ISSUEIrish Roots NO 93 2015 FIRST QUARTER UK £3.35 2015 Number IRE €4.501 Irish Roots Celebrating Irish Ancestry

Locating Living Descendants The First Of A Three Part Series On How To Find Living Descendants Of Your Ancestors Trace Your Co. Kildare Ancestors In this issue! Printed In Ireland How To Research Your Irish Ancestors Series Continues. The Most Popular Surnames Of The Province Of Ulster Explored. Using U.S. Occupation Sources To Trace Your Irish Ancestors. What’s New? Review - Keep Up To Date With The Latest Record Releases. News From The World Of Irish Genealogy And Lots Lots More! 1 Irish Roots 2015 Number 1 Irish Roots 2015 Number 1 Family History Storage Irish Roots A few words from the editor Do You Have Irish Roots? Products & More Issue No 1 2015 ISSN 0791-6329 Welcome to our spring edition. As usual, St. Trace Your AncestorsWith Photo/Memorabilia Albums Patrick’s Day evokes memories and sentiments CONTENTS of Irish customs, culture and traditions for the Irish diaspora worldwide. Indeed, one old Irish tradition was the oral tracing of family histories. Irish Roots MagazineFamily History Storage Products & More 4 News At ancient feasts and banquets, it was customary for poets to recite the genealogies and praises of Preserve your Certs, Photos & Family Tree Charts ISSUEIrish Roots NO 90 2014 SECOND QUARTER UK £3.35 IRE €4.50 UK £3.352014 Number IRE 1 €4.50 2014 Number 2 the host. ISSUEIrish Roots NO 89 2014 FIRST QUARTER Documents in our specially designed Preserve your Certs, Photos and Documents 5 And Another Thing Irish Roots Bindersin our& Albums. specially designedFamily Tree Binders Charts, and I remember in my childhood listening to the local people spending hours Irish RootsSurnames Of The Philomena Lee Munster Albums. Family Tree Charts, Books and Project Examining and Books, & Software also available. ‘tracing relations’ of their families and neighbours in the oral tradition. The understanding the most Is There Hope On The Horizon popular surnames of the For Those Seeking Their Natural province of Munster Families? other items also available. Tracing Your We supply Irish Roots Magazine Binders! 6 Locating Living Descendants advent of the arrival of television in every home in Ireland eventually brought Tracing Your Cork Galway Family Tree Chart Ancestors Ancestors this type of storytelling to an end. As the interest in genealogy has grown at Discover Resources To Trace Discover the excellent Your County Cork Ancestors resources available to assist your research www.irishgenealogysolutions.comWE SUPPLY email:[email protected] IRISH ROOTS MAGAZINE BINDERS! an astounding rate in recent times, perhaps the ‘tracing relations’ tradition is How To Reconstruct A Military Service Parish For Genealogical Pensions Collection & 8 Glasnevin Cemetery Research Cumann na mBan Photo/Memorabilia Catalogue available from:- starting to make somewhat of a reappearance, ironically thanks to television’s How One Reader From Hollywood, How these recently released records Co. Wicklow Helped His Community can provide a fascinating insight into Order your To Research Their Family History the lives of our ancestors Albums Irish Genealogy Solutions many genealogical themed programmes.

Celebrating Irish Ancestry Printed In Ireland Printed In Ireland Celebrating Irish Ancestry The Children’s Employment Commission - An Extraordinary Source. catalogueKilleenagh Cross today Irish First Names And Naming Patterns Explained. How To Undertake Your Own Digitisation Project. Index To Irish Slave Children In Colonial Court Records. US Civil War Military Records And Our Irish Ancestors. Documenting Family History From Historic American Newspapers.What’s New Review - Stay Up To Date With Irish Research Resources. 10 Tracing Your Kildare Ancestors The Irish Soldiers And World War One. News From The World Of Irish Genealogy And Lots Lots More! Knockanore 1 In this issue of Irish Roots, Nicola Morris commences a three part series on News From The World Of Irish Genealogy1 And Lots Lots More! fromCo. Waterford Irish Genealogy ‘Locating Living Descendants’ on pages six and seven. St. Patrick himself Tel: 024 97963 or 087 3156807 CertificateCertificate Binders Binders features on page twelve. Sean Murphy concludes his ‘Surnames of The Four Solutions, 12 The St. Patrick Centre Provinces’ series with a look at Ulster names on pages 16 and 17. Claire Santry Subscribe today at Killeenagh Cross, brings more chat with the latest developments, releases and news roundup Knockanore, in the ever changing world of Irish genealogy on page 18. Maggie Loughran www.irishrootsmagazine.com 13 Books Ireland sheds more light on ‘How To Research Your Irish Ancestors’ on page twenty, Co. Waterford. and Kathleen Chater shares the history of the Huguenots in Ireland on pages Tel:- 024 97963 24 and 25. Now if all that doesn’t deserve a cup of tea and a chat I don’t know 14 Society Notes what does. Happy ‘tracing relations’ this St. Patrick’s Day and always. www.facebook.com/irishrootsmag or 087 3156807 Irish Roots Binders Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir! @irishrootsmag 16 Surnames Of The Four Provinces; www.irishgenealogysolutions.com Ulster Maureen email:- Celebrating Irish Ancestry [email protected] 18 What’s New? - Review Editor/Publisher Maureen Phibbs 20 How To Research Your Irish Irish Roots Media Ltd, Blackrock, Ancestors Part Two Blessington, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Tel:-+ (0)87 9427815 Intl +353 87 9427815 Email:- [email protected] 22 U.S. Occupational Sources:- Seamen Website:- www.irishrootsmagazine.com Facebook.com/irishrootsmag Bring your past to life Twitter@irishrootsmag 24 Huguenots In Ireland Printed by Start your journey here with the world’s largest collection Boylan Print Group, Co. Louth, Ireland. of online Irish family history records 26 Australian Irish Connections International Distribution- Pineapple Media Ltd, Hampshire, UK.

Stained Glass image of St. Patrick Shutterstock.com 28 A Question Of Genealogy

29 Letters To The Editor

30 Commemorating Dr. Lynch. IRISH ROOTS SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM Simply fill out the order form below (or a photocopy of it) and send it together with the appropriate remittance to:- Irish Roots Magazine, Blackrock, Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland. Follow us on Facebook at Name:- www.facebook.com/irishrootsmag or on Twitter @IrishRootsMag Address:- I enclose a cheque for payable to Irish Roots Media Ltd. Yearly Discover your family history with a 14 day free trial subscription rate to Irish Roots (four issues, including postage): Ireland €25.00; Copyright ©2015 Irish Roots Media Ltd. All rights reserved. UK £25, USA $37, Australia $42, Canada $40, Rest of world €27.00. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in Make payable in draft or cheque (in your local currency) to Irish Roots a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording Media Ltd or subscribe online at www.irishrootsmagazine.com. or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. e-mail: [email protected] www.facebook.com/irishrootsmag 93 Personal views expressed in articles and letters are those of the contributor and are not necessarily those of the publishers. We reserve the right to delete from any article, material which we @ findmypastIE findmypast consider could lead to any breach of the law of libel. While we do www.findmypast.ie not knowingly include erroneous information, the responsibility for accuracy lies with those who have submitted the material.

2 3 Irish Roots 2015 Number 1 Irish Roots 2015 Number 1

Clare Museum Acquires 1916 Journal NEWS A journal and autograph book that provides a unique insight into life and conditions at Frongoch prisoner of war National Library Of Ireland camp, where an estimated 1,800 Irish Announces Its Most Significant participants of The Easter Rising were interned between June and December Ever Digitisation Project for Irish 1916, has been acquired at auction by …and another thing… Genealogy Clare Museum. The National Library of Ireland Belonging to IRA Volunteer and Steven Smyrl ponders how the richness of data unveiled details of its most ambitious future Clare T.D. Patrick Brennan, digitisation project to date in December from Meelick, the album features available to mark the centenary of the Great War has last. The project will see the Library’s accounts of life in the North Wales entire collection of Catholic parish camp, poetry in Irish and English, and fuelled genealogists interest in this poignant era register microfilms made available coloured illustrations of the camp and online – for free – by summer 2015. its inhabitants. The records are considered the single The journal is also autographed by most important source of information many of the camp’s prisoners including s you undoubtedly know, last year marked the centenary National Archives (TNA), Ancestry and Findmypast and on Irish family history prior to the A Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy, of the opening salvo of the Great War. The assassination of others have added searchable and/or browsable collections 1901 Census. Dating from the 1740s who would later become instrumental Archduke Franz Ferdinand proved to be the catalyst that dealing with war service, injury, death, medals, internment, to the 1880s, they cover 1,091 parishes figures in the ensuing Irish War of Kaiser Wilhelm would use to plunge Europe and subsequently throughout Ireland, and consist prisoners, war diaries, nursing, navy, air force, pay and, most Independence and the establishment of the world into pointless, destructive chaos. Millions lost their recent of all, personal effects of the dead. primarily of baptismal and marriage the Irish Free State. lives and millions more were injured, maimed or suffered records. devastating shellshock. Out of interest for this article I looked at a scanned TNA War “Outside of the author’s historic Office record which allowed me to piece together some of the Colette O’Flaherty, Head of Special connections with County Clare, this Collections at the NLI, said: “Anyone The Registrar General in London noted the official figure war service of my relative, Margaret Emily Smyrl, born in 1892 journal and autograph book is hugely of registered war deaths of Irishmen in the British Army as tracing Irish family history will be able important considering the upcoming in Co. Tyrone, a qualified nurse. Her War Office record noted to access this site – from anywhere in 27,405, but this figure falls well short of the number recorded that she served in England in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial centenary of the 1916 Rising and the in the eight-volume set entitled Ireland’s Memorial Records the world – and search for the parish significant influence of the Frongoch Military Nursing Service from March 1918 until April 1921. 1914-1918, published in 1923. This source noted the names and in which they are interested. They camp experience on the future leaders Previously she had worked at the Belfast City Infirmary from personal details of 49,647 Irishmen who perished during the will be able to see a list of registers for of the Irish War of Independence,” November 1913. She held the rank of Sister from January 1921. that parish, and will be able to click on commented Cllr. John Crowe, conflict. However, in recent years even this figure has become The same file notes her additional service in the Second World whichever registers they like to browse Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council. disputed, considered to possibly omit as many as 15,000 names War. through the images contained within. of Irish from both British and Empire forces. It is hoped the document will be digitised On Ancestry, I was lucky enough to find the damaged army “The information in the registers in the future so as to allow people to view The Great War straddles the middle period of what has become varies from parish to parish but, file of my great grandfather, Robert Smyrl. It recorded that its contents online at clarelibrary.ie. known as the Decade of Centenaries, 1912-1922: sinking of the typically, includes the dates of the he signed up in Belfast to serve as a reservist with Royal Irish Titanic; the Dublin Lockout; the Home Rule Bill; Protestant baptisms or marriages, and the names Rifles in 1911 when he was just short of 18 years of age. He of the key people involved, including Irishmen In Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Unionist resistance to the threat of “Rome Rule” by forming was only 5’ 2” high and weighed just 10st! He had grey eyes godparents or witnesses. Obviously, The Great War: Conference 6-12 September 2015 the Ulster Volunteers; the Catholic Nationalists’ response in and brown/black hair and was described as a “small, well set forming the Irish Volunteers; The Rising; War of Independence; such information is extremely valuable Reports From The Ulster Historical Foundation will up lad”. He was noted as Methodist, rather than Presbyterian, Partition, Anglo-Irish Treaty, and ultimately, the Civil War. for both amateur genealogists and The Front 1914 hold a family history conference on but therein lies another story too long to tell here! In July 1912 professional researchers. he transferred to the regular army, fulltime. He was stationed Irishmen In The 6 - 12 September next. The extensive At the outset, the constitutional Nationalists supported Irishmen programme will include trips to the in India from December 1913 until October 1914, whereupon “The microfilms have been available Great War: Reports signing up for war service, but by the time of the creation of the Public Record Office of Northern he was transferred to the British Expeditionary Force in France. to visitors to the NLI since the 1970s. From The Front 1914 26-county Free State in 1922, the part Irishmen played in the Ireland, the National Archives in He was in England on leave in January 1915 when he went However, this project means that, for by Tom Burnell, war from south of the new border was already being denied Dublin, the Registry of Deeds and the “missing”, eventually being noted as “deserted”. However, what the first time, anyone who likes will be published by Pen and erased from public consciousness. Thus began decades of RCB Library. the Army bigwigs didn’t know was that he had taken a notion able to access these registers without & Sword Books self-imposed amnesia; the collective forgetting of the names and joined the navy for the rest of the war. I’m left wondering having to travel to Dublin.” features twenty- The programme of tours throughout and identities of thousands of men who served and died in an seven Irish newspapers for the period what trouble he brought upon himself through this action. The 390,000 digital images due to be the week will also include a visit Imperial conflict. covering the Great War. through rolling to sites of international published by the NLI will be searchable These two examples of information relating to my own Included in the book are accounts of renown from the Giant’s Causeway and The period 1912-1922 amplified the longstanding polarisation by parish location only. They will not forbears show the richness of the data that can now be accessed local men at the front; of torpedoed Dunluce Castle on County Antrim’s of the two religious communities in Ireland, Protestant and be transcribed or indexed by the NLI, online by genealogists in search of those who served in the and the images will be of the microfilms ships; drunken wives; final letters and wild Atlantic coast to the archaeological Catholic, ultimately leading to partition and a long era of deep Great War. In Ireland, until recent times, often the only record of the original registers, which – in requests from the trenches. Also eye- wonder which is Newgrange in the suspicion of the “other side”. It really is no surprise in this of these men was their names inscribed on war memorials some cases – were in poor condition witness accounts of the slaughter as tranquil Boyne Valley, to the haunting context that the Great War was so easily whitewashed south when the microfilming took place. The it was happening; battle reports from Kilmainham Gaol and Trinity College of the border. However, the last 20 years’ seismic shift in the predominantly found in Protestant churches up and down the images will be in black and white. officers serving in Irish regiments; Dublin with its Old Library and the cultural and political relations between Britain and Ireland and country. In the church I attend each week, on Remembrance quirky snippets; chaplains’ sympathetic Book of Kells Exhibition – a ‘must see’ the centenary of the start of the Great War has finally allowed Sunday last November we remembered the 18 men who Ms. O’Flaherty said the registers are a letters; POW reports of conditions and for any visitor to Dublin. Catholic Ireland an opportunity to review the part played by perished on land and sea from our congregation by reading wonderful legacy of the Catholic Church war poetry, as well as the tales of the its grandfathers, uncles and great grandfathers in the “war to out their names and ages. A little bit of history rehabilitated. to Ireland. “The role of the Catholic Assisted personal research, talks, tours Leinster’s, Munster’s, Connaught’s and end all wars”. Church in creating and maintaining and sightseeing are all part of the eclectic, Dublin Fusiliers serving in the Ulster friendly and fun mix of the Tracing Your these records during some of the most Division, 10th and 16th Irish Divisons. The imminence of the centenary itself has fuelled wide ranging turbulent times in Irish history must be Irish Ancestors Programme. For further Steven Smyrl is President of the Association of Professional Reports of medical breakthroughs, information email: [email protected]. interest in this period of Ireland’s history, and not least that acknowledged and praised,” she said. Genealogists in Ireland, Chairman of the Irish Genealogical paranormal occurrences and miraculous uk or visit www.ancestryireland.com/ of genealogists. In the last few years much material has been Research Society and Executive Liaison Officer for the Further details of this digitisation escapes from death also feature. See family-history-conference made available online giving often detailed insight into the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations. He is a project will be announced by the NLI www.pen-and-sword.co.uk for further personal lives and war service of young – and not so young – director of the Irish probate research firm Massey & King. in the coming months. details. men and women a century ago. The websites of the UK 4 5 Irish Roots 2015 Number 1 Irish Roots 2015 Number 1

all deaths were registered and there is a local registration district, it is also possible up to any website, find out whether the possibility that you will fail to find death that they died elsewhere in the Republic collections are comprehensive. Birth registrations for some of the siblings of Ireland or even, after 1922, in Northern and marriage records for Massachusetts, of your ancestor, even if they died in Ireland. There are separate records for Illinois, Quebec and New South Wales Locating Living infancy. civil registration for Northern Ireland may be available online, but what about after 1922 at https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/. the other states in those countries. The Once the subjects of your search reached passenger records for Ellis Island are the age of 16 they either emigrated, The address recorded on a child’s birth online, but what about the other ports married or died unmarried in Ireland. certificate or the date of death ofan where your relative might have arrived. You need to methodically check for unmarried relative may prove vital as Descendants If the collections are not complete, you evidence of these events in each of your your search progresses, so it is worth cannot always be sure that you have surviving siblings’ lives. pursuing these items. found the correct person, they could have It is sensible to start with a search for their There are two reasons why you may settled in a state for which the records are marriage in Ireland. If they married they not find evidence that your relative not available. likely had issue and a new generation for married or died in Ireland. Either these events were not registered with the civil It is sensible to start your search using you to pursue. Although the legal age of the source that has the most coverage authorities or your relative emigrated. marriage was 21, a marriage could have for the entire country you are looking at, taken place with a child as young as 16, There are numerous possibilities that usually, but not always, census returns. so start your search when the child was must be considered when it comes This way you have a much better chance at least 16 years of age. Although men to emigration. The first of these is of identifying all possible candidates for may have married into their 60s or 70s, destination. Traditionally Irish emigrants your emigrant relatives. you can probably confine your search to settled in England, Wales, Scotland, the In the next issue I will tackle another, a 30 year period and don’t just assume United States, Canada, Australia, New that women only married in their 20s. complementary method that can be used Zealand, South Africa and India. You to find out what happened to the siblings As marriages usually took place in the will need to methodically go through parish of the bride, female marriages of your ancestor and take a closer look at the records of each of these countries for records available outside of Ireland. are most likely to have been registered evidence of your family. This is not an locally, but of course this was not always easy task and requires familiarity with the case. If you are unsuccessful in your the type of records that are available for Nicola Morris M.A.P.G.I. is a director local registration district, you may have each country. of Timeline Research (www.timeline. to extend your search nationwide. The ie). She has appeared on numerous Irish civil marriage index for 1864-1858 You will need to tackle passenger lists, episodes of Who Do You Think You can be found online for free at www. vital records and census returns for each Are? in both the UK and US and familysearch.org, The later indexes are location. Many of these records are now was one of the presenters on the first available in the General Register Office available online, but before you sign series of RTE’s Genealogy Roadshow. of Three research room in Dublin. Morris If you locate a marriage record for one or Part One Nicola more of your ancestor’s siblings, you can search for the children of that marriage, By bringing you a generation closer to the present day. From 1903 the Irish civil birth index recorded the mother’s I have met many people researching their family history who want to find out what happened to the maiden name. If you are searching for a siblings of their ancestors and locate long lost cousins who are alive today. In some cases joining female relative with the surname Brady up with other branches of your family tree and sharing information can shed new light on your and you discover that she married a man named Clarke in 1906, the civil own research. A collection of letters held by your fifth cousin in New Zealand may hold the key to birth index should identify all Clarke a mystery that has impeded your research in Ireland. children with a mother’s maiden name of Brady. Unfortunately, this function is Advertise With Us to employ both methods, particularly if of the siblings of your ancestor died in not included in any online indexes until Forward tracing can be a lot more you want comprehensive results. infancy. There is no point searching for the late 1930s. For the earlier period difficult than researching earlier the marriage or emigration of someone you will have to check the index books The first method requires painstaking and generations. We cannot always anticipate who died in childhood, so it would be at the General Register Office in Dublin. methodical research and is usually what where a person might have gone, when sensible to first determine which of your You may also find that there were two is employed in probate cases. You must Contact us they married or died, whereas census ancestor’s siblings lived to adulthood. couples with the same surnames having first identify all of the siblings of your returns and vital records often tell us children at the same time. Only copies of ancestor, their full names and dates and If the child was born after 1864 a search For woolly when a person married or where they the registrations will confirm the correct places of birth. This information will be can be made of the civil death register for came from, making it easier to work birth records. backwards. Of course there are plenty used to confirm whether you have found the first 18 or 21 years of their life. The Great rates of websites that will connect people the correct individuals as your search civil death index recorded the age of If you fail to find a marriage record in researching the same family, but in the progresses. Civil birth registrations, the deceased which should correspond Ireland, it is possible that the marriage absence of one of these connections, you baptismal records and census returns with their approximate year of birth, as was not registered or that your subject will have to do the legwork yourself. should help you to identify the relevant should the registration district, unless died unmarried. Although tedious, a persons. the family had moved. The death search should be made for the death of There are two research avenues that you certificate should record the address of each unaccounted for relative during Due to the high rate of infant mortality can use to try and find out what happened the child and the name of the informant, their adult life, bearing in mind that they in 19th and early 20th century Ireland to the siblings of your ancestors and their often a parent, which will help to confirm could have lived to 100 years or possibly there is a strong possibility that some descendants. You will most likely have the correct record. Unfortunately, not more. While they may have died in your Email:- [email protected] 6 7