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.

Riordan Quane family via James

There was a time, not so many years ago, when I thought that my Irish family history would remain unknown- but in recent years more and more documents are being digitised and are now accessible from the other end of the world.

Last night. Christmas Eve, I was fiddling around, and made yet another fortuitous combo of words in a Google search. Bingo! Thanks National Archives of Ireland! It led to a census abstract from 1916, that seems pretty certain to have been made by Patrick's older brother James to prove his age for the pension. Down the side of this document, it also has a list of names that must be his siblings. I haven't been able to get Patrick's birth entry- it was too early for the microfilm online from Ballylanders Parish- but his name is listed in the siblings, as are the names of Ellen and Bridget who I had found on the register. It also lists John who came to New Zealand and Margaret who was my great-grandmother via her Malone marriage. The only one I wasn't aware of before was Mary...

Oh- and for some reason I had to use Safari to access this document properly on my Mac- in case that affects some of the rest of you...

Malone great-grandparents

Yes, I know I should be more 'disciplined' and should stick to some sort of research plan for doing my genealogy- but..... Sunday afternoons are great for random explorations. And especially now that the National Library of Ireland, and National Archives of Ireland have digitised access to so many more records... So somehow I found myself on the National Archives of Ireland census search page.
And here is the 1901 census entry for my Malone great-grandparents: Jeremiah Malone and Margaret (nee Riordan) his wife. I love that they spoke "Irish and English".

By the time of this census my grandmother Margaret and her sister Bridget were in New Zealand. Also another brother Patrick was known to be in New Zealand- but another day I will have to 'chase him up' to find out more about him.

The family are in house #2 of this house and building return- in Ballinadrideen, the place of my grandmother's birth.

Thanks to National Archives of Ireland for this information. I hope one day to get to Ireland to find Ballinadrideen, somewhere just south of Charleville.