Genealogical Gems

Samhain (pronounces sow-en) is Celtic festival which celebrates the end of harvest, beginning of winter and our ancestors. It is a festival of our Dead. Selena Fox offers some great modern ways to celebrate Samhain and honor our ancestors and deceased loved ones. Video credit: YouTube Selena's website: http://www.selenafox.com/ © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015

Yesterday I had a great time at the PA Renaissance Faire dancing with the band Tartanic (yes I really did get up and dance with the drummers! Bagpipes were awesome too.). A conversation afterward with them made me think about tartans and how they are different than a Coat of Arms, tho similar. So this week I will search for what tartans my family had and try an answer some of my related questions (like which one can I wear if I have several Irish lines?). Do YOU know your tartan?

Paul Keating was sworn in as the 24 th Prime Minister of Australia On This Day (20 December) in 1991. He defeated Bob Hawke. He served as Prime Minister until 1996, when he was defeated by John Howard. Keating is the son of Matthew and Minnie Keating. He was born in 1944 near Sydney . In 1975 he married Annita van Iersel. They had four children before separating in November of 1998. They officially divorced in 2008. A personal note: I remember reading (here in the American media) when Keating was sworn in as PM. I was so excited to finally see another Keating in the news ... and then I saw he was in Australia. My Keating line is from Ireland. I did not realize/know until that time (1991) that many convicts went to Australia. There were many who simply chose to settle there as well. In fact, while America may have a higher number of Irish descendants, Australia has a higher percentage of Irish descendants!   Australian Research: The Museum Victoria offers a b...

New County Down and County Antrim Church of Ireland Records and Belfast Roman Catholic Records Online The Irish Family History Foundation is pleased to announce that it has just added over 16,000 Church of Ireland baptismal records for County Down along with over 8,000 Roman Catholic records for Belfast. The records were transcribed by Dr Brian Trainor, former Director of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The following Churches have been added: Name Denomination Type Years Number Killinchy Church of Ireland Baptisms 1820-77 418 Blaris Church of Ireland Baptisms 1661-1720 7709 Magheralin Church of Ireland Baptisms 1783-1870 6628 Bangor Church of Ireland Baptisms 1803-43 1050 Ballywalter Church of Ireland Baptisms 1845-75 125 Ardkeen Church of Ireland Baptisms 1746-1871 541 St Patrick's Belfast Roman Catholic Baptisms 1924-1931 3823 St Joseph's Belfast Roman Catholic Baptisms 1900-1921 3344 St Jos...

Dennis O'Flaherty .... where did you come from? Born around 1834-1839 somewhere in Ireland, Dennis is not easy to find in his early years. For better or worse, O'Flaherty is a common Irish surname. I have no record of his parents identity or them immigrating with him. Thus I can safely assume he either came over with older siblings as a child or came by himself as an older teen or young adult. Unfortunately that does not narrow down my search for his immigration records. I do know he and Martha Durkin were married here and the kids were all born here. Since James and Mary were born in 1868, I can probably assume that Dennis and Martha were married circa 1866. The O'Flahertys are found mainly in Tipperary, Limerick and Clare. (1) The texts I have will be helpful once I get a location. On all his records - that I have found so far - simply state "Ireland" as his birthplace. He was never specific. Ancestry.com includes immigration records. One record is a pot...

March has been Irish American History Month for many years. On Thursday, 28 February, President Obama finally proclaimed - as so many presidents before him - that March be Irish-American History Month! The Proclamation reads: For more than two centuries, America has been made and remade by striving, hopeful immigrants looking for a chance to pursue their dreams. Millions among them were born in Ireland, separated from our shores but united by their belief in a better day. This month, we celebrate the Irish-American journey, and we reflect on the ways a nation so small has inspired so much in another. Generations of Irish left the land of their forebears to cast their fortunes with a young Republic. Escaping the blight of famine or the burden of circumstance, many found hardship even here. They endured prejudice and stinging ridicule. But through it all, these new citizens never gave up on one of our oldest ideas: that anyone from anywhere can write the next great chap...

Surname Saturday is a weekly prompt by GeneaBloggers which focuses on a patricualr surname. This week I have chose DURKIN. My great-great grandmother was Martha Durkin, the daughter of Patrick Durkin and Abyan Murphy. Martha is also one of my immigrant ancestors. She was born 1 August 1839 in Ireland. She immigrated and once here settled in the Phoenixville, Chester County, PA area. It was there she married Dennis O'FLAHERTY, also from Ireland. Together they had eight children. The youngest - Catherine - is my great grandmother. Etymology Most sources (that is I have not found any to contradicte) seem to agree that Durkin is from the Gaelic Mac Duarcáin‘son of Duarcán’. Kilmoremoy is a civil parish that is locatedin both County Mayo and County Sligo. My grandmother always said this branch of our family came from Sligo but I have never found any documentation one way or the other ... yet. The crest above is from Irish Abroad . Everything seen in the crest means somethin...

Last month - yes I do mean November, can you believe it is December already! - we rearranged our apartment when our oldest daughter moved back in. My things literally got moved in piles and boxes so I have been looking forward to today's Sorting Saturday! First on my stack are the twins' first marking period report cards. Both did really well. I found a flyer from their 6th grade choral concert. I only found one though and they were both in it. I also found a relatively recent immunization record for my oldest daughter. Off they go to their own respective files. I came across a list of four churches in Shenandoah. These are Roman Catholic churches, one of which I am hoping to find information on my Walsh and Keating ancestors. My Keating s - specifically Anna Keating - lived in Ringtown just down the road. At some point the Keatings moved to Shendaoah where she met and married Michael Walsh. We went up to Shendoah last summer and spoke with people  at the Greate...

While the rain outside this morning feels and even smells great, it does alter my morning outing just a wee bit. I hate making deliveries in the rain so I decided to work on my Irish immigrants. The rain - we'll blame it on the rain - has fogged up my thought process evidently. Here I've been searching the records online at Ellis Island for my immigrant Martha Durkin. I could not find her anywhere so I found a helpful site that tells me common nicknames and such (since Irish people rarely seem to go by their given names).  It tells me that Martha is also commonly found as (nicknames): Polly, Patsy, Marnie, Mart, Marty, Mat, Mattie. The Irish also like Marta. I searched for females beginning with M and then females beginning with P then all Durkin females. Then ... Then I realized that Martha - who came over as a child - was born in 1839. Ellis Island did not open its doors until 1892. My Martha would have been 53. Obviously Martha did not come through Ellis Island. ...

This year I set 10 genealogy related goals for myself. The first of which was to find my maternal great grandmother on a passenger list from Ireland to the US . So far, she remains elusive. What I do know: Mary is the daughter of James Kilpatrick. He stayed behind but Mary and her six siblings came to the United States . They were: Margaret, Martha, Theresa, Nora, James and John. Mary was born on 12 November 1884 in County Mayo , Ireland . She came here and found employment near Philadelphia on the Main Line . That is where she met Pierson George Still, a blacksmith from Unionville. They married in 1908. In 1909 they had a daughter Margaret who sadly only lived two months. The next year she bore a son, James Franklin Still, who lived to be 68. Uncle Jim was a character!   In 1913 another daughter – Dorothy – was born but also passed that same year. The following year my grandfather Lloyd Pierson Still was born. Like Uncle Jim, he lived a full life, passing at age 79. In Feb...

My maternal grandmother - Mary Welsh Still - was 100% Irish. My maternal grandfather - Lloyd Pierson Still - was 50% Irish. They have both passed now but each year my cousins (there are six of us grandkids) remember fondly this day. My grandmother decorated more for this holiday than she did for Christmas! She was Roman Catholic. He was raised Protestan. We wore the green but also threw in the orange! Oh how that upset my grandmother that we dared to wear orange on that special day! In tracing Irish roots, there are a few invaluable resources to mention. One is Griffith's Valuation. It is a survey of property ownership in Ireland from 1848 to 1864. It was used to tax people and can be found at http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths.php . The site: http://www.failteromhat.com/index.php  also has links off to several invaluable FREE references. Another useful site is http://www.irishorigins.com/ . It is a resource site for Irish and British records. Another site is http://www.cen...