More Family Records

Have been searching Irish on-line records at National Archives and Irish Genealogy.  Found lots of baptism and marriage records which you can find links to under 'Branches' in the right side bar.  Most of them haven't been imaged yet, so we have to settle for what the transcribers made of them.  Someone had told me my grandpa Carr was a twin, and, sure enough, the baptismal records show just that.

 

 

Ballydonoghue Magazine

I've transcribed the article from Ballydonoghue Magazine about my grandfather's brother, James Carr.  You can find it here or by clicking the 'Forgotten Soldier' link in the right sidebar.

I'd like to help promote the magazine, but it's website, while inviting people to email them, seems to have forgotten to include the email address or any address.  Order the magazine on line ! - except, well, you can't at this time.  Okay, it's provincial Irish charm, not Amazon.

Update: My bad.  The website does display an email address:  magazine@ballydonoghue.net.

Update (March 1):  The Paypal link on the magazine's website has been fixed.  You can have the magazine delivered to you in Ireland for 16.20 euros, in the U.K. for 20 euros, and everywhere else for 23.50 euros.  That 23.50 translated today to $31.35.  Now waiting to see how quickly they deliver.

Update (March 15):  Received an empty envelope to which my local post office affixed a label: Received unsealed and without contents.  How disappointing.  I've emailed them to send me another copy.

Update (March 17):  Got a quick response from Noelle Hegarty who said they'd get a replacement copy in the mail for me.

Update (March 27): Received a bound copy of the magazine which I've begun browsing through.  Lots to enjoy.

Quiet Man

Born a year and a half later than James Carr and in the same neighborhood of Ballydonoghue, Lisselton, was writer Maurice Walsh.  I was sitting in the parlor of the Presentation Convent in Castleisland in 1960 when auntie Mona (Sister Clement Carr) somehow got on the topic of local literary figures.  She mentioned Walsh as the author of The Quiet Man.  Before I had a chance to pipe up with how much we all enjoyed the John Wayne/Maureen O'Hara movie, auntie Mona added, And it was made into a scandalous film.  I was old enough to know when to shut up. I never asked her if she saw the movie, but she wasn't alone in her disapproval of its depiction of such rowdy shenanigans.

The movie came out on Blu-Ray DVD this past week and it's a revelation.  The added brightness, detail, and color heighten enjoyment of the film's familiar antics.  Maureen is breathtaking.

The story changed somewhat as it moved from original short story in the Saturday Evening Post (which can be read in entirety here) to the version collected in an anthology to John Ford's film.

"Published in The Saturday Evening Post in February 1933, 'The Quiet Man' had as its central character Shawn Kelvin, but when it appeared in Green Rushes two years later, he had been renamed Paddy Bawn Enright. The real person of that name was a man who had worked for John Walsh, Maurice's father. Walsh's inspiration for the story came from two incidents: the first one, 'where a bully refused to pay his sister's fortune at Listowel fair' and the other, a fight between John McElligott (known as 'Quiet Jack') and a cattle dealer who had tried to cheat him, at a fair also in Listowel, in 1914."

Convent Parlor 1960: Patrick, Tom, auntie Mona, Dan; front: Kathy, Patricia

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James Carr

New Zealand soldiers at Gallipoli (Click to enlarge)

Cousin Frank Carr passed on a magazine article he received from cousin Delia Carr Smyth. I'll transcribe it here when I get a chance [update: done! see here], but you can read it from photos I've posted here. (Or click the 'About James Carr' link in the right sidebar) The article is about my grandfather Thomas Carr's brother James who joined the army in New Zealand and died at Gallipoli.

Their name liveth for evermore.  (Click to enlarge)

Dave Foley has uncovered James Carr's military records which you can peruse here. (Or click the 'His military records' link in the right sidebar) Click 'View Larger' beneath any record for a closer look. Dave writes:

I remember your father telling me about an uncle who fought during the First World War. Your story detailing dad's family in Ireland jogged my memory when you mentioned an uncle who had been killed at Gallipoli. So I did some digging. I found your father's Uncle James Carr's New Zealand Military Records. The file contains death notifications sent to your grandfather, Thomas Carr in Kilgarvan, and your Great Uncle Michael Carr in Knockane. You have to magnify these to see the details, Corrections were made in red on the history sheet changing the beneficiary from Thomas' address to Michael's. In the upper right hand corner of the document is a note identifying their father James Carr. I'm not sure why this was added after the fact. If I am correct, greatgrandfather James Carr died before 1901 The record change must have taken place after James was killed at Gallipoli, 5/18/1915. It appears that his paybook and the medals he was awarded were not sent to Michael until Sept 1920 and Aug. 1922 respectively. It certainly took the Army long enough to send his paybook and medals to next-of-kin. I wonder how long it took them to notify them of his death. I have also attached a memorial for James Carr from the Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula. I think that James Carr may have been buried in Turkey rather than New Zealand.

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Greetings

I figure it's time I gather together the info people have been sending me lately about my family in Ireland. To begin, Dave Foley has found census reports from 1901 and 1911 for the Carr family in Kilgarven. They include info about the household and the neighborhood. Dave writes:

If you study the additional census pages describing land and buildings you begin to get a feeling for how our ancestors lived in rural Ireland in the very early part of the 20th century. Eight people living in a 3 room farmhouse had to be pretty cramped.

In 1901 greatgrandfather James had already passed away and his widow greatgrandmother Ellen was living with sons Thomas and James and grandson Daniel. It's not apparent whose son Daniel was.  (Update: Daniel was the son of Thomas and James' older brother Michael, seen in 1911 Census living with his parents.)

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By 1911 Ellen had apparently passed away. James and Daniel were no longer living there. Grandfather Thomas had married grandmother Mary Walsh and they were raising five children. Elizabeth and Mona had not yet arrived.

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My father Patrick is listed as being age five, but actually he would have just turned three the month before. Which just shows that the information in these records can be inaccurate. (Update: Since writing this, dad's U.S. naturalization documents have been uncovered which show that this Census was indeed correct. Dad was two years older than we thought he was.) Click the household and documents links in the right sidebar to view them. Thanks, Dave, for digging up these records.

Mary Walsh Carr (Click to enlarge)