Category: Ireland

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Ireland Lucey Walsh

The House at 7 Harbour Hill

The only place I’ve ever seen a street address on a headstone is Cobh. Quite a few of them had an address, perhaps this is common in Ireland? On one particular stone, it was the same address mentioned in the 1923 obituary of my 3rd great-grand aunt Anne Mann

“Widow of John Mann, Carpenter. Chronic Nephritis. Daughter Mary E Mann present at death. 7 Harbour Hill”

This was a new address, Anne had lived at 36 Harbour Row in most of the records I’d seen. When we visited Cobh in February, one item on the to do list was to try to find graves for any Mann, Lucey or Walsh family members. There is no map or burial listing for St. Colman’s Cemetery, so we walked the rows looking for familiar surnames. I did the genealogy happy dance when I found this one (in my mind of course, I don’t dance and I was in the middle of a graveyard).

Mann headstone, St. Colman's Cemetery, Cobh, Ireland
Mann headstone, St. Colman’s Cemetery, Cobh, Ireland

Mary Ellen is the daughter of Anne mentioned in the obituary. Elizabeth is another daughter and pretty much my favorite person in the Mann family. She traveled back and forth from Cobh to America and lived with the Lucey’s in Haverhill and Groveland Massachusetts and left a wonderful paper trail. She is the reason I know that there was still family in Ireland! I didn’t know that she married (Fred Fryer in 1922) or that she had come back to Cobh after Fred died.

Who are Yvonne Wallace and Kate Buckley? What’s the connection to 7 Harbour Hill? We left the cemetery and walked back to town, passing by Harbour Hill to get a look at the house. Above the window is a painted sign that says “Buckley.”

7 Harbour Hill, Cobh, Ireland
7 Harbour Hill, Cobh, Ireland. There is nothing like the evening sun in Cobh, just beautiful.

With these clues, additional research uncovered that Mary Ellen and Elizabeth’s sister Anne married Thomas Buckley in 1910. They were living at this address in the 1911 census. Thomas was a house painter, his father was a builder and the sign above the window was an advertisement for the family businesses. Apparently sometime after 1911 Anne’s mother and sister moved in with them at 7 Harbour Hill.

Kate Buckley was Anne and Thomas’ daughter, she was a nun at the Carmelite Convent and died at the Bon Secours Home in Cork. Thomas and Anne had several other children according to some unconfirmed information, still working on that. I think one of the children still has living descendants in Ireland, potential distant cousins!

Yvonne Wallace was the infant daughter of the folks that lived at 5 Harbour Hill, not related as far as I’ve been able to find.

Thanks to Cork-based genealogist Margaret Jordan for her help locating obituaries and vital records to document these connections. I highly recommend her services and look forward to working with her again. More to come on the other discoveries she helped me make…

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Cemetery Ireland Lucey Walsh

Ireland Trip – Templerobin Cemetery, Cobh

In February we visited Ireland for the second time. In 2002 we went with the kids, this time it was just Sue and I. In the 13 years between trips, I’ve learned a lot about who my Irish ancestors were and where they were from, but there are always more mysteries. James Lucey and Mary Walsh were married in Cobh in 1841 and they had five children there, including my 2nd great-grandfather James, before leaving for America in 1853.

I have a million things to write about the family in Cobh. I learned so much over the past six months about them thanks to Margaret Jordan, a Cork-based genealogist that Sue hired for me as a Christmas present (Best. Present. Ever!) as well as visiting and walking the graveyards there.

More to come on what I found out, but I wanted to share some photos of the Templerobin Cemetery in the Ballymore section of Cobh. This cemetery is where my Walsh ancestors are interred, possibly some Lucey’s as well. We met with local David Verling who showed us around the cemetery. David is part of a community group that took ownership/responsibility for the cemetery after it had been left derelict for many years. His group has done an amazing job cleaning up the overgrowth and documenting any readable headstones. Not much is left in the way of records, so the efforts of preservation here were needed badly. I do have a copy of the transcriptions and I’m happy to do lookups, just email me (contact info on the About page). I eventually hope to digitize the data and make it public, with the permission of those that created it of course.

So, here are some of the photos, all photos copyright me, if you want to use one just ask.

IMG_1489 IMG_1488 IMG_1487 IMG_1486 IMG_1485 IMG_1484 IMG_1482 IMG_1481 IMG_1479 IMG_1478 IMG_1474 IMG_1472 IMG_1471 IMG_1470 IMG_1468 IMG_1464 IMG_1463

Me and David Verling at the Cobh Heritage Center
Me and David Verling at the Cobh Heritage Center

 

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52Ancestors Donoghue Ireland Lucey

52 Ancestors #29: Patrick J O’Donoghue

In the late 90’s we visited my great-aunt Betty (Lucey) Bedard and her family in Toronto. She knew I was interested in family history and she had a number of old family photos and documents to share, she gave me some, others I photocopied (no cell cameras at the time). One of my favorite photos she gave me was of Patrick Joseph O’Donoghue.

PatrickJODonoghue

On the back of the photo is written “Patrick Donohue Ireland next to Montana” and ” Mary Corson’s grandmothers brother Hanna Donohue Lucey”. I don’t know about Montana, but I do know that Patrick was not Hanna Donohue Lucey’s brother, he was her nephew. But I understand the confusion, you see, both of Patrick’s parents were Donoghue’s.

His father was also named Patrick, his mother Catherine was Johanna (Donoghue) Lucey’s sister, which makes Patrick my first cousin 3 times removed.

Patrick was born 16 February 1874 in Glenflesk, County Kerry, Ireland and came to America around 1895. In 1905, he was in San Francisco, CA where he married Nora Williams. They had 5 children, Catherine, John, James, Thomas and Bernard. According to census records Patrick was a car inspector for the street railroad there for many years. He died 7 April 1958 and is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, CA [which is known as “the city of the silent”, the dead outnumber the living 1000 to 1!].

A side note, Patrick’s brother Florence stayed in Shronaboy, Glenflesk, the family homestead of Catherine and Johanna’s father John (Sean Con) O’Donoghue [link is to a transcription of an 1896 letter from John to Johanna], thus keeping the farm in the O’Donoghue name, although not in the same patrilineal line. The descendants of Florence still live there today.

This post is 29th in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge series.

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52Ancestors Ireland Lucey

The One That Stayed 52 Ancestors: #12 Anne Lucey Mann

When my Lucey’s came to America in 1852 they left daughter Anne in Ireland, she was probably only 10 years old. I wonder why she stayed, perhaps she was sick and couldn’t travel. And who she lived with, did some other family members remain? I only found out about Anne because her daughter Elizabeth came to America and stayed with family in Haverhill and Groveland, Massachusetts (censused as “niece” in 1900 and 1910). From Elizabeth’s passenger records, I was able to find Anne and her family in the 1901 and 1911 Ireland Censuses.

The Cover Page of the 1901 Ireland Census for the Mann family
The Cover Page of the 1901 Ireland Census for the Mann family

The family lived at 36 Harbour Row in Cobh or Queenstown as it was known then, in County Cork. Some additional location info is also captured on the form including:
Barony: Barrymore
Parish: Templerobin
Townland: Kilgarvan

In the 1901 Census the family consists of:

John, age 61, a carpenter born in London
Anne, age 49 [this might be 59], wife, born in County Cork
Mary Ellen, age 29, dressmaker, born in County Cork
Anne, age 20, dressmaker, born in County Cork

In 1911, things have changed a bit. Anne is now a widow and there’s a son listed, John age 38 that wasn’t listed with the family in 1901. An additional question was asked in this census, number of children born and living, to which Anne answered 9 and 7 respectively. I know of only 4 children, Mary, John, Elizabeth and Anne. So more research to do there, sounds like a good reason to visit Ireland again!

1911 Ireland Census Mann
John Arthur Mann, Anne’s husband, died 27 Feb 1906 and is buried in Templerobin Cemetery in Cobh. Son John is also buried there, he died 16 Feb 1935. I don’t have any additional information on Anne or her daughters. I’m hoping there are some descendants out there, please contact me via comment or email if you are connected.

This post is 12th in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge series.

[1]  National Archives. Census of Ireland, 1901/1911 [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie]. Dublin, Ireland.