The past couple of days have been quite unremarkable. The weather is lovely although there's a definite chill in the air now. Apparently the weekend will be on the nastier side - at least in terms of the temperature.
Paddy did some touring yesterday and I stayed put, digging through online databases.
Today, Paddy left for a couple of days in Dublin. I have set myself a puzzle, and picked up a couple of Louise Penny's books to re-read in case the puzzle isn't sufficiently enticing at any given moment.
I walked into town - so easy going down that steep slope - and wandered for a bit. I had wanted to exchange my leftover money from Northern Ireland, for Euros. Well, it seems that you can only do that if you have a bank account. And you can only have a bank account if ... well you get my drift. My 'landlords' here will take the money to that same bank, where they have an account, and change it for me tomorrow.
When I was here in 2017 I found two pairs of Joseph Seibel shoes that were much to my liking. So, I just had to wander back into Murphy's shoe store and ... drum roll please ... found a nice pair of warmly lined boots. They lace up but have a cheater zipper on the side. They seem to fit but I will return tomorrow with the orthotics that will have to live inside of them.
Then it was on to the library where I checked out two more of Louise Penny's books. These are not in order, but as I've read them all, I'll take them as I find them. The shopping bag had the first deposits.
Off to the grocery store to buy a litre of non-dairy milk, some oatmeal and a small (by Irish definition) loaf of white soda bread that was still warm from the oven. Each of these items is somewhat weighty.
All I had to do was lug that now-heavy bag back home - up that blasted mountain. Finallly managed and the bread didn't disappoint. I've had to freeze half of it because I won't eat it quickly enough to keep it fresh.
And that's about as exciting as the day got.
Genealogy alert
The following is of no consequence to anyone else. In fact, it might be of none to me. You can stop reading now.
The goal of this trip, aside from touring and socializing, remains the tracking down of information on the ancestors, and possible living relatives, of one set of my great-great grandparents: David Walsh and Eliza McDonald. I found the record of their marriage in the Drouin Collection on ancestry. At the time of this discovery I was searching for the marriage of James Morgan and Mary Kane - another set of gg grands. They remain lost in the incomrehensible writing and poor quality of images.
The large signature of David Walsh more or less leapt off the page, which despite lots of writing in the margins, still holds some secrets. The image has deteriorated. I suspect the writing was pretty awful in the first place. However, I was able to discern that David Walsh's parents were James Walsh and Anne McMahon, both deceased by the time of David's marriage in 1861. The bride's parents were James McDonald and Mary Walsh - just to keep things rather confusing. They must have been living somewhere in the general vicinity of Aylmer QC, which is where the marriage of David and Eliza took place.
The information from that register entry, propelled me back to Irish records where I found the marriage of James McDonald and Mary Walsh in 1825. Not only that, but that record led to the marriage register with the date of the marriage of James' parents: John McDonald and Kitty (Catherine) Bulger in 1794. Yay. I also found a few baptisms of some children of James and Mary (Walsh) McDonald.
All of these marriages took place in County Carlow. One of them was just a short drive from where I'm staying, in Bagenalstown. The other was in Borris, a short drive further down the road.
So that's what I have now. The Carlow records are mostly online - which of course is where I found them. However, the Carlow library has a good local archive and I shall probably be spending considerable time there. They have access to other online resources that I don't, as well as printed publications. I've made an appointment with the genealogist - another Walsh, of course!
So - today I have spent a good deal of time reading and will shortly turn back to the Irish resources to see if I can dig anything more out of the databases.
And now for some soup.
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