The Wandering Genealogist: It's still Tuesday but the last post was long enough

As previously noted, the electricity was off here for some sort of regional maintenance reason, from 9 am to whatever. It did go off just after 9 and I wasn't home until after 5 and everything was as it should be by then. Apparently it was on by 11.

With tomorrow's solo trip to the NLI coming up, I decided the easiest route was a 30-minute drive to Gorey for the nearly 2-hour train ride to Pearse Station. I think I can get to the NLI without help this time. So, I drove the route to check my timing, scoped out the parking situation and went into the station to get a ticket. Now I'm all set.

Since I was on the spot, I visited the Gorey library where I wanted to check out local history information. There were six books all by the same author. It was pretty much exclusively for Gorey and immediate environs, and to date, I have no ancestors that I know of from there, but one potential suspect, so I took photos of a couple of items and headed out. But I had found a reference to check, in Bunclody.

After a brief lunch stop for soup, it was on to Bunclody to fill the car with gas, er, petrol and stop at the Bunclody library to return my book (A Memory of Violets), and look for a book that was referenced but not kept in Gorey. And what a little gem it was. "Heirs to a Heritage" by Willie White. There are two volumes but only the second was available in the Reference section. Willie White was a much-admired citizen of Clonegall. That town was kind of the centre of church and market life for my Byrne ancestors. It's like a magnet for me.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Willie in 2009 and was impressed with his local knowledge. The man was an encyclopedia of local history. He knew everyone and all the stories. Luckily for his survivors he was a prolific writer. Now my mission is to find and buy a copy of each of his books of local history. It is Mission Impossible. The books are out of print and despite widespread internet searches of old and rare book suppliers, nada. But - I have my contacts on book watch.

Should I skip the part about visiting the Weaver's Cottage? having a personal tour? chatting with another local? and getting a few references to other local historians? One is a Ned Byrne and I'm still trying to decide if I have the nerve to knock on his door. I have no phone number. And, of course he was not alive when my Byrnes left Ireland. But, he might have some great stories that have been handed down.

Well, I will spare you the minute details but will include a few photos of the cottage. The iron bed, its quilt and the christening gown all date from the 17th century. They have been lovingly preserved.

The reason for visiting the Weaver's Cottage was to try to verify if it had been the one that a potential brother/cousin of my ggg grandmother, had lived in. He occupied one of the 6 cottages in that row in Clonegall in 1842. As it happens, since he was not a weaver, he lived in one of the 4 that have been torn down. But the cottages were identical so I could see how he would have lived.

I could stay here longer but even if I had to leave tomorrow, I have found lots of little gems. Now I have to incorporate them into my ongoing family history writing.