John - Currach

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Mar26

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Ingonish Cape Breton Land Grant

Posted in: Canada, Nova Scotia

I can use some help with some handwriting transcription – if you’d like to bypass the story of the records themselves and dive right into the document, click here. Otherwise… here we go!

While trying some alternative Google searches for my wife’s Cape Breton ancestors, I stumbled upon a reference to her 4th great-grandfather Owen Keegan in the index of the book Erin’s Sons: Irish Arrivals in Atlantic Canada, 1761-1853:

1823 Owen Keegan, 59, native of Ireland, married with ten children (2930)
[Keegan lived at Sydney. His wife was Elizabeth GRANDY.]

Excited to find something new, I Evernoted the information (is “Evernoted” a verb yet?), but was initially sad to find that Worldcat would have me travel to Andover, Massachusetts or Gatineau, Canada to find a copy. Happily, a local county search found a library not too far off that had all of the volumes of this book in their genealogy collection. Read More | Comments
Dec31

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Ladies First!

Posted in: Books, Ireland, New York

While reading Vincent J. Cannato’s American Passage – The History of Ellis Island I found something interesting in the section about Annie Moore being the first official emigrant at Ellis Island.

“How Annie became the first official immigrant at Ellis Island is unclear. One story claims that officials had rushed her ahead of a male Austrian immigrant. Another claimed that a fellow passenger named Mike Tierney, in a “spark of Celtic gallantry,” pulled the Austrian away from the gangplank by his collar, shouting “Ladies first,” and let young Annie pass.” (Page 58)

While 1892 is too late for the Mike Tierney mentioned here as Annie Moore’s helper to be my great-grandfather (who arrived about 1880), I had a look into old Mike and see if there might not be some connection. (It would be a long shot if there were, but seems an interesting story to follow up on in any case.)

Unfortunately, my first look searching the manifest at Ellis Island doesn’t show any Tierneys on the same ship as Annie Moore. Guess I’ll need to page through the whole thing in case there was a transcription error and/or check other ships that may have landed that same day. Or, it the story does have some truth to it, could it have possibly been a worker from Ellis Island? Hmm.

Update (14 Feb 2013): I saw a mention of the Annie Moore story again today and looked around the see if I could find the source of that “spark of Celtic gallantry” quote – I see the quote has been used a few times online without having a Mike Tierney mentioned, but I haven’t found a source for it more detailed than “According to a local cub reporter….” (Before anyone suggests it, American Passage does not list a source for this story either.)

I’ve searched the Chronicling America newspapers around 1892 to see if it might appear, but no luck yet. Has anyone actually seen the source of this quote, or better yet, one with the mention of the gallant Mr. Tierney?
Feb18

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Four for the price of one.

Posted in: Ireland, New York, Photo

After unearthing my great-grandfather’s death certificate recently, I was finally able to track down* his grave at Calvary Cemetery in Queens.

Good news for me was that I found four folks for the price of one! Both of my great-grandparents, Michael & Anna Tierney were there, as well as my grandfather’s brother Thomas.

The nice surprise was finding Winifred Tierney as well, who passed when only 3 years old during the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic. Winifred was one of four children of my grandfather and his first wife Sabina Gilroy who, quite sadly passed away only a few months later from the same illness.

(Update in 2012: After researching in the death certificates at the NYC Municipal Archives, I found that little Winifred actually died from Diptheria. Primary sources are your friend.)

For those keeping track, little Winifred would be my half-Aunt, if there is such a thing as “halfness” in this situation.

We first saw mention of Winifred in a tree online that was compiled from an interview with her sister Sabina many years later. I found a listing for Winifred in a NYC death index and also a short notice for her in the NY Times obituaries. But, when I found the grave of my grandfather John Tierney and Sabina, I was surprised that Winifred was missing. It seemed odd since she died so near her mother.

But, now we know she has been safely set with her grandparents all this time.

*Please note the restraint I exhibited by not using the phrase “dig up”
Dec17

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It Ain’t the Church You’re Looking For

Posted in: New York

It turns out I am a sucker for a good records search. or a bad one. Or one of those searches where you’re not sure what your are looking for, but are pretty sure its out there so you deepen by an extra few millimeters the indentation on your desk chair and the circles under your eyes. You know, one of those.

Anyway, I thought one recent experience of a records search was a good example of how you might not find what you are looking for – but find out you were looking for the wrong thing. (Note to self: reread that sentence later and make sure it makes sense.)

Of the eleventy-six message boards that I monitor, I find the New York County board on Ancestry.com a little too broad to check very often. But I like to scan through the topics once in awhile and often learn something new.

One day this summer I noticed a simple request for help:

“Can SKS tell me the name of the church at 960 Madison Ave. I don’t believe it is there any longer since I have tried looking it up in a variety of ways.”

Well, I thought, that couldn’t be too hard to find, could it? Read More | Comments

Aug10

Currach – Beannacht

Posted in: Inspiration, Ruminations

When I recently began getting more serious about my genealogical research after several years of dabbling, I began to think about possible blog names to document my journey. As an information technology professional with expertise in information security, Hacking Your Ancestors first occurred to me as a potential blog name.

Then it also occurred to me that that name was slightly more homicidal than I’d intended.
Plus, my good axe is just now at the cleaners.

I may still use that blog name if I decide to write more on techniques and tools and how some tactics of an infosec professional mesh nicely with those of the genealogist.

But, in this blog I hope to focus more on the journey of discovery that almost inevitably occurs when researching one’s own family and how they fit into history. It likely helps when you have only limited clues to much of your family history, making the search that much more surprising and interesting.

Group Photo: Egans of Creggan, Ferbane, Ireland on Flickr

As I find more documentation of the lives of my forebears I feel a strangely stronger sense of the parallel linearity of theirs and mine. While I cannot claim that records and documents give a clear insight into our ancestors’ personalities, there is a glimpse of dreams or, at least, hope that this new country held promise beyond their original ken.

Such a trip requires a vehicle, whether it is ridden or written. The sadly late poet John O’Donohue’s poem Beannacht, or Blessing offers some solace from the pulling weight of the land, the dimming vision of time and leads our boat, or Currach, on a protected path home with a healing cloak of wind.

Listen to his words below.
[audio:http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/odonohue_poems/odonohue_03_beannacht.mp3]

Beannacht recited by John O’Donohue on NPR’s Speaking of Faith
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