Catching up again

On days where nothing of much note actually transpires, I am loathe to bore you, dear reader. However, I'll give you a wee summary of the past couple of days. Feel free to tune out and shut this down.

Sunday morning I woke up in The Barn and the sun was again shining. It was also warmer than Saturday. I enjoyed my coffee for quite a long time before accomplishing much of anything. What I did accomplish was doing the laundry. That was hardly intensive labour - there is a washing machine that performed its duty appropriately and produced clean clothes. The drying rack in The Barn was pressed into service to give a lived-in look to the kitchen. That lived-in look lasted a bit longer than anticipated.

I was in touch with a few folks by text and email and in a couple of cases, by phone. However, it seems that my phone would happily make calls and exchange texts but refused any incoming calls. It took a while before anyone let me know. Being Sunday, there was no way to get Vodaphone to remedy the situation. 

I had a little visit with Kathy Doyle so she could check that her car was behaving well and being well treated in return. Then I popped over to the Rocktavern to pick up one more bag that I had left on my last visit. I should add that I followed my instinct on the turns in the road that would take me to Carnew. Once again I was wrong. At least this time I wasn't lost and was able to get back on track within a few hundred yards. 

Later, John O'Neill - my local researcher - dropped in with some interesting information. He lives about 30 yards from me so his journey was made on foot. A "Genealogy Alert" will follow shortly.

After John left I noticed that it was getting chilly. The sun was going down and the temperature was bearable but something was amiss. The thermostat is on a timer and it was currently "on". Checking the radiators resulted in a cool response. Hmmm. Surely not another failure of the system. Each cottage has its own furnace. I summoned Donal and he confirmed that once again there was a breakdown. A repair call was placed for Monday. 

Donal brought over a lovely paraffin heater that soon made the living area warm, even toasty. The blue disappeared from my fingers. Well, upstairs anyway. I agreed that I could survive the night because there is a lovely duvet on the bed - downstairs. And I did. 

When it was time to get up on Monday morning I considered just staying put under the duvet. The temperature in my room would have been about 7C. It was 9C upstairs - still not cosy. Now, I hate to be fussy, but that is a bit on the cold side for indoors. I only had to go upstairs and turn on the heater for fast relief. 

As a side-effect of the lack of a working boiler, there was no hot water either. There was electricity, so the kettle was pressed into service and the coffee was appreciated for the caffeine and the mug was a warm thing to wrap my hands around. 

I had errands to do in Bunclody, so off I went. The first order of business was to get the phone sorted out - check. Then pick up the library book on hold - Check. Then off to Moss Cottage to retrieve some long-lost items - Check. Visit Aldi for a couple of household items and the chocolate rations. Check, Oh yes, I also remembered to buy wine. 

When I returned, the heat had been restored and the issue had been a minor one. The repairman moved on to The Store which I presume he got back in working order.

So, all's well with the world. Those with no interest in my family history can go back to what you were doing before. This blog is my diary so I shall add a bit now.

GENEALOGY FOLLOWS

Some years ago, John O had done research on my Brennan and McGrath ancestors in Kilkenny. I remember reading what he sent at the time. A package of documents, well copies, was also sent in the mail. Somehow I managed to either miss completely or misunderstand what he'd sent. But he has a mind like a steel trap and had remembered much of the information. He had kept the earlier emails and has re-sent them. I'd like to place an order for a brain like his. I haven't found a source yet.

The Brennan name is very very very common in the area of Kilkenny that mine come from. To make any real headway you have to know the family nickname. It has been in the documentation that John sent me a long time ago. It is GARD or GIAD - hard to tell from some of the writing but is almost surely GARD. Most likely that means that someone was a gardener. I will be going to the area they came from in a few days' time and maybe I'll make some headway. It seems that my ggg grandfather John Brennan was the son of James Brennan who was the son of Michael Brennan - all carried the nickname GARD. 

On the emigration lists it shows the Widow Brennan GARD leaving in 1847 with just a couple of children. I knew that John Brennan had died prior to 1848 when Ellen remarried in Ottawa. I have also been unable to find any of her children other than my gg grandmother, Catherine Brennan. It's now likely that the boys James and William had died during the famine. The fate of her daughter Margaret is also unknown as I haven't found any certain records of her in Canada.

John also pointed out that the marriage and baptism information I have, which was sent from the Irish Family History Foundation, is entirely transcriptions. The originals have never been filmed. They are held in the church office. I've emailed the office but haven't had a reply yet. If I don't hear from them I'll just appear at their door. My hope is that a big smile and polite request might result in a peek at the registers themselves. Fingers crossed.

So - today I reviewed what I'd written about Arthur Byrne and am catching up on the history of the Coollattin Estate where they were sub-tenants. The information is in a book entitled "Surplus People" by Jim Rees. I'll be able to add some details to the life of the Byrnes in Ireland before and during their emigration.

There was a brief shower a few minutes ago that I only noticed because of the water on the skylights. It seems to have passed.

Time to get on with the reading and writing - fortunately there's no 'rithmatic on the schedule.