My prayer to St. Patrick

Dear St. Patrick, great holy man of Ireland.

Gee, it's been a while, and I'm hoping that you haven't forgotten me. I'm Pat and Virginia's oldest kid. I'm the great great granddaughter of  John Kelly, born in Shannonbridge in Clonmacnoise Parrish, County Offley on June 22 1829. What moved him to come to America I'll likely never know for sure but he passed in Western Maryland in the small coal mining community of Eckhart on June 28, 1891. It was a pure stroke of luck and our good fortune that my mother, Virginia, spotted the information on his tomb stone in the soft fall afternoon light and read his place and date of birth. He must have been so very proud of his own home place in Ireland to have it put on his stone.

And I'm so very thankful that I got to see his town and visit the Clonmacnoise historical site and see Temple Kelly there. Are we descended from the devout worshipers there? More likely our ancestors were humble farm workers.

 

St. Patrick, as you know John is buried with his beloved wife, the lovely Bridget Corcoran (1830 - 1 May 1912). We just found this out quite recently through the generosity of those who watch out for Catholics of the Allegany County Maryland area. What a blessing to know when and where they were married. And to finally know with certainty that Bridget rests here with John, although her grave is not marked. We would really and truly like to know where she came from, which could be anywhere in Ireland. They met and married in Cumberland near by where they lived in Eckhart. A hint would be lovely.

But it's not so much Bridget that concerns us most days. It's Mom's Farrell/ O'Farrell people. Mom's own dearly loved and missed mother, Emma, told her that her own blessed grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Farrell (who married Samuel Albert House and was born in Ireland on 22 November 1835 and died 28 March 1919) had told Emma that they came from the place in Ireland where you drove the snakes out. Forgive me for not listening the first time Mom told me that story. It just seemed too fantastic. What is that you saying, Oh ye of little genealogy faith? So true.

So I'm sending this little devotion off to you on your day, the day you passed from this earth, in hopes that you will send us in the right direction. Did they come from County Mayo as the legend says?

Well, have a nice feast day, St. Patrick. Perhaps you'll like knowing that to this day there are still numerous Patrick Kellys out and about.

Clonmacnoise Historical Site, Ireland, on the Shannon River.

 

Temple Kelly there in the background at Clonmacnoise.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-prayer-to-st-patrick.html

Surname Saturday: Browne? From Ireland?

It's Surname Saturday, and time to use the blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers! What we do for this exercise if follow the generations back taking each surname in rotation, moving back throuigh the generations. This week we launch into the 5th generation back and the 3rd great grandmothers, because the 5th great grandfathers and their surname heritage has already been covered.

This week it's Bridget Browne's turn. She married John Kelly, father of John Kelly who was the first of our Kelly line to land in America and you can read about the Kellys in my first ever Surname Saturday post here. Honestly, I don't have too much to add to that post because any records about John Kelly and Bridget Browne are long gone. But let me tell you what we now know, and then list the things we'd like to know.


1. Diane K. Weintraub

2. Francis Patrick Kelly (1916 - 2007)
3. Virginia Williams Kelly, living and loving it!

4. John Lee "Lee" Kelly (1892 -1969)
5. Helen Gertrude Zeller (1894 - 1985)

8. Francis Patrick Kelly (1854 - 1923)
9. Christiana Eckhart (1861 - 1932)

16. John Kelly (1829 - 1891)
17. Bridget Corcoran (1830 - after 1910)

32. John Kelly (about 1800 - ????)
33. Bridget Browne (about 1800 - ????)
Mom had done her homework before she and Dad and I went to Ireland back in 1987, and you can read about that trip here. (It's one of my most popular posts!)
Mom already knew from the tombstone for John Kelly (Jr.) where he was born and on what dates. It was super hard to read on that old tombstone but Mom waited for just the right hour and time of year to read it more clearly. See that photo below.
We tracked down the parish records for this family in Ireland in the Clonmacnoise Parish, County Offlay (Kings), which included the little town of Shannonbridge. We first had to go to the parrish house and get permission from the parish priest, and that allowed us to see the original records. Then we went over to the building on the corner and climbed the long set of creaking wooden stair to the big room where people were entering the records in a database. Mom copied all that was available, chatted with the workers and found out that the oldest parish records were burned in a parish house fire, and those were the books containing the records for John Kelly and Bridget Browne. More's the pity. We still hold out hope that other records besides those of the church will eventually become known to us.
So, we don't know too much about this couple, except that they probably saw their young son and perhaps his brothers, leave for American, and most likely, just as other Irishemn, never come home again. (Guess that's why we all shed a little tear when we hear an Irish voice sing "Danny Boy".)
They had this child, known to us, but we guess there are more. They were Irish and Catholic, after all:)
16. John Kelly (1829 - 1891)

Next Steps:
Wow, what to say? I want those old chared records from the parish in Ireland. Guess I'm probably not going to get them.
1. Check other Irish records to see if any small item might be hiding. Frankly, in order to do this I must eventually start my steep learning curve about Irish records. Now I have three families to investigate: Farrell from posibly County Clare, Corcoran from we don't know where, and these Kelly people. Maybe I'll start this summer?
2. Find out more about the history of the town of Shannonbridge. Can anything be learned?
3. Check the Catholic cemetery there. Tomstones or remnants? Other Kellys?
4. History. I need to know more about the history of Shannonbridge and Ireland in general from the 1830s to the time of the Irish Famine. All of my people were here before the famine. Interesting. And all landed in Western Maryland or northern Virginia/West Virginia within about 10 years of each other. Very Interesting.

The historical site of Clonmacnoise, County Offlay (Kings), Ireland.

Photo, 1987.

Tombstone of John Kelly (1829 - 1891),

taken by Mom one late afternoon when the light was just right.

He was born in Shannonbridge and died in Eckhart, Allegany, Maryland.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/surname-saturday-browne-from-ireland.html

Travel Tuesday: Ireland, Mom, Dad, and Me

Somewhere in Ireland, 1987

Many genealogist have written about preparing for a trip over The Pond to capture your ancestors' history and life in the very place they lived it. I always read those stories. Most show excellent organization and give plenty of tips for getting the most research in the allowed time. But for me, the best trip was the one I took with Mom and Dad to Ireland. It was seat of the pants but we did get a wee bit o' research done. Let me share with you my treasured memories of it.

I think it was 1987, or at least that's what the year is stamped on the back of the snapshots we took. I really wanted to go to Ireland with Mom and Dad because there were Irish ancestors on both sides and it sounded like fun... in my head.

Dad was unconvinced, and I can tell you what he said now that he's gone and can't complain. (He had a wonderfully delicious sense of humor and laughed at himself over this many times.) He said, "Why would anyone want to go to Europe. It's all old stuff there." When he got there he found he absolutely loved the old stuff to the very core of himself!  But before that Dad especially couldn't see spending good money to go to Europe, so we gave each of them their trip for Mother's Day then Father's Day. When Dad saw what we gave Mom he said something like, "I know where this is going," with a glum look. Mom was positively gleeful and started packing on the spot! I must say that it was amazingly inexpensive then! What happened?

We flew overnight and into Shannon Airport and got there so tired we looked like last month's laundry. Into the rental car (driving on the "wrong" side of the road, a phrase that makes Europeans grimace) and off down narrow roads picking our way to Limerick, then on to the Dingle Peninsula. The scenery was more spectacular than we could have imagined. It was too long a day as we followed a diesel smoke-spewing lorry for a very long time and got sort of nauseous. We were all grumpy and very jet-lagged before our heads hit blessed pillows the first night.

I will spare you the endless details of that trip, for which you'll undoubtedly thank me:) One story, please. We drove on perhaps the third day through the worst rain storm in memory. And, got a flat tire. Dad said, "Well what are we going to do now?" To which I replied, "Change it." It seemed like the only sensible answer, logically speaking. I insisted that they sit still while I did the manual labor, Dad protested, but I put my foot down. He acquiesced.

Out I went in my relatively new Burberry trench (also amazingly cheap then) putting it to the ultimate test. Got the jack in place and as I was making a fine effort to jack the tiny car up with the parents dry inside two young men stopped and asked about our welfare. They were completely smitten that I had "me Ma and me Da" with me, which is Irish for Mom and Dad. They changed the tire super fast! Thank you, boys!

Oh we took so many pictures, and now looking at them, faded and dark from over processing, I wish we had taken many more especially of the three of us together. People never mind when you ask them to take your picture so why do we not ask more?

We stuffed ourselves silly at those big Irish breakfasts and Mom and I agreed that Irish breakfast sausages were the very best food item in the whole world! Dad went for the soda bread spread thick with Irish butter and jam. By a late lunch time we were ready for pub grub. It was too much food for me but Dad loved being in the pubs and talking to people and telling them that his name was Francis Patrick Kelly.

In the evenings we'd pester the musicians at every pub to play Danny Boy, which was really meant to be sung by a girl. But eventually, because it was me Ma and Da, the boys would give in. We tipped well with tears in our eyes. (What is it about that song?!)

We went to Clonmacnoise, the monastical historic site that I often post photos of that were taken on this trip. We saw Temple Kelly  built in 1167, likely paid for by a landed and wealthy Kelly Clan of long ago, explored the graves looking for Kelly people and found some, but how they link to us we don't know. Dad insisted that he descended from a member of the Clan and decided on the spot to be buried there. (He changed his mind later and is buried in the town where he was born.)

We drove to Shannonbridge where my 2nd GGF was born and probably still has ancestors, if we could sort it out. We also visited the parish priest and got permission to look at the old registers and found him. I've posted about that before here.

We stayed at a couple of estates and ate salmon fresh from the stream. Took a pony cart ride. Kissed the Blarney Stone. Went to a tourist show at Bunratty Castle. It was hokey as all get out but the three of cried like babies at the end. We were "home" in Ireland.

On the flight back Mom was a tad antsy and clutched a package in her lap. I thought she got a special gift in the Duty Free shop. In the car ride from the airport she unwrapped the package still in her arms from the flight and it was... Irish breakfast sausage!! She had smuggled it through customs!! We're still laughing about that:)

Mom (the smuggler) and Dad somewhere in Ireland.

Dad and I at the Cliffs of Moher.

Dad kissing the Blarney Stone!

Travel Tuesday is a blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/travel-tuesday-ireland-mom-dad-and-me.html

 

DNA Monday: Countries of Ancestry Tool

Recently received my DNA results from 23andMe and am making my way through them and learning what each means as I go. So I thought wouldn't it be swell to post whatever small bit I've found each Monday for a short time thereby exploring some interesting (at least to me) aspects of the results and the way they are presented by 23andMe. Plus, I've received a few emails about previous posts from people interesting in taking the test. It might help them and it will help me slow down and try to understand the deeper meaning as I work on each post.

This week I'm taking a look at a tool that's found at the bottom of the list of "Ancestry Overview", within which is "Ancestry Tools", and then "Countries of Ancestry." (See below.)

 

"Ancestry Tools"

The "Countries of Ancestry" Tool

 

 

This tool is offered by an group within 23andMe, as I understand it, working on a project and looking for feedback as to its usefulness. Here's what it says about these tools:

23andMe Tools are features that may still be in development, require specialized knowledge or appeal to only some of our customers. We encourage you to try them out and let us know what you think!

 

Then it says about the Countries of Ancestry tool:

Ancestry Finder shows you the country each part of your genome may have come from. This lab is fueled by the 23andMe Community's responses to the "Where Are You From?" ancestry survey.

 

OK, so this special tool is another way to review where you think your ancestors came from vs. where the DNA test said they came from. (And correct me if I'm wrong.) We've seen the "Ancestry Composition" report page and here it is again in two of its forms and that's 23andMe's report on where they think my ancestors come from based on my DNA. By contrast, the Countries of Ancestry tool shows what they think and then gives you a shot at telling them what you now know based on your research. Me versus 23andMe:) Sort of.

 

So let's look again at the 23andMe Ancestry Composition report based solely on my DNA, below.

 

 

"Ancestry Composition" Report

"Ancestry Composition" Report Page

 

 

So, I'm looking at these two reports and asking what's the difference? Let's take a real close look at the results.

 

The "Countries of Ancestry" Tool

 

"Ancestry Composition" Report Page

 

 

Here are some observations:

* In the Countries of Ancestry Tool page, Ireland is separate from the United Kingdom and I like that, especially so close to St. Patrick's Day.

* But why is there such a whopping difference between the two when you add United Kingdom and Ireland (1.7% in total) in the top chart and 22.7% in the bottom?

* Finnish is .5% (top) and .6% (bottom), and that's close enough for me. Musta been a Viking on his trip to Ireland;) More likely, it was the result of my Workman / Woeterman ancestor's stay a generation in Holland.

* Where's French and German on the top chart? If my DNA is 4.1% then I'd expect something to show up, no?

* Grenada?! At .2%? Oh, now you're losing me. Or is that just a vestige of a connection between my DNA and some long ago Iberian Peninsula tryst between some ancient ancestors after the last Ice Age?

 

Thanks to Randy Seaver for paving the way and showing me it's OK to think in "long-ago" terms, and that I need to start thinking about some of this new information in terms of the Way Back machine and get informed about human migrations over many tens of thousands of years. As I read Randy's post, began to think back beyond what is now known to Mom and I about the ancestors. You can read his post here.

 

The next thing that caught my attention was the big green bar "Update Your Ancestry Survey", so I clicked there to take a survey of country of origin back to my grandparents. That was a little disappointing because I would think that anyone taking a DNA test to explore their ancestry would have a couple more generations at hand.

 

Then I slid down below the bar chart to another bar, this one turquoise color, that says "Download Diane Weintraub's Ancestry Finder Matches". Cool!! Maybe I'll find cousins here:) I downloaded and saved the spreadsheet matches and that's gonna take a while to process.

 

Then I find a small (to me) line of text near the top left that says "See How This Works" and click through. OK, here's a tutorial on this tool, and I need to spend time with it now that I have downloaded my Ancestry Finder Matches. Frankly, should have started here first.

 

There's also a line of text promising "Show Advanced Controls" and who doesn't like to play with advanced controls? That shifts the results too. I find that you can click on the line so I click on Ireland and now can see where my Irish genes are and on which chromosomes. That's fun. Then I notice there's a check box that says "Only show segments that belong to public individuals" and click there. I can mouse over a chromosome segment and up pops the match box of a possible "cousin". It's of course left to me to discover where we connect. Here's that screen and I'm loving it!

 

Have blocked out this guy's name for privacy.

 

This is probably too DNA-geeky for most and by now I've likely lost plenty of readers. Sorry... got carried away. You'll see when you get your test results back;)

 

Anyone else in haplogroup H3? I want to find out more about my haplogroup! And what the heck is a haplogroup anyway? So much to discover, so much fun:)

 

 

Photo of the Day from the Archive:

 

The two photos above were taken in 1986 when Mom, Dad and I went to Ireland to discover our roots and a couple of pubs. Mom found my 2nd GGF's tombstone in St. Michael's Cemetery, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland and saw that he was born in Shannonbridge Ireland, Clonmacnoise Parrish in 1828. If that wasn't on his tombstone we never would have made it here to the historic site of Clonmacnoise right on the beautiful Shannon River.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/dna-monday-countries-of-ancestry-tool.html

 



Treasure Chest Thursday: He Came From Ireland

The blogging prompt for today is to look in the Treasure Chest and see what's there that might tickle a fancy. This is one is easy... and I really do need a prompt today to get me going after my trip back East to see Mom!

I always go for the photos. To me they are the most evocative bit of family history and beg a story if one can be had. So here's my treasure to share with you.

What you see here is the tombstone of my 2nd GGF, John Kelly. When Mom was just beginning the long 40-year task of constructing our family tree, this is one of the places she started. The family knew little about our John Kelly who was born in Ireland and died in Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland. There was his tombstone, an Irish cross, for all the world to see up in St. Michaels Cemetery in Frostburg. Hard to read, it was, but Mom went again and again trying all the usual tricks of water and sunlight. Finally the rock revealed all it had and Mom recorded it.

John Kelly was born 22 June 1829 in Shannonbridge, Clonmacnoise (the parish name), Ireland. He died 28 June 1891. He married Bridget Cockrane, born Dec 1830 and died after 1910 but we have no good record of her death.

Shannonbridge is in Offaly County, Ireland. In 1854 Kelly was the 9th most common name in the county. And I'm willing to guess that there were more than one John Kellys about the countryside! Am just glad we're not Egans as they have 47 households in Offaly:)

Then in the 1980s Mom and Dad and I went to Ireland and visited Shannonbridge and the historical site of Clonmacnoise. They were just then putting the local parish records on computer and so we had to go see the priest for a permission note to view them. A long climb up a flight of stairs to the place were they were working on the files was paid off with our John Kelly's father's name: John Kelly born about 1800. He married Bridget Brown also born about 1800. And that's our brick wall because records back before that were burned in a fire. More's the pity.

The historical site of Clonmacnoise on the Shannon River.

I chose this as my treasure because it is the most tangible real object that connects me to Ireland. Without it I don't have any idea what I'd do on St Patrick's Day;)


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/10/treasure-chest-thursday-he-came-from.html

Why Do Genealogy? Really? You Have To Ask?

My last post concerned the Boomer folks and their work ethic... and their approach to doing genealogy, as a passion. (See below and Mr. Tanner's post on this subject.) One more thought: for many Boomers, work was mostly fun, if they did it right. There was a philosophy of work (and remember here that I worked in high-tech industries) that posed that if you didn't look forward to Monday morning, you really needed to look for a new job. Or start your own business.

I look at folks like Joel Weintraub (no relation that we know of) and Steve Morse who had passionate careers and then applied what they knew and loved to genealogy and are still hotly pursuing it. It's not that they were full time professional genealogists all their working lives. So there you have my thoughts to round out the previous post.

And here's a final thought on my own reasons for hotly pursuing genealogy. It's fascinating!! I can't wait to get back to my computer or open the mail or go to the Center and see what other information is out there waiting for me to find! My ancestors were all kinds of interesting!! And I bet yours were too:)

I don't have kids or grands so I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for me. But if I find out something that fills out the picture and story of my ancestor's lives, I can't wait to share it with others. But it's mostly for me:) So if it's for me why wouldn't I work as hard and as well as I possibly can at it?

It's funny, but after you retire people see you as this retired person and that's all. Very few think to inquire what kind of work you did. That's especially true for women. And that's enough about that.


Picture of the day from my Archive:

Clonmacnoise Ireland, a monastic site since 548,

on the Shannon River.

My Kelly ancestors came from

near here at Shannonbridge.

Photo taken on our trip in 1986.

Want to know more about this Irish Historic Site? Go to:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/clonmacnoise 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-do-genealogy-really.html

First Stop: Cousin Cynthia and a Suprise Guest!

This is the story, in parts, of my recent visit back east to see Mom and the family. It's personal but I do want to share it with you because it's really special and time spent with family is precious. I hope that you have such good times too sharing family and family history.

The first stop was to see Cousin Cynthia in Hagerstown, Maryland. It was raining but the rolling hills and farm land made a beautiful fall picture as we drove along. When we arrived, gracious hostess that she is, much to our surprise waiting for us was a beautiful repast... but even more surprising... her brother Cousin Mike and his wife were there!!

Cousin Mike and I hadn't seen each other in a boatload of years, so there was plenty of catching up to do. It was really good to see his wife too, who is also working on genealogy. When we were kids, maybe 4 or 5 years old, Mike went to the hospital and upon his return I said, "Oh, Mickey, my Mickey" and threw my arms around him. We were close to the same age but the years passed and we had separate lives. You know how it goes. Now he has two children and four grands. Lucky guy!

Cousin Mike and I on the left... and some neighbor kid there on the right.

The visit ran late because we talked up a storm and then got to watch a video of Cynthia and her husband's trip to Ireland just last summer. It was wonderful and covered the section of their trip to Clonmacnoise, our Kelly clan Irish home place, which is story in itself for another post.

Now here's a side note: Mom made a pot roast for us the day I arrived - and you haven't LIVED until you've tasted my Mom's pot roast and all the trimmings - but we got delayed at Cousin Cynthias. There was some confusion in communications and, well there you have it. Long story short, we got to Mom's late but had the pot roast the next day. And if pot roast can be even better the next day, it sure was!! Well worth the 5 hour flight and 3 hour drive in the rain just for that pot roast:) You shoulda been there!!

The next morning Mom and I got to work on genealogy and steam was coming out the door of her work room:) We got ourselves organized over coffee and then to work. I made copies of the last four family photo albums while she surfed the internet looking at details on the Kobel Indian Massacre. That will be the subject of my next post. Warning: it's gross!

Ireland By Proxy

Cousin Cynthia is still in Ireland and sending delicious emails to taunt me with her adventures... wish my own self was there!

She was at Clonmacnois (see post below). Here's a picture I took and it says 1986 on the back so that must have been when I was there.

That's the River Shannon you see in the mid distance.
Our GGGF was born in Shannonbridge not too far from here.

Yesterday she wrote:
We went to Temple Kelly and I got an inscription of a Patrick Kelly and his wife Winefred. He died in 1870 and his daughter Kate Kelly died at age 13. His son William was also buried with him with his wife Anna. That cemetery has become very famous and had 5 tour buses from Germany there when we were there. I could not find a Catholic cemetery in Shannonbridge. Having a blast and now in Galway at the G hotel. Will let you know if I find anything and let me know if you want me to look into anything further.

Then I wrote back:
Please tell me you took pix of those stones!!! Bet they are somehow related;) Have fun!!!

Then later she wrote:
Oh yeah, I took pics of the stones. Were you there? You know I have always loved poppies and rolling land with sparse trees. As we rolled into Shannonbridge, there were TONS of poppies lining the streets and a lot of rolling knolls. It was so strange; like I have been here before. As we walked to the cemetery, I just couldn't stop the tears from rolling; it was like I was back after a super long journey. Can't figure out what that means. Oh, well, having a great time discovering.

What it means is that, as two rank newbies, she is way smarter than I at this genealogy game and had her wits about her enough to take pictures! When I was there in the 1980s I was all about the tourist snapshots. Bummer. I sure am glad that if I can't be there my own silly self at least Cousin Cythia is there putting her camera to good use!

Grandfather John Lee Kelly and his Mother,
Christiana Eckhart Kelly, date unknown.