Those Places Thursday - Thatched Cottages of Ireland

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I took this picture in September 1990 on my first trip to Ireland. The thing that stood out about these cottages was the traditional thatched roofs. I think this was taken when we were in Adare in County Limerick. It was raining and a bit chilly when we saw the thatched cottages, so this was the only shot I got. I've wondered if they're still there after all these years. Wishing everyone a happy St. Patrick's Day!

Church Record Sunday - Clondrohid Parish, Ireland

This is part of a Catholic parish register dated April 1847 in Clondrohid Parish, Ireland. Patrick and Mary Creeden were sponsors for a Timothy born to Denis Mahony and Catherine Creedan on April 22, 1847. My 3x great-grandparents Patrick and Mary Creedan had their daughters Julia and Honora baptized in Clondrohid, so it's possible they're the sponsors on this record.

There are several Creedens listed on this register. I've spelled the names as they were spelled on the register.

April 20 - Timothy, parents John Ring and Margaret Creeden, sponsors Con Shea and Julia Creedan
April 22 - Timothy, parents Denis Mahony and Catherine Creedan, sponsosrs Patt Creeden and Mary Creeden
April 25 - Daniel, parents Timothy Creedan and Catherine Hargan, sponsor Mary Lyhane

The Catholic parish registers are available on the National Library of Ireland site.

Church Record Sunday - Clondrohid Parish, Ireland

I've been spending some time looking through the Catholic Parish Registers on the National Library of Ireland site. The records aren't searchable, but can be narrowed down to the parish and date. There are controls to zoom in and out, adjust the contrast, download images, and a map feature that's handy for finding surrounding parishes.

I quickly found the record for my 2x great-grandfather's sister, Julia Creeden. She was baptized on July 3, 1842 in Clondrohid Parish. Her parents were Patrick Creeden and Mary Cokley and sponsors were Daniel Cokley and Hanora Creeden. The townland was given as Carrigapooka. I've also seen the last names for the parents spelled as Creedon or Creedan and Coakley, but I'll go with the spellings as they appear in the records.

Clondrohid, Ireland Baptism Register for July 1842 from National Library of Ireland

I was hoping to find a record for my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden, but no such luck. I'm fairly certain that he was born in early 1846 and the only records available for Clondrohid in 1846 are for November and December. It's possible he was born in another parish, so I'll keep looking.

Meanwhile, I'm going to start listing the Creedon and any related families that I find in the registers. This post covers Creedens in the Clondrohid baptism registers from July to December, 1842. I was really having trouble making out some of the townlands, so I'm using the closest match from the list of Clondrohid townlands on the Irish Time website.

The page with Julia Creeden lists baptisms recorded in Clondrohid Parish for July 1842. I didn't find any other Creedon or Coakley references for July, August, November, or December 1842. Following are the other Creeden and Carrigapooka listings that I found from September to December 1842.

Sept. 5, 1842 - Johanna, Parents: Timothy Creeden, Johanna Kelleher, Sponsors: Sebastian Murphy, Catharine Creeden, Townland: Lacktify
Sept 14, 1842 - Mary, Parents: Thomas Mullan, Mary Doody, Sponsors: Daniel Creeden, Ellen Mullan, Townland:  ? (Mullan is possibly Mullane)
Sept. 25, 1842 - James, Parents: Denis Creeden, Julia Mullan, Sponsors: Mathias Kelleher, Margaret Kierney, Townland: Mullenroe

Oct. 25, 1842 - Mary, Parents: Morty Kelleher, Mary Creeden, Sponsors: Jeremiah Kelleher, Catharine (no last name), Townland: Ardeen

Dec. 7, 1842 - Julianna, Parents: Patrick Buckley, Ellen Waters, Sponsors: Andrew Buckley, Mary Waters, Townland: Carragapooka

I'll follow up in future posts with additional listings from the registers. Thanks to the National Library of Ireland for making this resource freely available!

Travel Tuesday - Blarney Castle

Wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I took this picture in 1990 on the grounds of Blarney Castle in County Cork, Ireland. We were there in September and everything was really green! I've been lucky enough to visit Ireland three times and hope to go back now that I know my ancestors are from the Macroom and Clondrohid area. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My Dad took this picture of a mural on the side of an Irish pub near Sneem, Ireland. It's an interesting source for a few Irish recipes!

The recipes are for Irish Stew, Boxty, and Champ.

Amanuensis Monday - Index to the O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland collection

The O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland collection by Albert E. Casey is made up of 16 large volumes containing a huge collection of Irish records covering parts of County Cork and County Kerry. The Casey volumes were printed in the 1950s-1970s and are out of print now. They are in a few libraries around the world and show up on used booksellers sites from time to time.

The collection includes a separate index volume that can help narrow down which book contains the information for a topic and date range. I posted previously about Finding Aids for the volumes, but one thing I haven't seen is a Table of Contents for the index volume itself.

The index isn't quite what you'd expect. While it contains a Table of Contents for each of the 16 volumes in the collection, it also has additional data. Following is the Table of Contents for the index volume.

                                            TABLE OF CONTENTS
                                                                                                                
Introduction

Ireland - maps of provinces and counties - Pages 1-2

Table - the 100 most common surnames in Ireland, 1890 - Page 3

Munster province - map with counties and cities - Page 4

County of Kerry - maps, baronies, parishes, townlands - Pages 5-26

County of Cork - maps, baronies, parishes, townlands  - Pages 27-68 

Map and Table - baronies and parishes in North Cork and East
Kerry along the Blackwater River with identifying numbers
(includes adjoining baronies in Limerick, Tipperary) (see
index pages 8-9 & 29-38 for maps of over 1000 townlands)  - Pages 69-70

Map - streams and places in North Cork and East Kerry - Page 71

Map - North Cork and East Kerry, AD 1602  - Page 72

Most common surnames in North Cork and East Kerry (Griffith's
Valuations 1851) according to heads of families - Page 73

Frequency Distribution of surnames in North Cork & E. Kerry
1851 by parish - those indigenous (P.01) to a parish are
underlined  - Pages 74-77

Tax lists counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary
1851-1852 (Griffith's Valuations)  - Page 78

Tax list North Cork and East Kerry 1823-1834 (Tithes) - Page 79

Landowners, leaseholders counties of Cork and Kerry 500-1908 - Page 80

Diocese of Cloyne, Co.Cork Anglican Church of Ireland 568-1965  - Page 81

Religious Society of Friends in Ireland 1623-1863  - Page 81

Births, Baptisms, Marriages - Cork, Kerry 1291-1900  - Page 82

Diocese of Kerry (Roman Catholic)
   Marriages and Baptisms 1785-1900   - Page 83

Tombstone Inscriptions Cork, Kerry 1237-1908 - Page 84

Wills, Deaths, Administrations 3100 BC - 1900 AD - Page 85

Births, Deaths, Marriages, Events, Newspapers 1749-1948 - Page 86

Lineages and Family Data  - Page 87-93

Miscellaneous data in the O'Kief Series - Page 94

Tables of Contents Volumes I-XVI  - Pages 95-138

Books,Ledgers,Manuscripts Photoprinted, Reprinted or Abstracted - Pages 139-143

The index starts off with some high level maps and a list of the 100 most common surnames in Ireland in 1890. My Creedon and Coakley surnames aren't common outside of County Cork, so not surprising that they didn't make the list. The top five surnames are Murphy, Kelly, Sullivan, Walsh, and Smith. I think I'm lucky mine aren't that common!

Pages 4-72 contain lists and maps of the baronies, parishes, and townlands in County Cork and County Kerry. Each parish is assigned a number which is used on the various maps where that townland appears.

Page 73 lists the top surnames in 1851 in the areas of County Cork and County Kerry covered by the volumes. This time Creedon made the list and is listed as an Irish surname with 90 families.

Pages 74-77 have tables showing the frequency of a surname in each parish in 1851. Those that Casey deemed indigenous to the parish are underlined. This is probably one of the more useful items outside of the Tables of Contents, since it gives a quick overview of the parishes where a surname is most common.

The last line in the example above shows that the Creedon surname had 29 families in Clondrohid parish in 1851. The same numbering system used on the maps is used to identify the parishes and Clondrohid was given number 13. Since the 29 is underlined, that also means Casey identified Creedon as "indigenous" to the parish, but I'm not sure what Casey's guidelines were for that designation.

The next sections identify the Volume number and page ranges for various topics, including a fairly large list of lineages and family data. Finally, on pages 95-138, the actual Table of Contents for each Volume is listed.

The index ends with a couple of long, detailed "scientific" articles by Casey that aren't even mentioned in the Table of Contents. The first of these is called  Odyssey of the Irish Documented by Blood Group and Craniometric Analysis. I wonder what Casey would think of today's DNA analysis!

In future posts, I'll detail some of the individual sections in the index.

Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.

Military Monday - Ireland Defence Forces Monument

My sister and I were sight-seeing around the Merrion Square area of Dublin when we came upon this interesting looking monument in Merrion Park.

The plaque reads as follows:

National Memorial to members of the Defence Forces 

who died in the service of the State 

"An Dun Cuimhneachain" 

The National Memorial to members of the Defence Forces is a place of contemplation and remembrance, providing a focal point where families, relatives and members of the public can reflect on the contribution and sacrifice made by members of the Defence Forces who died in the service of the State. 

The pyramid shape of the memorial, designed by Brian King, captures historic references to burial and is a standing testament to the dead. It also reflects the shape of a military tent. Within the pyramid, four bronze figures, representing all elements of the Defence Forces, stand guard over the eternal flame that emanates from the Badge of the Defence Forces. The flame burns in perpetual memory of those members of the Defence Forces that have made the ultimate sacrifice.

The four bronze figures inside the pyramid represent the Army, Navy, Air Corps and Reserve forces. Due to the reflective glass on the outside, my pictures of the figures inside mainly show my reflection, but I managed to get a picture of the eternal flame. It's a unique monument and worth a look if you're visiting Merrion Park.

Church Record Sunday - Book of Kells for St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland has announced that digital images from the entire Book of Kells are now available to view online as part of the general celebration of St. Patrick's Day at Trinity. According to the site, "these new digital images offer the most accurate high resolution images to date, providing an experience second only to viewing the book in person".

From Wikipedia,  "the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier."

I've been lucky enough to see the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College twice and it's well worth it if you get the chance. The exhibit explains the history of the manuscript and how it was made. The book is in four volumes and two pages are displayed under glass each day. One is a page of text and the other a drawing page like the one pictured here. The pages on display are rotated on a regular basis. The detail in the drawings is incredible and the pigments that were used give the pages a 3D quality.

Top photo was cropped from my photo of the signpost for the exhibit at Trinity College in 2009. Image of the Madonna and Child is from Wikimedia Commons.

Fearless Females - Favorite Female Ancestor

Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog is running her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series again. This was one of the first set of prompts that I did on my blog in 2011 and I thought it would be interesting to go back through them and see how much I've learned. For some of the prompts, I will post updated information and for others, I will post something new.

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

In 2011, I posted about my two grandmothers, Anna Lee Pulskamp Creeden and Edna Willis Councill. This year, I'm choosing an ancestor that I didn't even know about in 2011.

I can't really choose a favorite, but one ancestor that I want to learn more about is Julia Creedan. Julia took the name Sister Mary Felix when she took her vows with the Sisters of Charity in 1872. That information helped me find her death certificate which gave both of her parents' names and a date of birth. With the parents' names and date of birth, I was able to find a transcription of her baptismal certificate. She was baptized as a Roman Catholic on July 3, 1842 in Carricapooka in the parish of Clondrohid, Ireland. Her parents were Patrick Creedan and Mary Coakley.

I believe that Julia is the brother of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden, so it was exciting to not only find a sibling for my Irish ancestor, but parents' names and a location!

One thing I've discovered about my female ancestors is that many of them worked outside of the home. Julia is a good example of this since she worked for many years as a nun, nurse, and teacher.

To Do:

• Document the information that I already have for Julia
• Research her career as a nun, nurse and teacher
• Find out more about her parents and Clondrohid
• Order publications about the history of the Sisters of Charity

Malahide Castle, Ireland - Tombstone Tuesday

I took this quick shot inside the grounds of Malahide Castle, a few miles north of Dublin, Ireland. I had gotten separated from my group and was trying to find my way back, but I just had to stop a few seconds for the picture. Something about the crooked gravestones caught my eye.

The graveyard is said to date back nearly 800 years, so I'm sure there are some interesting stories behind the tombstones. The Talbot family lived there from 1185 until the 1970s.

Follow Friday - Irish Gravestone Photographs

This week Dr. Jane Lyons announced that she had added over 14,000 photographs of Irish gravestones to her From Ireland website and access is free! This is still a work in progress and she says she is only about halfway done with the photos she has taken to date. A search feature and index are in progress too.

The photos are organized in albums by county as follows:

42 albums for Kilkenny county - 4,616 photographs
49 Albums for Laois or Queen's Co. - 6774 photographs
25 albums for counties from Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kildare, Limerick and Offaly. - 2,626 photographs
25 albums of miscellaneous views of places in Ireland.

I've been a member of Dr. Jane Lyon's Ireland Genealogy Email List for a long time and continue to be amazed at the work that Jane does. This latest addition represents work she has done over the past sixteen years. Thanks Jane!

Follow Friday is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers and was suggested by Earline Bradt of Ancestral Notes.

Follow Friday - Free Irish Genealogy eBooks

Peter J. Clarke's blog on Free Irish Genealogy eBooks is a great site to check out if you have Irish ancestors or are interested in Irish history. He lists books in categories such as Family Histories, Almanacs and Directories, Church history, Irish Diaspora, Journals and many other resources. He has indexed some of the main surnames that are mentioned and features an eBook of the month. All of the books can be read online and many can be downloaded. I can see I'll be spending some time there!

Follow Friday is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers and was suggested by Earline Bradt of Ancestral Notes.

Genealogy Road Trips - 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy Week #10

Week 10 – Genealogy Road Trips: No two genealogy road trips are the same but they’re always fun and meaningful. Describe a memorable trip in your past. Where did you go? What did you find (or not find)? Did you meet any new cousins? What did the trip mean to you and your family?

I haven't been on too many genealogy road trips, but one I was really fortunate to take was my first trip to Ireland in 1990. My father and I were very interested in where our Creeden family came from, but all that had been passed down was "County Cork". We arrived in Dublin and took a tour of Trinity College. There was a large volume of surname information in a library there and my father copied the Creedon entry. I believe this was from "More Irish Families" by Edward MacLysaght.

One possible clue on my Creeden origins is that my father thought he remembered his grandfather mentioning Macroom. Since this turns out to be one of the places that the Creedon name is most common, I've always kept that in the back of my mind while searching. We saw the Creedon name several times in County Cork. There was a Creedon shop right before we got to Blarney Castle and a big red truck passed us with "Creedon's" painted on the sides and back of it. I wish we knew more about our exact origins, but it was exciting to at least be in the part of the world where my Creeden family came from.

My uncle in front of Macroom Castle

Grounds of Blarney Castle

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more.

Tuesday's Tip - New Records coming on IrishGenealogy.ie

IrishGenealogy.ie posted a news update on their site with a promise of new records for the Diocese of Cork and Ross available on Oct. 4. This site has church records available now for County Kerry, County Carlow, and Dublin city. A subset of the Cork and Ross records are already available on the site. If you have Irish ancestors from those areas, it's definitely worth a look and it's free.

Here is the update from IrishGenealogy:
The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is pleased to
announce the addition of further Roman Catholic records of Baptism,
Marriage and Burial for Dublin City, County Cork (Diocese of Cork and
Ross) on Tuesday, 4th October 2011. A further subset of Roman Catholic
Church records for County Monaghan will also be added in the near
future. Further updates will be announced closer to this date. Posted
16th September 2011.

I keep hoping I'll find some evidence of my Timothy Creeden being born in County Cork. I looked on a map at the Diocese of Cork and Ross and I suspect my Timothy was born north of there, but I don't know for sure. I'll be looking just in case on October 4th!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I always think of my Irish ancestors on this day. My gg-grandfather Timothy Creeden came to the US from County Cork, Ireland. While I don't know exactly where he came from, I saw the Creedon name in several places when I visited County Cork. It's a beautiful country and I hope to get back before too long! Here are a few photos from one of my trips.

Looking away from the Cliffs of Moher

The Village of Sneem

The grounds of Blarney Castle

A few of the 40 shades of green!

Madness Monday - My Irish Brick Wall

All I know about my Irish ancestor Timothy Creeden's origins is that he is from Country Cork and every record I've managed to obtain on him just says Ireland. I've also been unable to find anything out about his parents or siblings.

Here's a few things I've tried with no luck so far:

• Obituary - A volunteer with the genealogy society where he is buried in Ohio went through the newspapers around his date of death (December 1899), but could only locate a short note of thanks from the family.
• Will - Everything left to his wife and children in Ohio.
• Cemetery - There is a large monument for Timothy and Mary Creeden and his age is listed down to the year, month, day. Who bought this monument and are there any records? From the church office: No records exist! (I found that hard to believe, but it was confirmed by a couple of other family history buffs who have been there.)
• Death certificate - Even though he is buried in Mercer County, OH where he lived, there is no death certificate listed for him. The note of thanks mentioned his illness, so perhaps he died in a hospital in a neighboring county or in nearby Indiana. No luck with that so far.
• Death record from the Catholic Church - Records for December 1899 were destroyed by fire!
• Marriage record from the Catholic Church - They have it, but it has faded to the point of being completely illegible. They provided me a copy anyway and it looks like a blank piece of paper!
• Civil War records - My Dad was sure that his grandfather talked about Timothy serving in the Civil War, but no luck with searches on any of the online databases. Also, no luck finding his wife Mary in the widow's pension records. There are a couple of Timothy Creeden records that come up, but they are the wrong age and place.
• Ship passenger lists - I've only found one record with the right age. The record lists a Timothy Creedon, age 20, arriving in the US from Ireland in 1866. There are no other Creedons in the passenger manifest though, so no clues to other family members.
• Other records I've found that just say Ireland or no location: 1870 and 1880 census, will, land purchase, tombstone, courthouse marriage record.
• Message boards - I've made some great contacts, but nobody knows anything about Timothy
• Other relations in Clinton County, OH - This is where I first found Timothy in the US. There are other Creedon families there, but so far I've been unable to find a link to Timothy.
• One promising new site is at http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/index.html - No luck so far, but worth checking back. The site is adding new baptism, marriage, and death certificates periodically and it's free!
• Lots of other online sites: ancestry, familysearch (and their beta site), World Vital Records, etc. No luck with anything other than census and marriage date.
• Ordered the closest record to Timothy's birth date from the Irish Family History Foundation. The father was William which is not a name used in my Timothy tree, but hard to tell anything further without knowing where Timothy was born.

Well, that's more than a few things, so I'll stop here before I do go mad!

Irish Naming Patterns and Timothy Creeden

Many of the Irish followed a naming pattern for their children. I looked at this as a possible clue on Timothy Creeden's parent's and sibling names, but it doesn't appear that Timothy and Mary followed this! It's possible though that they had some children that died young. My great-grandfather said he remembered several more children than the ones that lived to adulthood.

I am fairly confident that Patrick was their first child. He was born about 12 months after they were married and is listed in the 1870 census as being born in December, 1869. Timothy and Mary were married in December 1868. So, was Timothy's father named Patrick and his mother named Julia? Since they didn't appear to follow the other rules, I certainly can't count on that! I've listed Timothy's children after the rules.

For sons:

The 1st son was named after the father's father. (Patrick)
The 2nd son was named after the mother's father. (James -- Mary's father was Asa.)
The 3rd son was named after the father. (Daniel - Doesn't match with Timothy!)
The 4th son was named after the father's eldest brother. (Dennis)
The 5th son was named after the mother's eldest brother. (Edward)

Timothy's other sons were Charles Acey and Joshua Patrick.

For daughters:

The 1st daughter was named after the mother's mother. (Mary Elizabeth - Mary's mother was Dorothy)
The 2nd daughter was named after the father's mother. (Julia Dorothy - Possibly covered both parents?)
The 3rd daughter was named after the mother. (Idabel - Doesn't match with Mary!)
The 4th daughter was named after the mother's eldest sister.
The 5th daughter was named after the father's eldest sister.

Timothy Creeden of Ireland

The first line I started researching was my Creeden line. My great-great-grandfather Timothy was from County Cork, Ireland and that was about all I knew about him!

I started searching on the web and was lucky enough to find someone that was related to one of Timothy's granddaughters. He had a list of Timothy's children and his wife's name, so that gave me a great start on finding out more.

Here's what I know about Timothy:

• Born March 26, 1846
• Married to Mary Ann Matson in Clinton County, OH on December 10, 1868
• Listed as a farmer in Clinton County, OH in the 1870 and 1880 US census
• Bought land in the Hopewell Township of Mercer County, OH in 1884
• Had 10 children with Mary: Patrick, James, Mary Elizabeth, Daniel, Dennis, Edward, Charles, Julia, Idabel, and Joshua
• Died on December 14, 1899
• Note in the newspaper thanked people for helping the family during his illness
• Will left everything to his wife Mary and then to the living children if she remarried
• Buried in the Catholic cemetery in Mercer County, OH. 
• Tombstone lists his age as 53-8-19 and gives his date of death

None of the records I have give any information on his family or origins other than Ireland. My great-grandfather remembered him saying he was from County Cork which is where most Creedon families are from, so that is most likely true.

So, where to go from here? I will list what I have tried so far in another post...