The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Lucky".
Do
you have an ancestor who was lucky at something? Lucky to be alive?
Lucky at cards? Lucky in love? Maybe you have an ancestor with a name
that reminds you of luck or fortune. There's always "luck of the Irish."
Maybe you have a story of how luck played a role in finding an
ancestor. Write about that this week.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Luck of the Irish is what comes to mind for me for this prompt and the lucky person was me! I've had the good fortune to visit Ireland three times (so far!) and two of the trips were as a contest winner. The first trip was with my parents and two aunts and uncles. We were celebrating my father's retirement and he had always wanted to see Ireland. He took this shot looking away from the Cliffs of Moher.
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| Looking away from the Cliffs of Moher |
When we went through the town of Macroom, my father remembered his grandfather mentioning that name and sure enough, we saw quite a bit of the Creedon name there. Years later, I finally found records to prove that our Creeden family came from
Clondrohid, just a few miles away from Macroom.
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| My uncle in front of Macroom Castle |
In 2001, my sister and I won a trip to Ireland through a contest on the Guinness website. The trip included airfare, hotel, and daily tours. We were able to add my brother-in-law for a very small fee and they gave us two hotel rooms at the 5 star Fitzwilliam Hotel in Dublin. One of the highlights was a VIP tour and dinner at the Guinness brewery at St. Jame's Gate. Another site we toured was Malahide Castle, located north of Dublin. We had one free day and decided to take a trip to the beautiful Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. On the way out of town, we passed the Windmill Lane studio where U2 recorded their early albums and went past Bono's and Enya's houses in Killiney.
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| Malahide Castle |
In 2009, I got an email saying I'd won a trip to Ireland through Diageo. I almost deleted it thinking it was spam, but as I read it, I realized it looked legit. It turned out Diageo was now the owner of Guinness, so I had somehow managed to win a Guinness contest again! This trip was in celebration of the 250th anniversary of St. Jame's Gate and included a pass for the bus tours of Dublin and tickets to the 250th anniversary celebration with headliner Tom Jones.
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| Actors from The Tudors outside Christ's Church Cathedral, Dublin |
We used the free bus pass to see St. Patrick's Cathedral, Merrion Square
with a beautiful park and the famous Georgian doors, and we saw
remnants of a Creedon harp at the Ireland National Museum of Decorative
Arts and History. We also had the luck to see the actors for
The Tudors series outside of Christ's Church Cathedral where they were filming an episode.
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| Merrion Square Park |
All three trips were fantastic and I hope to have the good fortune to visit Ireland again.
#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.
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