Three pink notebooks
My mother gave me three pink notebooks. They consisted of carefully compiled information on our Allen, Sweeney, Quinn and Kinsella ancestors and their descendants. My aunt, Helen Allen, had carefully collected and typed a great deal of this information; my cousin, Marjorie Allen, continued her efforts in researching and organizing the genealogical data for our family. These notebooks were the cornerstone of my ongoing research as they contained a wealth of information on our ancestors in America and their descendants, and a precious collection of artifacts- obituaries, news articles, family pictures, etc. The “brick wall” that genealogists always face, was, in this case, information on the family in Ireland, before they came to America.
The quest
On the week of St. Patrick’s Day (2014) I was laid up in bed with a broken ankle, and Ancestry.com offered a few days of free access to their Irish genealogy records. It seemed a good mix. I began the search for my ancestors in Ireland. As always, what started as a brief exploration quickly blossomed into a much longer quest to find out more about this branch of our family. (If you want to explore the beginnings of Allen information which I have posted on ancestry.com, my username there is janmariewv. Here is a link to the site:
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/67901618/family?cfpid=46176250816&selnode=1
If you have any problems feel free to send me your email on this blog and I will add you to my contact list there.) Also please feel free to invite other Allen descendants that you think might be interested in this. I very much appreciate any additions, corrections, artifact pictures, etc. which you may have for the ancestry site- this is very much a work in progress and those of you in Illinois may have a great deal of information to add! I also very much appreciate your thoughts and feedback on the blogsite- this is my first attempt at a blog!
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| Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Dangan, Summerhill Parish, Meath |
Parish Registries
My search on the Irish Records on Ancestry.com brought me to the marriage and birth records for Summerhill Parish (where we knew that our family attended church.) I found out that Irish infants of the time were generally baptized on their day of birth or very soon after. This led me to re-examine some of the birth dates which were listed in the notebooks, or enter a closer date for those which were approximations. It also showed sponsors for each baptism- a clue to family friends and relatives.
Google Earth and Google Maps
I wish I had known how close Summerhill was to Dublin when Mom and I visited Ireland! We could have been there in no time. I think we only had a vague idea of where Meath was, let alone Summerhill. Thank goodness for Google Earth and Google Maps because now I can do a virtual tour of the area. You can view an interactive map of the area that Hugh lived via Google maps here:
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z2xplTJpQDmE.k36UII-Kc9ik
The + sign on the lower right will allow you to zoom in closely to each area to and you can navigate with your mouse.
Griffith’s Valuation
Griffith’s Valuation, which was used in the 1850’s to determine taxes, was definitely the richest source of information, as there were no census figures available for Ireland until 1901- after our ancestors left (there was a tithe available for 1828, which was a help as well.) Griffith’s valuation showed our ancestors, their neighbors, and the value of their owned or leased land and homes. It also provided a key to where each person lived on a map of the area. To see the lists and the maps (you can zoom and search these) you can go to the Griffith's Valuation tab at:
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/
The civil districts in Ireland can be confusing. Although their church parish was Summerhill (and their local church was in Dangan) the civil parish our ancestors lived in was called Laracor. The civil areas they lived in were: County- Meath, Union- Trim, Civil Parish-Laracor, Townsland-Great Umberstown. (Although most of our ancestors referenced “Summerhill” as their point of origin, on Peter Allen’s grave it notes his birth in “Umberstown”- an important clue.)
Peter Allen (brother of Hugh Allen)
Burial: Sacred Heart Cemetery
Burchard, Pawnee County, Nebraska
Birth: unknown
Death: Jan 5, 1905
Inscription: aged 61 y. born in Umberstown, Ireland
(information from findagrave.com)
Website exploration
Findagrave.com is one of the many websites I have explored to find information about our ancestors and the times they lived in. I live in a rural area of West Virginia, so internet research works best for me. I have tried to list resources used to document the sources so you can search for further information if you are interested in a certain topic.