Library visit

I've known for a while that my local Palmerston North library provided access to both Ancestry (library edition) and Find my Past- but I had never explored using either of them. Sunday afternoon was my time to remedy that. I took my laptop with me in case the library computers were busy, as you can access Ancestry once you are on the library wifi. FindMypast you actually have to be on a library computer to access. The library had two computers with these websites on, and fortunately there was no problem at this time of the day/week getting access.

My great-grandfather, Jeremiah Malone has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I knew the family was living in Ballinadrideen, near Charleville, Co Cork, Ireland. I also had a precious family photo of him, but I knew little more about him.

Jeremiah Malone

I had seen the 1901 census return for the family before on the National Archives of Ireland website, when his age was stated as being 75. Somehow the way FindMyPast set out his details from the census helped his age 'jump out' at me. He was 75, and 20 years older than his wife Margaret. FindMyPast also listed his birth year as 1826. An exploration for another time will be to investigate whether this is just an estimate, or whether a record actually exists. (After coming home I tried looking up the Ballyhea Parish baptismal records, which do exist for the 1824-8 time period, but they were hard to read, and I didn't 'find' him there on a quick look.)

It turned out that findmypast had transcriptions for Irish deaths 1864 -1958, and I was able to find the transcription of the likely death entry for my Jeremiah Malone in 1906, but no image. I noticed the copyright was listed as being FamilySearch, so I investigated further on there when I arrived home. Still no image though. It took me a while before I found the link for historic Irish civil registrations, and now knowing his death date, bingo, I found the image of the death registration for Jeremiah Malone, resident in Ballinadrideen, Ballyhea. It's strange how it suddenly feels as if I 'know' Jeremiah a little more, as if he has some clothes over his mystery.

 The death entry of the time didn't list the names of any parents though, but that is something I might explore 'next time' I go and use the library computer. "Maurice Malone" who was informant who was present at the death, is a brother of my grandmother, Margaret Malone, and thus my great-uncle.

I was able to print off pages from findmypast at the library for just ten cents a page, which was handy.

Using Ancestry Library edition was interesting. I couldn't directly sign in to the family tree I have created- so next time I will take details of any 'hints' I want to investigate with me. But I navigated a few things, like electoral rolls in Canterbury where I found Patrick Riordan listed over a wide time period. It was handy to know I could e-mail this home, check it again on my home computer, and leave it sitting there on my 'discoveries' page.

Filing the non-filed...

Another consequence of last weekend's expo- checking my filing system... Now, some of it isn't too bad. Two(?) years ago I re-organised all the papers I had scanned and digitised into a slightly different folder arrangement. Has mostly worked well. Only problem has been my tendency to take screen shots- mostly of my latest fascinating rabbit-hole from Papers Past!!!!- and leave them on the desktop without naming or filing them. I really must cure myself of this habit.

In the last few days I have at least put the screenshots into the appropriate folder, or nearly... First two levels of the system look good. The third level... yes I know.... another day!

Now- although *most* of the papers are sorted into relevant digital folders, a *wee* pile of actual un-filed and unsorted papers still remain. I will look at this pile presently. Whether I look and sort, or look and put away again, is of course entirely another question!


UPDATE: It wasn't nearly as bad as it looked. Mostly it was in relevant plastic sleeves.

I re-found some info I had already acquired in my focus on discovering more about my mysterious John Riordan of unknown end. I feel inspired to search for him some more now...

I also re-found the 1844 Burke baptism record that my 3rd cousin iwikiwi had sent me, that seems to narrow down the village and parish we came from in Co Mayo.Yeah! (Glad I had printed it off, as I lost a lot of e-mails down a gurgler when Spark changed from Yahoo to their own e-mail system.)

Family History Expo -Follow-up!

I'm home again after a very interesting weekend in Auckland, learning so many things about how to research more about my family history.

I'd barely unpacked before I had visited Fiona Brooker's website, to downloads her Leeds method worksheet. Can't wait to go out and buy some coloured pencils to doodle on it. There's just the small matter of having to do a DNA test first!!! (Waiting for an Ancestry special.)

And if I hadn't heard the talk by Cyndi about how to build a digital research plan, I would have had no idea about her evernote templates- there is just so much info on her site. And after a bit of exploration, I can see that I need to bookmark her categories page for frequent use.

Another key resource. Patient Genie has redone Cyndi's resource checklist for us downunder. 

Have already decided that my first use of a strategy à la Cyndi will be to try and learn more about one or two mysterious John Riordan's in my tree. There was a John Riordan, brother-in-law, who was a witness who signed Mary Burke's death registration in 1892. His residence was "Christchurch". but I really know nothing more about him yet.

There was a death of a John Riordan in Christchurch, but the age seemed wrong. It's time I got a better strategy underway to identify my John Riordan and find him. Having listened to Fiona Brooker's Legacy webinar just last week, I now know about using electoral rolls on Ancestry- will just have to get down to the Palmy library to use their computer.

But there's more....  In January this year I was blindsided by the advent of a previously unknown John Riordan from Mosgiel, via Papers Past- or could he be a very old version of the first one? In 1931 this John from Mosgiel had travelled all the way from Mosgiel to Tututawa, in the backblocks of Stratford, to help my great-aunt Bridget Norris (nee Malone), while her husband was in hospital with a broken leg. (Doesn't actually sound like something an old man would do...)

So, time to get more methodical as I search to 'flesh out' the story/ies of these two (?) John Riordans!

But for now, it's just gone 7am on a Monday morning and genealogy needs to be put aside as the teaching week calls!

Sincere thanks to the Auckland Council Libraries, the NZ Genealogical Group, and the many volunteers for all the work involved in organising and running such an event.

Auckland Family History Expo 2019

My third cousin Maggie - a fellow Burke descendant- has a lot to answer for, and in this case inspired me to toddle off to Auckland for the weekend for a family history expo, organised by the Auckland Council Libraries and many other genealogy volunteers.

Day 1 was intense and useful brain food!

First up the speaker was Cyndi Ingle from the US, who spoke about building a digital research plan to answer a specific research question. This talk will probably have the most long-term influence for me. Cyndi spoke about having a very specific question to start with, then analysing what you already know, and identifying all the possible sources of records that might hold information to answer the question, before making a To Do List and research strategy. She talked about keeping a draft log of what research you complete, and also a report on your findings, and how all these things can be part of one document. I know I am unlikely to do this to the extent Cyndi did, but I am sure I will become more logical and structured in my approach. (OK, so yes, I will probably still go down some fascinating Papers Past rabbit holes!!!)

Raymond Naisbitt, direct from Utah, gave two of the talks I attended about using Family Search.This rich database has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, and I have never used it successfully. But I now understand far more about different ways to access the various records within. Sunday’s session will focus on strategies for using the Big Four record types for Ireland.

Fiona Brooker gave a very informative and clear explanation of how to get more out of your DNA results. I was one of the few in the room who haven’t tested yet, but after attending a day-long workshop in Feilding recently given by Michelle, the Patient Genie, and now attending Fiona’s talk, I think I will test with Ancestry ‘soon’- will just wait for a ‘special’ price to come up. If I can, I will ‘catch’ Fiona tomorrow, as I think we might have some shared Payn-Honey cousins- 2nd cousins for me, not sure which variety for her- and I am not sure how that kind of ‘by marriage’ link would show up in a DNA test.

The last talk of the day was by Dr Nick Barratt from England, who gave a totally engaging talk about how he researched an ancestor of his who turned out to be a ‘spy’. I was in awe of the way he drilled down to get such specific details out of the archival records, and how he then turned all his information into such a wonderful story.

So, a good night’s sleep- and it will time to do it all again...

Annie Riordan: Sr M St Majella RNDM

My grandfather Martin Riordan had five siblings, all born on the Riordan-Burke family farm at Charing Cross in Canterbury NZ. So far on this blog I have written briefly about my three Riordan-Burke great-uncles, John (a priest), Patrick Joseph (a farmer) and James (who died in WW1). But I also have two great-aunts in this line of my family, Bridget and Annie Riordan. Today I'll write about Annie, who became Sr M St Majella RNDM.

Annie Riordan was the sixth and last child born to Patrick Riordan and Mary Burke, on 23rd August 1891. Her mother Mary was already suffering from TB at the time of her birth, and she died in March 1892 while Annie was still only a baby.

Annie was baptised just two days after her birth, on 25 August 1891, by Rev James J O’Donnell, her father Patrick’s first cousin. Sponsors were Thomas Burke and Joanna Halpin.

This photo shows Annie Riordan on the left, next to her sister Bridget. (Annie reminds me very much of my sister Katherine in this photograph.) An inscription on the back implies that this photo was originally sent to cousin Jeremiah, who I think was almost certainly their cousin Jeremiah Malone in Ballinadrideen, Co Cork.

Annie excelled in music. She obtained her ATCL in piano in 1909. She passed an intermediate exam in Harp in 1907. She sang as part of a concert for the bishop in 1905. In the biography of her in the archives of the Mission Sisters order it said that she ‘was naturally gifted with a beautiful voice, …which she gave ungrudgingly to the service of God, particularly her voice, when singing in the Chapel — God’s praises.’

She became a boarder at the Sacred Heart convent when quite young, and entered the Novitiate at the early age of 15, on 6 January 1908.

Her biography says she ‘had inherited Consumption’ from her mother, but with the great care bestowed upon her, it appeared she had grown out of it. However, in November 1910 she had an attack of gastric influenza that left her weak. Five weeks before her death she took to her bed and the illness progressed rapidly. On 20 June 1911 she was administered the last Sacrament by the priest.

I was told by Sr Martina Burke that Annie’s brother John came up from the Seminary when she was in her last illness, and was called in the early hours when her end was near. He ran over to the convent without even doing up his shoelaces.

Annie died of TB on 7 July 1911 at the convent of the Mission Sisters in Lower High St, Christchurch. Her funeral was held in the convent chapel on Saturday 8 July, then she was buried in the sisters’ plot at Linwood Cemetery, Lot 99C, Block 40.

Sources:
1: Birth Registration Image- Malvern, quarter ending 31 Dec 1891
2: When Mary Burke, her mother, died in March 1892, the death registration stated that she had been suffering from Phthisis Pulmonalis for 2 years.
3: Chch diocesan transcript from baptismal register for Darfield.
4: Most music results etc were recorded in the Tablet. (Catholic magazine)- Papers Past
5: “Biography” for Sr Majella was sent to me as a relative by the archives for the Mission Sisters.
6: Photos: Aunty Mary Riordan had this photo of Annie and Bridget.
7: I took photos of the sisters’ plot at Linwood cemetery with Sr Majella’s name on it -early 1990s.
8: Obituary: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/new-zealand-tablet/1911/7/13/32