Family Research Day

We've had a very pleasant day meeting up with Tony's cousins and furthering his family research.  This morning we drove south to Carrowntample, the village where Tony's mother and her four siblings lived their early years.  We parked up at the cemetery and soon PJ arrived and we passed an enjoyable hour or so discussing family matters and filling some gaps in the jigsaw.  There were four sets of families in this immediate area with the same surname as Tony's Mum.  The feeling is that they were all once related but the records from those days either never existed, because the local churches did not have to keep them or because they were in the Dublin Records Office which was burned down during the Troubles.  I took my blip of the men returning from the family house, which once had four rooms and is now a cowshed.  I was not surprised by the similarities in gait and look of the cousins as they walked towards me.

After saying our goodbyes to PJ we drove to Ballaghaderreen, the town which Tony's Mum would visit for shopping.  There we settled in the OneSquare Café and ordered soup before the arrival of Mary.  We then passed another enjoyable hour or so catching up with Mary and filling some more gaps in the jigsaw whilst throwing out some pieces!  Hopefully we will return next year with sister in law Mary.

Not finished with research yet we drove to Gurteen to the Coleman Music Centre which is a heritage centre for excellence in Irish Music.  Adrian in the Heritage Centre in Sligo had recommended it as a place where local folks may have more information Tony could use.  Unfortunately, the man in the know was away in the States so it was an interesting place to drop into but not very useful.  Instead we walked through the town to the Church frequented by the family to see if we could track down any records.  The priest was doing some housekeeping and was a little reluctant to give us time but to give him his due, he did bring out some records which were new to Tony and enabled him to confirm some of the information he already had.  That done we turned for home.

The weather is still holding so tomorrow it's up Benbulben Mountain we go!