John - Currach

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Feb24

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Side by Side by Šimánek

Posted in: Czech, New York, Photo

Two photos of my great-grandfather Václav Šimánek from our family albums – the rather dashing one on the left taken about 1894 in New York and the one on the right later in life back home in Czechoslovakia.

We believe he took a trip from Czechoslovakia (then called Bohemia) to visit some previously emigrated family in Baltimore, Maryland then returned home.

While scanning our family photos I did find a clue that we may not have the whole story – I noticed that the back of the first photo (aka a “cabinet card”) has a photographer logo of Rud Bachmann and address of 6 East 14th Street in New York, so apparently Vaclav took a side trip before returning home.

The family story goes that he was impressed with the set up of fire departments in the United States and when he returned home to Předmíř he used what he learned to create a better fire department there.

Needless to say I now have a very strong urge to add some handlebars to my own moustache.
Feb7

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Woman sitting on a wall

Posted in: Ireland, Photo

Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

One of my favorite photos, courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. Notes from their site:

Taken by J. J. Clarke (1879-1961) of Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan while he was studying in Dublin [ca.1894-1904?]
Physical Description: 1 photonegative : glass ; 13 x 10 cm.

See it at the NLI site here.
Feb6

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A Whole Lot of Blarney. and french fries.

Posted in: Ireland, Travel

Going through some old albums today I found the entire TWA printed itinerary for the trip to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales that my sister and I took in 1981. Plus, my 1980s self wrote a detailed list of the location of every photo in the album. Woohoo! Thank you, me.

And, in case anyone doubted my gift of eloquence, the album also contains photos of us kissing the Blarney Stone. A nice overview of the history of the stone can be found in this article at the Toronto Sun.

The hanging upside down and kissing a castle was later followed by an awesome pizza smothered in french fries on the ferry back from Ireland to England.
Feb3

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Failte Ireland Tourism 2011

Posted in: Travel

Very nice job on this Ireland tourism video – I hope to help support them soon!
Jan27

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Fragmentary Grandfather Goes To School

Posted in: Ireland, New York

Click for larger version

This photo fragment appears to be a class photo of with grandfather John Tierney (born 1892 in New York.) He is the boy on the right side of the back row and if you look closely you can see a “J” written in pencil over his head.

I’m left wondering if someone intentionally tossed the rest of this photo or if this was all that was salvageable.
Early photos from the Tierney side of my family are few and far between.

In fact this and another of my great-grandfather are one of only two that are pre-1910. We have perhaps a half-dozen more of my grandfather John in various work-related photos in the mid to late 1910s.

The number of photos increases slightly after he married my grandmother but still not a great amount. So, I’ll take whatever I can get.

Anyone out there have any good resources for analyzing old school photos or figuring out from whence they came? (Especially in New York City.) Let me know!