Ireland - Currach

Ireland

Mar30

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A Needle in a Paystack

Posted in: Ireland

I have been quite excited that the Irish Family History Foundation’s Advanced Search is now Available on All Ireland searches. Since I do not yet definitively know where my Tierneys or McDonalds came from in Ireland, that will allow me to search across almost all of the counties to try and narrow my focus. (Limerick and Sligo are not participating in advanced search.)

Trying to take advantage of this capability, I thought I would look around for my great-grandfather Michael Tierney. We have a fair amount on him over here in New York City, including his exact birth date from his NY Municipal Police records and his death certificate. (Which also has his parent’s names.)

So, I search for Michael Tierney (and surname variants) on the year exact 1858, which returned 4 possible records. Adding his parent’s names, John Tierney and Margaret Murphy to the search in various combinations discounted all of those records. But, being optimistic I thought perhaps one of them could still be valid if the names were mis-transcribed and so purchased all of the records.

An added good thing about the advanced search is that you can purchase groups of records at a discounted rate – rather the the standard cost of €5 per record, I got all 4 of them for €12.

But, sadly, I have not done very well with any of my record purchases on the site yet. My prior purchases have been in search of my great-grandparents John Egan and Maria Farrell’s marriage and birth records. So far I have a likely marriage record and a single birth record that is a “maybe.” Slightly disappointing since I know exactly where they lived (near Creggan, Moyclare, Endrim, & Ferbane) in Kings County.

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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”
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.
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!