Oh the weather outside is frightful but the maps are so delightful

Only 10 days to go until departure for Ireland. Having started packing and sorting a while ago, the clothing and electronics decisions have been made and everything will fit into the two suitcases. The golf clubs will stay here. A few things still need to be done to prepare the condo for my tenant and there are still a few social events on the calendar.

Christmas was a wonderful diversion and Maureen and I went to Pakenham to celebrate with Janet, Bruce and family. It was a great time during which we exchanged gifts, enjoyed wonderful food, and learned that we would not be good in case of fire.

It was a lazy sort of afternoon but the "all is calm" almost became "all is bright" when Maureen managed to set fire to a paper serviette when she inexplicably put it on top of a burning candle. She quietly picked it up, in flames, and said to me "I set the serviette on fire". Well I was instantly on my feet - who knew I could move that fast? I grabbed it from her lest she drop it on her clothes or the carpet and made a dash for the kitchen sink about 15 feet away. I didn't get that far.

Don't run with a flaming paper napkin. The extra breeze turned it into a little inferno, dropping bits of flames and ashes as I moved. The flames were licking at my hand when the whole thing disintegrated into burning ashes which drifted to the floor. They quickly burned out in mid-air having run out of fuel as the paper had burned up. 

Behind me I hadn't seen Olivia jump up, grab a glass of red wine, and dump the alcohol on a large burning piece that had fallen in my wake. She chose the closest liquid to douse the flames. Thankfully it worked - or at least didn't cause a bigger problem.

The whole thing happened in less than 10 seconds. Very fortunately the burning paper and falling ashes didn't mark the floor, the wine did not re-ignite anything and was easily mopped up, and nobody got burned. We were truly a case of  "what not to do with fire". It was a pretty close call.

So - now that we're all OK, what was the right thing to do? Nothing else caught fire and it is now just a funny story. It was a shame to waste the wine but that was the only damage incurred.

Christian Horizons sent someone to pick Maureen up around 8 pm as I was planning to stay overnight. Around 10:30 I decided to head back into town as the forecast for Monday was ice and freezing rain. Aside from the really nasty driving conditions it would have either coated the windshield with ice to be cleared or formed on the windshield as I drove. Not having drunk very much it was safe to drive. The roads were clear and bare and I made it home in good time.

Yesterday was Boxing Day and by the time I was up and about the freezing rain had started. It was nasty pretty much all day. I mentally patted myself on the back at having decided to drive home. So - I holed up (in my little log cabin on the 9th floor) and decided to do a little more digging into the past.

My main goal on the Ireland winter sojourn is to find the common Byrne ancestor we share with the Byrnes in Wicklow and Wexford. Secondary goals are all the same - find the McGrath, Brennan, Fennell, Whelan, Fitzpatrick and Loughnane families in their respective counties.

I have a good bit of information on the Fennell-Whelan whereabouts. I know where they lived and how to get there. Parish records online are helpful but difficult to read in the online images. I'll be in search of a genealogy society or a historical society near Athy to see what else I can find. They came from Tankardstown, specifically from the townlands of Barrowhouse and Monebrock.

I know whence the Loughnanes came in Tipperary but nothing has been uncovered in record searches so far. Maybe a little trip to Thurles can help. Bridget Loughnane married Jean Baptiste Hebert in Quebec in the early 1830s and she died a couple of years later in her early 20s. No trace of relatives can be found in Canada - but her marriage record gives her parents names and townland in Co Tipperary. It's a start.

The Brennans were from Clough/Castlecomer area of Kilkenny. Despite Brennan being the most common surname in that region, I do have some information on them. Catherine Brennan married Michael McGrath in Bytown (Ottawa) in 1854. From the marriage register I know his parents' names, but where were they from? Michael's obituary says he was also from Kilkenny - somewhere. 

Then we have the invisible Fitzpatricks. Patrick Fitzpatrick apparently emigrated around the time of the famine. He went first to Ottawa and then to Brockville. He managed to avoid being documented in either place in the 1851 census. Did he come alone? Who knows? Of course he died two years before the census in which he would have been asked the year of arrival in Canada. Of course he married during the gap in the church records, so of course his parents names are lost in the mists of time. Of course his obituary shed no helpful light on his past. Of course!

I'm beginning to wonder if my ancestors spent a great deal of effort to remain anonymous or if they were just lucky to fly below the radar all the time. Their surnames were common as were their given names. I do know the counties they emigrated from, well some of them. Perhaps the Walshes and Macdonalds were gypsies and came from everywhere.

Recently I purchased a Genealogical Atlas of Ireland. It breaks the counties into civil parishes, baronies, poor law unions and Roman Catholic parishes. In some cases, also into Presbyterian parishes. I'd hoped against hope that townlands were included - of course not. It would be so much easier if the parishes had been subdivided again into townlands. Nope! It's like a scavenger hunt to find each little bit of information except without clues to the things to look for.

Ancestry.com was not too helpful in coughing up records of baptisms or marriages in Ireland even with some idea where to look. It did however, lead me to the National Library of Ireland site for parish registers. With the help of the new Atlas I went through every Catholic parish in Cavan seeking Fitzpatricks. Hopeful at first, but the search was in vain. There are no baptism records for any parish in Cavan either early enough to include Patrick Fitzpatrick or there was a gap in the records for the decade around his given year of birth. Of course!

Today I have a few things to do but there are bits of time. I shall see what I can find on sources to track the Loughnanes. The Atlas may help and John Grenham's Tracing your Irish Ancestors will once again be combed for helpful sources.

Maybe I can produce a helpful list of likely sources at the NLI and National Archives in Dublin to speed the searching when I get there. The Family History Centre in Dublin is another potential destination.

Time to put the coffee on and get the day started. 

You just never know what you'll find when looking for something else

Well it's been a strange few minutes. I found a resource I didn't know was available and in that resource I found a record that was hiding under an assumed name.

The past couple of weeks have been hectic and the next couple promise to be just as busy, but today's plans to go to Library and Archives Canada to research the City Directories of Ottawa were shelved because of the snowstorm. It's not of epic proportions but bad enough to make the roads hazardous and I only have all-season tires, not snow tires. So - what does a frustrated genealogist do?

I had received a notice from the public library that there is a book on hold for me. I won't pick that up today either. I wanted to go online to the library site and make sure that any remaining holds were deferred until April after my return. There won't be a lot of time to read in the next 3 weeks. The main site was down but there were active links to some of the resources.

Holy smokes - there is access to Ancestry Library from home. I have my own subscription but thought I would check it out anyway. I'm not sure why I chose to look for a birth record of my uncle Francis Gilbert Sunderland, because I had it already, but as soon as I clicked the Search button, not only did his birth registration come up, that of my great aunt Serena Sunderland (Aunt Irene) pop up under the name Serena Raickstack. The reason for such a result, given the search parameters, is that her mother's name was Frances Sunderland.

I had long ago found a marriage for Frances Sunderland to Harry Raistrick in September of 1889, a week after her arrival in Canada with her brood of 5 young children. She was also pregnant at the time. So? Well Harry Raistrick lived in Bradford England and never came to Canada. The marriage was a sham, to give a father to Serena I suppose. Frances had been widowed in October of 1888 when James Sunderland died of pneumonia. Now there really was no reason for this fake marriage as she had recently arrived and nobody need ever have known her "situation". She could have claimed James' death to have been more recent.

Frances never used the surname Raistrick except, even though misspelled, on this registration which took place in October of 1890. The marriage was very real as a ceremony did take place and the marriage was registered. What wasn't real was the groom. Witnesses to the marriage were Abraham Taylor and Mona Pownall, Frances' sister. I can only speculate that perhaps Mona's husband George acted the part of the groom, Harry Raistrick. I can't find any evidence that this man ever set foot on Canadian soil. Abraham Taylor was Frances Sunderland's next door neighbour in the 1891 census, taken the year following Serena's birth. Frances was using her first married name, not Raistrick, nor was Serena ever known to use any surname but Sunderland prior to her marriage.

He was a very real person who lived in Bradford, England whence Frances had come. They must have been acquainted because she knew the rather unusual names of his parents which were recorded on the marriage cert. Perhaps they were very very well acquainted but we shall never know for sure.

I have often wondered how Frances got the money to travel to Canada. I wonder if the butcher, Harry Raistrick, might have helped out. This is pure conjecture on my part but it would make sense. If indeed he was the father of Serena, sending Frances and her children to Canada could preserve their secret. Harry already had a wife and children. To the best of my knowledge the Raistricks continued to live happily in Bradford, England. At least there are a number of records to say they were there for decades after 1890.

In later years Serena (Irene) acquired an attested birth certificate, signed by her sister Annie, possibly to get a passport. This certificate said that her father was James Sunderland and Annie said that she was present at the birth. When Serena was born Annie was 11 and most likely always did what she was told. She might never have questioned her sister's parentage or else kept her mother's secret.

The serendipity continues. I wonder what my next surprise will be!

Serendipity all over the place

Well it's about time I caught up. Seems that time is slipping by so fast and there's still so much to do.

The side trip to Sheffield is arranged - flight and accommodations arranged. I will notify the archives when I'll be arriving and what documents I want to look at so I can get down to business quickly. I'll be staying at a B&B about a 20 min walk from the Archives so will get in a little exercise. I'll have the  Sunday to look around the city itself.

I've continued to work on Aggie's Dash and the more I write and edit the more research I seem to do. Not sure when I'll decide that I've finished.  I wish Don would reconsider giving me some stories to include. It is a tribute to Nanny and I would like as much input as possible. Alas that's not going to happen.

Two friends are reading the story for me and suggesting changes in wording which is very helpful. It's a case of finally deciding I've collected all the information and stories and starting the formatting and inclusion of photos and their layout. There is no chance now that I'll have it done as a Christmas present.

In the past couple of weeks the importance of two particular homes in Aggie's life have taken on greater meaning. The first is 146 Lebreton St which it turns out was built by her grandfather, not her father, in the 1890s. The other is 279 Bayswater which was bought (built?) by her husband Harry in the 1920s. It has taken a while but it seems that the best option is to use the microfilm at the Ottawa Land Registry Office which should have the history of the two homes. I hope to go on Monday afternoon to see what I can find out.

To the same end, I went to the Ottawa City Archives this afternoon in a search for information about the expropriation of 146 Lebreton. What I did find is that since it was expropriated by the Ottawa Separate School Board, it would not be found in the minutes of City Council. The province doesn't seem to keep the information and previous inquiries to the school board went nowhere.

However, as I was re-shelving the minute book I happened to notice the headline on a bunch of old newspaper articles that another researcher was examining. It said "Old Time Stuff" and is from the Saturday Citizen of the 1920s. I remember finding one article in that series that was written by E.P McGrath, my great grandfather. I have an image of the article that I clipped from a digital archive that no longer exists. However, the archives have three boxes of those articles. Now I just have to wait for the other lady to finish with them and I'll be notified. I am excited about what I might find in those old columns.

This evening I decided to contact a DNA match from ancestry.com - a distant match but I noticed that she is from a very small town in NY State, Brooktondale. Bing!! I have another cousin who lives there. He is descended from both a brother and sister of my great great grandfather Edward Burns. I doubt that he is a common connection. Anyway I sent off a message hoping for a reply. Immediately afterwards I was browsing a Kehoe/Keogh message board on ancestry and found one from the same person I match on DNA. Could we be related through the Kehoes? So, I answered her post there too. Now I just sit and wait.

Christmas is almost on us and I have some cooking to do this week for next weekend's celebrations with Tom, Susan and family. Keeping in mind preferences and allergies I hope to come up with something a bit different for dessert. The veggies are a no-brainer. It will be a lot of fun.

Well I'll sign off now and hope to get back before I go winging off to Eire.