St. Patrick's Missionary Society, Kiltegan Fathers

Courtesy of Saint Patrick's Missionary Society, "Our Work."

When Myles' family lived in Africa (circa 1960-1980) they were friends with some Catholic missionaries, both in Kenya and later in Nigeria. They called them the "Catholic fathers."  I was always a little surprised by this because father-in-law Brian was fairly rigid on his Church of Ireland theological doctrines. But he also enjoyed a good debate, so I expect he welcomed a discussion on the finer points of Biblical exhortations.

They maintained contact over the years through Christmas cards, phone calls, and even a few visits. Since Brian passed away last year Myles has been gently closing the various chapters of his father's life, and this was one that cried out for closure. So on a recent visit to Ireland we made it our mission (pun partially intended) to seek them out.

Idyllic countryside

Saint Patrick's Missionary Society maintains a retirement home for these missionaries in beautiful Kiltegan, County Wicklow. It's probably not accidental that it is located not too far from the ancient monastic city of Glendalough. After a long and winding drive through the gentle hills we arrived at what seemed to be a campus, and indeed, this is where they had all been schooled by the Saint Patrick Missionary Society. I like this concept and hope that someday the University of Massachusetts at Amherst will have my cohorts and me back for retirement, perhaps giving us our old rooms back!

Poor Father Lawler at first was puzzled as to why we were there. He was humble and honored by our visit and showed us around. Since we arrived half an hour before lunch he invited us to join him. They have a fine, efficient cafeteria and we enjoyed a healthy meal together. Father Lawler pointed out a few other priests that had served with him and Myles vaguely remembered them, too. A few of them joined us at our table. I loved seeing them perk up as the memories started to flow. They became quite animated and stood a little straighter by the time we left.

Reconnecting

Remembering Africa

It looked just like any other retirement home, but I had to marvel at the collective global experience of those men as I scanned the room. They have seen a lot of suffering, probably endured it themselves. And they've done a lot of good as well.

Well cared for in their old age

Of course as a genealogist I was drawn to the cemetery. The uniformity of the markers was striking but it seems a suitable resting place.

Row upon row of identical cross grave markers at the cemetery of the Kiltegan Fathers

As I sat among them I fervently hoped that they had been untouched by scandal, but sadly there was one case where a man was associated with another who had abused a young girl. These guys were once young, idealistic and brave, and I hate to think of all the good they have done being ruined by the corrupt, but that's the story of today's church. 

There are no more missionaries being trained here. The seeds these men planted 50 years ago have come to fruition and now missionaries hail from the very countries they served in--Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, and more. 

Elsie's Receipt Book--The Heart of the Home

Good cooks have always collected recipes, or receipts as they were sometimes called. My mother-in-law's mother, Elizabeth Mary Stephens (Drapes) Churton, aka Elsie, was no exception. We recently uncovered a little journal, begun on 16 June 1918, eight months after she married, and about the time her husband was to return home from World War I, minus an arm and in need of much nurturing.

Elsie was born 12 July 1885 in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. She met her future husband Harry Leslie Churton when he was working at the Asylum there as an electrician.

Cooking being at the heart of what we consider home and family life, this little book gives us insight into Elsie's world. Maybe because Elsie was born and raised in Ireland she didn't know some of the recipes that the English ladies already had ingrained in them, but for whatever reason we find some classic English foods, along with little hints. The page below has a very simple recipe for that most cherished dish, Yorkshire Pudding.

Beneath that is a key to which sauces must be served with which meats. Critical that the sauce changes depending on cooking method, so a roast chicken demands bread sauce, while boiled chicken wants a parsley or egg sauce. I remember my mother-in-law still holding to these hard and fast rules and wish I had known at the time that she had it all written down! Entertaining the in-laws might have been a little less stressful had I been able to anticipate the proper sauces!

Initially I thought it would be fun to work through each recipe in order, as an homage to ancestors, cooking and love, but mayonnaise sauce and many of the other treats don't really fit into our current dietary regime. What else, what else might Elsie have a receipe for?

We learn that Elsie was an orderly sort, for she created an index at the back of her little book. Oh, I like this lady!

Now this would all be quite wondrous enough, but upon further examination I found that Elsie and I have a few other things in common. First, she was a singer! While techniques may have changed a bit, I love that she recorded these warm-up exercises.

As if that weren't enough to put me into a swoon, I then discovered we have a pastime in common--knitting! Here are directions for making socks for her new husband. Now there's something I could try. You can see that she has squeezed in a receipt at the bottom, sideways, just as my mother-in-law Rosemary used to do on aerogrammes when she wrote to us and had one last message!

Finally, in anticipation of having children, Elsie also had some instructions for knitting baby garments.

Did mother-in-law Rosemary and Auntie Tealy (Sheelagh) end up wearing these woolly pants? Probably!

If we are lucky our genealogical research turns up documents, and many of those are dry--full of facts, and lacking in warmth, but helping us link together the generations with proof. Most are transactions between men concerning war, purchases, migration, and death and probate, in sum, the harsher side of life. This pleasing little journal, on the other hand, gives us a peek into the softer side of our family history and we will cherish it always.

Garrald Fitzgerald, Goldsmith of Galway

In April of 1979 on a twenty hour train journey from Rome to London I met a chatty but cordial gentleman from Rainham, Kent. Amongst many, many other things, he told me that he was a coin collector. He had a metal detector and spent his time scanning dried up riverbeds and other places for his favorite treasure––Roman coins. When he found out my surname was FitzGerald he was delighted to present me with a coin he had dredged up from the banks of the Thames Estuary one particularly dry year. Since it wasn't Roman he wasn't interested in it, so he gave it to me.

Thames Estuary and Wind Farms from Space NASA taken by Operational Land Imager,
public domain file, created 28 Apr 2013; Wikipedia.com.

I’ve held onto this coin for thirty-six years: through all the time I lived in Rome, moving from pensione to pensione to apartment, then living in several apartments in the Boston area, my parents' house, grad student housing in England for a year, and two family homes in the 'burbs since 1989. That's a lot of moving, but I kept it stashed away with a few other treasures and keepsakes. I had always assumed it was a novelty token rather than a real coin.

Recently it has begun to gnaw at me. I Googled it a few times but never found anything like it. Finally yesterday I came across a fantastic website called Irish Coinage. I sent an email to the webmaster/author, John Stafford-Langan and he replied right away. I am so impressed by the extent of his knowledge and his willingness to share it with me. Here's what I learned.

Obverse

The front (obverse) design is a set of arms  - he suspects of a goldsmith's guild - but has not been able to verify that. The name Garrald Fitzgerald surrounds the arms. The words that ring the coin are called the legend.

Reverse

The reverse has a legend that reads "Goldsmith of Galway." Aha! I hadn't deciphered the "smith" part. John says, "It has a large 'I' with a small D above it - "double struck" so it looks like an 'L' (D was the old abbreviation for a penny (from the old French denier and originally the latin 'denarius'). Stars are often used on these tokens to fill the design around the denomination." So being double struck makes it hard to read both the word smith and the letter D. 

In summary, it is a penny token issued in the 1660s (!!) by Garrald Fitzgerald, a Galway goldsmith. There was a severe shortage of small change in the mid to late 17th century and many English and Irish merchants issued token coins to alleviate the problem. In 1673 they were replaced by official coin. There are over 800 different types from Ireland and more than 16,000 from England. It is probably made of brass, but I should get it checked, not by a regular jeweler, though, because they are apt to file a bit of it off to test it and that would reduce the value. It is scarce, as most of the Irish ones are, but not particularly valuable unless it turns out to be gold.

He says: "I'm assuming that the token is brass based on the colour and because these tokens were generally made of brass or copper. However a very small number of examples were made as presentation pieces in silver and fewer again in gold.  The silver and gold specimens are normally much better struck than the normal circulating brass and copper example so the doubling of the letters in the legend and the striking crack suggest that this is most likely a brass example. There are no known Irish examples surviving in gold, only a few from London (from where a great many tokens were issued) so a gold example is unlikely, but would be of significant interest." 

Normally the merchants who issued these tokens were prominent citizens - the city records often show them serving on the town council, or providing services to the town. I've traced my own FitzGerald line in Kerry only back to about 1790 or so. There is no way I could ever definitely tie them in with this fellow. But it's not out of the question to think that he could be related in some way. Pretty cool stuff lurking in my jewelry drawer all these years.

Tomasso Garzoni, Goldschmiede, or Ständebuch & Beruf & Handwerk & Goldschmied, Saxon State Library,
Dresden [Public Domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

Week #3 of 52 Ancestors: Philip Joseph Sullivan (1911-1969)

First, let me just effuse about what a good exercise this is! By writing about an ancestor I take a critical look at what I've gathered so far. Things I may have neglected for years look completely fresh and I am inspired to search in the many databases that have been created since I last investigated. I find this preferable to starting over completely.

I get a lot of clients looking for Sullivans. And Sullivans, in Boston or anywhere, are tough to research. There are billions of them and they all used the same eight names. Jeremiah Sullivan is a popular one--nickname Jerry. The client I was working on today had a Jeremiah Jerome Sullivan, aka Jerry Jerry Sullivan!

Today's subject, Philip Joseph O'Sullivan, was my father's first cousin. He was the son of my grandmother Annie Josephine [O']Sullivan's brother, Jeremiah Sullivan, and his wife Roseanne Dunn. While he may not be in my direct line, I love him for two reasons.

First, he was born in New Zealand. Long ago I found in the 1920 and 1940 censuses that his place of birth was NZ. At first I thought it must be an enumerator error, but it wasn't, because his death certificate confirmed it [Mass. VRS, deaths, 1969, Arlington, 2:208]. Then a few months ago I stumbled upon an index to NZ births online, and couldn't resist, so I sent away for his birth certificate. So now, if I go on vacation to New Zealand, I have as a destination: Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket. I like that it provides his parents' ages, AND gives Rose's county of birth as Roscommon as well. I have read that many people from the Milltown area in County Kerry emigrated to New Zealand.

New Zealand, Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages, birth certificate, Philip Joseph O’Sullivan, reg. n. 1911006915, 

26 May 1911, Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, son of Jerry O’Sullivan, 31, b. Co. Kerry and Rose Dunn, 30, 

b. Roscommon; issued 3 November 2014.

I have not seen any evidence that he ever married, and he was single in 1940 when living with his father Jeremiah and siblings in Somerville, working as general job man. I just noticed that for his brother Thomas the enumerator wrote that he had filed his first papers ("Pa"), yet he was born in Massachusetts.

1940 US census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Somerville, Ward 7, ED 106, sheet 61A,
1256 Broadway, household n. 61, Jeremiah Sullivan; Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 January 2015).

The second reason I love him is that he was naturalized. My grandparents came in the late nineteenth century and never bothered, probably hoping to return to Ireland some day. I wonder if World War II had anything to do with him filing his Declaration of Intention.

There are a few interesting tidbits in this file.

• He arrived in Boston on 12 June 1913 from Queenstown on the SS Cymric, so his parents must have returned to Ireland before coming here.
• He officially changed his surname from O'Sullivan to Sullivan. 
• He claimed to be a chemist!
• Some time after coming to Boston he lived in Milltown, his mother's Irish home townland. 
• He was still not married and had no children in 1942.
• He had blue eyes, black hair, and was 5'7.
• He gained ten pounds between 1939 (140 lbs.) and 1942 (150 lbs.).
• Witnesses were Edward F. Woods and John E. O'Brien.

Even better, his paperwork had a photograph!

United States District Court, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, Declaration of Intention, Philip Joseph Sullivan, n. 282025 (red stamp), n. 146348 (printed in black), certificate, n. 5554477, issued 3 August 1942; NARA, Waltham, Massachusetts, received 30 August 2012.

Sadly, my first cousin once removed died without us meeting. He was only 58 when he died on 1 June 1969. Somewhere in a pile in my office is the transcription I made of his death, listing the cause. I imagine he had a hard, lonely life, ping-ponging between continents, working variously as a longshoreman or shipper (or chemist?) I just hope he managed to find a little joy and love along the way.

Irish Registry of Deeds Memorials Sooooo Rich in Genealogical Data

Memorial, Indented Deed of Lease, Mary Drapes to William Clarke, n. 510180, 750:245,
executed 15 March 1820, recorded 27 March, 1820, Waterford City;
Registry of Deeds, Dublin, Ireland (detail).

On my recent research trip to Dublin with Donna Moughty I visited the Registry of Deeds. I have made a guest post on Donna's blog about that experience so here I'll just describe and transcribe the one document I actually ordered.

The funny thing is, I was looking for another line when I accidentally stumbled upon this memorial. I couldn't believe it. If you could stand in the room with the hundreds of volumes you'd get more of a sense of how serendipitous that was. There was no way I could abstract it in a timely fashion, but it is so rich in names, occupations, relationships, and previous transactions that I was compelled to order it. Just look at how very many genealogical clues we can glean from this one document. In it we find reference to marriages, deaths, wills, sales, direct relationships, residence, and one humongous FAN club (Friends, Associates & Neighbors). It's far too complicated to analyze online but in my next post I'll make a list of what genealogical information is readily apparent.

The clerk starts off in very large, very legible handwriting but gets squished for space at the bottom so it becomes increasingly harder to read as the handwriting gets smaller. This causes the lines to wrap in this version but I wanted to leave it large enough for you to read. I've attempted to keep the same arrangement of lines, etc., but Blogger does not provide high level graphic design capability. The Registry photocopied the original in parts and then glued it together and folded it, so it should be recopied and scanned for archival purposes.

[Full-page image at end of post.]

                                                                    510180 [Memorial number]
                                                                    The Property Registration Authority
                                                                     Registry of Deeds
                                                                     0214RD002701V
                                                                     Attested copy of Memorial / application
                                                                     Fee: 20 euros
                                                                     Applicant: Polly Kimmitt

To the Register appointed by Act of Parliament for the public registration of Deeds and so forth

A Memorial of an Indented Deed of Lease                         [dark label or seal, illegible]
bearing date the fifteenth day of March one thousand
eight hundred and twenty and made Between Mary
Drapes widow and Executrix of Samuel Drapes
late of New Ross in the County of Wexford Merchant
deceased who was Executor of Francis Drapes late of the city of Waterford Esquire deceased
of the one part and William Nehemiah Clarke of the said city of Waterford Esquire
Lieutenant in his Majestys Royal Navy of the other part. Whereby after reciting that
Sarah Denis of the City of Waterford widow acting Trustee and Executrix named in
the Last Will and Testament of the Reverend William Denis then late of the said
City of Waterford Clerke did by Indenture of the fourteenth of October one thousand
sevenhundred and seventy one demise and set unto Samuel Drapes father of the
said Francis Drapes All That and Those one Messuage House or Tenement
in Patrick Street in the said City together with a Small yard Back House and large
Garden behind the same and thereto adjoining and belonging and formerly demised
by the Reverend John Denis late of Enniskilling in the County of Fermanagh clerke
deceased to Patrick Graham then late of the said City of Waterford Innholder meaning
and bounding on the North with Saint Patricks Street on the South with a Malt House
formerly in the possession of Edmond Garvey deceased and then in the Possession
of William Grant Merchant on the East with with George Bryans holdings then in the
possession of the widow Gott and on the west with the Holdings of John Beard then
lately deceased formerly the holdings of Edward FitzGerald and then in the possession
of John Delany To Hold to the said Saml Drapes his Exec'ors & adm'ors from the first Day
of May then last for the term of Thirty five years at the yearly rent of Sixteen pounds
payable as therein mentd and that the said Sarah Davis afterwards obtained a
renewal of the said Premises from the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral church
of the Holy and undivided Trinity in the City of Waterford the Head Landlords thereof,
and all the said Sarah Denis's Interest became vested in John Denis of the said City of
Waterford Esquire and that by a certain Deed of Settlement bearing date the twenty third
Day of January one thousand sevenhundred and ninety two and executed previous to the
Intermarriage of the said John Denis with Rebecca White all the said John Denis's
Interest therein was assigned to and vested in John Grove White and William Denis with
power to the said John Denis therein named to grant such Leases of the said Premises as therein in ment.d
And that by Indenture bearing date the twelfth of April one thousand sevenhundred and ninety four
and made Between the said John Denis of the first part the said Sarah White by the name and addition
of Sarah White [orwi'se otherwise, meaning alias--her maiden name] Grade of Ballyboy in the County of Tipperary widow and John Grove
White of Doneraile in the County of Cork Esquire and the said Reverend William Denis of Salsborough
in the County of Kilkenny Clerke of the second part and the before named Francis Drapes of the
third part the said John Denis did with the Consent of the said Sarah White John Grove White and William
Denis demise and set to the said Francis Drapes all That and Those the said messuage House or Tenement in
Patrick Street in the City of Waterford as herein before described To Hold from the twenty fifth day of March then
last for twenty six years at the yearly rent of Twenty two pounds fifteen shillings with Covenant for renewal
as therein ment.d and that the said Francis Drapes is since Dead but before his Death did make and publish his last Will and Testament bearing date the first of November one thousand eight hundred and Seventeen and thereof appointed
Hannah Lambert and the said Samuel Drapes, Ex'ors & the said Hannah Lambert having renounced the execution
of the said Will probate thereof was granted to the said Samuel Drapes by the Consistorial Court of the Diocess of Waterford
& Lismore and that the said Saml. Drapes is now also Dead but did before his death make and publish his last will & Testament
bearing date the ______ Day of October one thousand eight hundred and nineteen and thereof appointed the said Mary
Drapes Executrix who has since proved the same in his Majestys Court of Prerogative in Ireland so that the sd Mary
Drapes is now the personal representative of the said Francis Drapes deceased. The said Deed of which this is a memorial
witnesses that the said Mary Drapes in consideration of the sum of four hundred and fifty pounds to her paid by the said
William N. Clarke and for the other Consi'ons therein ment.d Did grant & assign unto the said William N. Clarke his
Ex'ors admi'ors & assigns All that and Those the said one messuage or Tenement in Patrick Street in the City of
Waterford together with said Small yard back house and large Garden behind the same and thereto adjoining and
belonging [ineard?] and bounded as in the said recited Lease thereof and herein before more particularly described situate lying and being in Sd. Patricks Street and in St. Michaels parish in the City of Waterford aforesaid To Hold with the appurtenances together
with said recited Lease of twelfth of March one thousand seven hundred and ninety four & all other Deeds relating to the premises
unto the said William N Clarke his Ex'ors adm'ors and assigns from the twenty ninth day of September last for the residue of the
term by sd. Lease Granted and for every Renewal thereof and the said Deed Continuing a Covenant for further assurance & the same and
this Memorial are respectively witnessed by Bartholomew Delauche and Charles Samuel (wax seal)
Tandy of the City of Waterford Gentleman
                                                                                       9   750 –– 245   Mary Drapes
Signed and sealed in presence of
C S Tandy
Bart Delauche

The above-named Charles Samuel Tandy maketh oath and saith that he was present and did see Mary Drapes
duly sign Seal and execute the Deed of which the above writing is a memorial and that he also saw the said Mary
Drapes duly sign Seal and execute the above Memorial Saith that Deponent is a Subscribing witness to the
due execution of said Deed and Memorial by the said Mary Drapes respectively and that the name C S Tandy subscribed as a Witness to said Deed and memorial respectively is this Deponents proper name and handwriting
Sworn before me (a master extraordinary in Chancery at the City of Waterford)
this 24th day of March 1820 and I know the Deponent ––
C. S. Tandy                                  John Roberts

Memorial, Indented Deed of Lease, Mary Drapes to William Clarke, n. 510180, 750:245,
executed 15 March 1820, recorded 27 March, 1820, Waterford City;
Registry of Deeds, Dublin, Ireland 

He Endeavored to Lay His Claim to This Land But Was Prevented

Evicted Tenants' File No. 13,324; County Kerry; Landlord, Francis Pierce; 

Evicted Tenant, Patrick J. Fitzgerald

Other posts in this series:
1. "Back to the Old Home--Genealogical Research in Dublin"
2. "Digging for the Truth at the National Archives of Ireland"
3. "How Many Repositories Can I Visit in One Day?"
4. "Irish Land Records Not Just About Land!"
5. "Wronged Again"
6.  "He Endeavored to Lay Claim to This Land But Was Prevented"

In my last post I told the story of searching for proof of my grandfather's eviction from the family farm in County Kerry, Ireland in 1883. Before I left Dublin last week I requested case number 13,324 from the Irish Land Commission's Estate Commissioners' Evicted Tenant's Files at the National Archives. And today it arrived! But first a little background.

As is usual in genealogical research, the deeper you dig, the more you find. One newspaper article leads to research in Evicted Tenants, and that leads to studying the laws that caused the records to be created in the first place. And that leads back to the article to read it more closely.

Over the course of the eighteenth century for a variety of causes (emigration, competition from US grain producers, a mini-famine, inequitable laws, and all kinds of financial kerfufflement) the cost of leasing land became prohibitively higher and many tenants were evicted. From the 1870s to 1890s Ireland experienced much political and legal activity around inequities in land ownership. The Irish National Land League was established to improve the lot of poor tenant farmers and attempted to bring about redistribution of the land from landlords (especially absentee ones) to those who had occupied the land for decades or longer.

In response, the UK government introduced a series of laws (Irish Land Acts) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries designed to improve the lot of the tenant farmers. The law of 1903, the Wyndham Land Purchase Act, was what spurred my grandfather to action. In that act: a) sales agreements were to be agreeable to both parties; b) the land was to be offered at fair market value; and c) the government was to step in to pay the difference between the price offered and the actual value. This effectively ended landlordism in Ireland and by 1914 about 9 million acres had been bought up by tenants.

Here is what came in the mail today.

This letter and the next essentially state that he missed the May 1, 1907 deadline as specified by the Evicted Tenants Act of 1907. Given what is stated in the Globe article, that is odd.

 This letter is from Patrick's solicitor (attorney) in Ireland, John O'Connell, LLD. It is dated Tralee, 28 October 1914, and is stamped [received] "Estates Commrs 26,573 - 29 Oct. 1914."

It reads:

Dear Sir:         Estate of Francis Pierce, Co. Kerry

I am instructed by Patrick J. Fitzgerald of 12 Lamson Ct. East Boston Mass. USA to inform you that he claims an interest as evicted tenant in part of the lands of Farnas at present in occupation of Robert Evans. He endeavored to lay his claim to this land but was prevented through non-delivery of his letters. The lands were evicted about 1884.

I would be obliged if you would let me know how the matter stands and what further steps my client should take to prove to you that he is entitled to consideration.

                                    Yours faithfully
                                             John O'Connell

Are you kidding? He "was prevented through non-delivery of his letters?" Sabotaged? Bad postal system? Rotten luck? What happened?? Why had so much time elapsed?

The December 27, 1903 Boston Globe article states "in the past 10 days the United Irish League in Ireland has taken steps to secure the best legal assistance in behalf of all the evicted tenants as part of the program of the national organization." It also says that the act had taken effect on November 1st of that year and "some 50 cases have already been brought before the Land Commission by the officials of the United Irish League of America, and of that number about one half of those affected are at present residents of Massachusetts, particularly in the vicinity of Boston. Among the number are the following:" And then he goes on to interview my grandfather. Well that explains how he was able to afford a lawyer.

I know this is my Patrick because the address he gives is the same street where the family lived when my father was born. For now, I am satisfied that Patrick did pursue restitution of his family farm. But it is still only his word that he was evicted, though there's really no reason to doubt it. I wonder if one of his brother's tried for it. He did have two brothers who remained in Ireland, John and James. John seems never to have left Ireland, but James went back and forth to the US and I haven't been able to find a marriage or death for him yet.

Does the No. 26,573 refer to another case file? I will request it and hope for further information, but something tells me I won't get it. I'll also now write to the archivist and hope he can give me some more ideas, but for now I guess I'm satisfied.

Wronged Again

Irish cottage, County Kerry, 1989

Other posts in this series:
1. "Back to the Old Home--Genealogical Research in Dublin"
2. "Digging for the Truth at the National Archives of Ireland"
3. "How Many Repositories Can I Visit in One Day?"
4. "Irish Land Records Not Just About Land!"
5. "Wronged Again"
6.  "He Endeavored to Lay Claim to This Land But Was Prevented"

I have been feeling mighty discouraged at the National Archives of Ireland's inability to locate a file in the Evicted Tenants collection which I am quite sure treated the eviction of my great-grandfather from the 75-acre FitzGerald family farm in Farnes, Kilgbarrylander, County Kerry, in 1883-84.

I have to say I was a little surprised at my reaction to the file not being found. It went beyond disappointment in not finding a record and instead felt like a slap in the face after all my grandfather had been through. He had been defeated by the system and so had I. I even felt a tear well up, and my friends will tell you I'm not the weepy type. This was pure frustration, passed down and brought to life a century later by one missing file.

What little I know of my grandparents came from my father. Both of his parents were dead by the time I was born and no one ever spoke much of them. They had been simple, hardworking folk, uneducated farmer types trying to survive in the swirl of greater Boston. They had thick brogues and couldn't read or write. My older siblings tell me that Patrick was strict and used to swing his cane at them, and Annie, his wife, liked a good snort of booze on a Friday night.

A first generation kid, born in the teaming tenements of East Boston in 1910, my father did everything he could to distance himself from his provincial parents. By the time he graduated from high school they had lived for nearly a decade on a little dairy farm in Lexington, Mass., just a stone's throw from Lexington Common, scene of the "shot heard round the world," and quintessential New England town. Pops was not one of those Irishmen who longed for the old country. It wasn't his country: he was an American. He didn't celebrate St. Paddy's day, didn't attend parades, hang out in pubs or drink much beer. He self-identified more as a Yankee than an Irishman and even went so far as to marry a Priscilla Barnes, a Protestant Mayflower descendant (below).

Priscilla (Barnes) FitzGerald standing on farmland previously owned by her father-in-law
Patrick J. FitzGerald's family, Farnes, Kilgarrylander, County Kerry, 1989

Because my father virtually ignored his Irish heritage, I just never imagined that his parents had wished to go home so very badly. So it took time for me to realize that Patrick really did not want to be here in the United States--he wanted to go home to his farm in County Kerry. He had come over just to make a little money to send home to his mother, and probably hoped he'd be home in a few years. Even after he met my grandmother Annie and settled down he did not stop longing for home, as we have seen by the 1903 article. At that time they had three children and would go on to have another three. He still lived in East Boston, an area heavily settled by immigrants.

I very much want to tell his story, and without that file I cannot. I'm pretty sure it is somewhere at the Four Courts. I wonder if it was pulled and filed in another later file, perhaps. I haven't given up. But at the moment, I'm denied that file. However, just the fact that there was a case in the index that matched what Patrick recounted provided some support to his statement that they had been evicted, though not nearly enough for me to feel confident in citing it as proved. With Irish research you have to be content with the tiniest of steps toward your goal, so I was ready to accept that.

In my previous posts I described the process for obtaining those files. First you have to request the "Evicted Tenants Index and Registers." These are held offsite, at the Four Courts and take a day to be retrieved. Once you have the index and registers you can search each one for your person of interest. They are a jumbled mess of three overlapping systems, in about 12 volumes, all of which must be searched. Some but not all information gets repeated. The volumes were not always labelled and some titles were illegible. The registers gave very little information beyond what the indices had, but sometimes very little is enough.

One set of indices includes people in all counties, arranged alphabetically by first letter, then first vowel of surname, and finally by county. So, for instance, I go to F for Fitzgerald, then at the top of the page you can see "i" above the columns, indicating the first vowel is an i, then I skim down to those in Kerry. At that point they are not in alphabetical order, so you have to look at all of the Kerry entries.

Above is the entry in the index for the file that could not be found, number 1624 for Patk Fitzgerald of Kerry. There was no further information, so I went to the register. 

Below is the entry in the Land Commission's Evicted Tenants, Register, vol. 4, that supports but does not strongly corroborate Patrick's story. It gives the landlord's name as Rae--a match!. And of course the case was refused, or Patrick and Annie would have gone back to Farnes. But I'd want to see more to be sure. The file being not found left me at a dead end.

So what do we do at dead ends? We reverse back up the lane a bit and see if there is alternate road we can explore. I had, in fact, found another possible file on my last day in Dublin. I could order it but it was offsite and wouldn't be delivered until I had left, so I requested that it be sent to me and paid a fee. Here is the entry, below, right page, then left.

 It was simultaneously encouraging and discouraging. This time he is Patk J, and my grandfather was Patrick John. Best of all, the townland is "Fainas"–close enough to Farnes to make me hopeful. The 1884 year of eviction is close enough to 1883 to give me more hope still. But the landlord was wrong.  What happened to Mr. Rae? And what was the outcome?

But OMG, the page is shredded along the left side where the file number would be. I panicked for a second until I realized that in this particular register the files were in numerical order. So I went back a page and counted forward, hoping that the gaps in numbering that I had seen elsewhere would not be a problem here! I came up with number 13,324, and I ordered the file to be sent home to Massachusetts. 

Now we wait...

Irish Land Records Not Just About Land!

Registered Papers (left), Prison and Criminal Records (back wall)

This is part of a series of posts about a research trip to Dublin.

1. "Back to the Old Home--Genealogical Research in Dublin"
2. "Digging for the Truth at the National Archives of Ireland"
3. "How Many Repositories Can I Visit in One Day?"
4. "Irish Land Records Not Just About Land!"

5. "Wronged Again"
6.  "He Endeavored to Lay Claim to This Land But Was Prevented"

You may have noticed by now that we spend an awful lot of time examining records having to do with land. From Evicted Tenants records to Valuation to Deeds, much can be gleaned from land transactions.

After a somewhat leisurely awakening and breakfast I meandered over to the National Archives on  Thursday. I had a little more time to go through the remaining boxes of indexes to Evicted Tenants and found further reference to the entry I had found earlier which pretty much confirms it is my guy, or makes it very likely. The landlord was said to be Rae (yay!) and the year of eviction is 1884. the only sad thing is that his application was refused. With great hope in my heart to finally getting to the bottom of Patrick's family's eviction, I submitted the form and made myself wait one more day to find out.

No time for lunch. Donna and I stopped by the GRO again while on our way to the Registry of Deeds. I was the only person on the tour to opt for the Registry of Deeds. And I only did because of my husband's ancestors, not my own. My poor Irish Catholic farmers would not appear in these records. But landowners, and those entering in a marriage interested in protecting their assets would make special arrangements, so I had lots of good luck there. A person could spend many happy days there! Life would be a lot easier if they allowed us to use cameras to record the memorials, though. I transcribed like a fiend all afternoon. I am going to guest blog on Donna Moughty's Blog about it, so you can read more about it there.

I walked all over creation on Thursday and was really tired (a running theme!) by the end of the day. It was raining all the way home so I arrived like a drowned rat. We decided to dine in the hotel and had another two-hour relaxing meal.

Finally on Friday (today) I was to get the information I had been seeking. I came to the archives full of hope but before I could even set down my computer the man at the desk told me I had no file.* "It's not there." He was still convinced the number was too low, so I had to retrieve the index and show him the entry. He then made a phone call over to the remote site. They couldn't find it but did locate another John FitzGerald file. I ordered that and it will be mailed to me, but I'm afraid I'll never get the real story of what happened to the FitzGerald farm. (See next post for update!)

Dejected, I turned, finally, to the Registered Papers. Another fail! I had a box full of mostly mundane paperwork, generated by lots of different agencies, from all counties. The numbered case files I had ordered did not fall between the numbers contained in the box, so it was useful, if interesting.

Finally, one last trip to the GRO for some more John Fitzgerald death certificates. I keep thinking that to straighten it out I'm going to have to do a one-name study but unless I can involve my kids in it, I fear that's a project without end because I'd never finish it in my lifetime!

* I thought he said "You have no foil!" and that I had violated yet another rule. Took me a minute. Hey, it was morning!

How Many Repositories Can I Visit in One Day?

This is part of a series of posts about a research trip to Dublin in search of information about my FitzGerald ancestors

1. "Back to the Old Home--Genealogical Research in Dublin"
2. "Digging for the Truth at the National Archives of Ireland"
3. "How Many Repositories Can I Visit in One Day?"
4. "Irish Land Records Not Just About Land!"
5. "Wronged Again"
6.  "He Endeavored to Lay Claim to This Land But Was Prevented"

On Wednesday I was schizo! I had to fling back to the National Archives to see if the index for Evicted Tenants had come in so I could order the next round of files. It had! Great jubilation there because of the doubt created when the employees argued about how much info was required on the request form. I was happy to see it, indeed. I was also glad to learn a little more about the actual record group, especially that it was created by the Irish Land Commission. I only had time to go through one box because Donna had us booked for the Valuation Office in the afternoon, but I found a reference I thought looked promising.  

I took this information to the desk to request the file and another discussion ensued! It wasn't enough information. Or the number is too low. Yet no one could tell me what other info I should add, so I called on the archivist and they agreed they'd try and find it with that information. Since it was off-site, I'd have to wait until Thursday to get it. But I didn't have time to go through the rest of the boxes before hurrying off to our next appointment. I decided to come back Thursday and go through those, then order it.

Also, the wills I ordered came in, and they were lovely, especially my husband's great-greatmother's will: "To my daughter Mrs. Elizabeth Mary Stephens Churton ... the small silver cream ewer presented to me by my children on the twenty-fifth anniversary of my wedding..." an artifact which is probably still in the family. I love that!

Then we rushed off to the GRO to get some more certificates. I think. At this point, it's all a blur!

Finally, a long-awaited visit to the Valuation Office where we were able to consult the revision books. I won't go into detail on them because it's a bit complicated, but essentially you can follow the ownership of a piece of land through time, with changes indicated in different colored inks (if you're lucky), and a little key telling which year is associated with which color. I, of course, am not lucky. So revisions were made in brown or blue ink, and several in each, so it's impossible to be precise. In any case I did find my John FitzGerald where I had hoped to, in Farnes/Farna, but only for a short while. That is very good because he wasn't there in Griffiths, but he was there for the birth of his children from 1867-1875. He or another John also appears in another townland, too, Ballygamboon, and he is next to or with Garrett FitzGerald. I know my John had an uncle Garrett, so it will require some serious analysis. I took photos like mad and will study them when I get home. I don't like researching this way because sure enough I'll get home and wish I could see the books again for some reason or another, but when time and money are at a premium you just do the best you can and make sure that camera is charged!

By the end of Wednesday my eyes were tired, my brain hurt and I was pretty tired. We discovered a wondrous Italian restaurant that served the most tender and tasty salmon I've ever had. We loved our meals. The Nigerian chef came out to chat with us and it was a nice relaxing end to a frantic day.

Digging for the Truth at the National Archives of Ireland

This is the second in a series of posts about a research trip to Dublin.
1. "Back to the Old Home--Genealogical Research in Dublin"
2. "Digging for the Truth at the National Archives of Ireland"
3. "How Many Repositories Can I Visit in One Day?"
4. "Irish Land Records Not Just About Land!"
5. "Wronged Again"
6.  "He Endeavored to Lay Claim to This Land But Was Prevented"

I'm in Dublin, researching my FitzGerald grandfather's family and the loss of their 75-acre farm in 1883. An article in the Boston Daily Globe about Irishmen in Boston wanting to reclaim lost land after the Land Laws changed in 1903 gives some nice detail. The second page continues here.

"Back to the Old Home," Boston Daily Globe, 17 December 1903, p. 26, col 2; GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: 15 December 2008).

I had already searched in the State Commissioner's Offices "Applications from Evicted Tenants, 1907," database on FindMyPast.com, to no avail. From what Patrick says above, it seems as though he had already started the wheels in motion by the end of 1903, so I needed to check the Evicted Tenants cases at the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) as well. But also, the last paragraph mentions that Patrick had made an appeal to the MP of West Kerry, Mr. Thomas O'Donnell, so I thought perhaps there might be some record of that still in existence. If it were, it would appear in the Registered Papers collection at the NAI.

Tuesday we came over to the National Archives. We had an orientation and got IDs, put our coats and items not allowed in the reading room in lockers and got started. I consulted with the archivist, Gregory O'Connor, who advised me on the use of their Registered Papers series. They come in the form of very large volumes in sets by year with an index and register for every year. The index is both subject and name-based, with different subjects then subdivided alphabetically. At Gregory's suggestion I began by looking under C for Constabulary, in 1883 and 1884, in case there had been any trouble with the eviction. I also looked under E for Eviction, F for FitzGerald and Farnes, K for Kerry and Kilgarrylander, and Rae/Ray, the landlord's name. I found nothing.

Registered Papers, Index to 1884, index tabs in brown ink, ripped and faded.

Next I moved on to 1903-1904 when the land laws changed and my grandfather appealed to O'Donnell. This time Gregory told me to look under the subject heading of Parliamentary Questions as well as the landlord. I looked also under E for Eviction, F for FitzGerald and Farnes, K for Kerry and Kilgarrylander, L for Land, and Rae/Ray, the landlord's name, and I added O'Donnell, against Gregory's advice, but I'm not going to take a chance at missing it! I found just a few references that seemed remotely possible so I had to request those files from the desk. They are filed offsite at the Four Courts so they would not be in until Wednesday.

(Gregory also advised me to check Hansard, an online database of parliamentary records (reporters, upon which the US system is based) but I'll save that for another time.

Knowing my grandfather was actively pursuing reinstatement of his land, I then explored the Evicted Tenants records. Using them is a three step process. You have to 1) order the index and registers (from Four Courts, so next day delivery); 2) consult those; then 3) order any appropriate files! So I ordered the Evicted Tenants Index and Registers. A great discussion ensued between NAI employees as to whether my request had enough information, but I was powerless and clueless so left it up to them to bash it out! I just hoped the index would appear.

I thought I'd do something straightforward, so I ordered the wills of my husband's great-grandparents since they were late enough not to have been burned in the Four Courts fire.

I still had nothing in hand for all of that research, but my notes were filled with references of things ordered, so when I left the NAI there was a feeling of great potential, but nothing more! I'm always struck by the contrast between instantaneous access on the web and archaically slow in real life. I have to say that I've been surprised by the number of times people have come back and told me a file or book or microfilm can't be found. I think perhaps they are lacking in resources and I fear that history is getting lost because of it.

From the National Archives I went with my friend Patti to the General Register Office. On the outside it looks like a hideout from a street war, with barbed wire and camouflage material. On the inside they are highly efficient, so I requested and received the maximum 8 birth, marriage and death certificates, at only 4 euros each. They were delivered promptly in less than 15 minutes! I now have the death certificates of three of my four Irish great-grandparents, and a whole bunch of John Fitzgerald deaths that aren't my grandfather's father! 

We dined out that evening with Donna, our trip host, and again went back to crash, I mean prepare for the next day's research!