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The Irish Ancestral Research Association 2120 Commonwealth Ave The Irish Ancestral Research Association 2120 Commonwealth Ave. Auburndale, MA 02466-1909 Winter 2012 Volume 29, Number 4 Genealogy Gifts The Gift of Family Julie Rizzello (seated 3rd from left) meets her Greaney relatives in Galway PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Now that the November elections have come and gone, it is time to get down to business. There are a couple of major holidays to cele- brate, but there are also several events coming up for TIARA. The Irish Ancestral Research Association 2120 Commonwealth Avenue The banquet was a great success. The speaker Auburndale, MA 02466-1909 was fantastic as was the atmosphere and www.tiara.ie meal. Congratulations to VPs Margaret Sulli- Officers van and Greg Atkinson for a job well done. We Mary Choppa President Margaret Sullivan attempted a silent auction as a fund-raiser Greg Atkinson Co -Vice Presidents and that too was a success. Through the gen- Susan Steele Co-Recording Secretaries Pamela Holland erous bids of our attendees, we raised over Gary Sutherland Corresponding Secretary $300 for TIARA. The online auction is coming, so everyone will get a chance to bid on some Committee Chairs unique items. Stay tuned for details. Margaret Sullivan Publicity Pat Landry Membership Carolyn Jack Webmaster March 2013 will once again be a joint meeting Susan Steele Foresters with NEHGS. We are looking at making this Joan Callahan Library Eva Murphy Volunteers an all day event. In April 2013, TIARA will par- ticipate in NERGC 2013 to be held this year in Dues Calendar year membership is (U.S.) $25 per individual & Manchester NH. There will be several speakers $35 per family. Newsletters sent as a PDF file via email. An additional $5/yr is charged to mail paper copies of the newslet- with a TIARA connection: Janis Duffy, Susan ters. Canadian and overseas memberships are charged an addi- Steele, and Margaret Sullivan. The conference tional (US) $10/yr for paper copies of the newsletter. should be of great interest to our members. Meetings TIARA meets monthly except July & August at Early bird registration ends on February 28, locations throughout the New England area. 2013. Register online at www.nergc.org or by mail. As registration chair for the confer- THE TIARA NEWSLETTER The TIARA newsletter is published quarterly and distributed to ence, I encourage anyone attending to volun- members in good standing. teer some time to the conference. TIARA has a Editor Virginia Wright Assistant Editor Richard Wright volunteer commitment to the conference. Submit all correspondence to the above address. We’ll also be getting ready for the Mass Memo- Copyright All material in this publication is protected by copy- ries Show coming up in November 2013. right. Permission must be obtained for use of any material and TIARA is working with the Irish Cultural Cen- credit given, including Title, Author, Volume, and Issue num- tre of New England, The Irish Consulate and ber. The Eire Society to present this event with In This Issue UMass Boston. President's Message Page 2 With a Little Help from Friends Page 3 We are exploring new ways to make TIARA’s The Gift of Genealogy Page 4 Library resources available to you. Anyone in- The Item that Sparked My Interest Page 5 terested in Armagh research, for example, Haunted by Her Eyes Page 6 should contact me at (cont. on page 13) Oh the Places You’ll Go Page 7 _____________________________________________ Dathi’s Bookshelf Page 10 In This Issue (continued) Library Update Page 13 Upcoming TIARA Meetings Page 21 Tale of Two Brothers Page 14 TIARA Donors Page 21 TIARA, Dublin, and Galway Page 17 Nuggets Page 21 American Cousins Project Page 18 TIARA at Back to Our Past Conference Page 22 Queries from Back to Our Past Page 20 Autumn Activities Page 23 Upcoming Conferences Page 21 2 “With A Little Help Brunner, archivist for the Albany Diocese. From My Friends” This led to an email contact for volunteers at Sacred Heart Church. Albany doesn't have a Susan Steele # 1025 diocese archive. Records are held at individual The Beatles song is an apt title for my re- churches. Sacred Heart had absorbed St. Jo- search story. In keeping with this issue's seph parish and the volunteers were willing to theme…friends - some old and some new, gave do my lookups. A gift from strangers this time me the gift of research. - over several weeks the volunteers sent me a list of a dozen baptisms and marriages. The I recently returned from the TIARA trip to Ire- sponsor information was very helpful in estab- land with proof of my O’Neill ancestors’ birth- lishing family relationships but I was no closer place in Tipperary. For many years I didn’t to that elusive place of birth. even have a county in Ireland for this family. It was help from friends and strangers that During a Forester volunteer session at UMass helped me break through the proverbial “brick Boston, I expressed my frustration. TIARA wall.” volunteer, Pat Deal, went home and found my O'Neill county in Ireland! Pat remembered my I have written previously of the many rewards Margaret O'Neill story in the TIARA newsletter. I reaped while working on the Foresters Pro- A story reference to the 1880 census gave her ject. One of these benefits was lunchtime con- enough information to identify the family. Pat versations with the volunteers. We shared the browsed the Internet and found an 1875 state ups and downs of our genealogy searches and census I had missed. One column asked for often received helpful hints. In preparation for "County of Birth." Most of the listings on the a 2010 trip to Albany, New York (the US home page were "Albany" but next to the O'Neills it of the O’Neills) I consulted Forester volunteer said Tipperary! Liz Barnett who is an experienced Albany re- searcher. She also is an expert on finding in- So now I had my county and I had something formation on Ancestry. She knows the ins and more - a new sister for family head, John outs of the Ancestry card catalogue as well as O'Neill. Margaret Martley, husband Patrick many other resources. Liz sent me off to Alba- and children were listed as boarders with the ny with pages of new material on the O’Neills O'Neills. Margaret was the right age to be a and their descendants. TIARA member, Tom sister of John so I looked for additional infor- Toohey, also supplied additional helpful hints mation. I found it on a public family tree on about Albany repositories. More about Tom’s Ancestry. Someone doing research on the help later. Martleys had Margaret and her family. She was indeed Margaret O'Neill Martley. Actually, I visited several Albany repositories and ceme- she was Margaret O'Neill Driscoll Martley. teries. I found the headstone with clues about There was information on her two marriages. family members and collected other bits and Margaret was the widow of Denis Driscoll pieces of information but nothing led to that when she remarried. This explained the child elusive place of birth. I wrote a short story Eugene Driscoll listed with the O’Neills and about Margaret O'Neill for the TIARA newslet- Martleys in the 1875 census. Margaret's mar- ter issue on "Ancestors at Work.” Other than riages and the births of her first three children that, I had put the family aside. took place in Thurles. I was closing in on the home place! In preparation for TIARA's October 2012 trip to Dublin, I decided to give the O'Neills anoth- Several births and one marriage appeared on er try. I had very few birth, marriage or death the familysearch.org Indexes to Ireland Civil records for the family in Albany. Vital records Registration 1845 - 1958. That confirmed the in Albany don' t begin until 1870. The O'Neills' Ancestry family tree information. I sent off an church, St. Joseph, had closed and I hadn't email to the person who had posted the tree tracked down those records. I followed a sug- asking how he knew about Thurles. He replied gestion of Tom Toohey's and emailed Sr. Nola with intriguing information about letters writ- 3 ten by O'Neills and Martleys sent back and I was curious about the occupations of black- forth between the US and Ireland. He prom- smith and weaver during the late 1700s and ised to track down the letters and send me early 1800s. I didn't have time for much read- copies. Unfortunately, I have not heard any- ing in Ireland so I began this research at thing more from him. I did take down other home. Boston College has a good collection of information from his family tree including Ireland county resources on the 5th floor of confirmation of another O'Neill brother in Al- the O'Neill Library. Browsing the DA990 sec- bany. I had seen James O' Neill listed as a tion of the stacks turned up several books baptism sponsor and living at his brother with sections on weaving and forges in Tipper- John's address in the city directory. The An- ary but the best resource was another “friend" cestry family tree owner had also listed par- discovered on the Internet. Using Google I ents names for the O'Neill siblings - Michael stumbled on a Family Tree Forum article writ- O'Neill and Margaret Cummins. He noted that ten in 2009 that discussed blacksmiths in brother James O'Neill had a middle initial C.
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