going through. Came up empty but still enjoyed reading about what was going on in the 1840s.

After that I went to the National Musuem of Archaeolgy which is next to the library.  Could have stayed there all day.

I then had a late lunch and then went to Dublin Castle.

Then we had dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel on St. Stephen's Green with Irish genealogist John Grenham. 

The next day after breakfast, I checked out and then went to the bus stop to returned to the airport and pick up my rental car. The next part of my trip was to go north to the area where my great great grandparents were from,  Falcarragh, County Donegal.

Ireland Research Trip - Day 6

A small group went to the Registry of Deeds because for several of us there wouldn't be anything relating to our ancestors.

The Registry is summarized in our tour organizer Donna Moughty's blog at IrishFamilyRoots.com,

The Registry of Deeds began operation in 1708 and records not only land deeds, conveyances marriage settlements, mortgages among other documents. There was never a requirement to file a deed so it does not represent every transaction. It was mostly used when there was the possibility of a legal action in the future. The vast majority of the records, especially in the early years was for Protestants. You might find your Catholic ancestors mentioned in the mid to late 19th and 20th century.

After breakfast there was some time before it opened, so I took another walk around Dublin. Unfortunately, I did get turned around and got back to the hotel too late. And since the Registry was not in walking distance I decided to return to the National Library of Ireland and go through more newspapers and look for more books and materials for County Donegal. I did find more relevant information for my research than I likely would have looking through the deeds.

After that, I returned to Liberty University and took the tour.

Here is the outside of the Long Room Library.

 At the entrance of the library there is this sculpture. The Sphere Within Sphere or in Italian, Sfera con Sfera by artist Arnaldo Pomodoro, The first of spheres was made in 1963.  Others are spread out over the world including the United Nations plaza in New York and the Cortile del Belvedere at the Vatican Museums.

 

 And the inside of the Long Room Library. I hadn't realized this was where they filmed the library scene in Attack of the Clones. I might actually re-watch this movie now, though it will likely be the RiffTrax version.

And these books are still used by researchers today.

 And the last part of the tour was to see The Book of Kells which is a 9th century manuscript that documents the four Gospels of the Bible.

After we headed to the oldest pub in Dublin, Brazen Head Pub for music and storytelling. We heard tales of fairies and sang songs such as the classic Finnegans Wake. A very memorable evening with much food and Guinness (at least in my case).

Ireland Research Trip - Day 5

Half the group began the day by visiting by visiting Epic - The Irish Emigration Museum  

After that we had a talk from one of the staff of the Irish Family History Centre on what to do when there are no more records.

After that the groups switched and we headed of the the Valuation Office.  "The Valuation Office is Ireland's State property valuation body. Our core business is the valuation of commercial and industrial property for commercial rates purposes."

As per usual, my known ancestors won't appear in this record having left a good bit before they started being kept. But I was able to find many McFadden's, Collum's and Ferry's who may be distant cousins. My next plan is to map out their locations and figure out how to determine who may of may not be a cousin. This will likely be a long term project, but once completed I plan to take another research trip and hopefully fill in some blanks.

After the Valuation Office closed everyone headed back to the hotel. I decided to go and see the Famine Memorial not too far away.

Then I walked to the Four Courts.Unfortunately there was a lot of construction and stuff blocking the view and I couldn't get a good picture.

This is where the Battle of Dublin took place in 1922.  From Wikipedia:

"The Battle of Dublin was a week of street battles in Dublin from 28 June to 5 July 1922 that marked the beginning of the Irish Civil War. Six months after the Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the recent Irish War of Independence, it was fought between the forces of the new Provisional Government and a section of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that opposed the Treaty. The Irish Citizen Army also became involved in the Battle, supporting the anti-Treaty IRA in the O'Connell Street area. The fighting began with an assault by Provisional Government forces on the Four Courts building, and ended in a decisive victory for the Provisional Government."

Also from Wikipedia:

"Several hours before the surrender, at either 11:30 or 2:15 the Irish Public Record Office located in the western block of the Four Courts, which had been used as an ammunition store by the Four Courts garrison, was the center of a huge explosion, destroying 1000 years of Irish state and religious archives."

So, apparently, storing ammunition and old historical records in the same building is not a good idea.

 

Ireland Research Trip - Day 4

 

 

 

We visited the National Library of Ireland. After an introduction to the library and its resources we were set loose to the reading rooms to do our own things. I spent most of my time looking into the history of County Donegal and Falcarragh around the time my great great grandparents were there.

I also looked into the McFadden's, Collum's and Ferry's who lived in the area after my folks left. It's a good bet some or maybe many are related but so far I haven't been able to prove it.

After lunch, I decided to look through some old newspapers to see what was going on in the world and to possibly find a birth announcement for my great grandfather, Dennis Cornelius McFadden (1848-1924). His death certificate has his birth date as June 8, 1848 and most of the other records have his birth year as about 1847-8.

Other records indicate that he arrived in the US about 1852 and family members who knew him said he spoke with a heavy Irish accent all his life, so he was likely born several years earlier. The Ballyshannon Herald and County Donegal General Advertiser covered that time period so that is the paper I looked through.

I really didn't expect to find anything on the family primarily because they were poor, Catholic tenant farmers and didn't get into the paper other than for criminal acts. Still, old papers are fun to go through. One thing that stood out were the frequent stories I saw about the trouble the British army was having in Afghanistan.  If only people could learn from history we might be better off.

There was also a protest outside the hotel/library area for most of the week. It was the group Extinction Rebellion and they were calling for the Irish government to adopt a "budget for climate justice". The number of protestors ebbed and flowed sometime having a handful of people and other times a pretty good size crowd. Some of the chants were quite catchy as well.

We got back to the hotel and a group of us had dinner and chatted for a while. 

Ireland Research Trip - Day 3

We began the day by visiting the National Archives of Ireland. We met with an archivist who explained the types of resources they have and showed several examples of the types of records they have. We then went downstairs to look at and search the various finding aids.

Unfortunately my ancestors left Ireland as far as I can determine in the late 1840s to early 1850s. Records were not kept until just after that period beginning in the late 1850s and on.

While I did not find my ancestors I did find many McFadden's, Collum's and Ferry's in County Donegal in and around Falcarragh. I have begun mapping them out to research them and hopefully determine if any of them are cousins.

After that some of us went to the General Register Office (Oifig An Ard-Chláraitheora) which is the central civil repository for birth, stillbirth, death, marriage, civil partnership and adoption records in Ireland. I didn't need anything from there but did search the indexes for the above names.

While I didn't find anything very helpful for me, I did get some general information and now know where to go when and if I find something.

After this, I walked around Dublin some more. Since I hadn't quite adjusted to the time change yet, I returned to the hotel, ordered dinner and a Guinness or two, then began organizing my notes and doing some online searching while things were still fresh in my mind.

Ireland research trip day 2

Ocktober 6

The research group planned to meet at Christ Church Cathedral for morning services and after  tour the church and have coffee/tea in the crypt. I was definitely more interested in the second part. Unfortunately I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until after 2:30.

After having a late lunch in the bar I went out to explore some more.

I then visited Trinity College, officially named the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin.

 The last tour had just left so I made plans to go back in a day or so.

At 6 we met at the hotel for dinner and conversation with a couple of local researchers.They gave some good tips on what to spend time on and the repositories most likely to have the most useful information.