In search of lost relatives

Friday 3 June

First thing drove to  Tralee, Co Kerry to check out archives there, for M's search for lost relatives. We were directed to the County Library, the family history section & bingo, straight away found the record of the marriage of Margaret Fitzmaurice & Michael Sullivan in 1856, parish recorded as Moyvane, which was one of the parishes narrowed down yesterday in Ennis. We also found lists of children baptised but parents seemed to be mixed up somehow.  We drove to Moyvane, really backtracking the way we had come & found the priest, what an experience, (least said soonest mended)  What I referred to earlier with transcription errors seems to have happened here as we found a baptism record for Margaret Fitzmaurice & the transcription had different parent’s names to the original – when we were allowed to see it – priest not exactly willing, now I understand that he is the custodian of the records but really! Anyway off the original entry of the marriage, got townlands of ……. which priest told us was about 5 ks down a certain road. Drove out that way & M determined to find an old house (any old house would do) about 5 ks down the road & take a photo of it. We stopped at little old house & the chap came out & talk about the luck of the Irish, it turned out that he had purchased the house from a Fitzmaurice! He directed us to the house of Gabriel F about 2 ks away & what a result for M, G not home but his wife was & was very welcoming & felt sure that  M was a relative, invited us in & cups of tea & got out the family history which had been done by the US branch of the Fitzmaurice family.

G came home & lovely chap, he is a published poet & was the local headmaster prior to retirement. We arranged to come back the next day & he would take us to the old family homestead which had been in the F family until just recently.

Kerry countryside more like English country & we took the ferry from Tarbet to Killimer & drove to Kilrush & found a B&B. Kilrush I understand was (along with Limerick) stepoff point for ferries from Ireland to Liverpool to board immigrant ships for Australia. Most unusually for an old Irish town, Kilrush has some very wide streets.

Tarbet ferry, Killimer in the distance

Wide main street of Kilrush Co Clare

Kilrush harbor

Had tea in Crottys pub  and we were having a little giggle about a portrait of a woman hanging on the wall who M thought looked like Mrs Doubtfire, turned out she was Mrs Crotty , the matriarch of the Crotty family & wellknown local musician & our giggles were a considered quite irreverent. Meal v good though, roast duck breast & veg , I said to M where’s the mash, & when I lifted the duck breast skin, there it was,  making the breast look very plump! Bit of a cheat.

Mrs Crotty

Plump duck breast for tea at Crottys pub

Thursday 2 June 2011 Co Clare to Co Kerry

Made an early start but decided we would visit the reclusive cousin first, just in case, he was up & dressed – quite dapperly(?) – we expected to find some some illkempt old hermit with matted hair etc. No family resemblance with him, (unlike your man Ger in the pub) & not sure what he was trying to tell us, but we managed to get out of him that back in 19^th c Linnane family had land & a cottage which was right on the roadside about 500m out of town on the Corrofin road.

Drove there & took photos, no idea if anything to do with Linnane forbears but all we had to go on.

Possible Linnane cottage (as advised by Fachy L) didn't look that old to me

Onto Ennis, the county town of Co Clare, & a lovely little city. The centre is all narrow little streets & old buildings, had fun finding a park, finally – after a couple of rounds – found a park in multistory carpark behind the centre of town and as we were walking into the department store to which carpark was attached, spied the reclusive cousin coming the other way with another chap – so smart togs were for a trip to town & he does usually hang around with hayseeds in his hair! 

Street in Ennis town centre

Ennis was the birthplace of James Costelloe, father of  Timothy. We easily found the Costelloe Real Estate & had a chat with David Costelloe, very charming, however he did not think there was any connection because as far as he knew his family originated in Kildysart. 

We then spent some time in the family history centre where the chap was most helpful, but to no avail for me, but for M he narrowed down the 4-5 parishes in Kerry that the Fitzmaurice name appeared, so that proved very useful later on.

From Ennis we drove to Shanagolden in Limerick, birthplace of M’s GG GF, Michael Sullivan. After making some enquiries managed to locate the priest’s sister (where he eats every night) but he had eaten already. A very kind lady, she rang him for us – he was busy preparing for a wedding & would be free at 8pm- then rang the pub for accommodation, lady there tied up & would ring back & confirm & then she recommended we go across the street for tea otherwise we would miss out & she would run across when she heard back from the pub, phew. A nice tea, fish and chips, a menu item which features often in Ireland – they love their fried food! Meanwhile priest’s sister came over to let us know, no rooms at the inn & she had booked us at the B&B at Foynes – just up the road – what a kind lady!

After tea down to the priest’s house -  amazing that one man needs a large two story house – anyway most accommodating  with the parish records but to no avail as we did not find Michael Sullivan in the records. Issue is with these records that they were transcribed from the original in a work for the dole scheme, original entries were in Latin, & as we found in later investigation, some errors ensued. Anyway had long chat to the priest about the state of the nation etc & he revealed that he loved Italy, it was his spiritual (and I don’t think he meant in the religious sense) home, in fact he got a call while we were there & said goodbye with ‘ciao ciao’  ….   Well!

By this time it was 10pm &  unsure about the headlights, lots settings & not really obvious, priest assisted with the comment  “You’ll be foine with those to Foynes”

4ks down the road to Foynes & accommodation very nice, said to M – this may cost more than usual budget!  We had a nightcap in the bar, where 4 older ladies were playing cards.

Foynes Inn, where we spent the night

Kilfenora Co Clare & the Burren

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Good night's sleep, basic accomodation, but clean, used by burren walkers, at breakfast we spoke to 2 couples who had been in the pub the previous night, we had thought perhaps German, however in the am sounded French & transpired they were from Strasbourg French Alps near German border & they were speaking a local dialect., bit French & bit German. The wives, about our age, one school welfare officer & other teacher, both retired, but husbands still working, teacher & forestry worker. Had a good chat over breakfast on the state of the nation, EU economy etc & one thing they mentioned which I thought was very interesting was that with the GFC various EU countries going bad, but Germany not among them & that this was of great concern to people of their parent’s generation who had been through WW2 & were already jumpy after the reunification of East & West Germany that once again Germany was big & strong! Hadn’t even occurred to me.

First up we went to the priest to see if he could offer any further info. But although we found the records in original book nothing further discovered. Priest – Father Crosby - was a classic, like out of Father Ted & he made a couple of calls for us on the spot – conversation went something like – in broad Irish accent – “Oive got a couple of Australians here wanting to find out about some fella called Linnane who lived here about 75,000  years ago”  He had no luck on his calls, but said he’d keep trying & call in at the hostel if he had any luck

Kilfenora main street

Kilfenora is the site of a cathedral dating to 12^th century, partly ruins, home to celtic crosses from that era, and the first cathedral in Ireland, there was an abbey there from 6^th century by a St Fachtnan. We investigated the graveyard around the old cathedral, plenty of Linnanes but no way of knowing if relations or not.
By that time Linnanes pub was open, Kilfenora is the home to Kilfenora Céilí Band, famous Irish music band, & long time member Kitty Linnane (now dead) is the present publican Gerard’s mother. Gerard was behind the bar & a distinctly tepid reception from "your man Gerard" when I explained my enquiry, ie how long his family had been in the town & what he knew about previous generations etc , his reaction went something like this “Well you are probably more interested in that than I am, I have plenty of cousins & I knew my grandparents”  M & I just looked at each other and I said to Ger – I will be back tonight & I have something to show you….  More later

Old cathedral ruins from 12th C Kilfenora

Field behind the hostel Kilfenora, note the celtic cross

Countryside around Kilfenora

Portal tomb in the Burren from Neolithic period, between 4200 & 2900 BC

The Burren - stony place - limestone pavement landscape

West coast Co Clare

We drove around the town & rural Ireland, narrow winding roads, lots of granite drystone walling as field fences, not many tall trees, and the few there were bent over by the wind. The Burren itself a real moonscape only dark grey. Looked at ancient burial tombs, quite a popular spot, buses & the lot, I hope not to meet one of the buses on the road, given the width of the road & whatever shoulder there is falls away to deep ditch. M commented that it was a pity they couldn’t find something to mine in the area to help the economy. I think that the burren is a protected geographical feature and helped the economy by tourism.

The day was awful - rain, wind, but we battled the elements (& the roads) up to Ballyvaughan, which was a very pretty little coastal village, (which I think was friend CH grandmother’s birthplace) From there we went onto Doolin & stopped for a cup of tea at the famed O’Connors pub. The place was fairly hopping at 3 in the afternoon, with people eating vast meals with once again the extra big bowl of mashed potatoes (as well as chips) Spoke to a couple from Ennis who had come out for a meal, discussed plan of driving along Cliffs of Moher, they thought too foggy and we wouldn’t see them, but we gave it try anyway & drove on…….until thick fog enveloped the car. No no, narrow winding roads, uphill, downdale & thick fog, I don’t think so.

It was quite late by the time we got back to Kilfenora, but the priest had left a note with Orla at the hostel, so we walked over to see him, he didn’t have anything extra to provide, though he had spoken to Gerard L’s cousin, who was a historian but reclusive type of chap. Information he provided however, unsure of the relevance.  Headed to Linnanes pub armed with the photos of great grandfather Timothy Costelloe, G not there but young chap behind the bar, who turned out to be G’s son, nearly fell over when he saw the photos, as TC & G as alike as peas in a pod, strong family resemblance (& not just because of balding head & beard!) Anyway G returned from funeral he had been at & after a while (yes it took some time – he was a hard nut to crack) he conceded that there may be some similarity. 

I had wanted to add the picture of g  gf TC (for comparison purposes) but it is a funny format & wouldn't link in, I will have to try later.

Orla from the hostel had told us that there was Irish music at Linnanes on Wednesday night, so we decided to eat there, but G said he hadn’t started it yet as business has been so quiet. (talking to others on the trip it turns out that pubs really suffering due to the economy, young ones get a slab from the offlicence & get tanked at home – much cheaper, who would have thought – in Ireland! Another B&B chap we spoke to later on, thought it was about time pubs suffered, they had been the root of all evil in Ireland, taking food out of the mouths of children etc)

The no music  being on at the pub was a bit embarrassing for us as we had passed on the info to the French couples at the hostel & they had come also,  Not to worry, had a chat with G & took some photos for Mum, she will be very chuffed and G asked for a copy of the photos which I will email when I get home. We had our first Irish stew for tea, very nice, meatier than I thought.

At this stage in the proceedings it dawned on us that we had only Thursday & Friday if we wanted to make use of local archive centres as it was a bank holiday on Monday & we flew home on Tuesday, so back to Vaughans pub to settle up with Orla so we could get an early start the next morning.