Who Dares to Speak Of... the Irish in WWI
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Who dares to speak of... the Irish in WWI ISSUE 34 SUMMER 2016 www.irishlivesremembered.com Issue 34 Summer 2016 Publisher Eneclann Genealogy Magazine Joint Editors Eileen Munnelly & Shane Fitzsimons Welcome to the Summer 2016 edition of Irish Lives Remembered, and Email: [email protected] we are casting our eyes over the Irish involvement in the First World Design/Production Manager War – a commemoration that has been marked here in Ireland with a Michael Munnelly passionate intensity not before seen. It’s now 100 years since the Somme offensives began on the fields of Editorial Contributors Flanders – a series of attacks that today seem utterly futile, terrifying, In Ireland and bloody. Even then, in the realms of the past that seem from this Paul MacCotter, Brian Donovan, Helen Moss, distance so naive and hopeful, they must have seemed insanely point- Fiona Fitzsimons, Shane Fitzsimons, Damian less – or pointedly insane. Sometimes it seems as if the only winners Shiels, Ned Kelly, Nora White and John Dorney in the war were the handful of poets and artists whose rejection of the barbarity of the Front offers us a rare glimpse of humanity in the In the U.K. trenches. Jayne Shrimpton The General In America By Siegfried Sassoon Maureen Wlodarczyk “Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said In New Zealand When we met him last week on our way to the line. Geraldene O’Reilly Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead, Advertising And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine. Tommy Martin “He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack [email protected] As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. But he did for them both by his plan of attack. Write to: Eneclann So what’s in this issue of Ireland’s top genealogy magazine? Well, if 5 Whitefriars your ancestors took part in the First World War, there are probably Aungier Street many stories to tell - and my favourite story is told by Damien Shiels, Dublin 2, Ireland who uncovered the stories of the Irish brides who fell in love with and tel: + 353 1 671 0338 married US servicemen in Ireland in 1917. It’s an amazing story - and if fax: + 353 1 671 0281 we happen to mention your grandparents, please drop a line a tell us. email: [email protected] Still with the war, John Dorney chips away at the ever-changing place www.irishlivesremembered.com of the Great War in Irish memory and culture; Geraldene O’Reilly charts the fortunes of a band of Irish brothers from New Zealand; and Irish Lives Remembered Helen Moss delves into the family history of Harry Potter and Dr Who actor David Tennant - and finds grim tales of the Somme. @irishlives Brian Donovan meets Neville Isdell, who has opened the doors to EPIC Irish Lives Remembered Genealogy Magazine is published quarterly by Eneclann Ltd. No part of Ireland - Ireland’s Diaspora Centre, located on the quays of Dublin in this publication may be reproduced, stored in a the CHQ Centre. I guarantee it will be your first port of call when you retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by arrive in Ireland for that family holiday you’ve been promising yourself any means without written permission from the - and Neville explains why EPIC Ireland is integral to the Irish experi- publisher. ence everywhere. Opinions and comments expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. All prices and Eneclann genealogists Fiona Fitzsimons and Helen Moss met the Vice rates are correct at time of going to press but are President of the USA and held his family spellbound with tales of their subject to change. While every effort has been people from Mayo and the Cooley Peninsula. They talk about their made to ensure that all information contained in this publication is factual and correct at time of days on the road with Joe Biden. Dr Paul MacCotter continues his going to press. Eneclann Limited cannot be held work, tracing the great surnames of Ireland and revealing where they responsible for any inadvertent errors or omissions sprang from. In this issue, he looks at the O’Brien clan. From the USA, contained herein. Copyright @2016 Eneclann Ltd., Maureen Wlodarczyk tells us how to get started on that hoard of All rights reserved. photos you have stashed in your attic. Finding and interpreting World War 1 records on Findmypast To mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, the military records experts at Findmypast have rounded up some of their most commonly asked World War 1 questions to help you with your family history research. Q: Did my ancestor fight in the Battle of the Somme? A: Have a look in our millions World War 1 records and you may find them. Start by clicking ‘Search’ at the top of the screen on the homepage, select the ‘Military service & conflict’ category to be brought to the search page, where you can enter your ancestor’s details and start your search. Q: I can't find my ancestors in the military Somme will give you the answer, but you records. What now? should be easily able to find that online via a Google search. A: You may have a lot of information on your ancestor's military career, such as their Q: I have all my grandfather's original mili- soldier number or regiment. However, you tary documents how do I find out where he should always start your search as broad as was actually stationed and when? possible and then narrow down. Often, A: Our collection of British Army Service starting with just a name with both "Name Records will probably be your best bet. They Variants" boxes ticked is a good place to should reveal where he was stationed and start. when. A number were destroyed by a fire in Q: Where can I find information on Com- 1940 though. monwealth soldiers involved in the Battle of Q: There are lots of people with similar the Somme? names to my ancestor in the military records. How do I find out which one is right? A: Start with the list of divisions that took part and then break down the component parts A: It's just a case of narrowing down where to see which units formed those divisions. he signed up or where he lived, cross- Martin Middlebrook's The First Day on the referencing with any other records you have. You could try seeing if you can find Q. I still can't find my British Army ancestor. any information in our historic newspapers, which often include information on local A: A significant portion (about 60%) of British soldiers. Army Service Records were destroyed in a fire after bombing in 1940. It could be that Q: My father was injured on the Somme and your ancestor's record was in these "burnt was repatriated to England. How can I trace records". Remember, a record keeper may his medical record? well have misheard a recruit, so always try doing a "wildcard" search to check for simi- A: His service records may well include that lar names. information. Many of our British Army Service Records include medical reports, sometimes including all the injuries a soldier received and the hospitals he was treated at. www.findmypast.ie The VP comes home Vice president of the USA Joe Biden meets the locals on garden street balling, where his ancestors lived In April 2016 I was invited to a private meeting, and asked to prepare a family history for Vice NewNew research:research: President Biden, in advance of his trip to Ire- The evidence was sparse and we tried out land. some new research methods to start research. The Vice President wanted to nd out anything more about his family’s earliest origins, to iden- Finnegans: tify what place(s) they were connected to, In the Cooley Peninsula, in Louth, Finnegan is and if possible – to trace any living relatives in one of the most frequently occurring names in Ireland. the district. One local wag told me: “throw a stone around here, and you’ll hit a Finnegan.” Security was an issue, so discretion was im- We undertook the painstaking work of tran- portant. To ensure I could complete the re- scribing all Finnegan baptisms and marriages search-work before the visit, I enlisted my col- between 1811 and 1855, and then separat- league Helen Moss, one of the more notable ed them out into distinct family groups, and genealogists in Ireland. mapped them by townland address. We were given the Vice President’s own family We compared these family groups with the im- history les, and a published article by Ameri- migrant ancestors – Owen and Jean Finnegan can genealogist Megan Smolenyak. The immi- that left Ireland in the Famine. One of the rst grant ancestors to the U.S. were clearly iden- things we found was a chain of migration from ti ed as the VP’s great x2 grandfather Owen Cooley in county Louth, to Seneca county in Finnegan of Louth, and, on another line, the upstate New York. We soon realised that VP VP’s great-x3 grandfather Edward Blewitt at Biden’s ancestor Owen Finnegan and his wife one time living in Ballina county Mayo. Jean, did not emigrate alone. We consulted U.S. records from 1850 to the 1920s. The U.S. records, the census especial- ly, are more complete than the Irish records. We consulted church parish records; county deaths; Civil War Pension les; wills and pro- bate records; and local newspapers.