Family History

[Annie]

I've done some research in the last few years and thanks to the Irish Census of early 1900's, have found some really intriguing and interesting things. My great grandfather, grandfather and father all were born in the same two bedroom house and lived there well into adulthood and parenthood which they subsequently shared with a wife, parents and their children. Thankfully, my mum helped to break that
cycle.


My great grandmother lived in a thatched farm cottage in Wicklow that was built too close to the ocean and was washed away. That was nice as I have a pic of her feeding her chooks on the farm.
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I also found out that my mums dad, who married into a very catholic, republican Irish family was ....... English!!! At the turn of the century, his dad was the teacher-librarian at the 'Royal', big clue there, Hibernian Military College in Dublin where he was taught there by his dad.
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My mum's mum was a Catholic maid in the College, married him and 9 months later had my mum. Mumsie is the wee barn!
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Interesting also are the headings on the census form where the 'Head Of The Family' was asked to note who, in the household had been schooled, could read and write and if there were any 'imbeciles' in the family. The buildings they lived in we're described in terms of number of windows, number of rooms, and the construction materials. I find these finer details riveting.

[Annie]

The best thing about finding out all that about my English, royal military college raised grand father living in the heart of an active republican Irish family, was that although he was a wonderful dad in all respects, my mum didn't know his background. After I told her what I'd found she was thrilled. She understood who her dad was a bit more and funnily enough I could understand who she was and what she'd come from that little bit more.

[Fearless]

My wife does it semi professionally, from starting off tracing her own family tree. She pretty much has the old town of Geelong (Vic) mapped out now. Seems to almost get somewhat incestuous the deeper she goes. Even a few of our friends she can link back to her own family pretty easily.

She gets emails quite often asking for records and information. Goodness knows why she doesn't charge a little for what she does, but she also finds it an enjoyable hobby spending many nights working on it.

She even uses a piece of mainstream software where her database got so big (talking about 4-5 years ago) the program couldn't even handle it (mainly backups). The software developers had to help out to save her records as even they hadn't seen anyone with as many records as she had (now over 30,000 since 1990).

It is not uncommon for her or her contacts in England to go to cemeteries recording headstones (photos), which at first I thought was a little morbid but since find interesting myself. Even more recently I have come to appreciate how important in a way it is that someone does it, as much of history is neglected or forgotten about and many headstones and traces of people literally fade and crumple away. In some cases the plots renewed, the old replaced like bad tenants who simply haven't paid the rent.

[Pensioner]

Originally Posted by Annie

The best thing about finding out all that about my English, royal military college raised grand father living in the heart of an active republican Irish family, was that although he was a wonderful dad in all respects, my mum didn't know his background. After I told her what I'd found she was thrilled. She understood who her dad was a bit more and funnily enough I could understand who she was and what she'd come from that little bit more.

I met my wife when I was stationed in Northern Ireland and her family was strong republicans. Researching her side of the family I found this information about her father.

[Annie]

Wow! That's an impressive find Pensioner ! Well done.