Sometimes a phone call is all it takes

Just a few days ago, Hurricane Matthew laid waste to the Florida coast. Very heavily affected was Daytona Beach and the coastline north of there. Not so far up the coast live three cousins who had all decided to hunker down in their own solidly built apartment buildings, to ride out the storm. Hurricane shutters were indeed an important part of their safe, if harrowing, passage.

This morning I felt the need to check in with Jane to see how she, Mary and Alice had fared. That's when I learned that they had not evacuated. They're all fine and happy that electricity has been, mostly, restored.

As always happens when I chat with Jane, the conversation wandered and eventually came up the the story of the death of her grandmother, Bridget Murphy Byrne. My reporting of stories about Bridget's death was based on what I had heard from the family in Ireland. As it happens, they seem to have gotten it all wrong. For any distress I caused Jane, Mary and Alice, I'm so very sorry.

Recently I had found among the Irish civil records, the register of Bridget's death. The cause was listed as "childbirth 7  hours, extreme exhaustion". I had heard a story - speculation that must have been altered over a century of re-telling - that Bridget was so despondent over losing her newborn twin girls, that she fell down the stairs, possibly on purpose or possibly from simple exhaustion. The fall had reportedly caused her demise. But not so fast ...

Today I heard a completely different story from Jane - reported in her family so most likely the real account. It was not known that Bridget had been expecting twins. She had laboured long to deliver the first baby girl who was either stillborn or died almost immediately after birth. Bridget was exhausted and those in attendance had gone downstairs to let her rest. Some time later someone went to check on Bridget. Sadly they found Bridget had passed away and between her legs was another dead baby girl. The agony that this must have caused for her husband Luke and two very young sons, Ned and Art, is impossible to imagine.

Luke was unable to cope on his own and took his young sons to live for a while with his own uncle Luke and his wife Kate Doyle Byrne, at Coolross. Ned, the younger child who was about four, was left there. Art, only a year older than Ned, clung to his father's leg and thus managed to convince his father to let him stay with his Daddy. It is not known where they lived until the 1911 census. It must have been during this interval that young Art spent time at Coolross.

In the 1911 census, Ned was still living at Coolross with his aunt whom he disliked intensely. His uncle Luke had passed away. Reports abound that Ned was very unhappy with the treatment he received from Kate, and lives on in stories of a naughty child. He would set out for school but not get there only to be found hiding later in the day, he carved his name in a rock and it can still be seen at Coolross, and he generally let it be known how unhappy he was.

At the time of the census in 1911 young Arthur was listed as a scholar and boarding with Patrick and Mary Keogh in Knockloe, Rath, County Wicklow.

In that same census, Luke was a visitor at the home of George Byrne and his wife Maria, in Tinahely. He was identified as a Baker and was of the right age and born, apparently, in County Wicklow. In fact, Luke had been born in Dublin in 1865.

So far I have not found a connection between the George Byrne whom Luke was visiting, and the family at Coolross. There was a George at Coolross, brother of Luke who had the family farm, but he was blind and was unmarried.

I suppose this gives rise to more research to figure out where, if anyplace, George Byrne of Tinahely, fits in the family story. It could be no more than coincidental family names because Byrne is about the most common surname in County Wicklow.

Well the beautiful sunshine, if not the chilly temperature, is beckoning. It's time for a walk and some very fresh air.

Golf nearly done so more time for pruning the family tree perhaps

It's already September 29th. Our golf league finished last night so my official duties are pretty much done for this year. The only remaining task is to convert my Mac files to PC format so that everyone else can read them. Maybe Saturday???

Well, maybe not Saturday. The morning offers a meeting on the subject of DNA for Genealogy and as I've had two different DNA tests, both of which prove my substantial Irish heritage. There are also test results for my brother and an Irish cousin, so I'll be attending that presentation. The information from the tests is not exactly enlightening. There seems to be a field of relatives of varying degrees out there. The close ones in the Irish line I had pretty much known from regular research. The French ones I'm not particularly working on for now. However, some very interesting possibilities lurk in those chromosomes.

It seems that Tom and I who are of course a VERY close match being siblings, don't quite match Jim Byrne. Tom does match him VERY closely on the Y-DNA (male) test of the Byrne line. All that means is that our common ancestor is 6 or more generations back. This is not a revelation - we already have five generations worth of data. Interestingly enough, the commonalities increase the farther back we go. Fingers crossed that we're getting close.

Another interesting finding is the "matches in common" with a number of people most of whom are in Ireland. I've been in touch with one lady and am very much looking forward to getting together this winter to try to fit more of the puzzle pieces together. We have some surnames in common but from what I understand at this moment, they are all in-law connections and not blood relatives. Yet, the DNA matches seem to say otherwise.

The mysterious connections remain my greatest pull away from housework and things that need doing at the moment. Pulling from another side is a huge stack of library books. I found a couple of list of books worth reading and using the library website, placed holds. Naturally they all came available at the same time - now! Here I sit torn between two great alternatives. I do need to find something that pulls me to move around rather than sit still. Ah well - another day.

Genealogist's dream day

Well it started like a regular Monday - but only for the first few minutes. It was finally happening, I had a short time to take a peek at the Irish vital records now online. The first record check was a Bingo! I had found and verified the date and place of death of Luke Byrne, the baker of Coolkenno. He died of pneumonia, in the infirmary in Gorey, Co Wexford, on 17 February, 1917. His occupation was listed as Baker. That's our guy!

Then there was the question of the date of death of his wife, Bridget Murphy Byrne. There had been rumours in the family that she had been despondent over the death of stillborn twin daughters and had thrown herself down the stairs. Hmm - does this record really show that it didn't happen that way?

Now we know that she died in Coolkenno on 9 Nov 1902. The cause of death was listed as "childbirth 7 hours, extreme weakness". Does this rule out Bridget getting out of bed and falling downstairs either accidentally or on purpose?

The mystery still remains, why was that young family in Mohill, Co. Leitrim at the time of birth of their son Edward in 1899 and also recorded in the 1901 census of Ireland. How did they get there? When and why did they return to Coolkenno? That will continue to be difficult to track down.

I had offered to give a little tour of Ottawa to Kyle Betit who had made several presentations at the BIFHSGO conference over the weekend. The records were put aside and the car was put in motion. We had our tour and both being genealogists, and more or less in the neighbourhood, we paid a visit to Notre Dame Cemetery in Ottawa. This is the largest and oldest mainly Catholic cemetery in the area, and the location of the burials of my McGrath ancestors.

I didn't know where their plot was and driving around wasn't helpful. A visit to the cemetery office, after some persuading, resulted in our getting the plot number from the person on duty. There was a card with the list of those buried in that plot and later I was able to get a photocopy. That confirmed the burials of my great grandparents, their three sons and one daughter. The question remained - what about Michael McGrath and Catherine Brennan McGrath, my great great grandparents? When I was able to find the date of death of Michael, lo and behold I also got confirmation that Michael and Catherine were buried in that same plot. At this point I think Michael must have purchased the plot when Catherine died in 1881. That's an investigation for another day. Maybe I'll find a more helpful cemetery attendant.

Armed with a cemetery map and the approximate location of the plot, Kyle and I went to the area and began the search. Well, rather like the gap in church records that is always where your ancestors would have been recorded, there was a gap between tombstones where plot #916 should have been. Or rather there was only a bit of a stone where I would have expected the McGrath stone to be. There was also an almost invisible flat stone in the ground, but it was so covered with earth that I'd have to bring a trowel and spend considerable time scraping to see if it was "ours". Now I'll have to phone Pat in Victoria to see if she knows whether or not there was a stone where her father was buried.

Once we left Notre Dame I began to question why it was so difficult to pry the information out of the staff person on duty. Aren't they there to help? The information was available on a computer if you knew the exact date of death. Heaven forbid an ordinary citizen should get beyond the information window! In providing the date of death of two McGraths I was off by 3 days - and was informed that I had the wrong dates. Well, since the records are ordered by date of death it certainly didn't take long to find the right information just three days off. I had used the funeral date by mistake. Sigh...

Those records also contained information that I could not see on the screen due to where I was standing. Kyle caught a glimpse so we know there is more. So - is there any effort being made to digitize these records? Or even provide a printed book that could be consulted? At Beechwood Cemetery, just around the corner, they trip over themselves to help. AND, their records are online. A long ago visit to Beechwood had a staff member offer to take me to the exact location of my grandparents grave and provide a copy of the record, and a cemetery map.

So - here's my dilemma. There is no headstone. There should be a headstone, shouldn't there? Should I be doing something about that? Of course I don't have a spare few thousand dollars and have no idea of the cost. I suppose I'll let that thought keep me up tonight.

Looking back on the day it was a winner - some confirmations and some 'sort of' discoveries. I had the added bonus of spending several hours with a professional genealogist who works on Who Do You Think You Are. Lots of suggested sources I have yet to explore. Yes indeed, today was a winner!

Some days I'd like to have a clone

My two favourite pastimes - golf and genealogy - competed for my attention all week, and at no time have they been more in conflict than the past few days.

After years of waiting and hoping, the Irish vital records were released - hopefully unlocking some mysteries that have been driving me crazy. I wanted nothing more than some uninterrupted time and maybe a cup of coffee, to peruse them online. They are still waiting for me and one day this week I shall turn off the phones and settle in for a good long excavation of information.

Here it is Sunday evening after an exhilarating, if more than a little bit busy, weekend. I was pulled in two directions. The conflict between playing golf and continuing the family history quest was never more at issue. I needed to be two places at once. In the end, I split the time as best I could and overall I think I made the right time allocations.

Over many hours during the past week, working with my co-organizer, both at home and at the golf club, we got everything ready for the multiple-match play format for our Williams Cup event. This is where a team of ladies from the morning league takes on a team of ladies from the afternoon. We kept the same three match play formats but instead of players being assigned only one format over 18 holes, everyone played three formats, for 6 holes each. Tricky but generally enjoyed by the players.

For the first 5 years of this event the morning ladies have won and only last year did the afternoon ladies wrest the trophy from their grasp. Today the afternoon ladies won by a large margin. To a non-golfer an explanation of the hows and whys would be boring. Suffice it to say that with wide-ranging handicaps it is very hard to find a format where one team does not hold a huge advantage.

It was so much fun today - I was not playing - just setting up, following the matches and doing the scoring, that I never made it to the conference for the very compelling talks that I'd been looking forward to. The promise of tasty snacks afterwards was another reason. They didn't disappoint but I digress. My fingers are crossed that the presentations were successfully recorded and available on the BIFHSGO website where I can "attend" them at my leisure.

The weekend actually started on Thursday evening with a reception at the home of the new Irish ambassador to Canada where we had a special presentation by Maurice Gleason that set the stage perfectly for the conference. The coffee and scones in that beautiful setting topped off the evening.

Friday night the conference had started wonderfully with the Whiteside Lecture about the events in Ireland around 1916 to 1922.  I spoke with a few friends of my plans to spend the coming Winter in Ireland, researching and writing.  I really want to be in a town with some shops and a library that I could walk to and not have to drive everywhere. My first choice was Bunclody, Co Wexford, still in the heart of Byrne country, and minutes from family. But I'd had no luck finding anything. A chance conversation with Shirley Monkhouse led her to recommend Moss Cottage. So - I checked it out online, sent an inquiry to the owners and Saturday morning's email brought their reply. Moss Cottage would be mine for the winter at a good price, and it has even more space and amenities than I had dreamed of. The day could not have started better.

The talks were terrific and as usual at these events, stirred up the old motivation to keep learning and digging and writing. It is wonderful to re-charge the battery and jump start all those projects I'd been trying to get around to. Saturday evening was nicely wrapped up with a fine dinner at Summerhays Grill with fellow participants, and topped off with the Northern Lights presentation on Parliament Hill. We even managed to get back to the car just as the rain, thunder and lightning were starting their own light show.

Today the plan was to get the Williams Cup event underway at Hylands and send the lady golfers out on their quest to win points for the team then head to the conference. Once that was done it was just so much fun catching up with the team, watching some great shots, recording all of the scores that I couldn't get away for the final conference presentations. The decision wasn't easy but I couldn't pass up the camaraderie at Hylands.

So as I sit here typing I can reflect on a wonderful week that unfolded as it should. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to showing off some Ottawa highlights to an out-of-town speaker from the conference, and then settling down with the Irish vital records at last.

The coming week certainly has the calendar quite filled up but there are spaces for some alone time with the computer. Perhaps I should let it rest now and cool off so I'll call it a day.

Progress suspended due to excess golf activity

Well here it is Labour Day weekend. Someone seems to have flipped the weather switch along with the turn of the calendar to September. It's not nearly so hot and the nights are quite chilly. This is my perfect weather and I hope it lasts.

My duties on the ladies golf executive at Hylands have taken over much of my free time. I'm enjoying it a lot but not getting any genealogy time at all. Next weekend is the conference for my family history association. I had signed up for the two days - Saturday and Sunday - but now my duties will keep me busy on Sunday at the Williams Cup competition at Hylands.

On Thursday evening I, along with many conference attendees, will go to a reception at the Irish embassy. This was a huge success at the conference I missed in 2013 so I'm really looking forward to it. I suspect that I'll need to haul a dress out of the back of the closet.

On Friday I will pick up one of the featured speakers at the airport, which is just minutes from my place, and take him to his hotel. The following Monday we will reverse that route. I'll miss his talk on Sunday so perhaps can persuade him to fill me in a little on the way to the airport.

One reason I'd like to hear it is that it deals with little known sources for Irish research and my plans for the winter in Ireland are making slow progress. If he can point me in some new directions I'll be all ears.

The weather is perfect this weekend and I have a game scheduled for Monday morning. Deep down I just know that I'll be off to the course either today or tomorrow as well.

In a short time I'm off to the post office to mail my passport application, including my current almost-expired passport. It's supposed to take less than 2 weeks so we'll see. In the meantime I can't make any last minute trips to Ogdensburg, NY as my ID will be in the hands of the Feds.

I'm also posting a little package of my favourite children's books to Mairead (Byrne) Parsons at the Rocktavern, Co. Wexford. Her third child is expected in a few weeks. Michael is now in first grade and Tom is off to play school. I think that will give Mairead upwards of three weeks of quiet days until the bump becomes the baby.

Having said very little, it's time to get on with the day and accomplish something. A walk to the post office will start me off and I'll just let the day unfold.

Sunday August 14, 2016

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. Well here I am - wandering again. This post is coming from near Edmundston, New Brunswick. I've lost an hour but from the look of this hotel room I've actually gone back several decades. I made the booking on Trivago for the Rose Motel. The name alone should have given me a good clue and in fact it did. However, for some reason everything is very expensive here so I took the cheapest option. And, you get what you pay for. Even if you pay too much.

I had a bedspread similar to these in the early 70s. I think these have been around that long too. Good thing I prefer a shower to a bath - the tub is so short I could never unbend my knees if I managed to get in at all. Ah well, it seems quite clean and there is wifi. I was first offered a room "at the back overlooking the river". Well, being alone I prefer a "room at the front". When I asked about wifi and found out that the original room didn't have it, I said that was not acceptable. Hence, this room. It's only one night and I anticipate surviving.

This journey to the Halifax area to visit with high school friends began somewhat later than I had planned but there's really no rush to the trip. At 9:30 I departed my place and arrived here about 6 pm which instantly became 7 pm as I'm now in the Atlantic time zone.

The drive from Ottawa to Montreal was uneventful. Following carefully the instructions to get to Route 30 and avoid going through Montreal, I just sailed along, stopping only to pay the toll. It's well worth the $2.50 to NOT visit the city. Anyway I was so enjoying the road that I missed the exit for Highway 20, but I'm ahead of myself.

My pursuit in genealogy is pretty much restricted to my Irish ancestors. The French line is well known and I found it already completed, rather than having to figure it all out myself. Verification of records has proven that the original research was excellent. I did sort through it for a few generations and discovered an Irish woman who had married a French Canadian man. Bridget Loughnane married Jean Baptiste Hebert at Ste Martine, Quebec which is quite close to Montreal. Well, to my surprise the first exit off Route 30 was to Ste Martine. I didn't take it but at least I know where to go if I decide to explore that area. Bridget married, had a son, and died a year later at a very young age. My memory did not store the particulars but we're talking about 1834 ish. My best guess is that she died in childbirth with a second child, but there's nothing to support my theory other than it was very common.

Anyway I sailed by Ste Martine and the next exit was for St Constant - another place notable in my French line. A few more familiar places followed. What is a bit annoying about all this is I lived in that general area for 7 years, 1974 - 1981, long before I started to do genealogy. If only I had known at the time. Of course I've made a mental note that a two hour drive could net me a lot of tombstone photos but the trip remains unplanned.

So, merrily I went down the highway listening to music and enjoying the limited traffic and great speed at which one could progress. Oops - just roared past the exit to Highway 20 towards Quebec City which was a milestone on the journey. I figured (wrongly) that another opportunity to exit would come along. Hah! So, I asked the GPS for assistance and she directed me to St Marc sur Richelieu where I enjoyed the drive through farmland and past Les Trois Tilleuls, a restaurant that I'd once visited about 35 years ago. Eventually I got to Beloeil and a ramp to the 20. I was once again on track.

At this point I set the GPS to my ultimate destination which is outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia. All was well as I noted the route she/it? had planned. There was an exit just at Quebec City, or more precisely Levis, as I was on the south shore. Naturally I turned as directed, completely forgetting that the correct route took me via Riviere-du-Loup a couple more hours ahead. Just as I took the prescribed exit the GPS screen momentarily went black but then came back on. Hint number 1 that all was not well.

Still, I decided to keep driving along the route waiting for the GPS to respond. Suddenly there was a message on screen that it could not calculate the route. What??? I continued to follow route 73 for a bit when I realized it was taking me to Maine. Nice state, but not the route I wanted. Sigh!

So I found the map of Quebec and verified that indeed I needed to go as far as Riviere-du-loup before heading south into New Brunswick. I tried to reset the GPS which now said that it was 8590 KMs to my destination. What??? It's really about 500 kms. I turned the GPS off and on. Same thing. Plus it said it could not calculate the route. It had the right address but still said I had 8500+ kms to go. This was nuts.

I re-set the thing for Riviere-du-Loup and continued on my way - still on Route 20. Eventually the signs indicated that I was properly on track for New Brunswick so I was happy. I stopped for a break and once again entered my ultimate destination. This time the dumb machine gave up its obstinate position that it was thousands of kms away and got it right. Ta-da.

By about 6 pm I really was tired of being in the car so I took the exit for the motel I had booked just before leaving home this morning. I had not been able to program that into the GPS - stupid dumb piece of technology. I stopped for gas and the attendant (yes an attendant who actually pumped the gas for me) gave me directions. They were wrong. I think this place is in a time warp. I'm not quite in Edmundston, I'm in St Jacques which is just outside the city. I paid for the gas and followed the directions which took me to the Ritz Motel. As it happens it was really only marginally nicer than the Rose Motel. Deciding to follow the main street of St Jacques a little farther in the way I had first taken, I eventually found the Rose, and here I am.

The motel owner gave me directions to Station 127 - although she said Station 126 - which is a restaurant a few kms away. It was very nice and I enjoyed my grilled salmon and a glass of wine. Now, I'm settled in my modest accommodations and just catching up with my online life before settling in with my book and then hopefully an early and sound sleep. Tomorrow I think I'll drive a bit before stopping somewhere for breakfast.

This time tomorrow I expect to be relaxing with Sharon and Bob Power at their cottage outside of Halifax. Not sure when the next episode from the Wandering Genealogist will materialize.

For now, Good Night.

Friday July 8, 2016

It's overcast and I hope it rains. This will of course spoil my golf game but I'll sacrifice for the sake of some moisture for the soil.

Of course I have been immersing myself in the depths of newspapers.com and I must say I'm getting my money's worth. I think there must be better ways to search and as usual, not everything that is in the articles can actually be found in a search. Sometimes there are teasers and I can't get to the depth that I want. For example, there was a brief article that my great-grandfather, who was an alderman in Ottawa at that time, was bereaved. His older brother John who had moved to California, had died in an accident. No further information was available at that moment. Well, I don't know if further information was ever published but I certainly can't find it.

There are many newspapers in the database but I can't find one for Riverside, CA. I'm sure that the local newspaper would have covered an accidental death. John McGrath was a prominent builder whose arts and crafts style homes still look as good as the day he built them. I'm considering an appeal to the Southern California Genealogy Society to see if anyone there has access to a Riverside newspaper for the appropriate time period.

Now that it seems likely that there will be a visit next summer from our California connection, I think that I'll have to make a greater effort to find more McGraths in the Ottawa area. Party time! I will of course have my scanner on hand in hopes that people bring along family pictures - labelled!

Some days I'm torn between doing something useful - like housework - and digging deeper into the family roots. There are lots of resources that put context around the lives of our ancestors and it's interesting to think about what life was like for them. I sure wish they'd had cameras and a penchant for using them. With the paucity of photos my guess is that friends took pictures and gave copies to my rellies. I suppose that a huge bounty of pictures would just mean more work dealing with them. Imagine what future generations are going to think with all the digital images we have now.

Well, on with the day. I have to accomplish something!