A day of travel and genealogy

If you didn't check back to the previous post, the photos have been added

Mostly genealogy today with some travel bits:

Today I decided to drive to Kilkenny to do some research. The library had a microfilm that I was unable to find online in digital format. Turns out it is online, but under the wrong parish. Ah well, my eyes needed to become accustomed to microfilm again, if only to prove that digital images are much easier to read.

Using the Autoaddress app, which uses Google Maps, to tell me the route to follow, I input the Kilkenny Library as my destination and decided to follow the directions, well, mostly. The first part of the trip recommended very bad roads and I did know how to get to Clonegal and allowed the app to adjust. The app did then, adjust nicely to my decision.

I must say the "stick to the windshield" phone holder works like a charm. It clamps right onto the phone. Of course, it became very fond of the phone during the trip and was unwilling to let me take it back. However, I persevered and managed to unclamp it. On the next journey, I hope that clamp realizes its reign is short-lived. 

Without incident, other than driving through low-lying fog for about 60% of the trip, it went very well. This was the first trip on roads with a speed limit high enough to use 5th gear. 

Naturally, I chose a parking lot, upon arrival at my destination, that allowed only 1-hour parking for €1.50. When I talked with the librarian she told me that across the street, you could park all day for €2. Of course you can. An hour later I moved the VW to its longer-term location and I may have found the last open spot in the entire lot. It was such a cherished spot that I was barely "unparked" to drive back home, when the space was immediately re-occupied. 

The librarians were friendly and helpful. The microfilm machine and the overhead light had minds of their own. The light is on a motion sensor. I wasn't moving around the room, so every so often it would just shut off. Fortunately, there was a window in the door so I had enough light to see while I took a few steps to where the sensor realized that I was still there. This little activity was repeated throughout the day. Hmmm - could it be a ploy to make sure that clients get up and move a bit?

The microfilm machine, despite being in constant use, would unexpectedly turn off its light. The Start button easily turned it back on. The first time I did this I was startled shortly thereafter as it loudly clunked about 20 seconds after the light was back on. This was also repeated many times during the day. I did eventually learn to wait for the clunk before proceeding.

I think I found the record of the baptism of Ellenor Walsh, my ggg grandmother. She was the only one by that name in the collection. She was baptised in 1815. That means she was 16 when she married John Brennan in 1831. It was six years after that when their first child was born - Catherine. I didn't get as far as that date in the records.

At lunchtime (1 to 2 pm) I wandered up a back lane to McDonagh Junction Mall where I enjoyed a nice cup of tomato basil soup and a bagel sandwich. Outside the main entrance of the mall was a very attractive monument, which is a "famine garden". This is probably the least depressing famine monument anywhere, and there were many that I saw on previous trips. The main sculpture is pictured here.

See description in next photo. In the background, you see the grey "block" that marks the final resting place of the remains of 670 people who died in the Kilkenny workhouse during the Great Famine

Behind the sculpture is a tomb, beneath which are the remains of hundreds of former occupants of the Kilkenny Union Workhouse, from famine times. The remains were discovered in much more recent times - right where they are. Some have been matched, I guess by DNA, to relatives. 

Longer view of the famine memorial garden

The journey home was via Bunclody which added a few kms but allowed for a stop at Super Value to pick up a couple of needed items. Aside from stalling, on a hill, a few hundred meters from my cottage, when I'd pulled over almost into the hedge to let a tractor rumble by, the trip was without incident. I managed to roll back only a few meters when I started up again. Ah, sometimes I miss my automatic transmission.